I just got my novel Wind Follower from the publisher. I'm sooo happy. My very first book. I am sooo happy. Soo happy. I'm a published author of my very own book.
If you know anyone who is into folkloric fantasy, or Christian fantasy, or ethnic fantasy, tell him/her to go on over to Borders and B&N to order it.
Thanks so much. -C
Then said I, "Here am I. Send me." Carole McDonnell www.carolemcdonnell.com WIND FOLLOWER www.juno-books.com/windfollower.html
I'm trying to get back into the Daughters Of Men work-in-progress again after a brief hiatus away from it.
I was so into thinking about the male motivation/issues in the story that I wasn't really exploring in a truly deep way the motivation of my female character.
I suspect now I have to get in touch with my inner gold-digger. It seems to me that women growing up in a bereft culture where there are men with power and men without....well, these women would see the overseers as sugar-daddies. This connects in some ways to my love of reality love-match TV shows like Flavor Flav.
I suspect that's what much of those competition shows are about. They show the need women in this culture have for good men, rich men, beautiful men, powerful men, researched men. Most of those girls were poor and in need and the show was their way of getting money...and fame...even in some small fading hip-hop hipster kind of way.
I have to decide if Ellie, main character in DOM, is needy enough to want one of these guys ...secretly. Or maybe she's a user. And even if she's not a user, she might very well be so oppressed by all the sorrows and responsibilities of life that she finds a part of herself that actually needs a relationship with a paranormal sugar daddy.
The problem is I have to decide if she is like me or not. Satha was pretty much who I would be if I were in that situation. Now I have to decide how noble a character Ellie will have to be. Or rather, how noble a character I would be if I were in Ellie's situation.
The true glory and the true blessing of Josh my main human male character is that he's human. The true horror and the true curse of Josh is that he's human.
An inhuman overseer has power, wealth (presumably), the power to heal, the power to understand everything going on inside a woman's mind. And all they want is love. A real guy can't stand up to that.
Women want real guys who happen to be super-human.
I want to find the real Ellie. Not an Ellie "feminists" or "Christians" or "blacks" or "good girls" or "bad girls" would like. I want to find the real Ellie who will make DOM work. And she probably is not a "pure" user. But an impure one. One with a mix of need and desires and insecurities.
Well it’s that time of year again. Unlike events I actually can control, this “time of year” usually has nothing to do with my planning. If it was up to me, I’d avoid it entirely. But unfortunately it’s never up to me. God’s in charge of that. Or it’s the pastor. Either I get this overwhelming impression that just won’t go away, or the pastor surprises the church with one of his annoying sermons about forgiveness and loving our neighbors. Yep, it’s that time of the year when –out of the blue– I feel the burden of my inability to forgive.
Okay, I’ll admit it. I’ve got a lot of people to forgive. I’ll also admit that I feel very trapped when this business of forgiving our enemies comes up. After all, to paraphrase C S Lewis, “The devil of resentment is that it's justified.” By which he means that the resentment the unforgiver feels is justifiable because there usually has been some harm done. So, yeah, you and I know that I have every right to dislike some of the horrible creeps out there. And being human I just am not in the mood to kneel by my bed and say, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Heck, some of those people knew exactly what they were doing when they devastated, hurt, rejected, and trampled upon my heart. Yeah, I know…I sound bitter. And yeah, the reason I sound bitter is because I am.
But a Christian gal’s gotta do what a Christian gal’s gotta do. And it’s at this time of the year that I wished I belong to a religion which would allow me to hold on to my hatred of some people. Unfortunately, however, most religions command us to forgive. So even if I were a Buddhist I’d still be trapped with having to do what I have to do.
So, there I was…lying on my bed; praying for my son, praying for myself. And what comes into my mind? All the horrible things my mother-in-law, former friends, white Christians, racist white doctors, rich snooty suburbanites have done to me. Hey, I’m no dummy. I knew what God was doing. He was bringing to my memory all the things I needed to clear from my heart. Yep, the time had come to forgive once again.
As a culture, African-Americans have been taught by Christianity to forgive the nasty behavior of racists. For example, the power of Christianity is seen in Desmond Tutu’s Committee on Reconciliation in South Africa. Considering what black folks have experienced in American and South African history, it amazes me that the annals of crime aren’t more filled with bands of roaming black hate groups bent on destroying white folks. Rather, I see the opposite: the oppressive white racists tend to hold more racist grudges than the black folks they formerly oppressed. So, like most church-going African-Americans I have to contend with the religions tenets about not holding grudges. I and my people do our best and so if I and other church-going little black ladies are angry and unforgiving, there is a dang good reason for us holding on to a grudge for so long. After all, many of us still remember uncles and fathers and grandfathers who were lynched by whites. We remember racist white folks spitting on us and treating us like feces at the bottom of their shoes. So it’s hard to forgive. And back to C.S. Lewis, “The devil of resentment is that it’s justified.”
Case in point: When my racist, atheistic, mother-in-law found out about the diagnosis about our younger son, a self-satisfied spiteful smirk appeared on her face. Something that could easily be translated as “Serves her right for marrying my son and let’s see how her God is going to get her out of this mess.” My mother-in-law has been a trip.
Case in point: I was dragging myself around the house after not sleeping for two weeks straight, wondering if I should put myself in the hospital for exhaustion. Fifteen year old son (diagnosed with autism and non-verbal) was throwing a bottle of prune juice on the walls and inside furniture and generally tearing the house apart. Black neighbor comes in and says, “Carole, you really should learn how to clean your house…even if you ARE sick.”
Case in point: Snooty white developmental pediatrician who diagnosed my son. After he told me the diagnosis, I said, “You only judged that he’s autistic from letting him play with blocks. Aren’t you going to check lead levels, heavy metals, brain anomalies, genetic testing, and allergies?” He looked at me and said, “Mrs. McDonnell, you’re over-studied.” Either he thought black women didn’t know much or he was just lazy and smug. Whatever his reasoning, I resent him greatly.
Case in point: Friend (and illegal immigrant from Mexico) whose son had been diagnosed with mental retardation and other issues. Her son was prayed over at church and miraculously healed and now speaks. She believes I watch TV too much and if I didn’t do so my son would be healed. She’s a great person but she has a judgmental streak that is relentless.
Case in point: Primarily white Assembly of God minister who dragged my then-boyfriend-now-husband and I up in front of the entire congregation and said, “The Lord will not heal you of your illnesses, Carole, if you don’t stop living together.” Note: he didn’t do this to the other girls who were living with their boyfriends. Could it be because they were white and were related to the rich white folks in his congregation? I’m utterly convinced he wanted to show the congregation what a forceful minister he was and I was the tool to that end. Suffice it to say I have never stepped into any Assembly of God churches after that.
And these are just a few scenes from my life.
Now, I’ve done the bargaining bit: “Lord, I’ll forgive these folks if you’ll enlighten their eyes and let them see how they sinned against me. I’ve tried but they don’t understand.” Honestly, folks, I could pray ‘til I’m blue in the face, God ain’t gonna do that.
The inability to forgive is linked to many mental and physical illnesses such as depression, sleeplessness and anxiety. I have no doubt my illnesses are only made worse by my mental ruminations over all these past hurts. And honestly, I could live with my illness. Except that Jesus makes such a point of saying over and over and over that “when you stand praying, forgive. If you don’t forgive your fellow man, God cannot forgive you your sins.”
Ah the crux.
