Book Review: Three Free Sins, by Steve Brown

No one would ever accuse Steve Brown of not having guts. In his new book, Three Free Sins: God’s Not Mad At You, Howard Books, 2012, Steve uses those guts to take on your insatiable appetite for being good.

Here are some of Steve’s hard to hear insights:

     Self -righteousness is just another name for self-sufficiency. It is a horrible trait for a number of reasons. First, it is always a lie. Nobody is that righteous, and hardly anybody is that sufficient. Second it requires a mask. And if we wear that mask long enough, it will make us phony and empty. Third, it will cause others to label us “hypocrites.” If people don’t know us, it will cause them to either run in the opposite direction or become as sick as we are. But more important than anything else, self-righteousness will kill any hope we have of ever being free, forgiven, and able to live in some kind of reasonable peace with ourselves.

     For Steve Brown to know this, he’s had to unlearn a lot of religion and having been to that school of unlearning myself, I say, “Bravo Steve!”

     It’s 2012. We’ve come out on the other side of the damaging religious-right and its treatment of sin but still we aren’t settled like Mary at His feet. We still look for something to make us worthy and being nice to our neighbors all over the world to undo the damage of the religious-right is just the newest way of doing the same old thing.

More from Three Free Sins:

     Almost everything we’ve been taught to do and think is not only wrong, it only makes things worse. Trying harder doesn’t work. You should know that by now. Becoming more religious will only magnify the problem. Being disciplined and making a commitment will, more often than not, cause you to “hit the rocks of reality”; and your efforts in the end, will turn to dust. . . reading the latest book on making an impact, changing your world, or being driven by a purpose (as good as those things can be) will probably drive you nuts.

     I endorse the truth in this book and recommend you read it. Then, sit at the Lord’s feet and bask in Him. Life only flows through your branch from the Vine. It happens naturally and in its season and this takes the stillness of trust.

      There will always be a Martha hovering nearby to complain but as with Mary, Jesus will say, “You have chosen the good part and it will not be taken away from you.”

by Binsey Cote