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| Category: Fiction:Humor | |
| About the Book | |
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Free Excerpt From The Book (requires Adobe Reader) PASSING ALL UNDERSTANDING was not meant to be funny; it just turned out that way. Churches take seriously their role in selecting and accepting candidates for ministry, the Lutherans as earnestly as any. Ministers should be persons of integrity and impeccable morals, and it seemed most unlikely that gays and lesbians would even consider such a vocation.This myth was perpetuated for generations, and although a single pastor was the object of surreptitious speculation, it was concluded that his love for the Lord was of such intensity as to exclude love for a woman, marriage, and family, particularly if homosexually discreet. Then gays and lesbians acknowledged that they also had been summoned by God to a life of service in the Church. Either they were wrong or the Church was. Should these persons be welcomed or excluded? Resolutions dealing with the issue were passed at church conventions for over twenty years. These resolutions were then reconsidered, revised, and usually reversed at subsequent conventions. The fictitious Church of the novel, the American United Lutheran Church, prides itself on being liberal, scientifically attuned, open and accepting of new truths. It does so while giving lip service to the ancient biblical proscriptions but considerably more than lip service when bishops’ feet are held to the fire by fired up conservatives. So, the resolutions roll from convention floors like a ship in a storm tossed sea, side to side, ad nauseum. The introduction to PASSING includes a twenty year summary of these self contradicting resolutions. The fictional characters in PASSING are exaggerated, and placing them all together on the stage of one novel may indeed be unrealistic to an extreme. The story must be seen not as a description of the way things are but a response, an angry but amused response to mere mortals excluding persons because of gender preferences. It’s another attempt by mortals to undue what the Creator has bequeathed. The only non-exaggerated scenes are those between two men who seek only to acknowledge their love and commitment to each other publicly. Although a composite of various same gendered couples, male and female, the author has known these people, and they have given him and their communities a vision of a more perfect realm without ignorant pious meddling.
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| About the Author | |
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David Danielson, Lutheran pastor for thirty-five years, has been a Florida court mediator and writes in retirement. Three of his other books are: The Perils of Life Savoring, An Affirmation from an Agnostic Lutheran Preacher – A Memoir; Iola Chrysalis; and Drude. Danielson’s views are frequently off-beat, contrarian. |
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