As a Christian I’m supposed to be like my dear Lord and say something like: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Honestly, I haven’t got it in me to do that. For one, those people KNEW what they were doing. For two, I would rather wring their racist or judgmental little necks instead of forgiving them.
And even worse: I’m not only supposed to forgive them but I’m supposed to bless them. This only manages to make me feel trapped in the universe. I kneel down beside my bed: “Lord, please bless that racist mother-in-law of mine. Bless all those white grandchildren she has…since they are the only ones she loves.”
Okay, let’s try that again. “Lord, please bless that mother-in-law of mine. She raised a good son. So I suppose she should be blessed for that. Keep my nephews and nieces well and safe from harm. Bless them, but don’t let them be more blessed than my kids.” Aargh. Okay, that’s a bit better. It’s not exactly great but honestly it’s the best I can do.
It’s been said that not being able to forgive is like drinking poison and expecting the one who has harmed us to die. Ain’t gonna happen.
The annoying thing about forgiving people — family, friend, stranger, or foe– is the utter lack of control we have over the situation. We say to ourselves, “I’ll forgive them if they change. I’ll forgive them if they understand what they did to me.” But we have no control over the evil thoughts or evil actions of other people. We cannot hold them to their promises to be understanding. We can’t make their hearts loving, kind, and free. We can only be strong and not allow their evil to taint us.
Ever since childhood I’ve hated it: those impromptu African-American or Jamaican get-togethers on someone’s porch or living room. I hated them because although everything would be fine and dandy at first, sooner or later --suddenly-- someone would say some fatalistic despairing comment which everyone else would agree with and bingo! I was surrounded by folks talking about the horrible lot of black folks. I’d be suddenly overwhelmed by a tangible despair. So much so, there were times I simply could not breathe.
Now, maybe this was only my problem. Maybe there’s some chemical missing in my brain that makes it hard for me to be hopeful. Maybe I’m a writer and I think too much. But I cannot adequately describe the sense of hopelessness and doom that would come upon me as a child whenever I heard the adults around me speaking like this.
However, when I was a teaching assistant in the high school I began to realize that I was perhaps not the only one to be so affected. Many of the kids I taught had an existentialist despair and a fear that could only have come from listening to this kind of fatalistic trash talk. I honestly believe it’s a kind of cultural abuse unique to black folks --something akin to the Native American notion of cultural trauma but worse because we as a people are perpetuating the victimization of our children.
Over the years I’ve become an escape artist. I have learned to simply make a quick sudden exit whenever some person beside me starts going on about some possibly-racist goings on. I’ve even been known to rise before dinner was served and say, “Oh my gosh! I have to go. I forgot to do something.” Or – if I simply cannot get away– I get up and sit by myself at another part of the house and remind myself of hopeful Bible verses.
I remember certain talk that spewed out of my unthinking friend’s mouth when my mother was dying. Stuff like: “Well, you can’t really trust them to do their best for your mother. After all, she’s only a black woman.” Stuff like, “Your mother’s landlord is racist. He only wants white tenants and he’ll give you a hard time about getting back her security.” That’s the stuff I had to deal with. The same thing I had to endure when I was a child. It never seems to dawn on these unthinking despairing talkers that they are oppressing someone’s heart with hopelessness and fear. When I think of all the black kids who had to deal with such fear and hopelessness from the day of their birth, I want to cry.
As I see it, we Black folks can be a very negative lot and we generally don’t take care to prevent young kids from hearing our racial despair. Quite the contrary, sometimes we think it is our duty to tell black kids how bad life will probably be for them. We think we are doing them a favor by telling them that the reason they didn’t get the job is because the evil “white man” is all-powerful and simply is not going to give a black kid a chance.
In a recent conversation with The Black Thought Group, a group made up of mostly writers, mostly Christians, the moderator/chairman posed this particular question:
“We've been taught----or should I say, I have heard and read a lot of people teaching Proverbs 26:2, (NIV)
2 As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.
They say it is our own actions that bring about a curse or a bad situation in our lives. Some teachers and preachers also imply that by our thoughts/speech/actions we invite Satan into our lives. BUT----could it be that the curse that is afflicting black people in our nation and on our planet is not just our fault. Could the cause of that curse be racism? Does this also mean that sometimes, even though we are doing our best to be righteous, we are still going to have racists and other evil people trying to curse us? What I'm saying is this: does the cause of the curse HAVE to be us?”
I answered: Honestly? Spiritual cause and effect and Biblical interpretations aside, I think we black folks use our mouths all the time to curse ourselves, our lives, and our children. I know the Bible tells us that “death and life are in the power of the tongue.” I know the Bible tells us that we must be careful what we say because “we will have what we say.” But speaking on a totally materialistic level without considering spiritual laws and spiritual cause and effects, as a culture we like pontificating about the world and talking doom. We talk doom a whole lot. We are a very negative people and we talk despair and fatalism too damn much.”
A few examples:
The black father sitting on his porch with beer in his hand telling his drinking buddy that "the world is out to get the black man and the black man has no chance" -- WHILE HIS CHILD IS SITTING NEARBY.
My neighbor who keeps praying for her son in one breath (blessing him) and at the same time in effect cursing the kid by saying, "If it weren't for bad luck, he'd have no luck at all." (Of course, the guy’s bad luck is the worse I have ever seen. Things happen to this guy that simply seem choreographed by evil.)
The self-pitying woman friend who keeps saying stuff like: Cancer runs in my family. I'm gonna get it. Ain’t nothing I can do about it.”
My son’s annoying teenage friend who says things like: "I just know I won't get this job. They don’t like giving black people jobs." This is obviously a kid who has listened way too much to his pontificating negative knows-how-society-works dad.
Now I’m not guiltless in this either. I’ve gone into Prophetic Mom mode. “Don’t wear dirty underwear; what if you end up in a hospital?” “Don’t make faces like that; your face will be frozen like that?” As a Jamaican mother who was a child of a Jamaican mother and raised in the United States, I tended to take my little prophetic mom mode to a higher – or perhaps lower– level. Like many other minority mothers, I added racial, governmental, and social consequences. This was no mere case of wearing dirty underwear. This was a black child wearing dirty underwear whose future – and mine– in the white man’s America would be greatly affected by those messy boxers. “Keep behaving like that,” I said to my son, “and keep hanging out with those no-good friends of yours and you’re going to end up in jail.” “You’re going to kill me with this selfishness of yours. Then when I’m dead you’ll see how right I was. But then it’ll be too late.” “I hope I don’t have to trust you to take care of me in my old age. I’ll be in so much trouble if I have to depend on you.” “Son, it’s tough for black people out there. You have to work twice as hard as white people to succeed. If you don’t study, you’ll end up with some low-level job for the rest of your life.” “Son, please don’t date a white girl. If you go to some racist part of this country, they’ll kill you.” “Daughter, please don’t go out and get pregnant. If you do, you’ll be making life very hard for yourself. You won’t rise above the job of being some mere secretary.” “Yadda-yadda-yadda.” It is understandable that during stressing arguments, we black mothers want our children to learn the economic, racial, and social facts about life. But black folks simply go too far sometimes. And honestly – admit it– is there anything that is accomplished by any of these negative prophecies? Can’t we just give an order without adding a negative prophesy tag to it?
