Don Miller in review :)
April 22, 2006Overall, I thought the speech/lecture tonight was good. It was a bit of a rehash of his book Searching for God Knows What but he did a good job of keeping it interesting even for those who had read the book. I was a little worried initially because he started out a little slow and with several “ummm…” (big bad public speaking no-no). As he got into his groove, it was a lot better of a speech and fairly cohesive.
Seeing/hearing a writer give a speech, sometimes, it seems the writing and the speaking are not on the same level. Or the personality of the writer turns out to be not what you expected from the writings but in this case, the things I have enjoyed the most from his books were certainly evident in his speaking.
Probably the most enjoyable thing is that he is not an “over-the-top” Christian. He does not come across in a holier than thou, pious manner. You know the kind of person I’m talking about… The one whose Christianity seems to be an act to be better than others. Nor does he subscribe to the idea of God/Jesus taking sides in politics or world issues. That drives me crazy- yes, there are morals and ethics that God desires us to follow but He doesn’t hold to Republican or Democrat views (or any 3rd party views either). So to imply that I am less of a Christian because I do not vote Republican (or Democrat) seems incredibly hypocritical.
The other thing I like is that Miller is very open that his journey to Christianity wasn’t easy or quick. He said it took him 8 years from the time he renounced his faith (he grew up Southern Baptist with a very traditionalist mother and essentially no father) until he could finally wake up without doubt about God’s existance. He really questioned the “whys” of things and eventually through his questioning ended up back to God and to Jesus. His writing talks a lot about his faith journey and gives a lot of interesting answers to the “why” questions he had.
All in all, it was worth the $5 spent and it is always cool to see a popular writer in person 
Thanks for the review. I may just order one of his books. I don’t like mixing politics with faith either. (For some reason I was under the impression Miller was a social activist.)
I would say yes, he is a social activist but based on reading the books and hearing him speak, it is more along the lines of realizing that Jesus wouldn’t care who people are/what they are like and moving away from the idea that you must look, act, be just so to be accepted by the “church”. What is important is the relationship you have with Christ.
That is just my understanding
Thanks again for the further clarification.
Actually, I like social activism but don’t like the partisan politics that so often go with it.
Agree… Jesus isn’t an American or a liberal or a democrat, republican, Baptist, etc!! He is so far above and beyond those earthly constraints.