Waking Up in Heaven by Alex Tresniowski and Crystal McVea

Waking Up in Heaven: A True Story of Brokenness, Heaven, and Life Again, Alex Tresniowski and Crystal McVea. New York: Simon and Schuster/ Howard Books, 2013. e-book, 232 pps.


     Crystal McVea fancied herself a skeptic. She was a school teacher and mother of four living in Oklahoma when on December 10, 2009 her heart stopped. She claims that she spent nine minutes with [christian fundamentalist] god in heaven which changed her life.

     Sexually abused at a young age more than once, Crystal McVea could not relate to a loving father-god. She did like Jesus but as a child did not think that her salvation "took." In the book Waking Up in Heaven, she tried repeatedly to make a case for herself as having been an especially willful child but I couldn't see it.

     She went to live with her father in the summer before seventh grade. Two years later, after a quasi-suicide attempt involving vodka and pills, she returned to her mother's house. Things were not peaceful back at mom's. Mom had bad taste in men and invited an abusive alcoholic man back into her household.

     Crystal McVea discovered boys. She was sent to a sort of juvie hall for a month because she missed curfew once. After getting out, she drank some and smoked weed. She went to an alternative high school, got a job as a waitress, had several love affairs, fought with her mom, and then got pregnant at the age of seventeen. She got pregnant again at the age of nineteen but aborted that one. Life went on.

     She got pregnant yet again and married a wild guy. This one liked to drink to excess. He also loved drugs. Her second child was born. A divorce happened. She got a job. 

     The next fellow had a motorcycle accident which resulted in serious injuries to her first child J.P. The little guy lost complete hearing in one ear and was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury sometime after his emotional outbursts started. This necessitated hospitalization for him, now four years old, in a children's psych unit. Fortunately, Crystal located a new job at an insurance company with an accommodating boss who allowed her to arrange her schedule around the needs of JP.

     Crystal McVea met her future husband Virgil [but not via the insurance company job]. Things got calmer for her and her kids. Virgil was a practicing christian. [The other boyfriends weren't and so therefore they were all Bad News]. Crystal still wasn't sure that god liked her very much. Even so, there was a bunch of intense dreams about her brother who was drinking in an alcoholic fashion. He got three charges for driving drunk. He kind of faded out of the book as quickly as he faded in.

     The McVeas met another christian couple and became friends. The woman claimed that her mother had joined up with a satanic cult when she was but a child. That woman had been passed around the men and raped repeatedly. One day, she went to pray for Crystal McVea and boom, a demonic possession-- no, not one of her alters-- happened. The alleged demonic possession of the christian woman friend happened a second time but luckily husband Virgil knew exactly what to do.

     Then god prompted Crystal McVea to leave a large tip at a pizza place. The waitress needed the money.

     Courtesy of Virgil, god then made Crystal McVea pregnant with twins. The twins were severely premature and fragil but survived. Crystal McVea was still not happy, even after they passed their first earth birthday.

     Crystal McVea was hospitalized and operated on but then insisted upon going home too early. She was back in the hospital that same evening and that is when her heart stopped. 

     In heaven, Crystal McVea first met her own two special guardian angels. She loved them. Then god showed up. Then her aborted fetus-- now a happy little girl-- came along. Crystal McVea was restored back to life in the hospital and she renewed her christian walk.

sapphoq reviews says: To my way of thinking, Crystal McVea did not really qualify as a skeptic. Although she backslid on many occasions, she had no discernible contact with any community of non-believers or secular humanist thought. The blurb for the book was a far better example of writing than any found in the book itself. Sensational and not worth reading despite the hype. Not all books written by christians are this bad. Give Waking Up in Heaven a miss. I was glad that I was able to read it at the library instead of paying for it.

     

     

Why Are You Atheists So Angry? by Greta Christina

Why Are You Atheists So Angry?: 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, Greta Christina. San Francisco: Dirty Heathen Publishing, 2012. e-book, 366 pps.

     Anger has been given a bad rap. In some recovery rooms, it is popular to claim that anger is a "secondary emotion." If one is angry, then somehow one is "less spiritual." Or at the very least, something is wrong with the way that one is working the program. Some christians lay the charge of anger at the feet of atheists. Similar to recovering people everywhere, the validity of anger is not recognized.

