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Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality, and Politics | 
 enlarge | Author: Adam Hamilton
Publisher: Abingdon Press
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $14.93
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Rating:  4 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 0687649692
Dewey Decimal Number: 261.0973
EAN: 9780687649693
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Everyone agrees that America is polarized, with ever-hardening positions held by people less and less willing to listen to one another. No one agrees on what to do about it. One solution that hasn't yet been tried, say Adam Hamilton, is for thinking persons of faith to model for the rest of the country a richer, more thoughtful conversation on the political, moral, and religious issues that divide us.
Hamilton writes: I don't expect you to agree with everything I've written. I expect that in the future even I won't agree with everything I've written here. The point is not to get you to agree with me, but to encourage you to think about what you believe. In the end I will be inviting those of you who find this book resonates with what you feel is true, to join the movement to pursue a middle way between the left and the right --to make your voices heard-- and to model for our nation and for the church, how we can listen, learn, see truth as multi-sided, and love those with whom we disagree.
Newsweek:
How Would Jesus Choose?
By Lisa Miller April 14, 2008
Adam Hamilton does not call himself pro-choice. He prefers pro-life with a heavy heart. What that means, as he explains in his new book Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White, is that he believes abortion should be available and legal, that there are instances in which it might be necessary and that those instances should be very rare. Further, he says, the abortion debate has been too hot for too long, and that, as a Christian minister, his job is to try to support people no matter what decision they make. As an evangelical megachurch pastor in Kansas, a man educated at Oral Roberts University, Hamilton speaks carefully, aware that he's staking out a controversial position.
Or maybe not. About a third of white evangelicals say that abortion should sometimes or always be legal, according to the Pew Research Center a number that hasn't changed in a decade. In recent election seasons, however, these moderate voices have been drowned out by hard-line shouting on both sides. In the past, an evangelical who might condone abortion in the case of his ailing wife or 14-year-old daughter would never say so in public. Now, the abortion rhetoric has faded somewhat as evangelicals turn their attention to other things: AIDS, the environment, Darfur. In 2004, megapastor Rick Warren announced that abortion was a nonnegotiable for evangelical voters. This year, he's been silent. What's new, then, is not that a pastor like Hamilton would take a softer approach to abortion, but that he would feel comfortable enough to say so from the pulpit and in print.
Hamilton wants pro-choice and pro-life advocates to join forces to reduce the number of abortions and he enumerates seven areas where they could find common ground. Let both sides agree that adequate information about birth control can help prevent pregnancy, he says. And let both sides agree that the longer a pregnancy progresses, the more morally problematic an abortion becomes.
As for his heavy heart, Hamilton comes by it honestly. Seven years ago he received a letter from a parishioner describing her own teenage pregnancy in the years before Roe, the pressure from her parents to abort and her refusal to do so in spite of the cost. That letter was from his mother.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A must read for every generation October 28, 2008
I am in the process of reading this book for small group at my church. I have to say it is one of the most insightful books I have seen regarding dealing with issues that confront us in today's world. Our society tends to see things as being black or white, one extreem or the other; you are liberal or conservative. Adam Hamilton suggests a different way of dealing with the issues. It is ok not to be one extreem or the other, but to be somewhere in the middle. As a matter of fact, that might be preferable to the extreems, and enable a ground on which to have productive conversations and perhaps even achieve resolutions to problems.
In the book Adam addresses some very controversial issues including evolution, abortion, homosexuality, heaven and hell, and even whether non-Christians will be in heaven. He even addresses politics.
This is probably not a book for those who are determined to be at the poles of an issue. It is not just a book for Christians, although I consider it a must read for those who wish to see an end to the senseless bickering between liberal and conservative Christians that leads non-Christians to avoid us and the faith. It is a book for any individual who wishes to promote productive discussion on issues that face our world today. I am buying several copies to give as gifts this Christmas.
the radical but modest center September 10, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
In 1990 Adam Hamilton founded the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. After starting with four people, today their weekly attendance numbers about 7500 worshippers. Along the way, Hamilton has written at least a half-dozen books, the most current one urging a "radical center" that moves beyond the tired debates between evangelical conservatives and mainline liberals. Elsewhere Hamilton has advanced the language of "liberal evangelical" or "evangelical liberal."
