Glennon Doyle gets credit for effort with this memoir, Untamed. She even gets credit for trying her best to be her most authentic self, and to do her best for her children. For all her efforts at deep processing of her emotional reactions, her “sinking” to the “knowing”, she actually is skimming the surface, interpreting religion, for example, in the shallowest way. If she truly dove deep, she would have made an in-depth study of it, to try to understand the liturgy, the Bible, teaching and tradition. Instead, she responds in the most expedient way, to suit her desires, ditch religion, but keep the sense of “the divine”, making God into what suits her fancy. All too common in our culture, making God adapt to my needs, not learning what God may want of me.

Who does she think that small quiet voice within her is? It could be one of two things, but she is too selfish and shallow to discern the difference: yes, evil does exist in the world (explains so much of the violence and destruction we see), and his name is Lucifer. He can sound gentle and say exactly what you want; or that voice could be the Holy Spirit. It takes prayer, honest reflection, and time to discern the difference. The Church has spent two thousand years teaching people to discern the difference. But Doyle knows better than those misogynist traditions and their practitioners. After all, she claims she was taught that original sin was all Eve’s fault—either her catechesis was truly poor (very believable), or she hears what she wants to hear, so she can not be blamed for dismissing it wholesale.

Her conception of Jesus and His teachings are wildly off-base as well. She wants to throw out all thought of doing for others first, before thinking of self, as though the best way of raising children is to essentially let them raise themselves. Helicopter parenting is obviously destructive, and creates entitled, weak adults who don’t know how to advocate for themselves or take personal responsibility. But the solution isn’t to turn them loose while you pursue fun—you chose to have children, so you have to woman-up and show them how to do for others, how to take care of yourself, how to be responsible. Showing a good example goes further than preaching. Doyle often makes good observations, but her response is to go overboard in the opposite direction. God loves us greater, bigger than we can ever imagine, and gave us free will so we would choose to love him unconditionally in return. Jesus taught us how to love—when we help others without expecting anything in return, even to the point of being willing to lay down our life for another, we love as the Son of God loves. Doyle throws all of this out as misogynist and not heeding her inner “knowing”. I think I know who talking to her. God does live in each of us, when we choose to live as he sent his Son to show us how to live—that is when we are closest to Him and can really hear His small still voice. We are taught to seek God in everyone we meet, and treat them as God before us, as Jesus said, when we help others, “You did it for me.”

I chose to read this book because it is very popular, and I wanted to understand why. Now I think I see why she is so appealing—her gospel, her good news is to proclaim that we are each our own god, and we should live this life to please ourselves as much as possible, just have all the fun we can. Do for others only when it makes you feel good. Got pregnant? Okay to abort, even though that is a life from conception, but it just doesn’t fit your plans for self-fulfillment. Too bad her parents were kind and loving—she missed the message of their example and became shallow and entitled. Untamed is the perfect message for so many people today—please hear my sarcasm—it suits the selfish approach to life I see in so many people today. Read at your own risk—or better yet, let this one pass by.