Yes, RACISM is powerful and affects us. But we as a people have protected ourselves from racism by adding negative self-fulfilling prophecies to our normal conversation. Indeed, negative mindset has become such a part of our lives that many people expect a good joke to have a great deal of self-loathing and negativity to it. I understand that we must address the racism in society, that we must teach children that choices they make have consequences. I understand that we have had experiences with racism and other troublesome factors. We have a dirty pool of harsh memories from which we can continually scoop life lessons. But can we not learn to simply keep our mouths shut? Yes, I know. We are a people who like to talk and we are a philosophical people...but as a noble and spiritual people, can we perhaps learn to keep our mouths shut?
The Bible tells us that no one can tame the tongue. Many people may not believe what the Bible says about the power of the tongue – like a rudder– to steer the course of our lives. I believe it, but not every Christian believes everything the Bible says. So I won’t speak about spiritual things. I’ll only talk about matters on a materialistic non-spiritual level: My people, my people, the tongue has a power to destroy us psychologically. Can you not see that?
We must also learn to speak more hopefully as a culture. We must tell our kids that if the worst happens and they do end up in an accident in dirty underwear – that God is able to help them and that they have resources within them to bring about restoration, that if they wear dirty underwear and not end up in an accident while wearing said dirty underwear, that the worst case scenario probably will not happen, that they might meet a nice white person who actually likes them and will mentor and help them.
In the Bible, James wrote in his general letter, “how can we bless and curse with the same mouth?” In short, how can we say we trust God in one breath and yet two seconds later talk about how hopeless it all is for black folks. We are very undisciplined with our mouths. Whatever comes to our mind, trips over our lips.
Why do we sing and dance in church about faith yet on our doorsteps talk fatalistically? Why do we fill our kids’ brains with fear about their futures and make them feel they are inevitably doomed?
I used to hang out with writing groups where all the people talked about was how hard it was to be published. They kept saying the evil white publishing world just didn’t see how great they are. I kept telling them to stop speaking such negative self-fulfilling prophecies over their lives. But they couldn’t stop. Many people think they’re being realistic when they despair, and they believe they are being ignorant and childish when they hope. As far as I was concerned, if a story of mine wasn’t published it was simply because my story wasn’t good enough or I had chosen the wrong publisher. But these guys were always seeing conspiracies and hopelessness. After a while I HAD to leave that group. As yes, I’m the only one from that group who has had my book published.
As a culture, we black folks aim to be righteous. We are a very, very decent people. We bring food to our poor neighbors, we visit the sick, we clean the houses of old folks and we have prayer services for people in distress. Yes, we do righteous stuff. But righteousness has to do with not only right behavior but with right words. And as a culture our mouths are full of negatives and we have to set a watch before our lips, as the Bible says. And we must “be careful how we hear.” (Luke 8:18) I challenge you – as I challenge myself. The next time you’re at a barbeque or in a cultural group and someone brings up the old refrain of how bad it is for the black man and starts running his mouth with negative prophecies –especially in front of kids– tell him to be quiet. Or get up and leave.
Quote of the Day: A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others.
--William Faulkner
This is sooo true. And I often see the lack one of these things...but often the other things that are in the author don't seem to supply the lack of the others. This is just my opinion. For instance, I didn't know much about observation. I was terrible about "showing" because I truly had to learn about the various kinds of body language. My characters tended to be talking heads. And they still kinda are...so i'm glad my crit friends remind me of these kind of things. But there's a different kind of observation and I've often found that many Christian writers don't write about what they have emotionally observed, they are too busy writing what they THINK they have observed. For instance, a Christian writer will often show lust to be evil and selfish. Well yeah, a lot of lust is selfish. But some of it isn't. Some lust is desperate, despairing, needy, loving. But because Christian writers are "taught" that lust is selfish, they often end up writing a story that isn't what they have observed about lust but what they "know" from sermons lust to be like. Certainly if they have observed their own lives they wouldn't be so one-sided or dishonest in their depictions.
The other thing with observation is that complications and complexities enter the equation. I for one know that I've lusted and loved at the same time. I know from observation that there is such a thing as a married woman being a person she doesn't have sex with and yet I feeling closer to that person than she does with her husband. Or vice versa, there are people I know who have loved their husbands but felt that sex with the husband is only a cold lustful thing and not a heartfelt thing. Some Christian writers would never write about such things.
IMAGINATION As for imagination, I've seen a lot of imitative writing. People think they're being imaginative...and they are being imaginative as far as they know...but honestly in a lot of allegories I've read, they're imagining a world that is already created. Or a concept that already exists...and they aren't using it or mining it...anymore. They think they're imaginative because they are stringing together a kind of plot....but it's really a plot based on something they didn't imagine. For instance, why are so many dragons in the stories of beginning writers named "Draco." It's a bit much.
I wonder: what would Christian fantasy publishing be like if C S Lewis, Frank Peretti, and J R R Tolkien had not written books? What would christian romance publishing be like if the world's romances hadn't existed?
EXPERIENCE The last thing is experience. This is kind of tough. We all have experience...It's not really about youth, i think...but about the ability to be in touch with your own experience of joy, pain, need, fear, whatever, and get it into the story. So many of the stories I've read by Christians feel so unlived in. Someone writes a story about an ugly brute who is being rejected by a beautiful woman. Yet the story feels as if the writers don't seem to understand rejection or what it means to be ugly....even if one knows they must have been rejected...or that they must have considered themselves ugly at one time or another. Of course maybe it's all me. Maybe I've read sooo many memoirs and so much heart-rending poetry (intense, heartfelt, distant, doesn't matter what style) that I expect all emotional writing to be heart-wrenching.
Most of the world's Christians are non-white and live in non-white cultures. Yet most of Christian publishing is done by whites, especially whites in the western world. I wonder what Christian publishing --Christian fiction, Christian memoir, Christian sermons, Christian apologetics-- will be like when our non-white Christian brothers and sisters in China, India, Latin America, the Middle East, Australia and the United States start writing? What a blessing that will be to the church!
The Kill Point, which was shown on Spike TV, and which will probably be rerun quite often, has got to be hands-down is one of the best heist films I’ve ever seen. Just when I was thinking the genre had become predictable, up comes this topical, riveting, heart-wrenching, and --dare I say it?– downright patriotic thriller. And bingo, modern issues have put new life into an old genre.
Not that there was anything so wrong with the old genre. I like heist films and even at their stalest, they’re better than the typical actioner out there. But lately, they had lost a lot of their topical moorings. People were planning super-heists merely to steal a whole bunch of cash. Okay, but not really worthy of my spiritual viewing time.
Heist films are suppose to have topical issues and cultural references. Remember The Public Enemy, Roaring Twenties, White Heat, and Little Ceasar-- movies that created this genre. These established the basics of a truly noble heist film. The bad guys are in serious need of cash but there’s always something else. For some reason they don’t fit in, for some reason life is overwhelming. They are war veterans who have returned home to the evils of civilian life. They have been rejected by society at large. They are slightly mad. Whatever the reason, they just don’t fit in.
Of course some of my favorite heist films aren’t terribly angst-ridden. City of Industry, for instance, is a perfect little gem of the revenge-after-the-heist-because-the untrustworthy-henchman-has-betrayed-his-brothers-in-crime sub-genre. And The Usual Suspect works because, well, it is just so plain odd and moody...and a good surprise ending certainly doesn’t hurt.
But the majority of heist movies had lost their connection to the common man, the poor schlub who was embattled and overwhelmed by life. It was fun to get caught up in the planning, the expectations of what we know “should” happen, the inevitable mess-up when after initial success the short-lived criminal victory falls apart. But with rare exceptions such as Set it Off, there generally wasn’t much of an emotional investment.
