There is perhaps no greater validation of one's creative efforts than when someone who should find the work offensive or discomforting instead finds it insightful and useful. Such was the case for Christopher's Moore's brilliant "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" when he let a friend who was also a Catholic priest read the novel prior to publication. And now, or more accurately two years ago, such is the case with my short story, "Ultimate Messiah Smackdown" which made its second and more prominent appearance in the "Alternative Theologies" anthology published in 2018.The collection has received mostly positive reviews and even engendered a bizarre controversy where some zealot decided to steal all copies of the book from the publisher when he left his table unattended at a convention. If that doesn't make you want to read it, you are probably not my kind of person.
I don't know if it made one specific reviewer want to read it or not, but I happened upon her review on Goodreads and was quite simply blown away. The reviewer in this instance is a Christian pastor named Mindi Welton-Mitchell. As I wrote earlier, based on stereotyping and presumptiveness, two things at which we Amuricans excel, she should have found my story of Corporate Jesus vs. Actual Jesus offensive. This becomes even more of a supposed certainty when one looks her up and discovers she is a pastor at a *GASP* Baptist church!
Well, this may come as a surprise to many of you, but my grandmother was a member of the Baptist church for approximately seventy of her one-hundred years, Republican Jesus bless her soul. She taught Sunday school for decades and I often attended those classes, hence my apparently unusual; knowledge of the workings of American Protestantism. Many Evangelicals have tried to school me on the Bible, having been taught that "unbelievers" don't know anything about the faith. It hasn't gone well for them. My grandmother taught me too well. Reverend Welton-Mitchell most likely falls into the category where one would have found my grandmother. Devout, sincere, able to laugh at herself within reason, and more interested in growing than in remaining in place.
(I'm kidding about the Republican Jesus part, of course. My grandmother would have severed her own limbs before she voted Republican. She was proof that faith-based individuals are not all Right Wing.)
At least, that's what I got from her review of the anthology and my story in particular. Below is the portion regarding "Ultimate Messiah Smackdown":
Perhaps my favorite entry was Ultimate Messiah Smackdown. Which Jesus do we really follow, the smiling white guy in a suit who preaches the prosperity gospel and the religion of nationalism, or the man who challenges us to think and act differently (and might smell bad)? Or which Buddha, for that matter? I’m already planning on using this story as a sermon illustration.
It would have been enough for her to offer a positive, thoughtful review as a Christian minister, but for her to also mention using my story as part of a sermon is nothing short of astounding. I am honored and a little humbled and a little thirsty, but I think that last thing is solvable with water. I have no idea if the intended sermon took place, but I am going to ask her because sometimes, rarely but sometimes, a review can touch an author as much as our stories touch the reviewers.
Read the entire review here.
No comments:
Post a Comment