Author: Neale Donald Walsch
Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
Pub. Date: March 2005

Publisher: Atria Books

Humanity does not understand what God wants and, according to Neale Donald Walsch, author of the phenomenal bestselling series, Conversations with God, this is the cause of the suffering and violence in our world today.

He asserts that our ideas about God and God’s desires have produced our ideas of life and about people. This includes aspects of life like homosexuality, marriage and sex.

He presents the case of the killing of Matthew Shepard, an openly gay freshman at the University of Wyoming who was dragged out of a bar by two young men, driven to a deserted road outside of town, tied to a cow fence, and beaten so severely that he lapsed into a coma and died five days later. His assailants were given life sentences but Reverend Fred Phelps, Pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas was not satisfied with the death. Every year for five consecutive years, he traveled to Matthew’s birthplace to ‘celebrate’ his death, bringing with him a granite monument with these words chiseled in stone:

Matthew Shepard entered Hell October 12, 1998, at age 21 in defiance of God’s warning: “Thou shall not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.”

-Leviticus 18:32

Like his earlier works, Walsch appears critical of any actions committed ‘in the name of God’ by major organized religions which resulted in death and suffering.

He refers to historical crusades and jihads as well as modern acts of terrorism. All these actions were done ‘in the name of God’ and the beliefs behind these acts have proven to be strong motivations. At the same time, he presents recent news articles that highlight the intolerance organized religions have regarding what constitutes ‘the word of God’ and how it is to be interpreted.

In reality, Walsch believes that the adoption of new ideas regarding God and Life is not about the rejection or abandonment of traditional religious teaching, but an expansion. His call is to refresh and reinvigorate religion. He points out an example of a spiritual movement within Islam which has already happened. It’s called the Sufi movement and in Sufism the declaration, There is no god but God, has now changed to, There is nothing but God, which is a neat one sentence summary about the new spirituality.

Change has never been easy for mankind. We have this need to cling to old ideas about God and Life and according to Walsch, this is dangerous since our beliefs produce our behaviors. In this book he quotes Former U.S. vice president Al Gore in an interview with the New Yorker:

“In a world of disconcerting change, when large and complex forces threaten familiar and comfortable guideposts, the natural impulse is to grab hold of the tree trunk that seems to have the deepest roots and hold on for dear life and never question the possibility that it’s not going to be the source of your salvation. And the deepest roots are in philosophical and religious traditions that go way back”

(New Yorker, September 2004)

In that chapter, he provides the surprising yet simple answer to what is perhaps Humanity’s biggest question: What does God Want? It will spark different reactions depending on your beliefs about God and Life. Some may laugh, others may be confused. It may even elicit anger or frustration. For those in tune with the new spirituality, they’ll smile and nod in agreement.

The second part of the book gives a good introduction to the new spirituality Walsch offers to us. Walsch generally disagrees with the big organized religions like Islam and Christianity, particularly Catholicism. Both of these religions insist that they are the one true religion. Over the centuries through the crusades and jihads they have ventured far and beyond seeking the conversion of everyone to their religions. According to Walsch, this is not the way peace can be attained.

The new spirituality is a doctrine of Oneness, the awareness that God and Life are One, that everything in life is part of a unified whole, and that our different religions are simply divergent paths to the same destination, which in Walsch’s words is the everlasting embrace of God.

What God Wants is nowhere as comprehensive as his previous works, particularly Tomorrow’s God and The New Revelations, but it provides a good introduction to people who have not read his earlier works.

It’s an easy read, brief and concise, and just like in his previous writings, it provides a message of hope for humanity that we can still turn things around for a much better future. It all begins with admitting and exploring the idea that the information we have with regards to God and Life is incomplete and some may no longer be working.

Argee is a Halfway Contributor

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