This is actually my third time reading through this book, and there's a reason why. They're all centered around the release of another of Bell's books, Love Wins.
Prior to Love Wins, Rob Bell was the hottest thing in the Christian community since Welch's grape juice. Bell became best known for his very well produced video series, NOOMA, as well as his other endeavors like the Everything is Spiritual keynote and Sex God book.
And also because of Velvet Elvis.
Fast forward to 2011 when Bell launches Love Wins and all hell breaks loose. For those familiar with the premise of Love Wins, you'll know I had a punnerific pun there when I said "all hell breaks loose". The premise of that book is that Bell believes all people will eventually turn to God, even post-death, meaning that hell will eventually become null and void at some point in the future.
This didn't sit well with a lot of people, especially since many people interpreted the premise as meaning "You can believe in whatever you want and still get to heaven." Being the student at a Christian university at the time, I saw the chaos unfold before my eyes, especially as people began to reinterpret Bell's former work through this Love Wins lens. I admit that I was also caught up in this craze and couldn't help but negatively look upon his former work, too. Love Wins has had a lasting wreck on Bell's reputation amongst the Christian community. The church severed all ties with Bell and still see him as adversarial, despite having once praised his former works.
All that to say that my three readings went like this: pre-Love Wins, during Love Wins, and now post-Love Wins. In a new attempt to be fair to the book, I now have gone back to read the book to see if it does actually hold value, despite the Love Wins lens. So, does the value Velvet Elvis once held actually stood the test of time? Did we throw out the baby with the bathwater in the Love Wins controversy?
THE GOOD
One thing I always praise about Bell is his presentation style. Whether it be in his books or in his video productions, they are always super high quality. In fact, I am not ashamed to admit that I have attempted to pattern my writing style off his. To this end, it is no surprise Bell once had such a captivating hold on the Christian community.
His presentation style aside, Bell is an excellent storyteller. Peppered throughout this book are lots of stories of his interactions with folks within his church. They helped to illustrate his points well, and it's clear to me that Rob is definitely somebody who places a high importance building and maintaining relationships.
He also brings up questioning faith. We'll address this more in the next section, but for now, I'll say that I like the thought behind this idea. There are lots of verses in the Bible that talk about putting faith to the test. If you recall my post on why I want you to question me, the Bible holds this same mentality: if truth stands on its own, then anybody should be able to question it and come out positively on the other side.
Of course, that gets messy. Especially with Bell.
THE DIFFICULT
There's a difference between questioning for curiosity and questioning for challenging. Velvet Elvis doesn't particularly lend at which side it belongs to, but Bell's subsequent work seemingly makes it more evident. I say "seemingly" because I cannot know Bell's true heart, but I can definitely see where the words in Velvet Elvis become troubling for many. Where I truly appreciate questioning and curiosity, I can see where people would think that Bell's purpose for questioning is to "distort" the Bible in a way that suits his personal views. This includes Bell's stance on hell (as dictated in Love Wins) and more recently his views on homosexuality.
To that end, it makes Velvet Elvis a difficult recommendation to the regular reader. I like the idea of questioning for curiosity's sake, but the notion of questioning for the purpose of suiting one's on agenda is troubling. I'm not saying Bell's subsequent views are particularly wrong, but if everybody starts distorting the Bible to fit personal agendas, we've got a problem. Especially if you think about groups like Westboro Baptist Church or even Martin Luther's anti-semetic writings. (Yes, you might be surprised to hear Martin Luther, despite his influence on Protestantism, said a lot of anti-semetic things. It's sadly true.)
THE... CONFUSING?
But that's not the only reason this book is a difficult recommendation. It's a difficult recommendation because I honestly don't know what Bell's point was with this book. Sure, the stories are interesting, but the "questioning of theology" topic only accounts for one small part of the book. I really don't know how the rest of the stories fit into a singular, general premise.
Even the positive reviews on Amazon don't have a general consensus of what this book is about. Here are a couple statements I plucked from a handful of the reviews:
- "...Bell encourages us to intentionally probe into the Bible with our questions to discover new ways of understanding who God is and becoming comfortable with humility in belief."
- "For the most part, I enjoyed this book. It falls under my hesitation to read books by pastors, because they tend to ramble and not get to the point. Pastor Bell somewhat suffers from this and it got a little tedious at parts."
- "[Bell's] perspectives on faith - while often outside of mainstream Christian thinking - are thought provoking. While he explains the name for the book, I think the title does the book a disservice and was probably assigned by the publisher as an attention getting device designed to sell books."
(Side note: I definitely disagree with that last person's final statement. I have to laugh because Bell's artsy self most definitely came up with the title himself!)
I won't disagree that Bell's aren't thought provoking. They are, but to what point? Is it really just that point that we need to question things more? If so, I definitely agree with that second person's point that Bell got wayyyy off topic with a lot of stuff.
That all said, I can't recommend this book. I won't condemn it, but at best, it's confusing. At it's worst, it can lead people down a rabbit hole of doing whatever they please with the Bible. I'm not saying I myself agree with 100% of what's written in the Bible, but if we're going to question it, we have to tread very, very lightly.
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