John Zmirak

The Bad Catholic’s Guide to the Catechism; a Faithful, Fun-Loving Look at Catholic Dogmas, Doctrines, and Schmoctines. 2012. John Zmirak. Zmirak is a funny, smart writer. This book is every bit as witty and intelligent as The Bad Catholic’s Guide to the Seven Deadly Sins. Zmirak begins with the question of the existence of God and ways of knowing God and explains the ideas in the catechism and the teachings of the Church. He provides clever responses to criticisms of atheists, Protestants, and cafeteria Catholics. He does not shy away from the Church’s faults provides a brilliant, accurate description of the causes of the sexual abuse crisis.… (mer)

The Bad Catholic’s Guide to the Seven Deadly Sins. John Smirak. 2010. I have to agree with the author, Robert Spencer whose blurb or this book states the following: “Reading this guide is to the seven deadly sins is the most fun you can have without actually committing them!” Smirak freely using quotes from Thomas Aquinas to Ayn Rand and Mao to illustrate the sins and the corresponding virtues. He takes on Freud, Planned Parenthood, Ayn Rand and numerous others. I found the book fun to read and very interesting. However, the book showed some very careless editing. In the chapter on Lust, he writes about a low-budget comedy that shows the emptiness of a sexless marriage and says the name of it is Unscrewed, but the picture of movie case shows the title as Screwed. It makes me wonder if there are more errors that I missed.… (mer)

This book takes a look humorous look at the seven deadly sins while providing insights and examples of the sins in practice today. There are books and films recommended for further investigation as well as quizzes to see how you stand in reference to each sin. Sometimes I enjoyed reading the book, while, at other times, it seemed to drag a bit. I would not recommend it to someone new in the faith or to someone investigating it, but rather to someone with a good background knowledge and the ability to discern when the writer is being humorous and when the sin is accurately described.… (mer)