Review by rvenkat -- The Banned Book about Love

[rvenkat]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Banned Book about Love" by Scott Hughes.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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This is a review for the book 'The Banned Book About Love' by
Scott Hughes. The write-up says that the book is available at
the website JusticeNovellaDOTcom. I looked at that website, but
I could not (at least easily) locate the link to download this book.

I tend to call this book a write-up, as it is pretty short (12 pages
on a pdf document), and sounds to me like a series of inked thoughts
rather than a book of chapters. Since it's non-fiction, I would not
expect characters and plots, though there is a character, who is the
object of a discussion about love and hate.

Author questions if it would be 'wrong' to 'love' a rapist.
To me, broadly, it's a moral question if asked to the society.
Every individual will have their opinion, so, unless a voting
is conducted, it would be a heavily argued debate.

But author puts across some very valid points on how religion, which
claims to love and forgive anyone and everyone will look at this.
And the people who follow the religion. It's a valid question
that when a person who follows a religion which preaches forgiveness
and love, how can that person 'hate' anyone blindly.

The qualities of love and hate are being discussed in detail.
I liked the following:

Hate:
1) Self-righteous outrage is identical to hate.
2) Hate does not work as a means and does not have desirable ends.
3) Hate is a boulder of emotion.
4) Hate leads to black and white pigeon-holing, which does not
lead to resolutions and solutions.
5) Hate seeks to destroy

Love:
1) Loving everyone does not mean supporting murderers and rapists
2) Love does not need justification
3) It's not christian to say 'yes i am a christian' and then say 'no'
to question 'do you love a criminal'
4) Love requires strength
5) Love is difficult
6) Love is like carrying the weight of the whole universe every single
day, every single moment

A big yes to the last point that love is heavy weight-lifting
every single day, and every single moment.

If the mission of the book is to kindle thoughts about why outright
hate against anyone should be reconsidered, then, the book has achieved
its objective by quoting several points towards that goal.

But I would still say that for hardcore staunch religious people,
who look at things as 'good' and 'bad' and classify people and things
immediately into buckets, it would be a hard sell. Sure enough, the
book has put an effort into making even those kind of people think through
the various points. Good work.

I give the book a 3 out of 4 star rating.

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The Banned Book about Love
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