Often people just do not know what they are talking about.

Opinions based on second- and third-hand information from the Internet, TV or other media abound. Sometimes a casual chat overheard between friends is taken as truth and judgments formed based on that.

Case in point.

Rob Bell's newest book Love Wins.

Pilloried in much of the Christian media an unbelieving world thinks, "What's the big deal?" or worse, "If that's how Christians treat each other, then I'll take my hedonistic life surrounded by people who affirm and encourage me." Cautiously some have defended Bell or at least if not his position, which is nebulous at best, at least his right to have an opinion.

Criticism began before the book was published. Piquing my interest I could not wait to get my hands on a copy, before bonfires flamed with Love Wins as the kindling.

It concerns me that many who spoke out about the book, mostly against what they thought was it's premise, had not read the book. Perhaps they had heard or read an interview with Bell and formed their opinion based on that. It further concerns me that like lemmings, we are being told not to question spiritual things and further that questioning may call into question our own doctrinal solidity.

Not question? Not have open, honest dialogue? Accept like children what is presented without asking? One does not have to look too far back into world history to know where that kind of rhetoric led.

Okay, time to step off my soapbox. Love Wins is not great literature; Love Wins does not answer the questions one would expect from the title; Love Wins is quintessential Rob Bell as he ponders on paper the unanswerable question, does love win?

And that's what I think about it.