Rave Book Review

Spirituality
Title: Better Off Born Dead: The Christian Compliancy Theory
Author: Floyd D. Braggs
Rating: Must Read!
Publisher: Xulon Press
Web Page: Xulonpress.com
Reviewed by: Kate St. Amour ASpirituality / Religion, Women's Issues

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It’s no secret; church attendance is down across the globe. Mainstream Catholicism and Christianity are not meeting the needs of their flocks, particularly not their female parishioners who are either virtually ignored, or scorned, in the most widely-used versions of the bible.
Carefully crafted, ingeniously written, Better Off Born Dead blows the doors off of the Vatican. With his common- sense approach to decoding the language of the ancient texts, Braggs’s doesn’t rewrite history: he uncovers it. Using his knowledge of grammar, Braggs’s points out where ancient scholars went wrong and reveals to his readers the diary of the greatest preacher of the Old Testament, Princess Tamar of David. That’s right, the diary of a Female Preacher.
Women everywhere of Judeo-Christian backgrounds will cheer as they traverse the pages of Better Off Born Dead. On page 48, after revealing the identity of the author of The Books of Qoheleth as Princess Tamar, the female preacher, Braggs’s says, “To me, the greatest wisdom a person can demonstrate is to accept God, rather than reject God as Solomon did….Solomon may be the wisest man and no other man will be like him. But was he the wisest person? Tamar chooses God and eternal life. Solomon Chooses sin, which leads to eternal death.” Braggs goes on to say, “ Because Solomon is the wisest man that will ever be and he selected sin, then the wisdom and intellectual forecasts for the average man alive today appear to be exceptionally bleak, dark, and cloudy at best with pea soup fog rolling around tomorrow.” How is that for a little equality under the eyes of God? Speaking of equality, Braggs potentially proves that Men and Women were created equal when he revisits Genesis in a later chapter.
Better Off Born Dead is a scholarly page-turner. When viewed through Braggs’s brilliant decoding methods, the bible isn’t just a boys club any more, and it appears that the women’s movement was not only Holy- sanctioned, but alive and well long before The Feminine Mystique. Biblical scholars (male and female alike), thanks to Braggs, can rejoice, weep, and experience The Books of Qoheleth, the way they were meant to be told: Through the eyes of a woman oppressed by male society, but blessed by the wisdom of Spirit.
Centuries ago, Braggs would have been burned as a heretic for sharing his glorious revelations. In today’s slightly more enlightened society, his courageous revelations may save a dying religion. I am looking forward to Braggs’s next installment in this revolutionary trilogy!