Something mysterious happened in the wilds of Brazil when the morally bankrupt lawyer Nate O\u2019Reilly finally found missionary Rachel Lane, the illegitimate heir of a one of America\u2019s richest men.<\/p>\n\n
She didn\u2019t want $11 billion. Instead, she wanted him to repent, be healed of his alcoholism and claim an outrageous gift \u2014 new life. The lawyer confessed his sins and then prayed his way through a case of jungle fever. But weeks later, he sat shaking in a pew, wracked by doubt. He wept and listed his many sins, one more time.<\/p>\n\n
The story continues: \u201cNate closed his eyes \u2026 and called God\u2019s name. God was waiting. \u2026 In one glorious acknowledgment of failure, he laid himself bare before God. He held nothing back. He unloaded enough baggage to crush any three men. \u2026 \u2018I\u2019m sorry,\u2019 he whispered to God. \u2018Please help me.\u2019 As quickly as the fever had left his body, he felt the baggage leave his soul. With one gentle brush of the hand, his slate had been wiped clean.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
For decades, Christian writers have called this kind of plot twist the \u201cBilly Graham scene,\u201d referring to the moments in Graham\u2019s old movies where the music swells and the protagonist gets born again. One reason \u201cChristian\u201d fiction is supposed to be so bad \u2014 and noncommercial \u2014 is that the genre\u2019s unwritten rules require zap-the-sinners conversion scenes.<\/p>\n\n
These folks need a new excuse. The scene described above is from \u201cThe Testament,\u201d the 10th bestseller by John Grisham, that Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher with all the super-sized sales statistics. His new legal thriller, \u201cThe Brethren,\u201d can be found anywhere on the planet \u2014 except in \u201cChristian bookstores.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
So far, three of his 11 novels include conversions of this sort, said Grisham, during a recent \u201cArt & Soul\u201d conference at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. The novelist rarely speaks publicly \u2014 his family lives quietly on farms near Charlottesville, Va., and Oxford, Miss. \u2014 and he knew his appearance in such a high-profile Southern Baptist venue would take him into the tense turf between the Bible and the New York Times bestseller list.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI am a Christian who writes novels. I\u2019m not a Christian writer,\u201d he explained. \u201cI\u2019m not writing Christian literature. When I was a lawyer, I was a Christian who was a lawyer and tried to live my faith \u2014 not just in my profession, but in every thing that I would do. I think God is involved in (my writing), as with all the other aspects of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
When asked the source of his writing skills, Grisham noted that he studied accounting in college \u2014 drawing a roar of laughter. In law school, he emphasized tax law. He has never taken a creative writing course. But it was crucial, he said, that his mother \u201cdidn\u2019t believe in television.\u201d Instead, their family faithfully took three steps after each move \u2014 joining a Southern Baptist church, getting new library cards and finding a little league baseball diamond. The books soaked in and so did the sermons.<\/p>\n\n
Later, Grisham\u2019s courtroom experience inspired his first novel, \u201cA Time To Kill,\u201d especially the soul-searing testimony of a young rape victim. Church mission trips to Brazil inspired \u201cThe Testament.\u201d Another church project led to \u201cThe Street Lawyer,\u201d which was written in a 51-day frenzy after a freezing night in a homeless shelter.<\/p>\n\n
The key, said Grisham, is that people who want to write suspense novels have to master that craft, with all of its ironic details and elaborate plot devices. Writers either learn how to do that, or they don\u2019t. Once someone has mastered the craft, then he can try to weave in a deeper message. It rarely works the other way around.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cSometimes when I finish a book, I know I\u2019ve done the best I can do. I know the story works,\u201d he said. \u201cI know that the people are real and their problems are real. When I finished \u2018The Testament,\u2019 I was very proud. I\u2019ll do more books like \u2018The Testament.\u2019 I go back to those themes. I can see a few coming down the road.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cBut I can\u2019t do it every time out. I have to watch it, because I\u2019m writing popular fiction and you can\u2019t preach too much.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Something mysterious happened in the wilds of Brazil when the morally bankrupt lawyer Nate O\u2019Reilly finally found missionary Rachel Lane, the illegitimate heir of a one of America\u2019s richest men. She didn\u2019t want $11 billion. Instead, she wanted him to repent, be healed of his alcoholism and claim an outrageous gift \u2014 new life. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n