Well, imagine my utter uncontainable joy when I saw that John Leguizamo was in this heist film. This guy always plays scrappers. Intellectual, emotional, fidgety, cool, all in one. The guy can act. He plays Mr Wolf, and he leads his animal-aliased crew of disgruntled former soldiers with such passion and compassion that I actually found myself falling in love with him. The characters are desperate, yeah, but not sordid. And everyone knows that in a really staisfying heist film, the viewer's complicity in the crime becomes problematic because the bad guys are truly not so very bad. They have no desire to kill anyone, for instance. But as we know from other heist films such as Dog Day Afternoon, the best laid plans often fall apart..at the very beginning.
Add a few 2007 issues such as media hype, government propaganda and lies, and the government’s very nasty treatment of returning vets, and we have a situation where the viewer –however moral she might consider herself– simply wants to see these guys miraculously saved from the mess they have brought upon themselves. Yeah, it’s impossible but one hopes. Somehow. Somehow. The money be damned! Some Deus Ex Machina has got to come down from heaven and whisk these bank robbers safely off to someplace that has no extradition treaty. Could their helper be the computer hacking kid? Could the contagious Stockholm Syndrome kicking in on their hostages somehow save them? Dang, even the cops (a nice multicultural mix which includes a black woman swat expert yay!) understand where these slighted patriots are coming from! What can be done to help our guys leave the botched bank robbery safe and sound? Yes, I “know” that “crime doesn’t pay,” but dang, how I wish it did...at least for these army guys, this brotherhood of criminals who have been given a rotten deal by the war-mongering government.
It has been said that writing is often a conversation between the soul and the spirit. In this case, the Christian in me knows what I "should" want: law and order. But the Christian in me also knows that these men, like Jesus my Lord, are "men of sorrows acquainted with grief" who was executed via capital punishment and whose body hung between the bodies of two thieves. A Christian, a working class person, or a minority person will understand (and be compassionate toward) these rejected, outcast, desperate men who are not only each other's brothers but also our brothers. But what can I say? The law is powerful and relentless and our bad guys aren't going to get a blanket forgiveness.
The Kill Point is being shown in Six episodes. Try to catch all of them. Be wonderfully surprised. Be wonderfully touched.
I recently saw The Final Cut, an indie scifi film starring Robin Williams. Jim Caviezel also appears in it. Yep, the actor who played Jesus in the Passion.
First, I've got to say that I generally don't like Robin Williams. That "i'm from another place/country/world/planet therefore my humor and insights about all things earthly and American thing can get a bit old and arrogant.
But it turns out that I like him in indie flicks. I even liked him in One Stop Photo.
Well, The Final Cut is about a world where memory chips are placed in people's heads when they are children. Not everyone has these chips, just a few. These chips record everything a person does or is involved with....and when the person dies, all that they have seen, known, experienced, can be classified, edited, and recut. The edited memories are even placed on their owners' tombstones.
Ah, this is where the issue of truth comes in! And also the issue of who is the editor, and how he decides to edit what he sees. Other questions about memory also pop up. It's a good little plot and although a bit of a downer in the end, it worked for me.
But while I was watching it the main character Mr Hakman describes himself as a sin eater. Someone who sees all the sins folks have committed and who destroys them so the good remain.
That got me thinking.
Last year Fox Faith films did a movie called The Sin Eater. I wonder if both these films could make a Christian movie night double feature. They might. Stories of sacrifice for the good of all, stories of what to do with memory, guilt, sin, knowledge of other folks' sins. They both come at the questions in different ways.
The trouble however is that The Final Cut doesn't have that gooey slice-of-life nostalgic feel many Christian films have. I don't know why Christian filmmakers often like to do little nostalgic pieces but they do. The Final Cut is urban, urbane, and somewhat bleak. Christian movie makers don't like darkness or bleakness. Still it would be a nice double feature, i think...and some church has to try to.
I was walking downtown and felt a little nudge to go into a deli. The thought occurred to me: "you know how sons are. No matter how old they are, they believe you love them if you bring them a little snack." So I entered a deli to get him one of his favorite snacks. While there I saw a lady and got another nudge to tell her about my soon-to-be-published book. So I did. We had such fun, she and I talking and chattering away. I don't know why but I felt God wanted me to talk to her. It was interesting/ Those nudges are interesting. -C
this waiting around for Wind Follower to be published has been spent fitfully.
A couple of days ago, I did nothing but re-read the pdf version of it in my computer. Okay, I had to see for myself how marvellous it all was. Hey, sometimes we forget.
It is lovely, and wonderful...if I do say so myself. In it's folklore questing passionate spiritual way.
But then I happened upon a sex scene. There are six in the book -- of all kinds (pre-marital engaged couple, rape, concubine, plus a couple flirtations.
And what happens when I happen upon this sweet little sex scene which is kinda spicy and sensual (those are the words the romance genre uses) I found myself avoiding the scene. Yep, I SKIPPED over my own sex scene. What's that about?
Well, obviously it's either false shame or true shame. If it's false shame -- a shame that one shouldn't really feel but which one is gonna feel anyway because one has been brainwashed-- then I can only think that I've gotten so many tongue-lashings from my Christian friends who "NEVER" put semi-graphic sex scenes in their book...that they have made me very nervous about my book. And honestly, it's not so terribly, terribly graphic. Just kinda graphic. Or it's my own prudish upbringing.
If it's true shame, then it's God telling me I shouldn't have written the scene. At this point I don't think it's a true kinda shame. But who knows?
Wind Follower is an interracial love story. Okay, I don't really know if Loic the main character is Native American or Asian. I think he's South Asian. From the way I describe him.
There was a time I used to feel shame when I wrote interracial love stories. And I no longer feel it. So obviously that was brainwashing....
I just finished watching a doctor on the medical report section on the news. The discussion was about the grief that might come upon children who are reading the last Harry Potter book. Especially their grief about the death of a couple of the major characters. They gave us the warning signs: depression, etc.
Maybe I'm just cold here...or maybe I've forgotten how to be a kid but honestly...
Or am I just a cold-hearted person who doesn't understand the power of a book?
Well, I'm working on my second book, Daughters of Men. I'm in the middle of trying to figure out the mechanics of a floating city. How, I ask myself, should it work?
Should it be on an asteroid? Should it be anchored on the earth by some kind of space elevator or extremely strong columns rising up to the sky? Should the asteroid be stable -- by which I mean, should a city on the asteroid be always above a particular city on the earth? Should they be like sister-cities, sharing the same name...except that one is on the earth and one above? Should the asteroid be man-made or natural? Should it be one single asteroid or a ring of asteroid around the earth? Or should it be one long (terra-formed) bit of land encircling and floating around the earth? Should the place have its own weather and how? How much machinery should this sky city have? Or should it all work by the powers of the minds of its inhabitants?
I've got to tell you that when I last worked on this book I made matters very difficult for myself. Lord knows why! I actually had a two-tier floating city. I have to re-read this thing to see why the heck I decided to do that. Now it just seems kinda silly.
Anyway, being all confused about this city and not wanting to change it too much until I figured out why I made it that way, I've been procrastinating. I made a
I'm kinda hoping tons of people will go clicking on these lists...to kinda let them float up to the top of the listmania list. (Hint, hint!)
That multicultural christian fiction list was hard and still isn't finished. I need to add some more minority Christian writers...and I don't want them to be only modern contemporary writers but ...well, a few of the old-timers. I really have to figure out if multicultural excludes or includes folks who are white. One would think that white people belong to cultures, although there is no such thing really as a "white culture" because "white" involves so many different countries. I have to think about that.
