Same Kind of Different as Me

This week, my Monday book review is being posted on Tuesday. Things are a little bit crazy around here. One of these days, I have a cache of other posts I'd like to make about various things, but the tyranny of the urgent keeps knocking down those plans.

I just finished reading "Same Kind of Different As Me," by Ron Hall and Denver Moore.

Let me say first, I rarely read fiction. I can count on one finger how many fiction books I've read in the last couple of years. Part of that was the necessity of reading non-fiction books for graduate school. Part is due to the fact that I've never been one to believe the book is better than the movie. I'd rather get some popcorn, rent the DVD, and finish the story in two hours than invest several days in a story that I don't know beforehand that I'm going to like. And, I figure if the book is even mediocre, it will ultimately become a movie anyway, so I might as well save myself the trouble.

But, nearly everyone in our church is reading this book right now because parts of it took place within the walls of our church. So, I decided to pick it up.

If you're a fiction kind of person, this book is definitely worth reading. It's based on true events, but is written like a work of fiction. The subtitle is "a modern-day slave, an international art dealer, and the unlikely woman who bound them together."

First of all, being an ignorant person from suburban and metropolitan America, I'm ashamed to admit I didn't realize that slavery-like conditions still exist in some part of the United States. This book tells the story of a man who grew up in 20th century Louisiana, on a cotton plantation, living the kind of life most of America left behind in the 1860s. After fleeing the cotton plantation, he ended up on the streets of Fort Worth, TX where he was pursued by a wealthy art dealer who initially wanted nothing to do with him.

If you're a conservative theology buff, you might read some things here and there in the book that make you wince - especially as it relates to superstitious things like ghosts and "visitations," and direct communication from God through dreams and visions. That's material for a different conversation, but shouldn't distract you from reading this book.

The story of these men; a modern-day slave, and a wealthy upper-class international art dealer, and the "unlikely woman who bound them together" is a good story that illustrates what can happen when Christian people do Christian things. Good Works produce Good Will, which provides a Good Platform for the Good News. This is the story of that.

I can't wait for the movie....