Revival Season

Adult fiction

    "Papa turned up the radio as our van became one of an anonymous throng of vehicles barreling beneath an overpass.  But none of the other cars had the important task that we did:  driving nine hundred miles to bring the word of God to people who needed to be saved from their sins."

     If you haven't heard of the revival circuit don't feel bad.  I think it had its heyday in the 19th century when tent revivals were major summer social as well as religious events in small towns.  Believe it or not.

     Basically a well known (in evangelical circles) preacher visits a series of small town churches.  At each one he holds a bunch of high octane, very emotional services, usually in a huge tent.  At each one he preaches a vehement sermon and prays over all who acquire a need to be saved.  Sometimes he does faith healings.

     Miriam, protagonist of Monica West's Revival Season, is the daughter of one such minister.  Each summer he and his clan (wife, two daughters, one son) hits the road to visit the churches to which they've been invited.  Son Caleb serves as his apprentice while the family females hover in the background.

     " I might break the two-thousand-soul mark this year.  Wouldn't that be a blessing?"

     Despite an incident from the previous summer Miriam's father is still being invited to visit fairly large and prosperous congregations.  But the incident is still on her mind.  She's hoping that this summer he'll "redeem himself."

     This doesn't seem likely even though Miriam's father stuns the crowds at their first stop with an act of healing on a little boy.  He's preaching to standing room only crowds until...

     ...at a church in North Carolina behind the tent a man whom he had tried to heal loudly accuses him of being a fraud.

     " I know about the girl you assaulted last summer.  How you got angry when you knew you wouldn't be able to heal her.  Just like you're angry now."

     Miriam is the only one in her family to see her father beat the man.  But the word spreads.  The next night attendance is lower, people are jeering instead of cheering, and there are accusations that he put the man into the hospital.  From then on the tents are mostly empty.  And back at home at the end of the summer his congregation is diminishing.

     In that church healing (and just about anything else considered important) is said to be the exclusive domain of men.  For a girl or woman to heal would be a cardinal sin, a blasphemy.  But that autumn Miriam inadvertently discovers that she has the gift of healing--a gift that would alienate her from her community and family, especially her very angry father.

     Revival Season is a highly engaging story of a teenage girl coming into her own in a truly hostile environment.

On a purrrsonal note, one thing that made me really angry happened last weekend.  I realize that some of the materials used in making smartphones are not in infinite supply and that mining them often involves severe mistreatment of people of color in some African nations.  So I'd determined that I'd make mine last as long as possible.  I'd gone five and a half years without as much as a cracked screen.  Imagine how I felt when I learned that my cell phone service provider is phasing out services to that model so everyone who has it has to needlessly buy a new one.  WHAT THE FUCK!!!  That is truly sinister planned obsolescence.  The Earth can't survive that corporate mindset.  We've all got to wake up, smell the coffee, and unite to defend the Earth against unsustainable corporate greed.  That's my little sermon.  (Jules)

Amen! (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to all who fight against corporate greed and the evils it spawns.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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