In the meantime, the first review of Wind Follower will be posted soon (I think it'll be posted soon) at a romance site called The Long and short of it .
Wind Follower is an odd little book which crosses many genres. I figure a romance site will look at the romance aspect. A multiculti site will look at the multiculti aspect of it. A Christian site will look at the christian aspect of it.
It'll be interesting to see where it will be most honored.
Well, I'm just waiting for the reviews to start coming in on Wind Follower. In the meantime, I'm trying to finish Daughters of Men.
For some reason, DOM is perched very precariously. A part of it wants to be an erotic novel. Now, what to do?
On the one hand, I want to write a Christian novel...and it definitely is. And I don't want to alienate Christians by having a scene in the book which will upset them. (Although Wind Follower has a couple of sex scenes.)
But I want to write what I want to write. Of course, the question to ask myself is: does this erotic part of my story comes from a part of me that needs sexual healing? (and therefore should be explored) Or does it come from a part of me that is just plain worldly and which has watched way too many movies on Lifetime televion?
But I also don't want to force myself to write in a particular way if that's not who I really am. (Not that we Christians should go around worshiping "who we really are.) I don't want to get all rigid and too brainwashed by the rigid guidelines of the Christian market.
I tend not to get too graphic in my love scenes. But the eroticism is definitely there. I know a few Christian folks might have a problem with the sex scenes in WF. A graphic rape scene where she loses a baby, sex with her slave- owner, and the Loic-Satha pre-marriage dalliance. But the book needed it. So in it went. I felt right having those scenes.
In DOM, there is a real element of sexual need. I might even go so far as to say that sexual need is a main character in the book. So even if there isn't any sex scene (can't imagine this, but even if) there is gonna be an erotic quality about the book.
I don't know if you've ever seen DIVA (French movie) or Rebel without a cause. In Diva the guy woos the woman by taking her for a walk in the Paris rain. Nothing happens and yet there's all this eroticism. Just by them walking. Then there's the ferris wheel ride in Rebel without a cause. Again, nothing happens. But it is absolutely incredibly erotic. That's what I feel is happening with DOM. There might be a sex scene or two -- if the plot calls for it-- but whether there are or not, there's gonna be a heck of erotic tension.
I don't really think that eros and religion are in conflict. God invented sex. And eroticism.
The proverbs say that a true witness delivers souls. Many Christian fiction books just simply aren't true. If we are to be witnesses to a truth, we have to start out with the truth-- about our own issues. Christian books are often more legalistic than gospel. The main characters are good people who often are in conflict with some bad aspect of themselves...but the bad aspects are often not bad enough to make the characters real people. They often are temptations rather than incredibly deep character traits. By making the "evil" a character faces something which is a mere temptation, the Christian writer can simply separate the main character from the "evil" and have a nice legalistic happy ending. Person is good now, so person can go to church and be a good part of society. It just doesn't speak to me of grace, of God loving us even when we are evil. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
In a lot of my stories, characters do bad right and left. But they are loved by God because they love Jesus. That is the gospel. When we get caught up in good and evil and believe that making a character good is telling the story of the gospel, we are making a bad mistake. We're teaching the importance of keeping the law. We're writing about and spreading teaching about the knowledge of good and evil. What does it matter if we know what good is, and what evil is? It's grace -- God's love for us in spite of our behavior, and while we are still sinning-- that is the gospel. And when we start saying that sex is bad or that writing about sex is a stumbling block then we are in a hazy world of saying that God has made something that is evil. We also are in the old Augustinian mind-set that says sex is evil.
In this story, I've made Ellie a Creed believer who is loyal to God above else. But she has done a crime. (I don't know what the crime is.) She's real. In that way she'll speak to real people, unlike the Christian characters in much modern Christian fiction who don't speak to the really really unsaved person. For instance, I think more incredibly bad people could probably be touched by Angels with Dirty Faces or Prayer for the Dying or Festen or The Bad Lieutenant than they would be by Christy or a Jeanette Oke book.
God called me to write to the really really really bad unsaved people, and as such I have to be a true witness. I have to witness to what I see in life, to the goodness I see in bad people, and to the lostness I see in saved people. For instance, in WF I had the two young characters make love on the day before they were married. Satha (although she is virginal) did it because she feared not giving in to him would be disastrous and might make him not go ahead with the planned marriage. And her folks needed the dowry money. He did it because he was a spoiled kid who always got his way and he was using her fear for her mother to get into bed (the grass) with her. That was truth, as far as I saw it. It would've been good for me to write a story where Satha held out for one more day, and where Loic didn't have that selfish ability to manipulate a woman, but although it would have been "good" it wouldn't have been true. In the long run, that little bit of dalliance caused some trouble for them but they are human...not Christian cardboard cookie-cutter tereotyped "good" main characters.
For me to write something that doesn't feel right to me is to go against the idea that "a true witness delivers souls."
In DOM, Ellie is facing death. She is also badly-scarred. A human male loves her dearly. But so does a demon prince. She doesn't want to marry the prince but at the same time the prince has power to kill her and to force her. And there is a lot in the mix about her conflict. Women like strength. Ugly scarred women like attention, especially if they haven't been getting any. Women like powerful men (at least in romances.) A powerful man with telepathic powers is going to use it to seduce a woman who thinks he's demonic. And the human male is going to have much sorrow and conflict about what to do with a woman he loves who has seemingly given up her faith to save her life.
It's been said that a novel is a conversation about the conflict between the soul and the spirit. In Wind Follower, the conversation was: "would you give up your religion for the religion of your oppressors?" That echoed conflict in my life. Sometimes one's religion puts one in the company of people one doesn't really like. And giving up one's religion means giving up certain things you are attached to. So there is always conflict in novels.
In Christian novels the conflicts are pretty narrowly-defined within home, faith, marriage. Very narrowly-defined. So I don't write for Christians because they don't want to read about Christian racist character working against his racism. They can't handle that kind conflicted characters or plots that don't have easy answers. They really can't. But God has called me to write Christian novels for a secular audience who can deal with such conflicting stuff.
I mean...what a different world it would be if Christian writers dealt with the racism of Sarah (Abraham's wife) or even with the fact that Abraham probably slept with Hagar quite a bit. Or even the fact that according to the ancient Jewish rabbis, Keturah Abraham's third wife was really in fact Hagar. I love that kind of stuff. The man wasn't perfect. He was a conflicted human. And Christian writing has no edge and has lost its ability to be very complicated. I have no doubt that if the books of the Bible was being gathered together today, Christian people would leave out a lot of David's misdemeanors, all of Song of Solomon, most of Judges.
The Christians who have read portions of Wind Follower didn't stumble. So far as I know. But the book isn't for them. And considering how rigid the christian guidelines are...the CBA's attitude is that most everything can make their readers stumble. I mean...they don't want to talk about race because they say Christian readers need something safe to read. By avoiding certain supposed stumbling blocks, they have enabled close-minded folks to stay close-minded.
That's just my opinion. Christian writers write about sex in non-fiction books. Why not write about the weird inner conflicts of sex in fiction books? What's the difference?
