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The Anti-Purpose-Driven Life: SoMA’s New Series of Essays
Rick Warren’s bestseller, “The Purpose Driven Life,” has comforted millions with a message so simple and assuring that it even changed the heart of an alleged murderer during the tense conclusion of an Atlanta shooting spree in March. The book’s thesis is that there are no accidents in life, and that God has a specific plan for each of us—“he planned the days of your life in advance,” Warren writes, “he planned it all with great precision.”

That’s a message I’d certainly find appealing if I’d just gone off on a deadly rampage: Hey, God didn’t only know in advance I’d kill four people today; he planned the whole thing! Which makes me wonder what the shooting victims’ families think of Rick Warren’s book. ...