A Lover's Quarrel with the Evangelical Church
Warren Cole Smith
Reviewed by Teresa Konopka
“A
Lover’s Quarrel with the Evangelical Church” by Warren Cole Smith is
not for the faint of heart. Rhetorically written and factually
thick,
this is a mentally stimulating read. While the back cover
teasingly
states, “My name is Warren, and I’m a recovering evangelical,” little
humor is found in the book. Rather, the whole work is a series of
arguments about flaws in modern evangelical society.
Many sad
points are discussed with regards to evangelicalism. They are
that
megachurches and other religious conglomerations are more concerned
about money and profits than conversions. Also, the notion of
body-count evangelism is introduced. This relates to how many
churches
desire larger congregations, no matter how spiritually involved
parishioners are. In other words, quantity is being put over
quality.
The notion of scandals pop up, as well. Many leaders of the
evangelical movements have no superiors (well, no human ones, anyway)
to correct them or tell them what to do. This results in them
having
ultimate power. Others want to admonish but are afraid of getting
the
boot from the leader. In the end, errors from the powerful
leaders go
unchecked until they finally bust out in an all-out scandal for all to
see.
Another big problem with evangelism, Smith notes, is the
youth movement. Many youth groups focus on drawing children to
their
factions. They use fun presentations and interactive games to get
the
children’s attention. Sadly, this often involved little to no
scriptural guidance, fearing that they will “turn off” the
children.
Worse yet is the music industry. With the desire to lure
parishioners,
modern tunes are replacing traditional hymns. The catch is that
these
songs are owned by companies and must be bought. So continues the
circle of money, which is the root of all evil.
In essence, this
book is very provocative and will make readers think twice before they
decide to applaud the oh-so-successful evangelical church.