First sentence: It could have begun in any town. Bacon's Corner was nothing special, just one of those little farming towns far from the interstate, nothing more than small hollow dot on the AAA road map, with exit signs that offered gas, no lodging, maybe a little food if the place was open, and little more. But it began in Bacon's Corner.
Premise/plot: Piercing the Darkness is a companion book to This Present Darkness. Some of the characters of This Present Darkness--including some of the angels--make an appearance in this one.
Sally Roe is fighting for her life. Escaping from one assassination attempt, she is on the run from both humans and demons that want to silence her permanently. She is a woman with a past--a past that they don't want their opposition to know about.
Tom Harris is a Christian educator. (Principal and schoolteacher?) His two children are taken away from him the day before a lawsuit is filed against him. The accusation is child abuse. The small town's Christian population is torn. Is he guilty of doing something to his own kids or to their kids--or both?! How could they not know?
The woman bringing the lawsuit is Lucy Brandon, who works at the post office. Her daughter, Amber, briefly attended the Christian school. Lucy removed her from the public school system because of behavior issues. The case centers around a spanking and a failed attempt to cast out a demon.
As Harris and his friends try to figure out the hows and whys of the case, they learn of a dangerous curriculum the public school is using; a curriculum that encourages children to meet and befriend spirit guides as they relax and meditate.
My thoughts: Piercing the Darkness is a compelling mystery/thriller. I found it thought-provoking as well.
Would it be an exaggeration to say that most Christians don't think in battle terms--the Christian life as a spiritual battle to be fought day in and day out because the threat is real.
Prayer or lack of prayer is a major topic in the book.
Ideas matter. Ideas have consequences. Few--if any--are completely harmless and divorced from a world view.
Quotes:
In a case like this, public opinion is important. It's the public mind that eventually creates the laws we all have to live by. You see, we fight our battles at two levels: in the courts and in the public arena. A lot of the cases we win today came about because of public opinion that was molded years ago. What we do now to mold public opinion will have a positive effect on legal cases that arise in the future. It's a process. (41)
He was thinking of all those young, impressionable children sitting in all those classrooms down there, and what they must be learning right now. As usual, most of his spirit underlings were occupied with that task. They were the best, and he reveled in the fact that for the past several years, ever since the laws had been changed, their job had been so much easier. Oh, how quickly men could accept the most outrageous lies once the Truth was removed from consideration! (88)
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
No comments:
Post a Comment