" A passionate plea for social justice, this book, first published in 1967 but regularly revised and updated, still stirs the conscience. Is still powerful. Unfortunately it can longer be read with the degree of hope that originally greeted it, with the hope that all Christians could unite in changing society - that the hungry would be fed, the wounded healed, the oppressed freed. Reading it today is depressing because it describes a road not taken. The intervening years have destroyed any hope that evangelicals, the "moral majority", the fundamentalist churches, would be convinced by Sider's Biblical arguments and would become a force for social justice. And it is in them that Sider placed his hope. To them, he addressed his argument. Based it completely on the Bible. Filled his book with "proof texts" (at tedious length) to convince them. Used the words of the Old Testament prophets, the words of Christ, to argue that Christianity must be about more than interior spirituality, that there must be a balance in emphasis between personal transformation and the transformation of society - that the faith must be about creating a Christian community of brotherly love, creating a just society for all, creating God's reign on earth. However, the response to Sider's trumpet call has been meager - only a few evangelicals answered it (e.g., Jim Wallis and his Sojourner Group). The majority have not. Have taken a different path. Some are expecting an imminent rapture when they, the elect, will be lifted up into heaven and escape the "time of tribulations" - viewing the suffering of others, at that time as well as now, as inevitable and deserved. Others, not so apocalyptic, are satisfied with current social and economic arrangements, and regard the capitalistic market forces as the invisible hand of God, see economic Darwinism as part of God's inscrutable providence, and believe their own and their nation's wealth and power to be a divine blessing, a reward for their righteousness. Any interest these folks have in changing society is to make it as "righteous" as they are - in improving it only by forcing a general conformity to their own beliefs and practices. None of these folks are ever going to accept Sider's argument, no matter how Biblical it is. They are not going to answer his call for structural change. And so, sadly, Sider's argument is "useless" - "a chasing after the wind" - but although "useless", it is still persuasive. Striving for justice, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick is an integral part of what it means to follow Jesus. It is the narrow path. "
— Robert, 12/23/2013