Thank you for taking an interest in my work. As this site was a response for self-publishing my first novel, let me explain my thought processes for writing in general and The Preachers' Bet in particular.
Looking back through my formative years, I can now see clearly that there was an author buried beneath all the childish antics and adolescent self-absorption. I was fortunate in college to find friends who were of great literary talent and skill who encouraged me in my furtive steps into writing.
Of course, for the author to come out of any person, there is the requirement of practice. I completed my first novel at age-22. To look back at the idea and the writing, they are of both low quality as to be absurd.
I have spent enough time, practiced my craft that I no longer feel embarrassed to share what I have created with the world. This is the first of what will be several published works; hopefully many coming out in rapid succession.
I write because I need to. Like exhaling the waste gases accumulating in my lungs; if I do not expel thought in written form, I will suffocate. I need to write because I am constantly interacting with the world; thoughts and ideas, trends and changes. I am not able to sit in passivity and observe the world around without comment. So, I write.
Now, to answer the question that even before publication, some of asked. Why did I write this book? (Although many of charitably asked this in another form, 'Who's the audience for this book?')
I was almost born an Evangelical Christian. I certainly was raised as one. My commitment to Christianity and the church evidenced itself in my college major and first career choice after college. Along with my self-discovery as an author, I also discovered that the grandiose ideas of changing the world through leading a local church also did not fit me.
The way that I put bread on the table for my family, now, is through secular means like millions of decent Christians and human beings in the United States. However, I still maintain a connection with the (and a) local church, close enough to see some aspects that alarm me.
One of the greatest concerns I have is the divide between leadership and laity in the church. I believe most pastors are not actively seeking to elevate themselves above the people they serve. From the words they say on Sunday mornings, most abash themselves willingly, attempting to debase themselves in the eyes of those who congregate once a week to listen to them.
However, I believe there is an inherent issue in the church that the church members are adept at elevating their pastors. Whether the pastors want to or not, they feel that elevation. I have had conversations or heard prayers elevating the leader within the local church body. I've talked with men who call other men within the congregation, "a godly man."
To be certain, the motivations are pure. It is good when the congregation loves and trusts its senior pastor. However, when the love and trust elevates to idolization, how is the church served when the pastor is held above the others?
Two incidents of infidelity involving church leadership rocked a large congregation in the area where I live. One was of enough public interest to merit a article in the largest newspaper published in our city.
I wonder how many times those pastors were called "godly men"; either to their faces or when discussed among their congregation members. If their marriages and ministries were in that much danger, why didn't they quit? What compulsion were they under to intentionally deceive their congregations; to stand in front of their flock week-in and week-out expounding the Scriptures? Did these men feel that they needed to be good all the time and just got tired of it?
Related to the above, I wonder if these pastors were tortured over their duplicity? Or did they just go on preaching even if they didn't believe it, weren't living up to what they preached? Were their consciences so seared that they didn't feel anything about what they had done?
If so, how difficult is it to just talk, "Christian-ese"? I have been an Evangelical since age two. I learned quite early how to say the correct phrases.
Not too dive too deeply into sociology, but Evangelicalism is like a tribe. We generally hold the same values, rarely stray from our group, make friends among those who we feel safe.
I have observed the Left (in other words the woke Social Justice Warriors). In many ways, they are just like Christians. Their woke-ness is a religious experience. They hold to a dogma. They have a worldview framework. They judge the saved from the damned.
Their excesses are easy to critique for Christians. However, can we look at them and not say that we share their same faults? For instance, we both extol our leaders. Often, we overlook faults as long as our leaders are "one of us." This can apply to politics as many prominent Evangelical leaders wave away the faults of the current occupant of the White House, but were in a rage when one of the "enemy" was equally piggish.
And it goes both ways. The Left is in a tizzy about the overreach of the Executive branch of government, but were fine when "their guy" was engaging in similar activity.
In these last few paragraphs, which were much more stream-of-consciousness as intended, the reader can get an idea of what motivated me to write this book.
The premise is outlandish. I had to create an almost impossible person with motivations so bent out of proportion to create the character of Collin. Most people who are antagonistic towards Christians and the church couldn't spend an hour in a Sunday service, much less twenty-seven years. Because of the above mentioned tribalism, the scenario of this book is incredibly implausible.
I hope it is a lesson to a church that people are not always the best judges of character. Anyone can be deceived. We should trust our leaders, while still understanding that they are human and are as needy of the cross in their lives as the most vile prisoner on death row.
Finally, Christians should be cognizant of engaging in group-speak and group-think. Although, there is clear heresy in the world and Evangelical doctrine has been hammered out over thousands of years; the destructive and unworkable discarded; the true and tested embraced. Christians should be clear-headed thinkers. They should discern what they hear and weigh it. They should be gracious to all no matter if a person is in their tribe or not. They should never use the correctness of Christianity as discriminatory. We should not feel any superiority over those who don't follow truth.
Thank you for reading this. If you have not read my book, please consider purchasing it. Even if you hate it, and I'm sure many Evangelicals who read it will, wrestle with what is written and don't just dismiss it off-hand as being a work of someone who hates God-given authority.
K.T. Kraig
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