How to be a Perfect Christian: Your Comprehensive Guide to Flawless Spiritual Living by the Babylon Bee

Merriam Webster defines satire as:

1 : a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn

2 : trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly 

How to be a Perfect Christian is satire.   It is intended, to quote the back cover of the book, to "shine a spotlight on modern Christian cultural quirks.  As it pokes fun at all-too-familiar trends and traditions, it calls each of us to a truer understanding of real biblical faith."  

If you have no sense of humor, don't bother to read it.  Please.  You'll only be offended and upset.  You might even post a rant against it on Facebook.  You may be tempted to start a petition against The Babylon Bee and a boycott of Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers. 

However, if you do have a sense of humor and you like to laugh and you're not easily offended, get a copy of this book.  Please.  You'll laugh out loud and surely recognize your own church, or the church you grew up in, or the church down the street.  You might even see yourself in the pages. But, here's the good news:  it's all in good fun.  Here's even better news: the Holy Spirit could perhaps, possibly, maybe even use this book to call out some hypocrisy or legalism in you that you'd be better off without. 

Let me just tempt you with my favorite paragraph from the chapter of How to be a Perfect Christian entitled Serving in Church Without Ever Lifting a Finger: 

Christ left three ordinances for the local church: baptism, the Lord's Supper, and the potluck.  The latter is a sacred tradition, thousands of years old. In fact, Biblical scholars now believe Christ's final Passover supper with His disciples was a potluck, with each of his disciples offering to bring a different hot dish for everyone to enjoy.*

And the best line of all is a footnote to the above:

*According to the latest research, Judas Iscariot brought Jell-O filled with questionable fruit pieces.

If that doesn't make you laugh, I don't think we can be friends!  (kidding!)  (kind of)

I received this book from the publisher through their book launch program.