Book Review of Religion and Faith by Rev. Dante Fortson

As soon as I read this passage that occurs very early on in Rev. Dante Fortson's book Religion and Relationship I knew I was onto something very important. The fact that the book was written by an ordained minister told me what I had to know about Rev. Fortson. By the way, I have no other relationship with Rev. Fortson than his solicitation of my opinion of his book. We have never met and I know nothing about him other than what I gleaned from this book and his interesting web site, ministerfortson.com. What I did glean is that Rev. Fortson is a religious leader of rare insight and intelligence. His acknowledgment of the very serious problem of pride in the church being an obstacle to understanding and faith brought me deeply into his book and led me to approach it with a sincere belief that I was reading the words of a man among men.

Rev. Fortson's book is about the relationship we have with God and the tome is very analogic in nature. Rev. Fortson parallels the relationship that famous Biblical figures have had with God as way to guide us in our relationship. What is most interesting is that the good Reverend does not go the easy route by making an analogy with just figures like David or Daniel, but also with Lucifer. In fact, the very first chapter slaps you in the face by arguing that mankind is the inheritor of a relationship not at all unlike that between God and Lucifer. It is fascinating and controversial and, I believe, truer than anything I ever heard during my only experience in being a regular churchgoer.

Another thing that Rev. Fortson says that you won't hear in many American churches is the denial of the idea that the Antichrist is a product of the lineage of Cain. As he rightly points out, Cain's lineage died off during the Great Flood, did it not? Perhaps an even less likely thing to ever hear in an American church is that the little-known figure of Enoch was the world's very first Christian. To discuss how Fortson arrives at this idea would be to strip you of the pleasure of reading his words, but he makes quite an interesting case for his argument.

I am also happy to report that Rev. Fortson is that rare American minister who understands the true value of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Rather than focusing on God's wrath and justify the story as a way to condemn homosexuality and wanton sexuality the way that so many evengelicals do, Religion and Relationship shows how the well-known climax of this familiar story is the result of a series of interconnected relationships between people and between those people and God.

"Chanting ten "Hail Mary's" won't change your situation between you and God." You would think anyone with even the slightest intelligence would already realize this fact. One thing that Rev. Fortson cannot abide is empty ritual. Since Christianity is packed full of ritual, I wonder how he keeps from going crazy. It is a dangerous thing to attack Catholic ritual even for Protestant ministers, but I especially enjoy the reasoning behind the above excerpt. This comes from a chapter in which Fortson warns against asking for the same thing over and over again in prayer. The chapter provides some illumination into the mysterious act of prayer and how it should never devolved into an empty catechismtic exercise. Prayer works, but not necessarily in the way one thinks. One must come at this ritual with far more critical understanding than those who simply raise beads and repeat words would like.

The typical book that offers advice based on scripture and figures from the Bible tends to overlook the less than savory aspects of those figures. Fortson instead pushes them to the forefront not for prurient reasons, but to reveal the inescapable fact that there are precious few saints in the Good Book. One of the most interesting chapters is the one in which Fortson goes down a list of what might be called the Hall of Fame of Biblical characters and reveals their flaws and faults. The point, of course, is to show that God rarely uses saintly types to affect great change. If you strip away the legend from people like Joseph, Paul, David, and Lot what you are left with is a thief, murderer, adulterer, and incestuous father. The point? Your relationship with God has so much less to do with what you do in your life than with what you do in your heart.

Too many hypocritical Christian leaders conveniently overlook that fact. We need more Christian leaders like Rev. Fortson.