“But even through your imperfections, we’ll be here to pick you up and speak words of affirmation into your life throughout your walk with the Lord.”
Warning: If you don’t enjoy or understand satire, please do not read this book!
Many Christians try on a daily basis to live a good life. The goal may seem unattainable, as there is a verse that says to try and be perfect. But, there is a Christian cultural standard that can make it feel easier to follow the right path. There seems to be the “right” church, pastor, lifestyle, clothing, media consumption and even Facebook posts to do or be part of if you’re a good Christian in American’s society. How To Be A Perfect Christian brings to light the “Christian culture” and makes fun of it in a clever way.
I joined the Multnomah Launch team for their newest book releases and was sent a copy of How To Be A Perfect Christian as a welcome gift. I was asked to provide a fair review once I read it. I was excited to get it in the mail, as I follow The Babylon Bee on Twitter for their satire stories. My husband and I read this together, taking turns reading it out loud. We laughed, we sighed and we grimaced. Every part of the Christian culture is fair game in this book.
How To Be A Perfect Christian is broken down into ten chapters covering topics such as finding the right church, serving without lifting a finger, looking spiritual online, crusading against the heathens and fighting the culture war. Every chapter ends with a Holiness Tracker to show the reader his or her progress toward being a perfect Christian. At the very end, the authors do talk about how Christians ought to truly live their lives. The book is trying to make people look very critically at their own spiritual lives and see if they are actually living what they believe and not just conforming to the current Christian culture.
I would recommend this to any Christian who enjoys satire and is okay when a book comes really close to the truth when it is poking fun. If hearing jokes about current Christian culture would make you cringe, this may not be the book for you. I enjoyed it, though, and have several people in mind already to let borrow the book.
Do you enjoy satire? If you think you would like this book, let me know on the blog!