"This book," he writes, "is my attempt at laying out one Christian's view of a Christianity of the via media or middle way between the extremes" of a Jerry Falwell and John Shelby Spong. That's not to say he argues for a mushy middle or some lowest common denominator. Far from it. The call of Jesus is radical. But because of the transcendence of God and the fallenness of humanity, we should never claim to understand the Jesus Way perfectly. Nor do we have to, for to do so would be a horrible burden.
What Hamilton argues for is not moderation but modesty. He embodies the so-called "peace-saying" of Peter Meiderlin, a Lutheran pastor who had grown tired of the rancor and division caused by doctrinal disputes in the wake of the Protestant Reformation. In the early 1620s he wrote a book under the pen name of Rupert Meldenius, entitled A Prayerful Admonition for Peace to the Theologians of the Augsburg Confession. In it he urged "in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity."
Hamilton is a fine example of an articulate pastor who's followed the Wesleyan quadrilateral of Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. He has listened carefully for the intimations of the Spirit in his own life and in the lives of his parishioners, then incorporated these experiences into his reasoned interpretation of Scripture. He tackles head-on a dozen or so litmus-test issues that have divided Christians-- the Bible, science, evolution, world religions, hell, evil, doubt, ethics, abortion, homosexuality, war and politics. These are short chapters with sparse footnotes and excellent stories. They aren't intended as a substitute for a deeper study of complex issues that Hamilton would robustly recommend. Rather, what we get is the opportunity to look over the shoulder of a gifted pastor as he studies the Scriptures, cares deeply for his people, and celebrates the good news of Jesus.
Questions at the end of the book for each chapter encourage deeper reflection. I would have enjoyed a list of books "for further reading." Readers who expect Hamilton to "solve" the problems he raises will be disappointed, because that's precisely what he doesn't do. In the twenty-three short chapters he makes no pretense of offering a comprehensive analysis of the questions. Rather, he illustrates in a winsome manner how one believer has taken to heart the advice in one of John Wesley's most famous sermons ("Catholic Spirit" from 1755): "Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences" (231, 236).
 We are Normal and we want our freedom. June 18, 2008
4 out of 17 found this review helpful
Hamilton has been hailed as writing on the level of Bill Hybels, Rick Warren or even Jim Wallis (who writes the forward). I feel this book is written out of frustration against the excesses of Christian fundamentalists in America, but the antidote presented is chosen from the limited range of political positions in the USA. It seems that Christians in the west stopped believing in hell a generation ago, and much of the writing flows from uncertainties about what ist rue in the Bible and what is only figurative. We are confusingly informed that plucking out your eye i fit causes you to sin is only meant figuratively to show how serious sin is, but no effort is made to clarify just WHY sin is serious (surely it does have something to do with the horror of hell). I am guessing that the author is not widely travelled, as all the arguments begin and end in America. It amused me to read the comparison about how generous the Danish Government is compared to that of the USA - without any mention of the high tax system in Denmark that causes all giving to be undertaken by the Government rather than individuals (whereas the system is the opposite for Americans, who are still the most generous individual givers).
In saying that, the information is helpful and occasionally accurate. Some chapters are just what is needed in the frictional arguments that generate only heat and no light. The old chestnuts of evolution versus creation is full of the postitions that most take. Hamilton gives his own postion on most subjects here, including the draft of 2 sermons. The chapter on abortion is actually an outstanding piece of work, only because he is candid about the fact that his own mother was under immense pressure to have an abortion before his own birth. A moving letter penned by her hand is included. The political agenda is laid out in anticipation, and with notes about, the up coming election. Christians in America can be better informed after reading this book, because Hamilton encourages people to get politically involved, as he indeed is as a pastor of a church of 14,000. A few times he notes that people have left the church because of his position on homosexual behaviour, or war in Iraq. Mostly people have stayed with him though. His dream is to forge a Radical Centre to counter the extremes of Liberal or Conservative Christianity in the States. I don't find the teachings of Jesus standing in this centre.
