So far, only a single review has appeared on Amazon for my most recent novel, Returning. I can't say I'm particularly happy about it, because the only thing you see at the top of the page is the single star. You have to scroll down quite a ways before the reason is readable. Not a very good reason, when you come right down to it, but it does point up an ancient problem with human perception.
The reason, according to the review, is that the book portrays all Christians as fanatics and all preachers as crooks. This is hardly the case. Of course, I really have no idea how far the reviewer even read. They apparently stopped as soon as their sensitive perceptions detected this supposed tendency.
Human perception is often like that. Someone too strongly invested in a particular set of beliefs will often look at fictional characters who display a negative aspect of those beliefs, in this case actually a dozen or so people out of a population of several hundred million, and simply decide that everyone is included and they're being attacked. It's a bit like the way Bill O'Reilly would construe a shop clerk saying "Happy holidays" to a customer as an attack on Christmas.
In Returning, President Gordon's family have been big-time evangelists for several generations. Unsurprisingly, for a family that's been selling salvation for four generations, they do tend to view religion as much as a way to generate an income as something you actually believe in. They tend to be a bit puritanical, and the Puritans, one should remember, weren't exactly the nicest people who ever lived. The Mayflower bunch, and those who immediately followed, had a very familiar outlook on religious freedom. It meant they were free to worship in the manner they preferred, and that no one else was allowed to deviate from that standard. It doesn't hurt to remember that those early Puritans held exactly the same beliefs as the ones who stayed behind in England and a few years later started the Civil War and murdered the king.
Of course, that hardly indicates that all Christians are fanatics, or that all preachers are just in it for the money. In a lot of small churches, there isn't that much money to be in it for. On the other hand, TV preachers, and travelling evangelists are always suspect. The sort of religious con featured in Marjoe was not an aberration, it was common practice with many touring preachers and remains so to this day. If a preacher is charging admission, and then takes a couple of collections during the service, he's probably a con artist. Sorry, but that's reality.
In any case, the majority of people in Returning, once you exclude the Gehunites aboard the starship, are probably Christians of some sort. Or follow some religion, anyway. For the most part, they're fairly ordinary people. The King of England, who is, after all, the head of a major religion, is a pleasant enough chap.
True, the religious right has managed to impose a theocratic government in the United States, but that hardly means that all Christians are fanatics. Or even that all Americans are. The imposition of a religious regime doesn't require everyone to be religious. It just requires that there be enough people who are religious enough, or just gullible enough, to elect enough people to push it through. You don't get a government like that because you want it, you get it the same way you get school boards that try to force science teachers to include creation myths in science class, or "return" organised school prayer so that they can force Jewish kids to pray to Jesus before class, or Jehovah's Witnesses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. These people don't get elected by saying what they really plan to do. They appeal to "family values," and "returning to when things were better."
It's that Puritan idea of religious freedom again. Like "religious freedom restoration" laws, the concept is actually that you are free to do whatever you wish, but everyone who believes differently should do whatever you wish as well. There is certainly actual persecution of Christians in some parts of the world, but what Americans usually mean when they say they're being persecuted is that someone is stopping them from persecuting someone else. It's common for TV preachers to claim gay rights advocates are hypocrites because they're telling Americans to change, but not doing anything to stop ISIS from throwing gay men off the top of buildings. At best, this is idiotic. An inability to stop a great evil in one part of the world doesn't mean you shouldn't try to do something about a lesser evil in a place where you can do something about it.
All religions have their fanatic fringe. The majority just want to get along and live their lives in peace. The minority, on the other hand, is more willing to take extreme measures. It's hardly surprising when that minority convinces the majority that it's better to just go along with their wishes than to suffer the consequences if you don't.
The Gehunites seem to have the right idea. They recognise that their gods are mythical, and preserve their old religions mostly through holiday observances. Over the years, ritual has diminished and cuisine has expanded to fill the gap. The fast days are gone and the feast days are emphasised. The religious right may complain about secularism, but keeping the government strictly secular is the best protection against religious tyranny.
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