     Greta Christina gives atheist and believer alike a solid list of reasons why many of the us in the no-gods camp are angry. She addresses fundamentalists, progressives, new age woo-woo followers, ecumenicals, and even those who claim to be spiritual but not religious. She wraps up her tome with some reasons why she does not believe in any gods-- solid references to current events-- and then exhorts atheists to get involved with atheist activism. A solid list of resources round out the book.

sapphoq reviews says: Greta Christina has penned a thought-provoking book. Why Are You Atheists So Angry? should be read by all christians. Atheists too will like the succinct writing that expresses what is at the heart of atheist anger so well. Highly recommended.

     

50 Simple Questions for Every Christian by Guy P. Harrison

50 Simple Questions for Every Christian, Guy P. Harrison.  Amherst NY:  Prometheus Books, 2013.  e-book, 381 pps.

http://www.guypharrison.com
@Harrisonauthor on Twitter (r)

     Guy P. Harrison (50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True, 2012; and others) asks questions from the viewpoint of a skeptic.  50 Simple Questions for Every Christian offers (50) questions and some well-researched answers according to skepticism, science, and logical reasoning.  The questions range from the existence of a god to musings about evolution vs. intelligent design to a god and his followers behaving badly.  There is included notes, a bibliography, and an index.

sapphoq reviews says:  I enjoyed 50 Simple Questions for Every Christian even more than 50 Popular Beliefs.  The questions are not limited to what I think of as the common ones.  Guy P. Harrison provides answers and his observations which do not bully Christians.  Although some of the answers are commonplace, others aren't.  Some Christians may take offence at this mildest of atheist books where no offence is intended.  Highly recommended. 

    

Not In Kansas Anymore by Christine Wicker

Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic is Transforming America, Christine Wicker.  New York: HarperCollins e-books, 2005, 2008.  e-book, 228 pps.

     Not In Kansas Anymore is an expose of various magical belief systems and the people who believe in them.  There are witches and voudon queens and vampires and lycanthropes and communion at a Christian service.  The author is a bit skeptical yet her take on it is one of the soft atheist or perhaps someone who wants to believe rather than someone who is opposed to belief without evidence. 

 sapphoq reviews says:  I found this book to be disconcerting in spite of the author's inclusion of sources and an extensive bibliography.  I interpreted the descriptions of many of the people and events described in Not in Kansas Anymore as belonging to someone who is saying, "Don't take these people seriously, folks."  Yet there were bits of the author's philos about transcendence that gave the lie to how she was depicting her subjects.  Not really recommended.

Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres

Jesus Land (A Memoir) , Julia Scheeres.  Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2005. e-book, 274 pps.

Julia Scheeres is from a white fundamentalist Christian family.  They lived in Indiana, mother, father, a coupla kids.  Dad made a good living as a surgeon.  Her mom and dad wanted to adopt a kid, but the agency said the kid they wanted was already taken.  The agency pointed out that there was a bunch of black kids in need of a home.  Being Christians and all, mom and dad felt like they could not refuse to adopt a kid on the basis of his skin tone.  First they adopted David, a child a year younger than Julia.  Then they adopted an older black boy so David would have someone else in the family who was black.

Prejudice runs deep even in religious places.  David and his brother attracted their share of nasty comments from the other school kids.  Julia and David stuck up for each other and were fairly inseparable.  Eventually there were several falling outs and the Scheeres adults decided to dump David at a fundamentalist Christian school called Escuela Caribe in the Dominican Republic.  This school was run with the assumption that all of the teens attending there were messed up and evil and had done stuff like having premarital sex and thus deserved to be there.  Julia was astonished to find her mother clearing out David's room one day.  That was the day that Julia learned that David was being x'ed out of her parents' lives on a permanent basis, good Christians that they were.

After a bit, Julia's parents discovered that she had premarital sex with a boy.  She wound up being dumped off at Escuela Caribe as well.  The school sucked.  There was abuse there, just as there had been at Julia's home in Indiana.  Julia and David both got out after a time.  Julia found that she was no longer a Christian.  I won't tell you what happened with David.

sapphoq reviews says: Jesus Land is an outstanding memoir.  It illustrates what happens when religious dogma becomes more important than loving others.  Highly recommended.

To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal, M.D.

To Heaven and Back, Mary C. Neal, M.D.  Colorado Springs: Water Book Press (Random House), 2012.  paperback, 222 pps., inc. bio.


Mary C. Neal, M.D. grew up as a nominal Christian.  She found her way to Jesus and received water baptism by immersion at a friend's church.  She went to a university (and appears to blame lack of encouragement toward spiritual things by universities in general for the falling away from Christ that she says is characteristic of university students everywhere).  Mary C. Neal met and married her husband, moved around a bit; and then they had four children.  She drowned during a kayaking accident in rural Chile but lived.



