Slow to Judge - Book Review

The Christian tendency to rush to judgement to soon or too often stifles dialog.  In David Cape’s book Slow to Judge, he shows that if we listen, we may be given a chance to speak.  However, if you are listening in order to fulfill your agenda of hoping to speak and be heard, you miss the point. 

David Capes, a professor at Houston Baptist University, discusses love, forgiveness, phobias, and problems with the cultural view of tolerance.  While the book starts off slow, most of the substance is in the last third of the book, especially in examining the definition of authentic tolerance and exploring when it is acceptable to judge and when it is not. 

The sub-title of this book turned me off at first: “Sometimes it’s okay to listen”.  Isn’t it ALWAYS okay to listen? Isn’t listening a way to express kindness or love?  But Capes points out that sometimes there are things that are not worth listening to.  If it is too offensive and injurious, we should not waste our time on toxic thinking – racism, facism, terrorism, etc.  Sometimes it is okay to judge. We need to speak out against evils like human trafficking, not be tolerant of it. 

Authentic tolerance intrinsically means handling things that make us uncomfortable, requiring us to practice a tolerance based on humility, an open heart, and love that gives the other person dignity and respect.  Because of general revelation, any culture enlightened by truth can be no other than truth revealed by our God and Father -- not promoting relativism but truth that is common for everyone because it is real. We can all learn from each other.

We don’t have to just join hands and talk about all we have in common.  We can discuss our differences as well, and listen, and learn from each other, even when it makes us uncomfortable.  I highly recommend this book, especially the last three chapters.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from BookLook in exchange for my honest review.

"The Surrender Experiment" -- An Experiment Gone Awry

Michael Singer, author of New York Times Bestseller Untethered Soul, has released his second book, The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life's Perfection.  I had not actually read Untethered Soul, so I read it before reading his new book, expecting it would be a sequel of sorts.  If you expect this book to be a follow-up of his first, or to be in any way related, you may be disappointed.  

This book is basically a story of his life, cherry-picking his successes to make them appear his surrendering caused all these incredible events to fall into his lap coincidentally, like Forrest Gump, except he is clearly very articulate, intelligent, and has a magnetic personality (which doesn’t come across in his writing).  While surrendering to the energy of the universe, he also contradicts himself, stepping in to change the direction of things that he doesn’t like.  Not to say I would disagree with the decisions to step in, but it messes up the surrendering aspect of his experiment, like his reaction to his neighbor cutting down trees, or hiring 20 attorneys for his lawsuit, altering the course instead of waiting to see how it might play out without interference.  He doesn't even acknowledge that he has violated his surrender experiment.  

There is not really any take-away messages or insights to glean from this book.  His first book was much more interesting and intriguing, even if you don’t agree with his perspective.  Check out additional information about the book and the author at Penguin Random House.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.