Book Review: Rapture Ready

On the plane ride to Texas over Thanksgiving, I had the opportunity to finish reading the wildly entertaining, sometimes offensive, but usually enlghtening book, Rapture Ready: Adventures In the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture.  It is a book by a guy named Daniel Radosh who describes himself as a "liberal New York Jew," who took it upon himself to spend a few months trying to better understand the subculture of evangelical Christianity.  He talked to popular Christian authors, visited a Christian theme park, went to Christian concerts, music festivals, raves, visited Christian bookstores, entered "Hell Houses" on halloween and attended Christian WWE style wrestling matches in the south.  Radosh wrote about his experiences, the things he saw, the conversations he had, and the impressions that were left on him. 

As an evangelical, I appreciated the book. . . 

Yes, there were parts that I felt were alittle unfair.  Like when Radosh compared a wrestling audience's suspension of disbelief at a Christian wrestling match to the supposed mental gymnastics an evangelical must do to embrace the tenets of Christianity.  "Perhaps Christian wrestling did make a kind of sense," Radosh said tongue in cheek (242).  But for the most part, Radosh didn't say much about Evangelical theology per se.  He wanted to focus his attention toward the $7 billion industry of Christian pop culture and what makes it tick, and I found myself more often in agreement (and sometimes embarassment) with his observations than offense.

Like Radosh's visit to a Christian bookstore convention, observing all of the tacky products that were sold for some sort of supposed benefit to one's faith.  There was a candle that-- following Psalm 45-- supposedly "smells like Jesus" and mints called "Testi-mints," because there's a Bible verse on the wrapper.  He talked about the marketing of Christian Bibles, observing that the Bible is not only the best-selling book of all time, but it is also-- get this -- "the best selling book of the year every year."  Why?  Because Bibles are consantly being sold in one translation or version, and then repackaged and remarketing in other translations and versions to appeal to different consumers in different situations.  There are Bibles that look like glamour magazines, and Bibles that look like they were made with duct tape and Bibles directed toward men, and Bibles focusing their attention on women, and the list goes on and on and on.  So even if you own a bible already, you have more than enough reason to buy another.

Some of Rapture Ready's more humorous moments came when Radosh visited some of Evangelicalism's biggest tourist attractions. Radosh not only attended the Great Passion play in Eureka Springs, Arkansas . . . he was also an extra in the play!  When he was supposed to join the angry mob of Israelis yelling, "Crucify him!" Radosh screamed, "Maybe we should reconsider this!  Maybe a flogging is enough."  As you can imagine, Radosh's opinion of the Holy Land Experience theme park and the Creation Muesem was no less critical.

But criticism is good.  And i'm happy to take the opportunity to look at myself and my brothers and sisters in Christ through the eyes of someone on the outside of the church-world.  We Christians always say we need to positively represent the love of Christ to those who don't know him.  After reading this book, one wonders if this Christian culture we've created in an effort to be relevant has simply made us look more like an embarrassing uncle nobody talks about.  

That being said, what I appreciated most about Rapture Ready is the balanced insight he sought in his presentation.  Yes, Radosh interacts with the more embarrassing, right-wing, fringe elements of the evangelical sub-culture as one would expect.  But he also interacts with those who are a bit more moderate and progressive-- some of these progressives show so much frustration and embarrassment with their fellow Christians that even Radosh feels the need to occasionally jump to the defense of the fundamentalists, even if it's a half-hearted effort.  Some of the more progressive Christians he talks with are alittle TOO liberal for my taste, but I appreciate the fact that Radosh had the opportunity to see more of a spectrum of personalities and opinions within evangelicalism than just the narrow caricature often portrayed in the mainstream media.  In some of his concluding remarks, he says, "Evangelicalism is a tremedously heterodox society that is not well represented by its shrillest component, the religious right."  Radosh seems to "get" something that folks like Bill Maher (who visited many of the same places and people for his documentary "Religulous") either don't get or choose to ignore.  It is no longer accurate to assume that Pat Robertson and Lou Dobson and the late Jerry Fallwell are the personifications of evangelicalism, and when one cares to take a deeper look below the surface, as Radosh does, you can see some people who interact with culture, theology, and ideas alittle more skillfully than in years past.