Dr. Neal survived the accident and with some difficulty was transported back to Jackson Hole, Wyoming (where she still lives and practices as an orthopedic surgeon today).  She felt that God did not want her to ask for a medi-vac to get back to the States.  She recovered from her accident.  She denies a brain injury.  [She was fortunate there.  Brain damage is not an easy thing to live with].



As her friends were administering C.P.R. after pulling her out of the kayak, Dr. Neal claimed to have had a near death experience (NDE) complete with Jesus and the angels [or "spirit beings" as she alternately referred to them] in attendance.  Her youngest son died.  His death catapulted her into a delayed writing of To Heaven and Back about her NDE.



Dr. Neal's book stood out because she admitted to believing that "...very young children clearly remember where they came from and are still quite connected to God's world...they easily recall the images, knowledge and the love of the world they inhabited before their birth...children may still be able to see angels..." (pp. 147-148).  She also believes that a friend of her youngest son Willie died instead of Willie just before his eighteenth birthday.  [Then Willie did die a year or so later].  I have not found these particular beliefs to exist in the devout born-again Christians that I have known.  These beliefs are to me reminiscent of some of the stuff that I've heard New Agers espouse: that kids remember a time before they are born when they are "chosen" by their earthly parents.  The assertion that young Willie's friend came to her in a dream and claimed to have "traded places with Willie" before Dr. Neal knew of said friend's death remind me of folks who claim that during an accident, instead of dieing and alien "walked in" and it is now that alien who is inhabiting the body of the accident victim.  So although the accident victim died, the body is still operational due to this walk-in phenomena.  This sort of thing makes my head spin.



Dr. Neal also holds the common belief that "everything happens for a reason" and it is all part of her God's plan, that there are no "true" coincidences.  Romans 8:28 is often quoted to justify this sort of thinking.  Actually, the English translations that I remember read "all things work together for the good."  [Not having any knowledge of the original manuscripts, I cannot vouchsafe for the accuracy of the translations].  In other words, this verse is not a dictum that everything done in this world by the Pauline God or by the Pauline God's permission is automatically "good."  Even The Preacher admits to coincidences in Ecclesiastes 9:11.  For what is "time and chance" but the definition of coincidence?  Again, this sort of thinking about there not being any "true" coincidences hearkens back to conversations with some White Lighters I have known.  I do admit that although I see this "everything happens for a reason...no coincidences" thing as being diametrically opposed to biblical teaching, there are slews of people and churches everywhere who disagree with me.  Most peeps used to think that the sun revolved around the earth too.  But I digress.



What was most troublesome to me as an aware non-theist was Dr. Mary Neal's claim that a certain Father Ubald, a Tutsi priest whose family was killed in his church in 1994 when the Hutu parish members hacked up a whole bunch of Tutsis (pp. 193-194) had visited her when she was back in Jackson Hole recuperating from her kayak accident.  I was immediately suspicious because I had read Richard Grant's excellent travelogue about the same area of Rwanda.  A small amount of internet-only research yielded up a Father Hubert "Ubald" Rugirangoga of Rwanda who is responsible at least in part for a "Hutus and Tutsis must forgive each other" movement that has sprung up there (and that Richard Grant had also noted).


There are now claims of documented healings from physical conditions and diseases on Father Ubald's website -- http://frubald.com/  -- but I could not locate any of the documentation itself.  I remember  the downfall of Bob Harrington-- New Orleans "chaplain of Bourbon Street" who fled his second floor apartment in January 1978 [I was physically there in New Orleans shortly after he fled...tax evasion or something I was told] and the documented fakery of Benny Hinn.  Also, I had an aunt who was expecting a miracle today courtesy of mansion- dwelling Morris Cerullo.  She did all the correct stuff medically speaking.  But the M.S. killed her, as expected.  http://www.cephas-library.com/evangelists/evangelist_morris_cerullo_fraud.html for those who wish to learn more about the man and his money a.k.a. money that his television audience donated to his ministry.  Considering the critical thinking sites that I hang out at like http://churchofcriticalthinking.org/christian_catholic.html even the practicing Christian can understand my hesitancy to ascribe supernatural etiology to both natural and non-existent events.



sapphoq reviews says: To Heaven and Back is a book of questionable merit which leaves out any possibility of non-Christians having an NDE--  [N.B.  I am a non-Christian who has had an NDE]-- and rational explanations of NDEs such as neurons firing.  Not recommended, not even to Christians.