Religion: Not Yet, Not Here, Not Necessarily Available because It is Not for Now....

My fiction pushes against religiosity by exposing the wounds and the questions that result from being hurt by the church and accused by religious leaders who have become bullies instead of good news brokers. In his book, Kingdom Principles: Preparing for Kingdom Experience and Expansion, Miles Munroe distinguishes between religion and a kingdom-mindset. By unpicking how kings exercise dominion as well as lord over domains, Munroe challenges people, no matter their religious affiliation, to take Jesus' reply to Pontius Pilate at face value: "I was born a king." Munroe claims that "religion postpones the Kingdom to a future experience." When religion is focused on the attainment of something not yet, not here, not necessarily available because it is not for now, there is a space and a potential need created in our minds for some more enlightened guru without whom we might not be able to get to there then, who, if said guru is operating against us out of some impure agenda as a bully, competes against the Holy Spirit for our trust. This mismatch often twists how we understand and lean on God. My book, Pastor's Ex-Wife, is the story of one such victim's journey back to a place of vulnerability after having been bullied away from trust, overtaken by too much fear and chained up by so much religiosity. It takes her on a romp through inner city schools as well as to an assortment of Protestant churches until she finds enough courage to confront and disallow her abuser-pastor-ex-husband any additional power over her life and emotions. Although fiction, it is anything but imagined.