Taking conditions off of God's love

An author, upset by some of organized religion's practices, offers another view.

ORLANDO - Donald Miller still loves God and Jesus. Don't misunderstand him.

His problem is with Christianity, at least how it's often practiced.

"It's a dangerous term, so I try to avoid it," said Miller, who considered giving up his career as a Christian writer and leaving the church in 2003 because he couldn't attend services without getting angry.

For him, the word conjured up conservative politics, suburban consumerism and an "insensitivity to people who aren't like us." So he banged out a memoir of his experiences with God, stripped of the trappings of religion.

Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality sold just enough to pay a few months' rent. Then five years later, spurred by a grass roots movement of 20-something Christians longing to connect to God without ties to the religious right, the book became a sudden hit.

Fans were buying caseloads and passing out copies to friends. It peaked at No. 18 on the New York Times list of bestsellers among paperback nonfiction in November. He was mobbed by fans after a recent Young Life conference in Orlando where he addressed a crowd of roughly 4,000.

Supporters say Miller's authentic, graceful approach to God has finally given a voice to their brand of Christianity. The book also debuted at a time when the emerging church movement - which emphasizes the individual's faith experience and varied worship styles - is flourishing, signaling a fertile audience for such religious musings among more socially liberal evangelicals.

Watching TBN one night on TV, Miller, 36, realized the conservative religious network was many people's baseline for Christianity. He wanted to change that.

"These people are absurd. I've been a Christian all my life, and I don't even know Christians this weird," said the Portland, Ore., writer.

In his book, Miller describes his disdain for the us vs. them mentality between Christians and non-Christians.

"I felt, once again, that there was this underlying hostility for homosexuals and Democrats and, well, hippie types. I cannot tell you how much I did not want liberal or gay people to be my enemies. I liked them," he wrote. "The real issue in the Christian community was that (love) was conditional. ... You were loved in word, but there was, without question, a social commodity that was being withheld from you until you shaped up."

Miller, who is almost disappointingly normal looking in jeans and a blue button-down shirt, says "toeing the party line for the church is not my job; telling the truth is my job. I don't fear saying that certain Republican policies are painful for God to endure."

Miller has sold more than a million books, including Searching for God Knows What, and republished his first book, Through Painted Deserts, which sold dismally before his Blue Like Jazz fame. He also travels much of the year for speaking engagements.

"When I wrote this book I felt like I was stuffing a message in a bottle," Miller said.

Like the old Police song, Miller's beach is now flooded with responses.

"There's this connection of 'Hey, we're not alone in this boat.'"

[Last modified January 19, 2008, 23:12:42]