I recently checked Rapture Ready: Adventures in the parallel universe of Christian pop culture out from the DPL branch near my workplace. The copy that I got had a different cover on it than what you see on that website; it was white, with a candy necklace on the front – except this candy necklace had a giant pink cross on it.
This made me feel just a little weird about reading it on the bus, though I didn’t let that stop me.
I don’t normally read a lot of non-fiction to begin with, and unless the book is exceptionally well written, I tend to slog through and take it in a little at a time. Not so here; Daniel Radosh deserves a lot of compliments. In general, his writing was very conversational, very entertaining, and he covered the necessary background or concepts that went with his own experiences without ever becoming the least bit dry. This was a book that I read while riding on my exercise bike, and that’s a rare compliment indeed – it takes a very interesting book to get me to forget the fact that I hate exercise bikes because they make my ass go numb.
Looking at the narrative in the book, the two words that really spring to mind are “humor” and “humanity.” There’s a lot to find amusing in any pop culture; the weird quirks Mr. Radosh identifies in Christian pop culture seem even funnier (in a bizarre sort of way) to an atheist such as myself. But I think it’s very important that he leavens the humor with a very big dose of humanity and understanding.
Which isn’t to say that he is in any way supportive of the strange, walled-off sort of pop culture that has been created by a certain segment of American Christians. With deft comedy, he skewers the segments of that pop culture that so deftly need skewering, presents others with little comment when they will handily collapse under their own weight, and in a few instances becomes well and truly angry or a bit frightened when such emotions are richly deserved. I think what makes all of that so genuine is the sense that, while his stated purpose from the beginning was to find the dark underbelly of the true nuts, he was also doing his best to be open minded and allow himself to be surprised.
At the end, you get the sense that all in all, the experience has left him strangely hopeful. I found Mr. Radosh’s strange journey to be something that gives me hope as well. While there are quite a few scary figures to be found within Rapture Ready (Ken Ham being one of the front runners) there are also many people who are hoping to find some sort of common ground, who seem just as disturbed as the non-Christians by some they are sharing their pop culture with. If nothing else, it asks the question, “Can’t we all just get along?” and posits a cautious, “Maybe.”
A few highlights from the books:
I would definitely recommend it.