I’m getting into the habit of looking through eBooks hoping to find gems that will help with my own writing. It’s only fair to read people when I send things out to be read. My mother, for example, is approaching the age of 78, and writes poetry and memoirs. All of these are worth reading even is she was some random person in senior housing seeking something to do with herself in strance times.
So, in the process of finding leads for reviews of my book, I found several examples of someone else’s books that have some appeal, even if it’s only for selected goups.
So with that in mind, let’s go deeply into the things I have read most recently.
- Heaven’s Open Door by Sheldon Peart
Religious allegories are everywhere these days, on all sides. And there are many takes on religious ideas — including the nature and purpose of what Afterlife will me like. Mom thinks about there being more than one positive afterlife.
That is about how you want to discuss a book like Heaven’s Open Door. ALL books are written with some intent, and Peart’s intention is to show members of his church (Seventh-Day Adventists in Jamaica) that wrongdoing in the church will be shown no mercy. He does this by creating some characters at various points in their lives and endeavors, killing off everyone, and then seeing what happens after. Here, what happens is that some of the group ends up in Heaven and that the rest — well, the rest don’t. And therein lies the point — Peart shows how hard it is to walk a fine line to be saved.
Aside from the squicky part of reading a book where one denomination is the only one sending anyone to heaven, there are also sources of other discomfort for non-Adventists. The sins of those who ar not invited to the party are shown to the loved ones, it makes them furious — but then they begin to forget everything. Which poses disturbing questions, left unanswered, of being blessed or not. I don’t buy into Adventism, but there are many people who do, they are very ethical, and in this case Peart showcases how religious people will often drown themselves in their own self-righteousness. which is a lesson for any station in any church.