CFBA Tour: A Pagan's Nightmare

This week, the tour focuses on A Pagan's Nightmare by Ray Blackston. Don't you just love that cover.

When my copy arrived in the mail, I pulled it out of the envelope and started laughing. My husband calls it the Jaws cover. Abigail calls it the shark cover. I call it plain funny.

You have to like a book where the author note at the end explains why Ray wrote the book:

"For years people have accused Christian novelists of using their characters as mere mouthpieces for doctrine, using them to tell the world what Christianity is.

Last year a friend and I decided that it was high time someone wrote a novel about what Christianity is not....Blessings to all who can laugh at themselves."

I think that last line sums up the book. The best way I can classify it is as a satire that pokes fun at what people think Christians and Christianty are -- and sometimes we become.

It's a story within a story. Larry has this revolutionary idea for a novel that he takes to his agent Ned. Basically, it's a reverse rapture. Suddenly all the pagans are gone except for a handful. McDonalds has McScripture fries and the lyrics to songs have been changd in crazy ways. His manuscript is a far-out look at what happens when pagans become hunted by Christians.

Ned is desperate to sell something so takes it on. Only problem -- his wife is an active Baptist and horrified at the thought of what her friends from church will think if he sells the book.

The book plays out between the manuscript and the efforts of Ned to sell the book and salvage his marriage.

If you can laugh at yourself, you'll enjoy it. If you can't take a satirical look at the church, then don't get it.

As for me, I have greatly enjoyed it.

For more on the book check out my fellow CFBA members and CFBA's blog.