Yes, the truth is about letting our light shine: healing the sick, raising the dead, binding up the broken-hearted. We shine the word in dark places. But then we have to show the dark places also so people can recognize the darkness of it. Sex is also a wonderful thing. Why not spotlight it in a story? Christians won't be reading it, probably. But I suspect the non-christian who reads it will see much of the spiritual glory of sexuality. Just me. -C
I once had a white friend in my writer’s critique group ask me, “Why do you always write about mixed couples? That’s a very bad habit of yours. Can’t you write about normal couples in regular same-race relationships?”
I suppose I could, but I don’t want to. I want to write love stories that heal my soul. I am married to a white man and I want to tell love stories about black women and white men. The typical black woman has seen enough from the media to know that many folks consider black women the bottom rung of beauty and attractiveness and the white woman as the pinnacle. This can be very wounding to the soul. I'm pretty sure this lack of appreciation of our beauty certainly contributes to our habit of medicating ourselves with food. Racism is a cruel thing.
The white writer either did not want to see the importance of my life experiences, felt uncomfortable with interracial relationships, or perhaps (I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt) didn’t realize that by asking me to write in a “normal” way that she was trying to nudge me and my writing toward a little space she considered proper and appropriate.
Actually, let me backtrack a bit. I'm gonna be honest. She was plain racist and uncomfortable with my stories and she was trying to shame me. She belonged to that group of liberals who think they're non-racist and enlightened and deep ("spiritual") but who was really overflowing with all sorts of issues. There, I said it.
She was speaking from her privileged status as a “normal” person, someone who—like the “majority” of people in the world—are in same-race relationships. I suppose I should have challenged her, but the emotional fact is that when among the normal, the non-normal person often forgets how different he or she is. Because of the illness our son endured and other issues, hubby and I have slowly slipped into non-normality. The slippery slide was imperceptible but that's how these things happen. (Heck, I got used to seeing a naked teenager walking through the house!) Anyway, an accusation or call to normality does the trick of getting the non-normal person in line.
The non-normal will always interpret lives (real and fictional) differently than the herd; and the herd, because of majority privilege and because they hang around normal people and generally see normal things, will always consider the non-normal a bit paranoid, touchy, or contrary. But there are enough folks out there who have had life push them toward the abnormal. They will understand writers and mommies like me. And that alone enables me to speak, breathe, write, and interpret freely.
Unfortunately, in that small world (the writing group) that writer friend had a large say. She was quite a mocker and I quickly retreated and therefore did not challenge her interpretation of my “habit.” I kept quiet and seethed at her call to normalcy, knowing that—whatever her wishes—I would write what I wanted to. Being quiet was easy because in a world larger than that writing group I had allies. And I was writing for them.
Wind Follower is an interracial novel, among other things. The characters in the story aren't particularly upset by it. I'm working on Daughters of Men now. In this story, race and interracial marriage also play a part. There are so many different kinds of humans in the novel and yet...in some ways race does matter. After that there's Inheritance, a May-July Relationship between a bi-racial white/Asian young man and an African-American older woman. I'll see how that comes out.
But whatever happens, I won't be ashamed of my stories.
Science and rationality are based on one type of "observation" which may be faulty, and which can be misconstrued or misinterpretated through limited knowledge of how natural laws work.
Faith is based on a different kind of observation which says there are laws at work that may not be known. How then can one judge all that is, when one is utterly ignorant of everything?
A rationalist might say that God doesn't exist because he does not see God and sees no proof of God.
A person of faith might say. Because the rationalist doesn't see God where he happens to be in the whole universe doesn't mean that God does not exist elsewhere (One cannot prove a negative) or that God did not at one time exist or that God will not one day exist in the future. Thus, a person of faith allows for new knowledge without closing himself in inside five puny senses. The person of faith believes that there is a sixth sense which shows other knowledge that the five senses cannot find. The person of faith also believes that the universe works by many laws. Many of these laws are waiting to be discovered. One cannot judge an entire universe when one is only knowledgeable about a few of these laws.
For instance, from the beginning of time humans had a feeling that gravity existed. Newton named it, but it had existed before. Humans also had a vague idea about the law of Physics but Einstein had to examine and puzzle it out. People knew that things fell down, they knew they could run (or outrun each other) and then lose steam. Even a little school kid knows by irrational instinct how long it takes to cross the road before the upcoming car hits him. But there was no rational science behind these things until the scientists puzzled it out.
Once these laws were puzzled out, then the idea of the law of thrust came about. And humans could see that there was another law that could be worked in opposition to gravity. Science then is rational, but it is only rational as far as it discovers what the irrational human heart had already surmised.
Let us not forget that Albert Einstein was a theist, as is Stephen Hawking.
The idea of creation only states that there is a creator, that there is some being (inorganic, and non-biological) greater than humans...an uncaused Causer of all things who is mind and who because he is so much greater and so much more different than we are, cannot be wholly comprehended by rational thought. It is as if an ant in the middle of the desert, with his limited eyesight were to tell me there is no such thing as an ocean because he has never seen one. Where does an ocean begin to explain himself to the rational mind of an ant?
I write to ask you to add your name to a petition requesting that the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice review the case of the six young, black, high school students being tried for attempted second degree murder and aggravated assault in Jena, Louisiana. They are being tried for participating in a high school brawl in which no one was seriously injured.
The precipitating incident? White students hung three nooses to discourage black students from sitting in a previously all white area of the schoolyard.
What's happening in Jena is an outrage, it's hard to believe this is 2007. As Dr. King wrote in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
I sooo wish I had the gift of the word of knowledge or the word of wisdom or the gift of healing. Something! Something which would help me in these encounters. Human reasoning doesn't help in the face of indoctrinations. That's why ST Paul said, we don't preach out of vain philosophy but we preach with power. The evangelist T L Osborn said when he went to preach to muslims he held up the Bible and said, "this is God's book." A Muslim man held up his book (the koran) and said this is God's book. And my book says your book is not the true book. T L was upset and left unable to preach the gospel to anyone in that land. He prayed for the holy spirit and received the gift of healing. When he got it, he went back and preached the gospel with signs following...healing the sick, curing lepers, healing the lame, blind, deaf, casting out devils etc. Then the conversions began. Mere words and religious discussion isn't going to change some people. They must see the power of the gospel.
Anyway, here is just a small record of what happened in my encounter. Aargh.
I said, "Jewish DNA doesn't match Native American DNA"
The elder said, "yes it does." LIE I said, "The linguistics of Hebrew doesn't match Native American DNA."
The elder said, "Yes it does. In fact we have had this book studied by Israeli students and they said it was right." (What the heck does that mean?) LIE
I wanted to say, "How can the Israeli students say the Mormon translation is right when there is no original parchment or writing? All we have is the English translation? Isn't that kinda odd that you have translations of a document but the original document is totally lost to history? How do we know Joseph just didn't write the "translation" and make up this entire thing? The Book of Mormon is awfully large. Lots of stories. How could someone simply misplace the original document?"
I said, "The book of mormon has people in the western world on horses, using silk, and having steel sword. None of those were on the western hemisphere before the Europeans brought them here."
The elder said, "Yes it was. In fact we have found steel foundries here in the Western Hemisphere" BOLD-FACED LIE I said, "Jewish Communities in China, Ethiopia, India all have the SAME Jewish Tanakh with only a few grammatical changes. Even the Dead Sea Scrolls show that the Book of Isaiah is pretty much the same as the one we have now...with some little grammatical issues. How can you say that the Bible has been corrupted when it has this long trail of evidence. And when the Book of Mormon has been changed at least four or five times."
