Jay Bakker, The Grace Junkie

Last updated on: January 24, 2011 at 5:56 pm by Guest Contributor

Jay Bakker, The Grace Junkie 2011-01-24T17:56:42-07:00 Guest Contributor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Grace has grown and changed in my life. I was always told the more I read the Bible, the more black-and-white things would become. And they haven’t; they’ve become more gray. But grace has allowed that to happen and not freak me out. I understand God’s love better. Grace is one of those things that continues to evolve. – Jay Bakker

God’s loving-kindness is that sure love which will not let Israel go. Not all Israel’s persistent waywardness could ever destroy it. Though Israel be faithless, yet God remains faithful still. This steady, persistent refusal of God to wash his hands of wayward Israel is the essential meaning of the Hebrew word which is translated loving-kindness. – Snaith

Controversy is a spotlight most don’t covet. Controversy can ruin your reputation, your ideas of others and especially of God. Yet Jay Bakker finds his salvation from religion through the rejection of the religious. Bakker shares with his readers his painstaking journey in and throughout the public eye and the stress of those who
were intending to help but rather created more wounds.

You would think someone who has experienced so much would walk away from anything that looks remotely like the very place he came from. But there is hope. Jay is an ardent grace-junkie. He drinks it. Shoots it up. Sniffs it. Loves it. He encourages everyone to do the same. Jay, through the power of personal narrative
introduces us to a concept of grace that seems foreign to a lot of the Conservative Right who tend to anticipate that grace has pre-existing exclusive expectations, but his vision of God’s grace is much like my own, which is: God loves and accepts everyone – unconditionally.

If the Right are right then God must either be wrong or He is a lot more reckless then we give him credit for. But, this is the God I resonate with, this is why this book is an important addition to an important ongoing deconstruction of faith. A God who loves without limits. This is the God we need to recapture, a God we need to revisit, the God who has been there all along, and through the dust and rubble, Jay recovers a glimpse of this God.

Like Jay, I agree with his tattoo: Religion Destroys. Religion has somehow become the new opiate for the masses. The thing we think we need to make us feel better about our problems, what I like about Jay in this book, is that he doesn’t pull any punches on the idealistic notion that everything will always turn out okay. Clearly he has experienced the opposite. But there is a tenacious spirit running through his work that defiantly proclaims, not high on a hill somewhere, but from the depths of his own history, that grace has the last word. It is his addiction to grace that is so alluring and draws in the reader.

If you haven’t heard of this kind of grace, get this book. If you have, read and be reminded what it feels like to be loved by a God who is just as much a grace-junkie as Jay is. If you don’t believe this grace exists, read this again and again until you do.

George Elerick is a cultural theorist, human rights worker, and author of the just-released Jesus Bootlegged.

Visit the Patheos Book Club for more resources (including an excerpt) on Jay Bakker’s new book, Fall To Grace .

Uncategorized

Previous Post

January 21, 2011

Jay Bakker's Hidden Victory

Next Post

January 27, 2011 A Lesson in Receiving Grace

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Author Q&A Book Review Christian Living Church Leadership Stump a Scholar Theology Uncategorized

Select a Month June 2022 March 2021 October 2020 August 2020 February 2019 November 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 November 2016 October 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: King Saul was anointed by the prophet Nathan.

Select your answer to see how you score.

FALSE TRUE