Posts tagged ‘memoir’

Does the book Eat, Pray, Love preach Christ?

By Monica Brand, 28 October, 2008, 19 Comments

Comments are still coming in on this post about Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert, so that means it’s time to Educate the Masses. $Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman\'s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert$

Are you ready masses?

Class is in session. Here we go -

This is a comment from Adam. First of all, I love, love, LOVE it when normal folks leave a comment here. By normal, I mean the nonbloggers in the world. Bloggers, do you know there are people in the world that have no idea what a blog is?? I’m serious! Isn’t it shocking? I thought everyone and her mother has a blog.

No, my mom does not have a blog. The woman doesn’t even have a computer, we must remember to pray for her.

Monica… the point!

Oops, sorry. Had too much fun poking fun at myself.

Adam, nonblogger, wrote:

Seriously anyone who thinks Gilbert is trying to lead people away from Christianity has not discovered God themselves. I think deep prayer and mediation is how one connects to God and builds a relationship with him and it’s how God can change peoples lives. Just because someone doesn’t say that you have to accept Christ doesn’t make it bad.

Hold on there, mister. How does a person connect to God? You say it’s through prayer and mediation. What do you say class? Hold that thought because Adam is going to correct himself in a minute…

Adam then says:

She is teaching people how to connect to God that may not have normally discovered him and I in no way see how that is not Christlike, it is very Christ like and her book has done a world of good in showing me how I can connect to God on a deeper level.

Really? You’re a Bible-believing, born-again Christian and you think Eat, Pray, Love helps people connect to God? It’s comments like these that amaze me. (Sorry for picking on you, Adam, but if you disagree, you can start your own blog to refute me.) Gilbert is into Eastern Mediation and Yoga, dude, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t remember off the top of my head. But I’m willing to bet it’s got nothing to do with Jesus Christ.

Christ allows me to return to God and prayer and mediation allow me to connect to God and build a relationship with him. It makes me mad when people attack stuff that can help improve people’s lives just because it doesn’t fit there narrow point of view of how things are.

Look, class! The answer to my first question. Way to go, Adam, you win a star for answering correctly. It’s Jesus Christ who allows us to return to God.

You can pray and meditate, and do all sorts of goofy tricks to try and win the Lord’s favor, but it’s only through repentance and faith in His son, Jesus, that we are connected to God.

By the way, I happen to know that because I read it in my Bible. Don’t bother looking for that bit of info in Eat, Pray, Love, because it’s not there.

And as for that narrow point of view stuff – it’s not my opinion, it’s what Jesus says himself in Matthew 7:13:

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

It’s a narrow way. Sorry to disappoint, but there you have it. Either a book points to Christ or it doesn’t. Eat, Pray, Love does not. It’s a well-written, interesting, personal memoir of a non-Christ-following woman. Does Gilbert point to Christ as the way to God? No. Read it to learn about what she believes; use it as a road map to God at your own peril.

Sigh. It’s uninformed comments like Adam’s that concern me. Christians, we don’t have time to misinformed. We must know what we believe and why, and then when we encounter false teaching, we can answer correctly.

People are still looking for information about Gilbert and her book, so I think I’m going to re-read it, and post my thoughts here; that way if anyone is interested, we can learn together and have the answers we need to have.

Okay. I think I’m done now. Questions? Comments? Smacks to the side of my head for too much sarcasm?

***

Hmmmm. I just read the next part of the chapter in Matthew. Do you know who Jesus warns us about in verse 15?

What I’m reading: Monique and the Mango Rains by Kris Holloway

By Monica Brand, 2 October, 2008, No Comment

Monique and the Mango Rains (Two Years with a Midwife in Mali) is a memoir of Holloways’ experience as a Peace Corp volunteer in Mali, where she befriended midwife Monique Dembele.

From the backcover:

Monique Dembele saved lives and dispensed hope in a place where childbirth is a life-and-death matter. This book tells of her unquenchable passion to better the lives of women and children in the face of poverty, unhappy marriages, and endless backbreaking work. Monique’s buoyant humor and willingness to defy tradition were uniquely hers. In the course of this deeply personal narrative, as readers immerse themselves in the rhythms of West African village life, they come to know Monique as friend, mother, and inspired woman.

I know! I know! Yet another memoir. This one I couldn’t resist, mostly because I’ve read hardly anything at all about Africa, except a short story by Hemingway. (Why is it I can’t remember any of the details of The Sun Also Rises and… another Hemingway novel I read? Can’t even recall the title of that book).

