One More Sunday

A well written critique of the Evangelical movement from the early 80's. Many characters and loose strings at the end of the novel but yet a well written read from the author of the Travis McGee detective series. A man goes and looks into the disappearance of his wife after she investigates a large southern TV ministry and he is there as the church and its directors unravel under the weight of many contradictions and a murder.

One More Sunday. John D. MacDonald. 1984. Yes, this is the same MacDonald who wrote the marvelous Travis McKee series. No, this book is not a good as those were, but it is very interesting and relevant. It is MacDonald’s fictional account of the rise of a mega church and the politics involved in maintaining it. The founder of the Eternal Church of the Believer is suffering from Alzheimer’s and his son and daughter are trying to hide that from the donors. The son, John Meadows, is also having an affair with the wife of a minister. He wants to add a medical school and fancy hospital to the mall and the housing development in the Meadows Center, but reputable physicians don’t want to become involved in an organization that favors show more faith healing over medicine. In addition to handling the thousands and thousands of dollars that are donated each day, and investing and laundering this money through numerous banks, the business manager is skimming hundreds of thousands of dollars for himself. One senior pastor likes young choir members. Another is trying to blackmail his way into the inner circle. A reporter who came to write an article on the church has disappeared and her husband is now asking questions. Macdonald skillfully develops the characters and the various subplots, but the ending was somewhat of a letdown. (MacDonald dedicated the book to the memory quiet Sundays in South Congregational Church which is protestant and the Eternal Church is protestant, but in the book a reading done at the funeral of the wife of minister is taken from the Book of Wisdom from the Jerusalem Bible. This is a Catholic translation, and the Book of Wisdom is considered non-canonical or apocryphal by Protestants. I wonder why he used it.) show less

This novel moved me. Partially a study of modern electronic priestcraft, but more a parable of love and its multitude of differences from lust. Well done and from the heart.

What's the point. I've been reading this guy because Dean Koontz says he loves him and has written everything he has written numerous times. This is my second one and quite frankly it was just boring. I'm going to try one of the Travis McGee ones and if that one doesn't light a fire, I'm done with this MacDonald.