Whether I would leave his church for that reason is unlikely, though I am disappointed in his conclusions (or lack of them). I also found a contradiction in his thinking. The author lays out his strongly rooted Methodist decison making style: basically the authority of the Bible as God's word and the Holy Spirits leading stand before human reasoning every time. This is clearly not what is presented in the book; reasoning comes to the for, making Gods word follow up in apparently last place. For me, the answers gain clarity in the light of Gods word rather than reaction to secular society. The chapter on Homosexuality demonstrates this most.
Firstly, I am wary of a Christian using the word homosexuality" and then pulling out the 7 references to homosexual acts that are mentioned in the entire Bible. My disappointmnet her eis that the word homosexuality" (just as the word heterosexuality")is a very recent word, communicating the idea of ones sexuality as ones identity. This is very far from what is in the Bible, where homosexual acts are condemned. One of the verses quoted states that God hates such acts, yet the author knows practicing homosexuals who claim to love God. Some of the same sentiments are expressed towards non-Christian forms of worship. Strangely, the author presents a different standard for those who call themselves homosexual, standing in the middle ground of the absurd debate about homosexual marriage. Again, this argument is centred in America, and I could not imagine any Christian in Africa for example grasping what he means. Oddly, the plight of unmarried people and their heterosexuality is not discussed. A thought about Hollywood movies setting a precedent in sexual behaviour is tossed out, but that seems to be a passive form of Christian faith rather than the salt and light" that is advocated at the end of the book. Personally, I have found the most help from two other american authors on this subject, Leanne Payne and Neil Anderson.
There again confusion sets in. America as a political nation is called to be salt and light on the worlds political stage. the patriotism found in America causes this opinion to be dearly held there, and yet it seems at odds to Jesus Christs commandments, which are entirely aimed at a personal relationship to God and our neighbour. The fragile self image that most Americans now possess because of recent (and not so recent) events is discussed. This is again in my mind a distraction to following Jesus Christ as Lord. I think that Americans alone in the world carry this burden of felt responsibility, probaly because of their role of world policeman. This concept is not discussed, but it would have brought clarity to the most confusing end chapters about just war and electing a president. The very same arguments used as to why war in Iraq was wrong would stand for Vietnam too, not to mention Korea. Hitler and World War 2 get mutiple mentions because that particular war is seen as just as well as triumphant. The reason justifying Americas participation ist hat Hitler was killing his own people. Oddly, Japan is not even mentioned, yet Saddams killing of his own people is Americas darker history is also left unsaid. I was astounded by his lack of historical understanding. Hitler is referred to as holding a version of Christianity(!) and the final Solution" is reported here as coming to light before World War 2 began. It was first announced in 1942; and we can thank God that by then even America had started at last to do something to Stop Hitler!
I think the author wants to be seen as patriotic (is there any other stance available in the USA?), but has made the usual error that Americans make of confusing personal faith with his nations identity. Surely the truth is that America is as power and wealth hungry as all the other nations? Proverbs states that righteousness exalts a nation", but this verse doesn't feature in this book, though many other helpful BIble verses do. More books will surely be forthcoming, the world of genetic engineering hasn't even be mentioned here, and Hamilton is a pastor full of obvious compassion. It is that huge compassionate and soft heart that takes the lead in his reasoning, with the Bible and truth taking the back seat.
Reasoned, rational review of hot button issues June 5, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Hamilton squarely faces the "noisy" issues of popular society to bring forth reasonable, moderate understanding to encourage thoughtful people to recognize the futility of polarities. His rationality of listening rather than shouting restores hope that overcomes fear, makes places for peace to "break out."
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