Plus, I won this book from the Early Reviewers group over at LibraryThing. I had to read it.

Oh, darn. You all know how I hate a memoir. Ha.

Modern medicine in Mali looks nothing like what we take for granted here in the United States. I look back at my four birth experiences, and nothing that I’ve complained about with those hospital births comes close to what the mothers in Mali have to endure. We American mothers are blessed, and dare I say – spoiled – with the health care we have available.

Have you read any books about African culture? Please share in the comments below. Have you been to Africa? Tell us your experience.

Book tour: The Road of Lost Innocence (The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine) by Somaly Mam

By Monica Brand, 18 September, 2008, 2 Comments

The kind folks at WaterBrook Press sent me a copy of The Road of Lost Innocence (The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine) by Somaly Mam. From my point of view, this book has three things going for it – it’s written by a woman, it’s a memoir, and it focuses on Southeast Asia. All three tend to be reoccurring themes with my reading, so this book was a welcome addition to my bookshelf.

The Road of Lost Innocence is not just another story of a suffering victim; it’s how one woman is taking action on behalf of others, for the least of these.

From the inside cover:

Born in a village deep in the Cambodian forest, Somaly Mam was sold into sexual slavery by her grandfather when she was twelve years old. For the next decade she was shuttled through the brothels that make up the sprawling sex trade of Southeast Asia. Trapped in this dangerous and desperate world, she suffered the brutality and horrors of human trafficking – rape, torture, deprivation – until she managed to escape with the help of a French aid worker.

Somaly Mam is cofounder and president of AFESIP (Acting for Women in Distressing Situations), based in Cambodia, and president of the Somaly Mam Foundation, based in the United States. Under her leadership, the two organizations seek to save and socially reintegrate victims of sexual slavery in Southeast Asia. Mam was named a CNN Hero and a Glamour Woman of the Year in 2006.

From Amazon.com:

“The Road of Lost Innocence is unputdownable, and you read it with a lump in your throat. Somaly Mam’s story is an account of how humanity can sink to the lowest levels of depravity, but it is also a testimony of resistance and hope. She lifted herself out of a well of terror and found the determination and the resilience to save others. Somaly Mam is my candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.”
—Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of Infidel

“An inspiring story from the front lines of a global tragedy. Somaly Mam’s courageous fight to save women and children reminds us that one person can stand up and change the fate of others for good.”
—Mariane Pearl, author of A Mighty Heart

Links

To learn more about how you can help fight human trafficking, visit the foundation’s website: www.somaly.org. A portion of the proceeds of this book will be donated to the Somaly Mam Foundation.

You can watch Mam interviewed about rescuing children from the brothels in this 3-minute video.

Answering questions: more on author Elizabeth Gilbert

By Monica Brand, 11 August, 2008, 1 Comment

Christian believers are still seeking answers about the author of Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, so here is a video from Authors@Google. It’s embedded, and I can’t figure out how to get the video here; just follow the link. The video is 30 minutes long – 10 minutes of Gilbert reading from her memoir, and then a Q and A period.

I think it’s interesting to note that her upbringing is sporadic church attendance at a church where there is “not a lot of talk about God.” Sad, especially when she explains how as a ten-year-old she is seeking answers about death and eternity – and it appears not one adult in her life can help her. If I were in the audience, I would have asked if she went to her mother, a Sunday School teacher or minister with her fears.

Watch and let me know your reactions:

YouTube – Authors@Google: Elizabeth Gilbert

Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez

By Monica Brand, 30 June, 2008, 6 Comments

This book was a must read as soon as I saw the cover. I’m crazy for memoirs, especially stories of women living overseas in a Muslim culture. Kabul Beauty School is the story of how Deborah Rodriguez, a hair dresser from Michigan, started a beauty school for Afghan women in the war-torn city.

When you think of Westerners going to help with the rebuilding of Afghanistan, you don’t put hair dressers at the top of the list, do you? That’s another alluring aspect of the book – what’s this mere hair dresser going to do to help? Rodriguez found herself asking that same question when she first arrived in Kabul on a team with doctors, nurses and engineers. Kabul Beauty School is Rodriguez’s story of what a mere hair dresser can do.

For those of you concerned with behavior from a Christian viewpoint: Rodriguez does drop an f-bomb (did I just write f-bomb on my blog?), she smokes a lot, and marries a man without really knowing him very well. Yet for all her faults, she really gave up a lot to help many Afghan women learn a valuable trade.

