Larry Alex Taunton

Recommended.

This book is an engaging read about a multi-faceted man – Christopher Hitchens – and his journey of faith from childhood to before his death. It's not a biography in a traditional sense, it's more of a survey of his life. And it's not a stereotypical "deathbed conversion" story either. The fate of Hitchens is unclear. Nevertheless, you see him tackle very real questions about life, death, and Jesus. Hitchens is well-known for his atheism, but at the end of the day, he was a searcher, not an enemy blinded by rage.… (mais)

Grace is the Name of a Girl
OCTOBER 28, 2011
by matichuk
Thanks to Booksneeze.com I received a copy of Larry Taunton’s new book “The Grace Effect: How the Power of One Life Can Reverse the Corruption of Unbelief”

Christian Apologist Larry Taunton, founder of the Fixed Point Foundation has debated with atheists about the value of religion, and Christianity in particular. In fact this book begins with Taunton hashing it out with Christopher Hitchens over dinner. He challenges Hitchens that Christianity answers the problem of evil better than Atheism. He then goes on to talk about the idea of common grace, the idea that when a significant Christian presence infiltrates a culture it brings benefits to the whole society.

The rest of the book is a reflection on this theme through the medium of autobiography. Taunton tells the story of he and his family travelling to the Ukraine to adopt Sasha. Larry’s wife and sons had met her on a short-term mission the year before, fell in love and felt God calling them to adopt her. But as they do they come face to face with the horrors of the orphanage system in the Ukraine and government corruption. They are repeatedly stalled and asked for bribes (gifts). It is clear that the system and government is not
acting in the best interest of Sasha (unlike the Americans when their turn comes). Taunton interprets this as evidence that the Ukraine, nurtured as a secularist state under communism, is inadequate in its moral formation. It has no concept or understanding of grace.

Taunton paints the Ukraine as a place where darkness reigns and is reflective on what it means to take Sasha from there and bring her to America, a place formed by Christian conviction (even in its secular expression). This story is rather heartwarming and it is hard not to feel this father’s anger at the injustice his adopted daughter had to endure and his joy at the knowledge that he brought her into a better life, where she receives appropriate care from family, the medical community, and society at large.

When this book ends, Taunton is again eating dinner with Christopher Hitchens where he observes Hitchens observing Sasha and reflects on how the life of his daughter testifies to the reality of grace.

I remain critical of his characterization of Ukrainian society. He includes a brief history of Russia’s (and the Ukraine’s) conversion to Orthodoxy, and implies that their version of the Christian story is empty of grace. Add to this decades of communist indoctrination about the absence of God and you have a spiritually impoverished society and a bunch of scoundrels. This is no doubt true and his experience seems to warrant some of these conclusions, but he unfairly absolutizes these statements. So when he contrasts corrupt Ukraine with good Christian America, he comes off sounding a tad nationalistic. There are certainly other reasons for corruption besides secularism. The economics of enforced redistribution under communism probably encouraged baseline corruption from the citizenry on the basis of personal survival. I am no atheist, but I just not sure that Taunton has made his case that ‘atheism’ is to blame for all that ails the fallen Communist Regimes. He may be partially right, but I don’t think it is as simple as he makes it out to be.

I do agree with Taunton’s central premise: that the Christian heritage in America has impacted wider society for the common good. I am not sure that he would convince the skeptical through his tale, but it is coherent to those of us who share his faith. And it is impossible to read this book and not love Sasha!… (mais)

In August, at the Temple Public Library, I came across a book I read an article about online: The Faith of Christopher Hitchens. Now, as a tolerant but un-ecumenical, fundamentalist but slightly-mystical, believer but non-churchgoer, I am quite the Christian but also one who admires Christopher Hitchens. Though I may agree with only a few of his thoughts, I admire his belief in his ideas and especially his delivery of his thoughts. I devoured his memoir Hitch-22. So, here we are at the intersection of faith and un-faith: The Faith of Christopher Hitchens: The Restless Soul of the World's Most Notorious Atheist by Larry Alex Taunton. In Hitchens's post God is Not Great years, as one of the "New Athiests," he debated many theists and evangelicals. One of the men he met was Christian debate producer, moderator, and participant Larry A. Taunton. This book is the record of their acquaintanceship over the course of about three years. Now, Taunton tries to sell it as a friendship, though I do not think that they were in fact chummy (say, like Hitch and Amis or Rushdie); nor do I think that they just "knew of" one another as some atheist polemicists might have it (you do not take days-long road trips with strangers). But—buddyship is the better term—buddies they became.

But, whatever their relationship, the book rings mostly true. Taunton—despite what might be read in some of the media—does NOT claim Hitchens converted. Taunton writes (p. 171):

As we have seen, there were no reports of a deathbed conversion. The whole of my thesis is this: Christopher had doubts (that assertion alone is enough to cause great consternation among the God haters), and those doubts led him to seek out Christians and contemplate, among other things, religious conversion.

Maybe an oversell, but it does appear that Hitchens's atheism was not as acrid, hateful, and orthodox as, say, Dawkins's or Singers's. Taunton points out that Hitch did not buy "what logically follows" from "an atheistic worldview," i.e. "there is no God and, as a consequence, man has no greater value than any other species" (p. 88). Or, put another way, morals and morality, however construed, cannot have their origin in mere biology or physics. Taunton calls this "the ugliness of atheism." Taunton claims Hitchens told him, after the former kept referring to "you and Dawkins" (pp. 103-104):

Look, man, I haven't even read his book [The God Delusion]…. Do not assume I buy into the whole platform.

Hitchens—I have always suspected and Taunton echoes—is a bit conservative in certain ways. For instance (p. 19):

Christopher chiefly accessorized with literature. He loved it. The books, the English language, and the ideas to which he was introduced all serve to excite his mind. Hitchens particularly loved the Western literary canon. In this, he was conservative….

He liked the poetic prose of the King James Version, too, rather than the "modern" versions (p. 19). I too suspected his elitism—Marxist he—his snobbery, his love of class, money, and status. Taunton locates this "two books" nature of Hitch's life in his upbringing, analyzing Hitch-22, brother Peter's The Rage Against God, and other writings and conversations for clues.

Hitchens was a seeker, a believer (in Marxism, in atheism, in his own self), and a contrarian. Above all, he was intellectually honest and curious. I do believe Hitchens respected true believers over, say, Sharpton (pp. 88-89). "So why did not you try to destroy me?" Taunton asked. "Because you believe it." Hitchens replied (p. 115, emphasis in original).

Did Hitchens convert? His acolytes say no. Insist it. Does Taunton? He only claims Hitchens may have contemplated it. Do I think so? Probably not. Did he respect true Christians over the lukewarm mush? (And Islam?) Yes (p. 88, emphasis in original):

I much prefer this sincerity to those vague and Python-esque witterings of the interfaith and ecumenical groups who barely respect their own traditions and who look upon faith as just another word for community organizing.

This, of course, reminds me of Revelation 3:15-16:

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

What will happen to Hitch's immortal soul when we reach Revelation 20:11-15? Who knows? "That no one can answer," writes Taunton (p. 171).

All-in-all, this was a fine book picked up at the library. I ordered a copy from Amazon. It is an intriguing analysis of Hitchens's biography, an interesting memoir of theist-atheist relations, and a thought-provoking read for the faithful (and perhaps the faithless). Interesting, short, well-written, good endnotes and citations.

Well worth it.… (mais)