Book Review – Busted: Exposing Popular Myths about Christianity

Format:  Paperback
Page Count:  272
Publisher: Zondervan
Publication Date:  February 1, 2009
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0310283205
ISBN-13: 978-0310283201
List Price:  $16.99
Rating:  4 Stars!

Many thanks to the kind folks at Zondervan for the opportunity to review Fred von Kamecke’s Busted:  Exposing Popular Myths about Christianity.

Did your grandmother ever caution you to wait an hour after dinner before swimming, so you wouldn’t get cramps and drown?  Have you ever had somebody suggest that you feed a cold and starve a fever?  Do you remember the story about the friend of a friend who knew a kid, whose cousin….  Chances are you’ve received these and other random pearls of wisdom from your parents, grandparents, and friends.  Every now and then there may be a bit of truth in one of these phrases, but they are for the most part false and have rightfully been labeled as old wives’ tales, myths, and urban legends.  Before the advent of the internet and e-mail, these tall tales were often passed on by word of mouth and in writing.  These methods of distribution limited the size of the audience and ultimately the number of people that might be influenced by these far fetched stories and ideas.  With the advent of the internet age, old wives’ tales, myths, and urban legends have found a worldwide audience, which is evidenced by the myriad of “important” forwards showing up in our inboxes on a daily basis from well meaning friends and relatives.

You’re probably thinking that the latest e-mail forward from Aunt Martha sitting in your inbox is simply annoying, but nothing to get too excited about.  If it’s in league with some of the old wives’ tales listed above, I’d have to agree.  These catchy little stories and phrases can be annoying, but are for the most part harmless and are often entertaining.  What if we raised the stakes?  What if these old wives’ tales, myths, and urban legends had some bearing on your life today and maybe even your afterlife?  Would you care?  Accusations against the Christian faith abound in e-mail messages and blog posts across the globe.  Much like the urban legends of times past, the anonymous author is trying to pass off something that is often false as truth.  Taking a queue from the popular Discovery Channel television show Mythbusters, Fred von Kamecke sets out on a quest to test 19 myths about Christianity.  Busted:  Exposing Popular myths about Christianity consists of a total of twenty chapters, which are organized under four main topics:

•    Myths about the Bible
•    Myths about Jesus
•    Myths about God
•    Myths about the Christian faith

Each chapter gives background information and definition to a particular myth and offers a Biblically grounded response that will both help the reader grasp the nuts and bolts of the myth from each side of the argument and equip them to more readily respond to critics and skeptics.  Readers who want to learn more on a particular topic will want to consider some of the additional reading materials suggested in the Going Deeper section found at the close of each chapter.

If you’ve tried to read other apologetics books in the past, but have found them too academic, wordy, and maybe even a little boring, this may be just the book you’ve been looking for.  I’d strongly encourage you to pick up a copy of Busted:  Exposing Popular Myths about Christianity.  Fred has an engaging conversational style that flows more like a conversation with a good friend than a stodgy old apologetics book.  All of us can never be too well equipped to give an answer to everyone who wants to know the reason and person behind the hope that we have, so in that sense, this title will be useful and beneficial to Christians everywhere.  Given the intrigue elicited by the title and the style with which the material is presented, it would also be a good book to share with a searching or unbelieving friend.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and rate it at 4 out of 5 stars.

Fred von Kamecke is an assistant pastor at The Chapel of Lake County, Illinois, where he resides with his wife, Patty.  He served as assistant professor at North Park Seminary as well as adjunct professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he received his PhD (New Testament).

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