Christian books and literature

I have made my opinion on the majority of contemporary Christian music quite well known amongst those closest to me so now it is time for me to weigh in on Christian books and literature. Predictably, for those who know how contentious I am about almost any "Christian" product, I think that much of it is pretty poor. Search the shelves of our most popular local Christian bookstore and you will find a great deal of poorly-written and, I would venture to say, often un-Biblical books dealing with everything from self-help to financial management. For example, the 'Gospel of Prosperity' continues to thrive in the 21st century church because you will probably not find a subject more written about than how to make and manage money as a Christian. Many are essentially books by Warren Buffet re-written with the word "God" thrown in here and there and a liberal smattering of Bible verses taken out of context!! I would go to town on The Prayer of Jabez, but I would not be able to do it any better than Randy Hein's masterful dissection of it (and complete shredding of any credibility that the book would attempt to have) in one of the first issues of "Commonplace" magazine, put out by the Place Community at Lambrick Park Church. The good reverend sheds light on the fallacies inherent in this very popular little book and asks us to focus on what God really desires for His people. I didn't even bother to try with the "Left Behind" series because I thought that it looked so stupid and I saw it foster an unhealthy obsession with the End Times in its readers. I was advised by some very "literary" friends of mine that I made a good choice as they themselves could barely make it through one of the books because it was so poorly-written and ridiculous!! I could probably go on and piss off even more people, but rather than that I will leave you with a quote from C.S. Lewis that also is a hope and prayer to which I cling: "We do not need more people writing Christian books, what we need is more Christians writing good books." Amen.