Family legend has it that my grandfather was a bootlegger. Or at least he transported bootleg whiskey in his horse drawn wagon. So when I heard that Daniel Okrent had written the book Last Call about Prohibition in America, I just had to read it. And I’m glad I did. It’s a fun book to read, easy to follow, and filled with fascinating insights into how the 18th Amendment came to be. Okrent builds the case that the temperance movement was an odd alliance of feminists, evangelicals, and many others that you’d never expect seeing on the same side of a social issue. Strangest among them was the KKK. It made sense that the early suffrage movement would be against alcohol because so many women were the victims of alcoholic abuse. And pastors saw families and people falling apart under the influence of alcohol. But the KKK? Well, it turns out that their position was shaped by their anti-immigrant stance. They didn’t like Italians, Jews, Catholics, Germans, Mexicans, Irish, or any other “foreigners”. And it turns out that those groups were the most likely to have wine and beer weaved into their culture. But the book is a lot more than these kinds of odd insights. It details how the political movement gained steam, how it was great at mis-information and massive hyperbole, and how people suspended common sense to jump on the bandwagon. It was a law that only the most delusional ever thought would be enforceable. It brought out the worst in many Americans, including the horrible slander of Presidential candidate Al Smith (a Catholic) who pastors routinely equated with the Anti-Christ. It was also only the second amendment that limited the rights of an individual (the first was the 13th Amendment making it illegal to own a slave). In the end, it was a massive failure as a social experiment and created more harm than good, such as the establishment of large scale organized crime. A great book to read because it offers insights into our own political system today.
I was really disappointed with Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna. This has been out for a couple of years now, and I’ve heard a lot about the book but never had the time to read it. Now that I have … well, I’m not impressed. The premise of the book is to call us back to the First Century Church. It goes on to outline how many of the things we do in Church today (sermons, buildings, order of worship, professional clergy, etc.) have no basis in Scripture and therefore no justification to be part of our religious practice. Now, there is truth to this and I’m sympathetic to the idea. But the position is poorly argued in this book. The historical accounts are not well stated, and the assumption seems to be that every transition away from the First Century Church was influenced by pagan ritual. Again, there’s truth to this, but then again isn’t the Church suppose to adapt to different cultures? And can we really say that decisions made by Church leaders in the 4th, 5th, 6th and later centuries were wrong even if they did stray from the First Century Church? Couldn’t we argue that those decisions were prayerfully made through careful consideration and much consultation with others? Viola and Barna don’t really address these questions. They seen unwilling to recognize that the Church evolving to fit into various cultures and fit various needs is healthy. Instead, they enjoy deconstructing the Church, but they don’t make a good case for it.