God for President: A Parable about the Power of Love

by: Lisa Venable

Published by: Conari Press

Reviewed by Diane Keyes

Many people are not interested in reading non-fiction books by the spiritual leaders of our time, or any other time for that matter. So the wisdom voices of the ages found in Gandhi, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Buddha, Wayne Dyer, Echart Tolle, Mohammad and Jesus are heard by relatively few individuals.

But while few may be interested in an esoteric philosophic approach to spirituality, many lives can be touched in deep and profound ways through the power of storytelling. God for President by Lisa Venable carries the timbre of those voices in a simple story that assimilates the teachings of our greatest teachers in an easy-to-digest package that hopefully will be read by many.

There is no doubt that our world would be a better place if we embraced the message of love in this book. Venable is telling us the earth has become very small indeed, much too small for our current we/they—“my way, or the highway” approach to life. As long as individuals and nations set themselves up as more deserving than, better than, smarter than, closer to God than—the world will continue to experience more and more turmoil. There is simply too much against-ness built in to our current belief system for us to live on this small planet in peace.

Lisa Venable clearly carries the anecdote to this tired and unsuccessful behavior in God for President. I wish her great success, believing with all my heart that our future depends on our ability to integrate this vision into all our lives.

This is a great message but, unfortunately, not a great book. In fairness to author Venable, it is very difficult to write good allegory. The author’s approach, especially at the beginning, seems somewhat heavy-handed. Still, I’m hoping for a Jonathan Livingston Seagull phenomenon—a book that was roundly disparaged by critics and universally accepted by the public.

Armchair Interviews says: Hard to disagree with the message.