Jesus Wants to Save Christians, the new book by Rob Bell and Don Golden, reminds me so much of another book I reviewed here:  Jesus For President, by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw.  Both follow a similar (and somewhat tedious) structure, tracing the history of God’s dealings with his people through both testaments.  Both are written by famous young evangelicals (Bell and Claiborne) and co-written by relatively unknown young evangelicals (two other guys).  Most importantly, both present the same theme, that today’s American Christians are in danger of being seduced by the empires around us, including America itself and the corporate powers that vie for our dollars.

Here are a few lines that capture Bell and Golden’s theme:

America is an empire.  And the Bible has a lot to say about empires.  Most of the Bible is a history told by people living in lands occupied by conquering superpowers.  It’s a book written from the underside of power…This can make the Bible a very difficult book to understand if you are reading it as a citizen of the most powerful empire the world has ever seen. (p. 121)

Bell and Golden show how quickly Israel under Solomon went off course, choosing empire-building over being a blessing to the nations.  They also make the intriguing and new-to-me point that Jesus was a new Solomon, a Son of David who came to be the kind of king Solomon should have been.

I love chapter 5, "Swollen-bellied black babies".  It provides the most practical and pointed information, such as the fact that Americans spends more on trash bags than half the world spends on all goods.  And it exposes us for trusting in chariots and horses (Psalm 20:7) more than we trust in God.

This theme about empires is one we SO need to hear, especially in an election year, when American prosperity and security are lifted up as the highest of all ideals.  I prefer Jesus For President because it gives this theme a more comprehensive treatment, but Jesus Wants to Save Christians has a couple of points in its favor too:  1) It is shorter (it could have been printed on 100 pages rather than the 181 it actually uses) and 2) it’s more theological - the solution that Bell and Golden have in mind has to do with, of all things, communion - taking its lessons seriously and living them out.