Why Bush Must Go: A Bishop's Faith-Based Challenge

Rating:
Summary: Why a "Church" Needs to get Back to Faith
Review: Another left-wing activist 60's relic "bishop" using his power and prestige to spout venditive ...

The discourse in the book is faux religious, with typical manipulation of Christian "peace and justice" principles to suit the good bishop's agenda. Meanwhile, the US Episcopal church drifts about - while its leaders, like Bishop Sims, are more concerned about using their position as a bully pulpit for their own pet notions of utopia.

Rating:
Summary: Another tired and stale cliche from a Episcopal bishop
Review: As a priest in the Episcopal Church, I am always interested when another clergyman from my denomination writes anything. Despite my distate for the provocative title -- I dutifully read this book in the hope that it would not be the same, old, tired, liberal screed so many of us have come to expect from our bishops. Alas, no new arguments have been produced by Bishop Simms, and his tortured syntax and poor writing skills make his work inferior to others of his ilk. Say what you want about Bishop Spong (and believe me, I have!) at least he can write an interesting book.
As for this whiney and boring book -- my advice is to save your money and donate it to your favorite charity.

Rating:
Summary: A Servant Leadership Vision
Review: Bennett Sims is a retired Episcopal Bishop living in Hendersonville. The values and convictions that led him to found the Institute for Servant Leadership, now based in Asheville, have gained new and timely expression in a book with the provocative title, Why Bush Must Go: A Bishop's Faith-based Challenge (Continuum Books). For Sims the struggle of our time is between systems of power based on competitive domination and those based on collaborative partnership. The first, rooted primarily in male-engendered violence and fear, underlies both the disposition to use military and coercive solutions to political problems and the end-of-the-world fundamentalism it appeals to. The second approach, based in the Gold Rule ethics of Jesus and all the great world religions, is emerging in commitments to collaboration, partnership, mutuality, environmental conservation and servant leadership in business, public life, and commissions for national reconciliation. The way of mutuality and interdependence, both among human beings and in the entire natural order, is built into our deepest instincts and must prevail if the planet and its human experiment are to survive and flourish. Because Bishop Sims sees the Bush administration as rooted in the politics of domination and fear, he has stepped forward to call for its replacement.

He develops his argument by reviewing his own career as pastor, teacher, and bishop. In his involvement in the civil rights movement he was awakened to the power of non-violence. In his life as Bishop of Atlanta he moved from an early rejection of the equal rights of homosexual persons to championing their equality and full participation. Indeed, in seeking to overcome the dividing wall of hostility between gay and straight he could see more clearly how same-sex relations deeply challenged the male domination of traditional marriage, business, and public life. This system of violent male domination in relations among humans and between them and the rest of the natural world is self-destructive and must yield to one of mutuality among equals. Sims begins his book with a quote from George H. W. Bush's inaugural prayer invoking the priority of service in the use of power. It is to this ideal that he seeks to call both his son and the rest of us as well.


Rating:
Summary: Against the Ethos of Violence
Review: Bishop Bennett J. Sims illuminates the notion of creation as God's Altruistic Gift. His ideas are akin to that of the Great Christian writer, C.S. Lewis.
Sims writes, "God in the revelation of Jesus is not a divine dominator, not a manipulator, and never a high-and-mighty self-serving subjugator. In the crystal image of Jesus as the face of God in history, the Ruler of the universe is supreme in the exercise of servant power."
Sims' hermeneutical approach to the Bible affirms that Biblical truth does not advocate the use of power for dominance, violence and injustice. "Self-righteous scorn of others" is self-defeating.
The Biblical notion of power is servitude (selfless-love).
Although "Why Bush Must Go" is sparse at times, it does serve as valid defense against Neocon methodologies.
"Concentrated wealth and weaponry... only repress fear with lavishly expensive symbols of insecurity... Apocalypse is a creed of hopelessness"

Rating:
Summary: Misguided faith
Review: Bishop Sims book was overburdened with emotionally charged jargon in convoluted syntax and lacked hard evidence to support his overgeneralized assertions. The book was more a rationalization and rambling exalting human wisdom (Gandhi, Buddha and Pelagius)above God's wisdom. In order to promote the enlightment of a higher social spirituality "fresh theology" (21), Bishop Sims: 1) dismisses the Bible as a "mythical"(28) "saga" (61) not to be literally taken as the Word of God; 2)dismisses Jesus as just another teacher-not the Son of God; 3)denies the existance of evil (Satan) and the fallen nature of man; 4) takes license to "recomprehend" (36) the meaning of the word "natural" in Paul's writing to the Romans to legitimize homosexuality and then herald such as "social courage." By vilifying "fundamentalist religion" as male dominated and unenlightened, Bishop Sims demonstrates his true agenda--to discredit (literal) biblical teaching on morality so there can be no transgression, and to exhalt human consciousness.

Rating:
Summary: Misguided faith
Review: Bishop Sims book was overburdened with emotionally charged jargon in convoluted syntax and lacked hard evidence to support his overgeneralized assertions. The book was more a rationalization and rambling exalting human wisdom (Gandhi, Buddha and Pelagius)above God's wisdom. In order to promote the enlightment of a higher social spirituality "fresh theology" (21), Bishop Sims: 1) dismisses the Bible as a "mythical"(28) "saga" (61) not to be literally taken as the Word of God; 2)dismisses Jesus as just another teacher-not the Son of God; 3)denies the existance of evil (Satan) and the fallen nature of man; 4) takes license to "recomprehend" (36) the meaning of the word "natural" in Paul's writing to the Romans to legitimize homosexuality and then herald such as "social courage." By vilifying "fundamentalist religion" as male dominated and unenlightened, Bishop Sims demonstrates his true agenda--to discredit (literal) biblical teaching on morality so there can be no transgression, and to exhalt human consciousness.

Rating:
Summary: Reflections on Servant Leadership
Review: I encountered this book while browsing the shelves of the Harvard Bookstore (where it was prominently displayed) as I took a little down time during a hectic business trip. Though I initially resisted the book because the title suggested a rhetoric that I didn't have the energy to engage, the author is one I respect as his book "Servanthood" had a positive influence in my formation for ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church. It is my understanding that Bishop Sims and his publisher had some disagreements about the published title, which doesn't accurately reflect the contents. This is a wonderful book that systematically details our responsiblities to those we are appointed to serve. I am encourging my friends to purchase the book themselves, and for those whose means won't permit that I have purchased several extra copies to hand out, as needed. Thanks be to God for a loving and prophetic voice.