Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

Hard to know where to begin, but this book reflects the growing divide between truth and propaganda that is permeating the beliefs in our churches. Pastor Platt is sincere, but the foundation for his beliefs is not scripture but the dogma of socialism. Proof of that is no more clear than the first page of his eighth chapter where he juxtaposes Adams with the righteous prophet of our country FDR, "While James Adams was coining the phrase 'American Dream,' Franklin Roosevelt was emphasizing how Americans will postpone immediate gratification..." Read it for yourself, this is the foundation from which Platt was educated as a child through college, and it now permeates his theology. James Adams and capitalism are vilified and FDR is hailed as preaching something akin to the Gospel message. But there is more. Why James Adams' definition of the American Dream? Platt in his second chapter warns us of the inherent danger in Adams' thesis that we will worship our own ability. Those unfamiliar with Adams' book, from which the phrase was taken, will assume that "ability" was the focus of Adams' quote. It is not; rather, it sounds strangely like a more modern speech in which in which a great preacher called for measuring people by the content of their character. This is the conclusion of the quote that Platt annotated from Adams, "It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order...regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." Using Platt's logic we should also warn everyone against the potential pitfalls of seeking equality based on the character of a person in the words of Martin Luther King. Freedom to be who you want to be regardless of birth or social position is what Adams was talking about, not wealth per se. But this flies in the face of socialism's ideology. You have no such freedom in this world, because the haves do not share it and the only way for you to get up, or as Paul the Apostle would say, "Get up and work so that the heathens have no room to slander you," is for someone else to do it for you. There is more, but it is enough to conclude with a final point about his faulty understanding of the 1st Amendment. Platt has bought into the belief propagated by Christians that we are in a post-Christian age where people don't like Christians, and that there is a "wall" between the church and the government. He completely misses the real reason why people don't share their faith today, and it is because Pastors and writers like him are convincing Christians that people don't want to hear the Gospel. We should tell them anyway, and I applaud his chapter on this, but it is weakened by his unwillingness to engage the real issues related to this--we have believed the separation of church and state lie as well as the lie that this is a post-Christian nation. Perhaps he does not wish to be political, but he invokes the prophet FDR so he has by virtue of that entered the political arena. And that is the real problem I have with this book. He wants to subtly be political, without being political and these words affect politics! To that end, which was the end FDR was working, Platt's thesis will not produce radical Christians but radicals who vote for the imposition of tyrannical government who will take away every freedom for which Adams was commending our Forefathers for prayerfully creating. It is laughable, but even the word radical is the political label given to one who seeks such political ends in the government. I don't know if that was the intent, but anyone who has had a politics class knows that the conservative counterpoint to a radical is a reactionary. Doubt Platt would ever produce a book like that. Platt's seventh chapter is the only chapter I can recommend because he unashamedly presents the truth of the Gospel. The rest is buried in the socialist ideology that he has been educated in, which permeates his writing. I have

As with most of Platts writings we see the Christian life reduced to a few pious endeavors and lacking the robust theology of doing all to the glory of God - even those things that are not "church activites" or "missions" The real problem is that this is labeled "radical"

This book is incredible! The principles are straight forward and it helps us to see our Purpose and how it can be fulfilled with practical day-to-day choices that each one of us is capable to do. It is as simple as having a Desire in your heart for the Word and going. Thank you! I highly recommend this book and will be recommending it to friends and family, and praying to share with others I connect with as I "go" sharing the Good News for the Glory of the Lord.