Religiously Transmitted Diseases: Finding a Cure When Faith Doesn’t Feel Right
Ed Gungor 
Nelson Books, 2006. 

Reviewed by Jim Melcher, February 2007  

The target audience of Gungor’s book is his fellow evangelicals, and in particular those who have lost the joy of their belief or who feel this has happened to their congregation. He speaks to the reader’s yearning to return to the joy felt, in the words of the hymn “Amazing Grace”, “the hour I first believed”.  He urges the readers to think back to the time when they chose to accept Jesus and what a joyful experience that was. However, even those Christians who haven’t had a cataclysmic, born again experience will find much that is useful in this book. Many of the “diseases” Gungor notes are from over-seriousness or loss of joy, and his enthusiasm for his faith is (if you’ll pardon the expression) infectious, even as he is very understanding of the problems people face in their faith. (One is not completely surprised to read in this book that Gungor was one of the “Jesus People” in the 1970s; he still reflects the fervor and the joyfulness in faith for which they were known).  This is not to say that Gungor does not recognize the pain in so many places in the world, but he urges the reader to see how pain sometimes can be a gift from God. One would expect in this type of book that the author would have a strong command of the Bible, and Gungor does.  Perhaps more noteworthy, however, is that his command of popular culture is outstanding as well as entertaining, and he is able to make most of his points in a way that readers will appreciate.        

In addition to his agility to speak about popular culture and the state of America throughout his lifetime, another of the of the themes of this book is that Christians should be open to new ways of looking at things. In one chapter, he notes how as a Republican and an evangelical how disappointed he was in the election of President Clinton in 1992, but that a conversation with a woman in St. Louis after the election helped him understand a different perspective on the outcome.  Similarly, in another of his briefer chapters, he notes the need to change attitudes toward the environment to one more protective of God’s creation.  However, his statement that he believes both the abortion and gay rights movements have “gone too far” is just one thing that helps to show that this is certainly not a theological liberal in the mold of controversial Bishops John Spong or Gene Robinson.

As an Episcopalian, I might not be in the target audience of Gungor’s book. But even I can certainly grasp and relate to much of what he is saying about the church and its members, and his evangelical target audience will surely find that this book resonates well with them as well.  A wide range of Christians will find much of value in this work. While Gungor’s humor is a bit more understated than that of a Dr. Patch Adams, he is still, in this book, a joyful and an effective healer.  Religiously Transmitted Diseases does much to show its readers both what needs healing in their lives and how to seek it.