Power, Money & Sex: by Deion Sanders; Jim Nelson Black and T. D. Jakes

From Booklist Sanders is the flamboyant Dallas Cowboy defensive back who also had a successful major-league baseball career. Ultimately dissatisfied with his fast-track life, Sanders writes about his pain and the relief he subsequently found when he accepted Christ. Other Christians will recognize Sanders' personal crises as a common precursor to religious conversion and will strongly identify with him. For readers looking for more than an account of personal spiritual redemption, Sanders supplies plenty of details about his upbringing and his career as one of the most recognizable and successful athletes of his time. The book might reach wider audience if it were less segmented. As it is, the first half is about Sanders' sports career, the second about his faith and the comfort it has brought him. Sports fans may abandon the book when the message arrives; nonfans may give up before they get there. On balance, Sanders does a surprisingly low-key job in presenting his life and faith, despite an admittedly misleading, bait-and-switch title. Wes Lukowsky Product Description Superstar Deion Sanders tells his powerful life story and reveals how power, money and sex could not satisfy the void in his life-a void ultimately satisfied by his relationship with Christ. A photo section included in this national best-seller. From Publishers Weekly Even in the world of athletic superstars, Sanders (aka "Neon Deion" and "Prime Time") is exceptional, supremely gifted in two sports: he is, for instance, the only man ever to hit a home run in the National League and score an NFL touchdown in the same week. His autobiography find a sympathetic audience not only among sports fans, however, but among conservative Christians who can't tell a punt from a bunt. Religion has played a large role in Sanders's life recently. He plans to enter the ministry after his sports career, and his faith has enabled him to express affection for his father, a drug addict who deserted the family when Sanders was seven and living in Fort Myers, Fla., and for his stepfather, an alcoholic. Readers may feel less inclined to forgive, but all will agree that his mother was a tower of strength. Sanders was a sports star in high school and college before turning pro. His success quickly brought the eponymous power, money and sex, but Deion found life empty, and his marriage a failure. He was saved?in the religious sense?by the efforts of two clergymen, including Bishop Jakes of Dallas, and now feels that his life is fulfilling. Sanders stumbles when expounding on his religious notions, which are sprinkled with awkward homilies ("the devil don't waste time offering you stuff you don't want"). They also reflect conservative principles that some readers won't share. It's Sanders's fast-paced account of his struggle to navigate the hazards of a life in the limelight, not his prosyletizing, that give this book the indelible stamp of Neon Deion. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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