Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover

This is a follow up to my previous post. I recently picked up a piece of fiction, Deadline by Randy Alcorn. I've discovered over the years that I am too cheap to buy fiction novels which is why I've only read one over the past ten years until last week. Deadline I bought for a dollar, so I figured that even if I hated it, I wouldn’t have wasted much money. I was pleasantly surprised by this book on the discount pile. First of all, it took a couple of chapters just to build the characters. This can be annoying when you are waiting for the story to start. However, when you get into the story line it is easy to see why this depth of character development was so necessary. The book is about three friends, one, Finney, a follower of Christ, another, Doc, antagonistic to Christ, and the main character, Jake, who is caught in the middle. While Jake lives his life similar to Doc, he has a respect for Finney. A crisis occurs that rocks Jake’s world. If I told any more than this, I would be giving away the book. What impressed me most about the book, was not the general storyline but how it was written. The characters were very real and the book even showed the conversations Jake and the others have even with themselves. The debates and questions in their minds were very real. Alcorn also does a good job at describing heaven or hell. He takes a little liberties with the angels but also has a disclaimer at the back of the book. Even still how he describes different aspects of heaven or hell was well done. Something else impressive demonstrates how to live like a Christian in a world that does not have the same moral standards. It confronts some of the big issues but also portrays a realistic view of persecution for standing up for what’s right. This book covered so many aspects of the Christian life that I actually felt that the book drew me closer to God and strengthened my spiritual walk.

Deadline was so good that I wanted to run right back out and buy the sequel at full price. When I got to the bookstore, I learned that the sequel was not in bookstores - very depressing. So I asked the clerk if she had read any of the fiction books on the shelves. She said she was a Ted Dekker fan and had read all of his books. She recommended a stand alone novel to me and even though it was ten dollars, I bought Three. Three's plot started on page two, Dekker wasted no time. The plot was good, with mysterious main character and twist at the end. When I was finished reading, I felt I had read a good story but I was definitely not drawn to God through it. I had just wasted an entire day reading and thought to myself that it was one day I would never get back. Now in fairness to Dekker, I really should read another one of his works before I judge. But I have to wonder why he is so popular. His books take up almost two whole bookshelves at the store, whereas, other authors only have a couple of books each. Then I was reminded of Christian consumerism. There might not be anything Christian about about a book accept for a label. If something is labelled Christian then we seem to think it is ok. We do not have to be convicted about the use of our time because it is “Christian.” In this sense, “Christian” means simply that they took out the smut and crude language. So it is cleaner, but in reality it wouldn’t necessarily even have to be written by a Christian - any moral person could have written it without being a follower of Christ. Is not using bad words and not sleeping around all it means to be a Christian? Isn’t there a deeper more fundamental teaching that needs to go out?

And so in the span of three days I read two contrasting novels. Both were of the suspense genre. One author took full advantage of the platform writing a novel gave him and preached the gospel. The other wrote a novel that provided a Christian with a little suspense in their lives for as long as they read the book. In Alcorn’s book the characters were strengthened in their faith. In Dekker’s book the characters seemed to weaken in their faith and be more concerned with religion than faith. Alcorn’s book was endorsed by Frank Peretti, one of my favorite authors and Dekker had written a book with Peretti. Funny how there are so many similarities and yet one fundamental difference. And so I ask - Why are we not more discerning with what we buy and how we spend our time? Why do we fall prey to the Christian money making machine?