One part of Rodriguez’s story troubled me: she recounted how her church’s leaders told her to remain in a physically abusive marriage. I hate, hate, reading that kind of stuff. For shame on those leaders, if that is true. She did eventually get away from the husband, and that’s great, but those stories make Christians look ignorant. The lesson here – careful how you council women in your church, because you never know who’s going to write a best selling memoir.

Reading this book reminded me that many women in the world face oppression and don’t enjoy many of the freedoms I do on a daily basis. To get a taste of the Afghan culture, and how an American woman brought beauty into their lives, read Kabul Beauty School.

Elizabeth Gilbert, Rhonda Byne, Oprah and Christians (no, this is not a really bad joke)

By Monica Brand, 9 June, 2008, 22 Comments

$Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman\'s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert$ A reader left this comment on my post regarding Eat, Pray, Love: One Womans Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert. Let me put the comment in context so you don’t have to follow a link to my original post and wade through all the old comments. The commenter is talking about Gilbert at first. (I edited for spelling only; I think she means Hitler could not take away their salvation.)

The author believes that many gods, or religions can become part of ones life, and these will channel into one god , the “right God” –> absolutely shocking. Oprah is playing a dangerous game.. promoting the secret, and promoting yet another New age book, eat pray love.

Think of Hitler, a man that was responsible for the death of millions of people, these people may have died believeing the true creator, these people may have died saved. Hitler could take that away from them.. we all know where he is though.

But what about a woman like the author of The Secret who is leading millions of souls astray? Playing with their soul, their eternal life. What will happen to her, and what will happen to Oprah?

Well, now I know why I get so many Google hits off of Gilbert’s book. I don’t watch Oprah, so I had no idea she featured it on her show. I don’t want to get into what Gilbert believes with this paticular post; I’ll save that for another day, quoting from her memoir. Personally, I don’t find her beliefs shocking at all. More about that in a minute.

Today, I want to talk about Rhonda Byne, Oprah Winfrey, and Christians.

Rhonda Byne

The Secret author is Rhonda Byrne. I’ve not read The Secret, but I’ve heard of it. As a Bible-believing Christian, I certainly do think she is leading people away from Jesus Christ if her book is contrary to the word of God. From what little I know of it, I suspect it’s doing just that. As a Christian, I’m concerned many are reading it for spiritual guidance.

Oprah Winfrey

I’m weary of the Oprah bashing, not that I’m a fan or anything. I’ve seen that Youtube video regarding The Church of Oprah or whatever it’s called. Look, guys – Oprah can say whatever she wants. That’s why the show is called Oprah. If you don’t like what she has to say, turn her off. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion – Oprah is free to worship and promote whatever she wants. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, doesn’t mean you have to either. Again, turn her off if she turns you off. (Wow, that’s catchy. I should make that a bumper sticker).

and Christians (this is the bit when I get a little opinionated).

I find it humorous when Christians get frazzled when nonChristians act contrary to the Bible. That’s what nonbelievers do, folks. They don’t believe or act like we do and (surprise!) often they adopt radical beliefs apart from the Bible. If they did what we do – read the Bible, worship Jesus Christ – then they wouldn’t be nonChristians, would they?

Back to Gilbert. Does Eat, Pray, Love promote the gospel of Christ? No. Does that shock me? No way. Is it presented as a Christian book? Does Gilbert take the name of Christ? Not that I’m aware of. Again, there is that pesky (and wonderful) freedom of religion joined with freedom of speech.

I’m not saying we should ignore books that don’t line up with Scripture. By all means, let’s talk about it and point out the errors. But don’t stop there. It’s not enough to just critize and offer nothing in it’s place. The reason The Secret, and Eat, Pray, Love, etc., are bestsellers is because people are searching for something to believe. Either they are going to believe in Christ or they will cling to something else.

If we aren’t giving Truth, lived out in radical love, those seeking nonChristians will find a substitute and listen to just about anyone they admire with a microphone or with a catchy book title.

Regarding Hitler. I’m not sure what to make of that part of the comment. Hitler’s Nazi regime murdered millions, so I’m not willing to lump Byrne, Oprah and Gilbert with him. Hitler was a madman with an army and nation behind him. No one is forced to read The Secret, Eat, Pray, Love, or watch Oprah.

Okay. That’s enough about that, ’cause I’m starting to sound like a preacher. Back to writing about cartoons, creeks and the daily life of a home schooling mom. Hope we are all still friends.

By the way, if any of my loyal readers where to particularly like this post, I sure would appreciate a shout-out to your favorite social bookmarking tool. I happen to use StumbleUpon, but this girl ain’t picky. Thanks much.

Paper Bridges