God Made Me Do It: True Stories of the Worst Advice the Lord Has Ever Given His Followers

by Marc Hartzman

Does God, in His infinite wisdom, convince people to get rid of their car insurance? Does He encourage cannibalism? Does the God of more than six billion people actually have time to root for the Minnesota Vikings? According to some, yes. How do they know? God told them. Luckily, God also told Marc Hartzman to write this book, a collection of the most shocking, absurd, and hilarious things people have ever claimed God asked them to do, and to present them for your pure reading enjoyment.

Genres: Humor, Religion

282 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2010

About the author

ABC News has called Marc Hartzman "one of America's leading connoisseurs of the bizarre" and George Noory from Coast to Coast AM said he's "as bizarre as Robert Ripley." Hartzman considers both high praise since his passion for the unusual started with Ripley's Believe It Or Not and the annual Guinness World Records books during his youth.

In addition to his books about UFOs, ghosts, Mars, Oliver Cromwell's embalmed head, weird things on eBay, sideshow performers, and unorthodox messages from God, Hartzman has written for Mental Floss, HuffPost, AOL Weird News, All That's Interesting, The Morbid Anatomy Online Journal, and Bizarre magazine. He's discussed oddities on CNN, MSNBC, Ripley’s Radio, History Channel’s The UnXplained, Xploration Outer Space, the Travel Channel's Mysteries at the Museum, and dozens of podcasts. Hartzman has also been a featured speaker at a various of events for a range of audiences, including the Explore Mars Humans to Mars Summit in Washington, D.C., the Coney Island Congress of Curious Peoples, New York ComicCon, the Exeter UFO Festival, and the Brooklyn Historical Society.

More of his love for the unusual can be found online at Weird Historian. Outside of these projects, Hartzman earns a living as an award-winning advertising creative director.

Reviews

[Rachel Earling-Hopson (Misse Mouse) · Rating 4 out of 5]

When politicitons and bible belt radio jesus freaks start thinking God is talking g to them, it is time for therapy. So many were hilarious, some were bribery and guilt deiven to get money for their jets, and homes. Billy Graham is one who was mentioned more than once. If you are truly going to let God decide if someone on death row should die and rely on him to tell you what to do, you have to much power. There is medication for those voices in your head.

[HeavyReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book would be funnier than it actually was, but it did make for adequate mindless reading at the end of the day when I was too tired to concentrate on anything serious.

I thought this book would have some sort of story arc, but instead it was told in a series of mostly one page vignettes. The author only uses first names in these vignettes (unless the main character person in question is already ridiculously famous), but at the end of the book, there is a bibliography, so the reader can do more research if desired.

[Alli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tons of short, bizarre and sometimes hilarious stories, well worth the read, religious or not.