Dear Pastor Platt,

I wish that I had never read your little book.  I like books that take me someplace else --- a new country, perhaps, or an imagined setting, or a new area of knowledge --- and then let me return to all that is comfortable and familiar, a good time had by all and glad to be home you might say.  I found your book unsettling, to say the least.  I'm only glad I didn't buy it but checked it out of the local library where for some reason there is a waiting list for all the copies.  I don't know why.  Wait a minute --- in a moment of lunacy, I actually went on Amazon and ordered a flippin' copy!  Oh well.

You have the gall to suggest that the words of the Bible are meant to be taken seriously, that the way of faith is in many respects antithetical to the American dream.  When you say radical, you do mean radical, don't you? Let me see if I have this straight.  You say:

• Following Jesus really does means a radical abandonment to Him, just as it was for the disciples.  We may have to give up our possessions, our family, our way of life, and yes, even our lives, and yet you say the cost of not doing so is much greater;
• Believing in Jesus is not just assent to His truth but a radical reshaping of life around Him and His glory;
• God is exalted in our weakness and inability; He uses ordinary people for extraordinary purposes;
• God has designed a radically global purpose for my life, for the sake of His glory, and I need to stop making excuses for my inactivity; 
• Stop simply being a receiver and start being a reproducer, as in what part of "go, and make disciples. . ." do you not understand?
• Wealth is a gift to be used for God's glory, not something to be protected, hoarded, and used for myself; 
• There is no Plan B: people are going to heaven or hell, and we better start understanding and acting on the truth of that realization; and
• The Christian life, if lived rightly, will entail sacrifice, danger, and risk but, concomitantly, great joy and satisfaction.

To top it off, you have asked me to take part in a one-year "radical experiment" where I'm supposed to pray for the whole world, read through the entire Bible (that'd be a first, if I make it), sacrifice my money for a specific purpose (and you DO mean sacrifice), spend my life in another context (I went to Uganda, for crying out loud, and you're saying I need to do something like that again!), and commit to a multiplying community (church, right?).

You're asking a lot, Pastor Platt.  You may have duped those other folks at Brook Hills Baptist Church, all 4000 of them, but I have to think about this.  I don't want to be accused of being a lunatic, of going overboard.  And there's the kids to think of, you know.  And I'm. . . well I'm a little nervous that what you're saying could entail great risk to not just me but my family as well.  What about that?

I know why your book is orange.  It's scary, like Halloween.  And I'm spooked by its challenge.

Are you happy now?

Indigestibly yours,

Steve

[The desperate folks at Amazon are practically giving Platt's book away, at $5.50. If you really want it, you can get it here.]