Blue Like Jazz

I just finished reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. It was refreshing. It reads like a personal memoir. I recommend it, but it's certainly not your typical Christian book. Miller is a very intelligent person who cannot easily be labeled, although emergent church leaders hold him up as an author that everyone should read. I am not a big fan of emergent church theology, but I have to say I enjoyed reading this book.

In Blue Like Jazz, Miller sometimes talks about how so many Christians are Republicans, and actually think that this political party can change America for the better. This is complete nonsense. I vote Republican often, but to equate the party with some kind of Christian righteousness is faulty thinking. Christians can, through the power of the Holy Spirit, win people to Christ, one heart at a time. But it's not going to be by pushing any political agenda, that's for sure.

A good lesson to be learned is never to generalize about a person because he/she happens to be Republican, Democrat, or Independent. There are wonderful Christians in each of these policital groups. Everyone knows this instinctively. So no more of this "how can so and so even be a Christian, since he's a _____________________."

If you read Blue Like Jazz, you'll see Miller doesn't have much love for overly-religious people. But at the end, he admits that God is helping him to love these kinds of people. So you can see that he has a lot to say about loving people who are different from you. That's good advice for any of us. Read the book. I've only touched on a couple of topics from it. There is so much more in its pages. After reading it, let me know what you think.