Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America-and Found Unexpected Peace

Hello.

I wanted to tell you that my memoir, "Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America--and Found Unexpected Peace," is available now in bookstores and on Amazon.

I'd be honored if you'd buy this book and forward this announcement to your friends to help spread the word. I also have a calendar up on my website so I can see if I'll be coming to a town near you.

I also wanted to share with you just some of the glowing reviews of the book.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

"Lobdell is a gifted writer. Avoiding the disparaging polemics that often characterize the debate between nonbelievers and people of faith, he turns his own story into a fast-paced, engrossing tale, one that is sure to be popular with nonbelievers, but deserves to be read by Christians as well."

A starred review from the Booklist:

"Lobdell's spiritual journey fascinates, not least on account of the irony of his trajectory from agnosticism to belief to atheism while covering religion. It's a story that may raise eyebrows among believers and nonbelievers alike."

From the National Catholic Reporter:

"The book is a complex and compelling account of his loss of faith while he was delving deeply into religion in America as a journalist."

From Malena Lott of Bookgasm.com:

"Lobdell's memoir is heart-wrenching and honest, something all great memoirs should be."

From Wendy Scholl of LibraryThing.com:

"Losing My Religion" isn't a recitation of the many evils of organized religion. It isn't a push by the author to abandon God. It isn't even a memoir so much as it is a love story, a tale of love found and love lost."

From Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and author

"This is the most intellectually honest and emotionally courageous book I have ever read, and it's a page turner from cover to cover. The new atheist community will embrace it, of course, but I think all Christians owe it to themselves to read [it] ... Lobdell is willing to go where few religious believers can. To find out where that place is you must read this book."

From Renee Hoffman of Amazon Vine:

"This book is a required text for any religious scholar, theologian, faith seeker or skeptic ... or any student of religion, humanity and the growth of human spirituality ... A reader with a heart, a soul and a mind will identify with Lobdell's challenges, and while one may not agree with the outcome, the reader leaves the text with a renewed respect for those who have been forced to face the sins of organized religion and the doubt that we all face in a religion-imbued society ... And for the first time in a scholarly and personal work, Lobdell gives atheists a soul."

From John Loftus, former pastor and author of "Why I Am an Atheist":

"William Lobdell's new book ... is a page turner from start to finish. As a former religion reporter for the Los Angeles Times he knows how to write in ways that make us feel and think what he does, every step along the way. [His book is] the most extensive deconversion story I had ever read."

From Barry Minkow, senior pastor of Community Bible Church in San Diego:

"There is one theme to Bill Lobdell's book and he uses the famous 'if-then' proposition to prove that theme. That is, 'if' God exists and has transformed the lives of people-especially we church people 'then' we should see Jesus like evidence of this transformation in the lives of professed followers."

George P. Wood, senior pastor and reviewer on Amazon Vine

"It is an engrossing and quick read. As a Pentecostal pastor, I recommend reading this book as a spiritual discipline. Christians can be too smug in their beliefs and too self-righteous in their actions to see the incredible evils that are taking place right under their noses within their own churches. And if the church doesn't live according to the Bible, why should it expect anyone else to?"

Danielle Pagani of LibraryThing.com

"Before I started this book, I expected it to be very biased and heated, because almost all persona accounts of religion seem to be. What I found instead was a logical and restrained story of Lobdell's spiritual journey and that was endlessly refreshing."
Thank you!

Sincerely,

William Lobdell
www.williamlobdell.com

RELATED LINK: http://exchristian.net/letters/2008/07/losing-my-religion-how-i-lost-my-faith.html