Hemant Mehta is an atheist who offered quite a proposal on eBay. He offered someone the chance to bid for the right to send him to church. The winning bidder could chose which church Hemant would have to attend... and for every $10 he would agree to attend 1 service. Hemant was surprised when Jim Henderson won the bid for $504.
Jim Henderson, the co-author of Jim and Casper Go to Church, asked Hemant to attend several different churches and to journal his experiences on his website, Off the Map. Hemant was surprised that Jim wouldn't try to force him to convert to Christianity and responded really well to the challenge. The arrangement generated considerable media attention and sparked some fantastic reflection within some of the churches where Hemant visited. Hemant's blog journal became so popular, that following his time with Off the Map, he started his own site called Friendly Atheist.
I Sold My Soul on eBay is Hemant Mehta's account of this experience and his further attempt to help churches do a better job at being friendly. It's a convicting book, for Hemant approaches various churches with more optimism and hope than many Christians do. He wants the church to do well because he holds many of the same values for family, society and human treatment that Christians do. Sick churches make a sick society. Plus, through his encounter with Jim Henderson and several other Christian leaders (like Rob Bell at Mars Hill in Grand Rapids, specifically- who also provides a forward for this book), Hemant has developed a good amount of respect for the manner in which churches can impact people's lives.
One comment, early in the book, won me over. Hemant offers a powerful observation:
But as I read Christian books, and as I spent months attending an amazing variety of churches in different parts of the country, I kept running across a consistent and troubling truth about American Christianity. It is clear that most churches have aligned themselves against nonreligious people. By adopting this stance, Christians have turned off the people I would think they want to connect with. The combative stance I've observed in many churches, and from many Christians on an individual level, is an approach that causes people to become apathetic- and even antagonistic- toward religion as a whole. By displaying a negative attitude toward anyone outside the religious community, people of faith make enemies of those who don't believe in the same God they do.
I highly recommend this unique book, by an atheist, from a Christian publishing company, to any leader that cares about the church in North America. It's an enjoyable read- and an encouraging one that helps us see ourselves through the eyes of someone who doesn't believe what we do. It offers insight into churches of various sizes, shapes and spheres. And, most profoundly, it causes us to consider whether we as Christians truly do a good job at reflecting Jesus clearly to our world.
Mehta, Hemant. I Sold My Soul on eBay: Viewing Faith Through an Atheist's Eyes. Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook Press, 2007. 207 pages.
