Average Joe by Troy Meeder

Troy Meeder's book Average Joe is an unwelcome review. I do not delight in criticizing his work, and in many ways, I think it harmless. As an autobiography, or even as an apologia for his life, it does no ill. As a Christian document, it is dreadful. Average Joe is intended as a defense of the working-class man, a man who may not have received what he expected from career or fortune, but who remains faithful to his God and family nonetheless. Mr. Meeder recounts his own experiences of failure and wisened hindsight to affirm such men. He mistakenly counts the biblical heroes among them. Whoever King David was, he was by no means an "average Joe." Nor was Paul, nor Jesus. This would be near to suggesting that Mozart was an "average composer" who, by his sheer grit and American spirit, wrote some darned-good symphonies. It is either a gross historical error or a complete redefinition of the word "average."

I wondered, as I began to read this book, whether I might find anything approaching Horace's exhortation to the Golden Mean; satisfaction by balance. Mr. Meeder is, regrettably, uninterested in balance. (He denounces compromise) In fact, I don't believe Mr. Meeder writes with any intention other than defending himself. He may not be wrong to do so--he seems, from his own portrait, at least, an honest and sincere man--but it is not wisdom to be commended to others. At various points Mr. Meeder assures the "average" man that the future is all foreintentioned by a loving God. Only a few chapters later, he insists that the whole problem boils down to our choices. His description of the spiritual life is inseparable from his experience of the California outdoors. He describes and petitions God in the pseudoromantic language of the modern praise chorus. He is unashamedly anti-intellectual (taking time for several incursions against lawyers, the educated, and those that would frequent "metrosexual coffee shops") and asserts the great fundamentalist arrogance: My ignorance is as enlightening as your knowledge. I believe, at root, this is the thesis of his whole book: My mediocrity is as satisfying as your accomplishment.

The book contains very little in the way of instruction for the "average Joe" initiate. Meeder's spiritual counsel only touches on sin management, with the remedy of "try harder" urged in various ways. At his worst, he appears to be advocating his experience as the destination of all Christians: What we all really need is to be middle-class Republican American evangelicals. Many of these types are my dearest friends, but most of them sense that they aren't the climax of Christendom. I'm afraid that Mr. Meeder thinks he is, or at least his purified version. He looks at Paul and David, and sees cowboys! Mr. Meeder may wish his life to be read in the Ford truck commercial voice, but he ought not suggest it be used for the Bible.