The Grace Effect

How the Power of One Life Can Reverse the Corruption of Unbelief

By Larry Taunton

 

 

I really enjoyed Larry Taunton's book. It was an artful mix of history, journalism, and Christian contemplation. He uses the story of his family's grueling experience in adopting their youngest daughter from communist Europe to underscore his thesis that the common grace given by God to men based just on the presence of Christian influence in the world is tangible and makes a real difference in the lives of both secular and Christian people. 

 

Mr. Taunton makes his point well. The corruption inherent and rampant in the process of adopting his daughter was disgusting and disappointing. However, he seems to make a lot of broad sweeping statements about the social conscience of the people of western Europe which I found offensive. 

 

Mr. Taunton's style of writing also got on my nerves a lot. It was at many times more like reading a crafty blog than a well-edited and thought-out book. He uses adjectives way too liberally and in a calculated way to illicit disdain in the reader in a way I thought was unfair ["...it occurred to me that the whole diabolical orphanage system was their singular contribution to the misery that prevailed in these places"]. He also is definitely in love with his own linguistic abilities and took pleasure in demonstrating it at several points -- using seven words when two would do and so on. 

I really enjoyed reading this book because it was entertaining. But entertaining in the way a blog is supposed to be entertaining. Not a book. There is a difference. The author is trying to support a thesis and I don't think that is best accomplished by merely appealing to the western sympathies and prejudices of his intended audience. The thesis was awesome, but the support was in poor form.