Tag Archives: books

Books

Famous Fundy Novels

171 Comments


photo by Stewart Butterfield

Call me…Pastor. (Moby-Dick)

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a preacher boy in possession of a bible school diploma, must be in want of a wife. (Pride and Prejudice)

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. (no change required to 1984)

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life is a foregone conclusion. I’m an evangelist, how could I not be? (David Copperfield)

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. We went soulwinning anyway. (Paul Clifford)

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel, the only real channel that any good Christian should be watching given the filth on television these days. (Neuromancer)

I am a sick man . . . I am a spiteful man . . .(no change required to Notes from Underground)

It was like so, but wasn’t. At least that’s what the pastor kept insisting. (Galatea 2.2)

All this happened to the evangelist, more or less. (Slaughterhouse-Five)

Elmer Gantry was drunk. (no change needed to Elmer Gantry)

It was a pleasure to burn Vatican Corrupted Bibles. (Fahrenheit 451)

Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by frumpy jean jumpers. (Middlemarch)

Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person. (No change needed to Back When We Were Grownups)

He was an inch, perhaps two, under six feet, powerfully built, and he advanced straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward, and a fixed from-under stare which made you think of a charging bull. Then he’d introduce himself as Doctor Pastor Brother Hyles. (Lord Jim)

Justice?—You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law. (no change needed to A Frolic of His Own)

They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the fundamentalist people did. (Wide Sargasso Sea)

Do you have any to add? Let’s hear them!

Books

Becoming Ex-Fundies Then Writing A Book or Three

30 Comments

Since the entire country is out standing in lines to buy stuff right now, I thought I’d tell you about three books that you might want to add to your holiday reading list. No lines required. I know all three of the authors and I think you’ll find these interesting (even if you don’t agree with every single thing they say, write, knit, or excavate).
 

Nate O’Connor wants to do right. His senior year of college, though, gets off to a rocky start. He’s a student at Bob Johnson University, the flagship institution of higher learning in American fundamentalism, where he and his best friend are placed on spiritual probation after being accused of disloyalty to the school. Their attempt to repair their reputation backfires and when Nate meets two women–one beautiful and smart, the other wise and charming–his entire belief system is uprooted. Nate’s world is further rocked by tragedy and his life will never be the same.

Drawing on his own experiences as a student at Bob Jones University, Rich Merritt has crafted an extraordinary story of love, hope, loss, betrayal and loyalty. Most of all, Spiritual Probation is a deeply compelling exploration into the power of faith – in friends, lovers and God, as each of us defines God, and in the unwavering dictates of our own hearts.

Available on Amazon.com
 

A couple college friends of mine have put together a delightful little children’s book with original artwork and a fun story about what it means to be special. Definitely check this one out if you have kids on your shopping list (or buy it for yourself — we won’t judge you).

You can get it at Amazon.com

 

 

 

 
 

In 2008, when the mortgage industry collapsed, Craig Daliessio lost his career and his livelihood, becoming homeless. During that time, he began writing a series of Advent stories for his 10-year-old daughter, wishing to capture the joy of Christmas and attempting to look past the dark times in which they were living. Daliessio’s collection of short stories, “A Ragamuffin Christmas: An Advent Journey,” provided him with hope and helped him to overcome his struggles.

“A Ragamuffin Christmas: An Advent Journey” highlights the lives of 24 uniquecharacters and their holiday stories. Daliessio depicts individuals with varied backgrounds and problems, with each one laying their worries, fears, and troubles at Jesus’ feet during the celebration of His birth. From a Roman soldier to a murderer, a broken-hearted mother to a patriarch, each one experiences a life-changing moment of redemption through Christ.

A Ragamuffin Christmas is available via Amazon and Kindle Download

Books

Books

110 Comments

The accusation often goes out that fundamentalists are the kinds of people who would burn books given half a chance. I disagree. I think that the act of burning a book would be superfluous to the even more egregious act of simply ignoring their existence. After all, why burn what is irrelevant?

This isn’t to say that fundies don’t like books. Quite the opposite, I’ve never been in a fundamentalist pastor’s office that wasn’t crammed with books from top to bottom. Many fundamentalist houses have hundreds if not thousands of books from ceiling to floor as their primary source of entertainment. With so many volumes scattered around — from the great leather bound editions (of Louis L’amour) to cheap paperback books (also Louis L’amour) — it would seem ludicrous to imagine that fundamentalist were opposed to the idea of gathering insight and understanding through the printed word. But they are.

For when a fundamentalist reads he places his Spectacles of Moralism and Simplicity upon his nose and simply ignores anything that doesn’t fit his own prescribed view of the world. And it’s not just non-fiction. If the fundy happens to stumble upon some literary work, whether it’s Hester’s plight in the Scarlet Letter or the plotted revenge of the Count of Monte Cristo, the fundamentalist will only see what he considers to be moral or immoral actions and never consider what’s being said about the humanity or the larger social implications behind them.

For every fundamentalist plot can be boiled down to these elements: Someone is right. Someone is wrong. And Someone is bound to be damned if they keep it up. That’s all that matters. Insight into things like life, love, pain, greed, sacrifice, hate, bravery, desire, and the common human condition are just so much window dressing. Hardly worth noticing, really.

So I put the question to you: is it worse to burn a book or to have a library full of them that you will not allow to expand your mind or touch your soul? Perhaps it might be kinder simply to set them ablaze and have done with the façade.