Hometown Prophet, the website
Recently I joined SpeakEasy, a new reader/reviewer bureau with promises of "Subversive Reading. Great ideas." Hometown Prophet is my first blog and review for them.
Scripture distinguishes between the (fore)seer of future events, and the prophet, one who speaks "truth to power." Hometown Prophet Peter Quill operates mostly in the former category, accurately predicting events that will occur (admittedly because individuals, agencies, and organizations have not acted with justice and righteousness), though towards the close of the narrative he gets into some heavy-duty laying out of "if - then" alternatives. If you didn't already guess it, "Hometown" in the title is about home as in the place a person basically grew up; for personal and economic reasons, Protagonist Peter has returned home when he starts prophesying. Author Jeff Fulmer sets the fictional story in heart of the Bible Belt Nashville, Tennessee, with church portions all centered in congregations that emphasize the more demonstratively eschatological gifts of the Spirit, practices those of us in the mainline typically don't give a thought - let alone a nod - to from day-to-day. Although "any similarities to actual persons is purely coincidental" prevails, the text references actual places and events that happened in some of those locales.
Hometown Prophet wasn't difficult to read, but I longed for more colorful descriptions, less predictable sentence structure, and [pages 218 and 264] I hope future editions will spell "publically" correctly... it's publicly!
The release of Hometown Prophet especially encourages me because I imagine a lot of conservative, evangelical (in the popular sense of "evangelical"), and pentecostal Christians will buy this book because the central character is one of them. When they reach the best part of the book they'll probably be surprised when (page 301) Peter acknowledges he is gay, he is Muslim, he is unemployed, a migrant worker, homeless, hungry, he is planet earth in distress, and more! In this Pentecostal time of the Church, the Holy Spirit of Life, Renewal, and Reform calls all of us who follow Jesus to live and act in solidarity with the broken, the outcast, the underclass, and the unwanted. To become Hometown Prophets? Maybe so!
my amazon review: a call to all of us?
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