At first glance The Gods of Business: The Intersection of Faith and the Marketplace is a plain spoken overview of major religions and how the world’s faithful engage in commercial intercourse.

But author Todd Albertson is a hardheaded doctor of theology and the former owner of a multi-million-dollar transportation company that was roughly treated by People Who Believe In All That Is Holy. He intends his book to be a secular Michelin Guide for how the global businessman can get screwed nine different ways by folks who all claim a version of the Golden Rule. He gallops through the histories of diverse religions, offers excerpts from sacred texts and provocatively suggests the ways in which core beliefs are used to excuse greed and corruption regardless of creed, color or national origin.

If Albertson has a bias, it comes out in his arguments for regarding Secular Post Modernism as a religion. The zeal of its adherents matches that of Mohamed’s for child brides, the Hindus’ for adding little girl’s to the funeral pyres of husbands and the Christian televangelist’s for bilking the quick and the dead out of "seed money "to continue the ministry from another earthly mansion. What’s bad is made worse by the Secular Postmodernist’s unabashed narcissism and absolute refusal to embrace any notion of absolutes. Golden Rule be damned. Do unto others as it suits you.

This summer Trinity Alumni Press is releasing The Gods of Business for sale through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the usual outlets. The list price is twenty bucks.

I got my copy for free because I edited it. Todd is a friend. He paid me. But not enough to like the book or say nice things about it. There are a number of authors whose books have appeared in the top ten of The New York Times bestseller list, and for about $500 to $1,000 they will write a good review for whatever you give them to read. I’m not among that august company of whores, and having been bought for the equivalent of two bits and done my duty, I can say in my free time whatever I want.

I do like The Gods of Business. I think it is a must read for anyone who wants to know why Jesus wept but still intends to do business with the bastards.