The elder said, "I've read the first and the last version of the Book of Mormon and it's the same except for grammatical and punctuation errors." SUBTLE LIE I said, "The Mormon story is very much like the Islam story. Two guys with many wives who were told by angels that God had given them the true version. Both men create holy cities, both men share many things in common. God allowing the Jewish people to be deceived for 3000 or so years with the wrong book? And then allowed the Christians to be deceived for another amount of time? Only to give the truth to people who two prophets? Didn't the Bible tell us that if anyone came with another gospel he should be accursed?"
They said, "This is not another gospel, this is the recovered gospel. And Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had more than one wife."
They said, "Did you know that much of the Book of Isaiah was recorded in the Book of Mormon?" I said, "Tell me why the angel helped Joseph Smith translate the Book of Mormon into King James English, using the exact King James Version of the Isaiah passages. They were in 18th century American but he chooses to translate it into Elizabethan English from a country across the sea, in a language two hundred years old. Nah, Joseph Smith simply swiped the passages." They said, "There are always newer and newer versions of the Bible because the Bible is corrupted and badly translated."
I said, "Oh come on! Version doesn't mean a new interpretation of the Bible. It means translating it in the tongue of the people. For heaven's sake, the American Bible Society just made a gullah translation of the Bible. Something like...."Inna de beginning a time De Lawd mek de hebben and de ert." That's not a different interpretation; it's merely a different dialect. All the different versions of the Bible had different educational styles and used different synonyms. A child's translation of the Bible is not a different interpretation: it just uses simpler words, simpler synonyms."
He said, “There are whole sections in the Book of Mormon that are exactly the same as in the King James Version. Some chapters in the Book of Mosiah for instance.”
I said, “And you don’t think that’s kinda weird? I have NEVER said the exact same thing in the exact same order to anyone and you believe that two people on separate continents can come up with the same exact words in the same exact order? No two situations are ever that alike! Especially situations on two different continents. Same exact idolatry, same exact prophecy.”
He said, “When God is doing something anything is possible.”
I thought, wow, this guy is slick! I said, “I want you to compare those exact sections in the Book of Mormon with their exact counterparts in the Bible and read slowly to see if Joseph Smith really knew what he was doing when he wrote the Book of Mormon.”
He said, “Joseph Smith didn’t write the Book of Mormon. God did.”
I said, “Then why did God use the King James Version to write the Book of Mormon?”
He said, “He didn’t.”
I said, “In the KJV, there are italicized words. The KJV translators, when they were translating the Bible from the original Hebrew, used italics when they weren’t sure of the meaning of a phrase or word.” For instance, they say, ‘Joseph had a coat of many colors.’ And they italicize the word “many” because they didn’t know what the real word was. Now, after a lot of research into linguistics and archeology, translators know that the meaning of the word is not “many” but “embroidered.” So the newer translations might translate it as “Joseph had an embroidered coat with long sleeves.” Or they might paraphrase it “Joseph had an embroidered long-sleeved coat which was like the coat the ruling class used to wear.” Joseph and his coat aside, when one compares the passages in the Book of Mormon that are exactly like the passages in the Bible, you’ll notice that the Book of Mormon uses those italicized words the King James translators put in when they didn’t know what the meaning of the word was. For instance, if we were talking about the Joseph story, we would see “many” instead of embroidered. Now, it’s weird, don’t you think that the Book of Mormon should use the exact same “I-don’t know what word this is” word as the KJV. Why should the Book of Mormon imitate even the KJV words – -especially when some of those words weren’t even in the Hebrew. And especially if those italicized words were the translators saying, “I might not be right.” In this case, The Book of Mormon duplicates the KJV tooo tooo tooo much. Don’t you think that’s kind of odd?
No answer. So he changed his tack. He said, “Haven’t you seen in the Bible where they mention other history books and we don’t see them in the Bible?”
I said, “Just because the writers of the book of Kings and Chronicles mention other history books doesn’t mean that God intended those other history books to be included in the Bible. There are tons of history books out there. And you know what? What exactly is the name Mosiah supposed to mean? What are all those names of ethnic groups and people supposed to mean? Linguistically, Mosiah and the Lamanites make no sense. Hebrew names for people and places usually had some meaning. For instance Moab and Amnon both mean “son of my father.” Moses means “child” in ancient Egyptian Mose/mes (as in Tutmoses, Rameses, Ahmose) and it means “Drew out” (mosheh) or deliver (masheh) in ancient Hebrew. And Isaiah means “Salvation of Yahweh.”
No answer.
So I said, "promise me that you will do some objective comparison of the Bible. Check out what I'm saying and you will see that those areas of the text which are changed from the KJV shows Joseph Smith didn't really understand what the prophet Isaiah was talking about."
They said, "we don't need to do that. We know our book is true. Why are you picking on our religion by saying the Book of Mormon is wrong?"
I said, "Excuse me, I and other Christians were just walking along being normal and then you come and tell us our religious book is wrong and when we defend our faith, you say you are being spiritually attacked?"
Then they showed me a picture of Joseph Smith meeting Father God and Jesus and said, "Joseph Smith met Jesus and Holy Father."
I said, "Jesus said, 'I and the Father are one!' And are you telling me that God appeared in a human body? God doesn't have a body...and there shouldn't be a picture of two people here."
Then I said, "Honestly, I believe in one God who created all things in the universe -- seen and unseen, physical and spiritual, known and unknown.The Alpha and the Omega beside whom there is no other" They said, "We believe in a God that created this universe....."
I said, "Don't be slick! You guys believe there are many universes and many gods who were created by other gods who were created by other gods. And when you die --if you're lucky-- you create your own planet with your own gods and your own saviors if necessary."
I think I kinda made them think when they said, "We all will become children of God."
I answered, "No, the Bible says we ARE already children of God. We have authority to heal the sick, cast out demons. As the apostle said, 'as Jesus was so are we in this world.'"
That kinda made them look like they were a bit confused.
Ah Joseph Smith's plates and the angel Moroni. First of all, ONLY Joseph Smith saw those plates. Second of all, there is no such language as reformed Egyptian.
Second his idea about how the Urim and Thummin worked was totally wrong.
Joseph Smith found the so-called plates by divination and the Mormon church's temple services are almost a duplicate of the Masonic temple.
The Book of Mormon has been so changed so many times. If it's the true book from God, why has it been changed? I mean, Mormonism was very anti-African and anti-Indian. Yet many Mormon converts nowadays don't know this history. Black people are descended from Cain and dark skin was a cursed. Brigham Young taught that anyone who married a black person should be executed on the spot. Young taught that it would always be so. There was no place in the Mormon's highest heaven for black people.
As Christ was, so are we in this world.
God tells us that even our best works are as filthy rags.
The Bible tells us that we have already passed from death into life. By Grace. You don't "merit" grace. You don't work up to a point where God gives you grace. Salvation is by grace ALONE.
Isa 44:8, Isa 8:19, Eph 2:8, 9, 20 John 5:24 -- We HAVE eternal life Romans 9:3
God says "beside me, there is no other."
If you examine a Temple Recommend closely, you will see that it comes with an expiration date. God's grace doesn't.
I suggested they read some of the older Mormon books to see how much the Mormon church's teachings have changed, the Journal of discourse volume one, page 50 for instance where Brigham Young says that God and Adam are the same. I suggested they read some of the older Mormon theology books where the Mormon church states that God had literal sex with Mary. They didn't believe any such thing. So, I guess the good thing is that the Mormon church used to be a bit farther off from Christianity than it used to be.
