I've decided that lengthy serialized fiction really doesn't work well in Blogger's format. That is the reason why I've removed the story Exhuming the Mantle. No doubt my numerous fans will soon start clamoring for me to continue the story since they'll want to know what has happened to the bones of Lonnie Frisbee and Kathryn Kuhlman which have been nefariously stolen.
However, I am being facetious here. The fact is that the story would have little interest for most readers out there. The great majority of people, especially those born since the 1970s, have never heard of either Frisbee or Kuhlman, and therefore those names would have little meaning for them. For this reason, the idea of someone stealing their bones would arouse little interest as the focal point of a lengthy crime story, especially one that takes place within such offbeat setting. Now if the bones of Elvis Presley were stolen, well, that might raise some eyebrows. But Lonnie Frisbee? Who's he? Comparatively speaking, he is now a pretty obscure person. (Far more people now know who Harold Camping is.) And the same goes for Kathryn Kuhlman, if only a little less so. As for shopping my story around to a book publisher, the outfits that specialize in the "xtian fiction" market, they probably would not touch it, for many of the same reasons a secular publisher wouldn't: there just wouldn't be a market for it. They can't publish a book unless they are reasonably sure they can make some money on it. At least writing the story as far as I did proved to be an interesting exercise.
Dan Edelen, whom I affectionately refer to as "Dire Dan," recently said something perspicacious:
…I don’t believe what is discussed on the Internet mirrors the discussion of the average church. Plus, those of us who write about church-related issues should not believe our own press. Fact is, the average Christian could care less about the Godblogosphere.What Dan said bears repeating. But thinking back on my experiences and observations, I have to say that most of the "normal" people revolve their lives around the leadership of their churches, particularly so if that leadership happens to have a level of personal "duende" or magnetism sufficient to elevate them into celebrityhood. Whether or not they meant to be that, such leaders provide a visible focal point for people's lives, and what xtians end up really believing often depends more than anything on what the celebrity pastors happen to focus on.
Or their nearest Christian seminary, for that matter. "Normal" people just don’t have the wherewithal to care about the background machinations of American Christendom. They leave such ponderings for eggheads who write blogs they don’t read or brainiacs who inhabit seminary classrooms they’ll never darken.
That the Internet spreads misinformation, distortions, lies, and half-truths would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic sometimes. Some dunderhead put up a Facebook page entitled Assemblies of God Scandals which included a mention of Lonnie Frisbee. The big problem here is that Frisbee was never ordained by the Assemblies of God, and the Calvary Chapel and Vineyard movements were never part of the Assemblies of God denomination. If you're going to talk about a scandal, please, at least get it in the correct venue. But I think this is another example of how once the misinformation hits the Internet, there is no stopping it, for it takes on an immortal life of its own.