The Power Of The Cross

Rating:
Summary: great stories, weak book
Review: This book does not really live up to its title; it's not about the crucifixion. But let me start with the smaller problems.

The author wastes a chapter talking about the ACLU and others' efforts to remove the cross as an emblem in America. I would rather have seen that space devoted to talking about Jesus' life, the significance of the crucifixion, or something else. The cross is inadvertently reduced to a symbol, not an event. (He has chapters on why people wear crosses, chapters on the wisdom of God and the foolishness of secular humanism, and stuff like that, but none on the crucifixion itself.)

Women readers will have a hard time identifying with the book. For the most part, women in this book are somebody's "beautiful wife" rather than people. The worst example is the chapter dealing with homosexuality. It gives half a dozen stories and alludes to dozens more, but except for one use of the word "lesbian," all references are to men. (It even says many former homosexuals later become husbands and fathers.) That's a minor point, but it's a definite blind spot that will limit the audience.

Compelling as many of the personal stories are--the book's one true strength--the way they are used reduces Christianity to a means. I'm reminded of the facetious question, "If Jesus is the answer, what's the question?" because one chapter shows that prisoners who accept Christ stay out of prison, and other chapters similarly show Christ (or, rather, "the cross") as the only reliable cure for alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, and homosexuality. Each person "bows at the cross" and finds his life changed--but since the book has not dealt adequately with the crucifixion, its meaning has been trivialized into a quick cure for whatever I can't solve any other way. Probably God will use this book to bring people to salvation, but I wouldn't feel comfortable giving it to an unbeliever because of the way it turns "the cross" into a magic cure-all for deep-rooted problems rather than the method for reconciliation with a holy God.

The stories are powerful. But the book itself could have been strong if handled differently, and it's not.