I said, the first lie in the Bible was that man could become a God. It is the main deception in all false religions. Once you accept that anyone can be a god then you can accept the fact that you can become a God. But there is only one God.
They said there are other gods. And each god was created by a previous god."
I said, "Then who created the first God?"
They said, "the God before him."
I said, Isaih 43:10 says, "Before me was no god formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior....and you are my witnesses, says the Lord."
That's an answer to Mormons and to Jehovah's witness who think there are other gods and that Jesus is not God. Trinity. And One God.
What a day! At some point in the conversation, I actually felt as if I was going to get a panic attack.
There was no talking to these guys. Once they lied about history and linguistics and archeological finds, I should have given up. I mean...how can one counter this kind of dishonesty and indoctrination? Only a gospel of power will be able to convince them that perhaps they are wrong. I kept hoping the holy spirit would give me some great word of knowledge about them. And I kept kinda "listening" and "listening" to hear what the holy spirit would say to them. Ah well. I think I perplexed one of the elders though. (the silent one who looked as if he had never heard any objective analysis of the mormon faith.) I was so nervous because i just hate discussions but when mormons approach you in the middle of the street and start telling you how wrong you are about your faith, you do kinda want to scream.
Some of you know how much I love tribal customs. I'm always watching Travel Channel Discovery Channel, etc. I started liking tribalism and anthropology when I was a kid and my mother was in college studying the Yanomamo Tribe...the fierce people.
From then on I was hooked. Marriage customs, courtship customs, death rituals, rite-of-change rituals.
Of course it slipped into my book, Wind Follower which is about four tribes..and which uses Christianity at its most primitive and Scriptural. The Christian mythos is obvious and yet not pushy or preachy. The book will be out soon. Those who love anthropology and folklore and speculative fiction (or weird missionary stories about missionaries battling with shaman) will love it.
In the meantime, check out one of my favorite sites on the internet:
We're all used to the idea of interpreting dreams or visions, but I'm really trying to understand interpreting strange occurrences or coincidences.
Some of them are easily interpreted. They don't even need interpretation. They are Godwinks . We know God is telling us He loves us and is leading us towards certain goals. But sometimes, a series of coincidences happen and we -- okay I -- find myself at a loss.
For instance, I don't know what it is but it seems as if everytime I flick on the TV and do some channel surfing --especially when i click on a channel I would not normally click on-- that there is some heavy anti-Christian anti-Bible rhetoric going on. Now, I know that there is a whole lotta anti-christian, anti-Bible rhetoric out there. What gets me is how it ALWAYS happens that I get up and for no reason turn on the TV on some channel and bingo --in my face!-- comes come snide comment. What is God trying to tell me?
Example: I do not watch The Practice in the mornings. One day, I'm in my sons room and I turn on the television and click on the show ...just to see. At that VERY moment, we see Camryn Manheim's character talking to a nun about the nun's biological sister who has apparently disappeared. The nun says something like, "well my sister would not go out to meet a man on the internet. She is married and she was just fooling and playing a flirtatious game. But she was shy and timid she wouldn't go out to actually consummate this relationship."
I thought, "ooh, nice! They're showing a nun as compassionate." (Not that I'm into how they portray nuns on TV but hey, it was looking good.)
Then Camryn Manheim's character says, "But what if she did?" The nun replies, "Well then if she did that she deserves to burn in hell forever." Then the nun goes off and kneels and lights a candle near the Virgin Mary. And Camryn says something snide about how compassionate religious people are. AAAARGH!!! Honestly!
But this kind of thing happens to me ALLLL the time.
This morning --like a fool-- I got up and in the middle of tidying up my sons' room flicked the TV on to the CBS Morning News. NOT the stuff I usually watch. Trust me on this. I hate the news. What do I see? Reverend Pearson -- a minister who has gone all maverick against the Bible and says people who pick on gays are Bible-worshipers and Idolators of the Bible-- is talking about how evil and close-minded evangelicals are in how they have rejected him....and he's being shown as some kind of hero by the news reporter.
Now, I've never liked Pearson. I've seen him on television on TBN, WORD network and all those Christian shows. Unlike most Christians who try to see the good in everyone who claims to be a Christian, I am way suspicious. I try the spirits. I don't believe anyone. So I never trusted this guy and I kinda saw something like this coming waaaay back when. I remember he was on TBN's Praise once. He said, "The Bible says 'Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, especially of those who believe." True. But I instinctively knew what he was saying while the folks on the show -- in their lovingkindness-- were utterly blind. He went on to say, "So everyone is saved, only they just don't know it." I could tell that everyone on the show accepted it and thought he was saying that people only needed to hear the gospel then they could know ...and thus become followers of Christ." But, no, that's not what he was saying.
BTW, I've seen Christian folks get all antsy and upset about certain things and yet...allow some of the weirdest stuff to pass by. Swallowing a camel and straining out a fly, as Jesus said. So I got used to being the only one to say, "I don't trust this or that particular minister; he's a wolf in shepherd's clothing" while other Christians thought I was just being way too suspicious.
But back to the major issue...why am I always being dragged by the holy spirit to see instances in the media where Christians, the Bible, holiness is being picked on? What is God trying to say to me?
Turn off the TV? (I doubt this because the shows I generally watch don't slip into anti-christian stuff. And as I've written in another posts, I stopped watching shows like Law and Order that have religion issues.)
Is he reminding me that Christian writers should counteract these issues in their works? Wind Follower, my book, is about THE LOST BOOK of the Creator...and I honor God's word throughout. Maybe my next book should be a book which shows that holy people are really kind and loving.
Is he preparing me for the evils in the world's way of thinking? Am I unprepared for hateful interviewers who will see the Christian in me and attack? Why is God doing this to me?
Or is he doing this to other folks? What's all this synchronicity about?
Okay, okay, I know people talk about how the media handles stories about missing women. They tend to not care much about missing black or latino women and spend a great deal of time on missing white women.
But here is a subtle case of missing black woman syndrome. (They tend to move us out of the media when we're noble or helpless...but they play up the idea of us being sex-crazed and aggressive. What's that about?)
I know I sound petulant but I wish the new movie A mighty Heart, with Angelina Jolie had starred a black woman. I mean Daniel Pearl's wife was half-black and half french. Why should Angelina play her? It kinda bothers me, but I'll have to live with it I guess. It just would have been a great opportunity to show that a black woman could have a mighty heart...instead her race has been white-washed. They better refer to her race in the movie.
I honestly don't want to believe that the US is still sooooo prejudiced but honestly. If the wife had been white, would we be satisfied that a black actress was playing her? I still haven't gotten over the horrible fact that they made the hero of Ursula K LeGuin's Legend of Earthsea white when the story was about a dark-skinned tribe.
*Windfollower, Carole McDonnell - is back from the copy editor; cover is being done now. This one will have an Advance Readers Copy. We will be going ahead and publishing the book soon after (July/August), but the ARCs will be dated officially as October. (This is in order to get reviews. You need a three month lead time.)
Remember also that pre-orders are important so you can go to Amazon or to Borders and pre-order. Those pre-orders help. Paula wrote that she cancelled some books or sent them to POD (instead of offset) because they had few pre-orders. So -- if you're inclined to like multiculti paranormal romance (or if you know someone who likes it) definitely go ahead. Again, it's rooted in the christian mythos but it's not really like much of the Christian fiction one sees. Think folklore/C S Lewis kinda thing. But waaay different. I can't explain it. It's just an odd little book. If you know anyone who might like it, pass the link along. Muchas, muchas gracias.
