Rob Bell is a bestselling author and international teacher and speaker. He is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His books include Velvet Elvis, Sex God,, and Love Wins. He was profiled in TIME Magazine as one of 2011's hundred most influential people. Visit Rob Bell at www.robbell.com.
Bell has co-written this controversial book with Don Golden, a church activist and vice president with World Relief in Baltimore, Maryland. They point out that justice stands tall in the sweep and the substance of the Bible. But many Christians still don't want to get involved in the messes and the miseries of the poor, the oppressed, and dangerous strangers.
According to Bell, Jesus wants to save Christians anyway. He trains his eyes on the exodus account, offering us a new perspective. God speaks at Sinai and then promises to liberate the Jews from their oppression. So Bell and Golden take us on a leap of faith from the empire of Egypt to the empire of America. Power, military force, and great wealth for the elite ruling class are what the two empires have in common.
At one point, the authors drop this casually: "A Christian should get very nervous when the flag and the Bible start holding hands. This is not a romance we want to encourage."
To prove the moral and ethical waywardness of the USA, Bell and Golden trot out the shocking statistics that social activists have been using for years to rally citizens in revolt against the reigning plutocracy. The way of Jesus, they state, is "our willingness to join the world in its suffering" and to join with those participating in the new humanity.
Bell and Golden present a clarion call for a justice emphasis within Christianity and, given the nightmarish developments in the U.S. and the world, it could not have come at a better time!
