Chris Lehmann over at Slate has a review of Joel Osteen’s Become a Better You.

He doesn’t much care for it:

“There’s, of course, nothing inherently suspect or dishonorable about seeking uplift and consolation in the Bible. But the point of those ‘deep theological doctrines’ that Osteen seems to deride is to leaven that quest with the less agreeable features of life—pain and suffering, the persistence of evil, the fleeting quality of all endeavor, the cosmic insignificance of the human self, let alone that self’s subordinate chosen modes of expression in body posture or a near-pathological penchant for smiling.”

I hear Mr. Osteen is a very nice man. That may be his problem. If only he’d haul off and whack a subordinate upside the head one day, drunk as a skunk and mumbling about space aliens infiltrating his operation, he might get in touch with his dark side and be open to hearing the gospel. Can you imagine him showing up one Sunday to a packed house at Lakewood only to read Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”? Now that’s entertainment.

Tonsure tip to Michael Spencer.