Salvation for Sale: An Insider's View of Pat Robertson

Rating:
Summary: Update Takes No Prisoners
Review: I can add very little to the long review below, and the shorter all-caps review had a good point in that the more moderate and decent religions don't seem to attract many converts.

The main part of the book is the author's attempt to come to grips with his own experience and conversions. However, the paperback edition was released with an update in which the author refuses to mince words about Pat Robertson. The author discovered a recording of Pat Robertson declaiming with relish over the holocaust to come in 1982. The author was outraged not only at Robertson for the speech, but also at himself for having listened to the speech years earlier without noticing anything wrong.

Now, it would be wonderful if more people who listen to talk about apocolypse and mass slaughter with joyous rapture and thrills would suddenly wake up and wonder with horror what they were thinking. Also, note that Robertson is a False Prophet.

Rating:
Summary: A Jouney From Raucous Certitude To Enlightened Confusion
Review: I couldn't help but to be moved when I read this book. I was once a conservative Christian, and I cringe when I remember how I once defended people like Robertson. Fortunately, this period of my life was confined to my early teens, and by nineteen I had abandoned my belief in Christianity. I suppose that I now have a "won't get fooled again" attitude towards religion in general and Christianity in particular.

But, as this book shows, it can happen to anyone. The author was once caught in the fundamentalist quagmire. His formerly agnostic wife is apparently still a Robertson employee. Even Bob Dylan became a pulpit-basher for a while. It can truly happen to anyone.

Salvation For Sale allows us to see the inside of Robertson's fundamentalist multimedia empire. As would be expected, Robertson rules his fiefdom with an iron hand and twitching paranoia. Any setback is attributed to the Devil and his satanic henchmen (i.e. liberals). The Bible is the literal word of God and must be obeyed to the letter; unless, of course, you're speaking of those parts about turning the other cheek. Like nearly all of his tele-evangalist contemporaries, Robertson is a militant who sees Satanic conspiracy in everything. And, unlike his religion's namesake, Robertson seems to feel no moral conflict as the financial elite (to which he belongs) hoard the wealth and the poor scrape by. After all, social programs create a dependent society and are the work of the Devil.

Salvation For Sale doesn't dwell entirely on Robertson, however. A good part of the book deals with Straub's own questions and conflicting emotions with his faith and beliefs. He no longer adheres to literal interpretations of the Bible, and he apparently no longer believes in Hell or divine retribution. Like most of us, he accepts that life doesn't consist of black-and-white certainty. It's incredibly confusing and more rewarding if you accept it as such.

Rating:
Summary: A Tragedy
Review: I read Salvation for Sale while trying to understand why in the world a missionary with whom I was working had such a low opinion of Pat Robertson. Her husband had been murdered in the Children's Home her husband founded and she alleged three of Pat Robertson's Middle Television employees were responsible for instigating her husband's murder. I thought pain was clouding her perception of Pat Robertson, of whom she was highly critical but I had never researched his work, ministry etc. until compelled to do so. That led me to write Call to Courage! a book about my own conclusions. My perceptions are different than Gerald Straub's as mine are Biblical evaluations but they are no less critical. I sympatized with Gerald Straub's struggles to make sense out of his experience. Few things in life are more unsettling than a major spiritual upheavel.

Rating:
Summary: DECENT BOOK, MISLEADING TITLE
Review: THE ODD THING ABOUT THIS BOOK IS THERE'S VERY LITTLE DISCUSSION OF FINANCES AT ALL. HIS OWN PERSONAL STORY IS A BIT BORING BUT HIS INSIGHTS ARE WORTH READING ABOUT. HIS CONVERSION FROM RELIGION TO SECULAR HUMANISM IS A GOOD READ ESPECIALLY FOR EXCULT MEMBERS. OF COURSE IT IS WORTH NOTING HERE THAT THE " CIVILISED RELIGIONS" EG. EPISCOPALIANS, REFORM JEWS , ETC., DON'T SEEM ABLE TO ATTRACT A PARTICULARLY BIG FLOCK, OR A COMMITED ONE FOR THAT MATTER. NJUST SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating personal story
Review: This is really less a scathing indictment of Pat Robertson than it is of fundamentalism in general. Mr. Straub is actually still a Christian, although of an altogether different bent than what he once was. With fundamentalism, it becomes apparent how Robertson and those at CBN saw everything as an "us/them" issue, where they were always believed to be in the right. The anecdotes of CBN staffers leaving tracts in the homes of "unsaved" Catholics or with everyone from passers-by to toll-both attendants were telling. When one believes they're always in the right, they'll justify anything. Look at Pat's "Diamond Mine" ventures with Mobutu Sese Seko (...).

Overall a very quick and informative read.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating personal story
Review: This is really less a scathing indictment of Pat Robertson than it is of fundamentalism in general. Mr. Straub is actually still a Christian, although of an altogether different bent than what he once was. With fundamentalism, it becomes apparent how Robertson and those at CBN saw everything as an "us/them" issue, where they were always believed to be in the right. The anecdotes of CBN staffers leaving tracts in the homes of "unsaved" Catholics or with everyone from passers-by to toll-both attendants were telling. When one believes they're always in the right, they'll justify anything. Look at Pat's "Diamond Mine" ventures with Mobutu Sese Seko (...).

Overall a very quick and informative read.