The Misunderstood God: The Lies Religion Tells about God

If you love people you will understand this book. Detached leaders have corrupted the message of Christianity by intellectualizing its principles and forgetting the true message. This book cuts through the empty theology and confirms the truth you already know in your own heart.

Our emotional health is directly tied to our view of God. Faulty assumptions about God will sabotage your heart. For that reason, I highly recommend Darin Hufford's new book, "The Misunderstood God - the lies religion tells us about God," because the book so ably exposes those harmful assumptions and invites the reader into a deeper freedom. The book also has staying power. I found myself reflecting on key portions of the book long after I'd read it. The chapter exposing the myth of "The Angry God" reminded me that, "Love is not easily provoked." And despite what we may have been told, the Holy Spirit is not easily wounded or offended. Our God's heart remains supple and open without the fragile neurosis that plagues most of us. We need him to be strong like that. This book will help you get that heavy pack of religious assumptions and misunderstandings off your back, because you were never meant to carry that.

From the pen of a former pastor, comes a story of passion whose unfettered force fills the lungs of his writing and resuscitates the reader to respond with either a resounding "yes," a faint hope that breathes "can this be so?" or an expulsion of air that cries "heresy!" Darin Hufford is pretty much guaranteed attention and to get one of those responses in the reading of his new book The Misunderstood God. Attention that is enhanced by his powerful grip on the English language, keen insight into human behavior, and the character of his God, that leaves us in no doubt about his conviction that God really is misunderstood and that the Christian religion has perpetuated lies about who he really is. The brilliance of this book lies in the way he has taken perhaps the most familiar of all biblical sentiments--the four verses in the Love (or Wedding!) chapter of I Corinthians that extol the virtues of love as patience, kindness, selflessness etc--and shows how historically humankind has distorted these qualities due to the lack of comprehension of what constitutes real love, and then subsequently transferred that twisted perception onto God--creating him in our own inadequate image and rendering him manifestly misunderstood. But the most compelling feature of Darin's writing is his use of very personal experiences to illustrate and illuminate the obfuscated face of Father God. One that illustrates a combination of love's attributes--patience, not easily angered and protective--is the recollection of an incident when one of his little girls found him following evening service embarrassed and nervous because she had not made it to the bathroom in time and whimpered, "Daddy, I went pee-pee." Without even a pause, I scooped her up in my arms and covered her from the crowd. I held her close to my body and quickly found a nearby exit...I could feel my suit and tie beginning to soak. Not once was I tempted to hold her out away from me, but I squeezed her tight and spoke gentle, loving words in her ear and reassured her that no one saw what happened. The words of Jesus came to mind: If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more your Father in heaven... Within a very few pages of reading, the vibrant, pulsating picture of a God who longs and lives only to love, leapt off the pages. The visceral revulsion and grief of the extent of his misrepresentation and the lies told by religion, registered just as rapidly and deeply. From this reviewer's heart resounded an unequivocal "yes." From the heart of a man who was groomed in the traditions of his denomination and climbed to the top of his career in the clergy, we are now exposed to an epiphany of the transforming theology that ended that career. Says Darin; I fell in love with the people! Alice Scott-Ferguson Author of Reconcilable Differences; Mothers Can't Be Everywhere, But God Is; Little Women, Big God.

A WONDERFUL BOOK!! Darin Hufford has in my opinion hit a home run with his newest book. A rewrite of his previous book, "The God's Honest Truth," "The Misunderstood God" is half the size of the original and has been updated with new material. Filled with examples taken from the author's own life, it's simple to read and yet very profound. We've been told that God is love, yet religion has painted a picture of a god that is the complete opposite of love. As Darin explains, our understanding of love is so upside down that we've actually given Him the personality and characteristics of the devil. Using 1 Corinthians 13 as its foundation, "The Misunderstood God" turns the meaning of love right side up and paints a picture of God that is beautiful and very appealing. I was originally introduced to Darin's ministry when I read "The God's Honest Truth" several years ago. I was immediately captivated and my life hasn't been the same since. Although I immediately fell in love with the original, this new edition is just as good. I highly recommend "The Misunderstood God" but I suggest reading it with an open heart and mind. If you let it, it'll blow apart the lies you've been told about God and, like me, I believe you'll never again settle for manmade traditions. Instead, you'll want to know this wonderful God who really is love. I gave this book a 5 star rating only because I couldn't give it a higher one.

God is Love. It seems to be a simple thought conveyed in a simple sentence; a skinny diving board of a definition suspended over the greater pool of theology; an entry point for the uneducated. Darin Hufford doesn't agree. He portrays this minimal concept in a whole different light in his book, "The Misunderstood God." Instead of this truth being the jumping off platform to enter the deeper things of knowing God, he sees it as the whole, defining point. He thinks we've been lied to, about God, and about his love, especially for us. Using the familiar passage in 1st Corinthians commonly referred to as "The Love Chapter," Hufford takes the definitions of love and applies them to God. Though it sounds like a basic, Sunday School lesson, the results are profound and often disturbing. If he is right, some of the common characteristics we have clothed God with are full of holes. Though he doesn't specifically finger any Christian teacher or leader with his correction, he doesn't need to. This isn't a treatise against one specific denomination; it is full-frontal attack on fear-based religion. Though I wished I'd read through his chapters unscathed, I found that many of the thoughts, beliefs and actions he confronts are ones that I've heard, accepted and repeated myself. With a much appreciated edit from Windblown Media, Hufford's book (which was previously titled "The God's Honest Truth") is nearly half the length, has a friendlier cover, is half the cost, and has some great, new content. Hopefully it will find a new life and be read by a whole lot more people. A suggestion--I expect this book to be misquoted by others whose opinions and positions are challenged by the content within. Hufford seems to be prepared for this, having faced it with the first printing. I would whole heartedly suggest reading this book yourself and not taking other's opinions of it as fact. You deserve to read this beautiful presentation of the love of God and the God of love.