VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Sam Jane Brown's popular but highly controversial new book, "Forgotten Word," addresses one of today's most serious and frequently debated questions: "Which is more violent, religion or government." The book, a murder mystery predicting that the second coming of Jesus Christ will be in female form, prompts readers to rethink their positions on this contentious issue.
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Non-believers such as Richard Dawkins, who wrote The God Delusion, assert that only religious faith is strong enough to motivate violent behavior in otherwise sane and decent people. Religious advocates take a reciprocal stand, blaming secularism for violence. For example, according to the Los Angeles Times, "In the aftermath of the shooting at Umpqua Community College, for example, Fox host Bill O'Reilly cited weakening religion as the culprit. 'As the world becomes more secular,' he declared, 'civilized restraints to bad behavior drop.'"
According to Brown, both sides miss the point. "A lot of people, especially atheists, are super quick to condemn religion as the source of violence in the world, but that is at best an incomplete perspective on a serious problem," said Brown. "Both religion and government drive war and violence, but the reality is that violence from governments is far worse than anything we've ever seen from religion – at least in the modern era."
Brown pointed out that, when measured in deaths, secular violence has been exponentially worse than religious conflict in the last 200 years. "World Wars I and II – both secular conflicts, killed tens of millions of people. Mao Zedong killed over 60,000,000 people, and it had nothing to do with religion. Cambodia? Not religious… and on and on."
Brown book's sets the stage for this discussion. Taking place in a world of high intrigue in the church, Brown's novel starts with the murder of Catholic priests. These crimes provide the catalyst to tell the story of the impending Second Coming. Zena McGrath, an international detective, is assigned the duty of solving the murders. Her investigation leads her to the Vatican, where she meets a mysterious priest. In New York, she becomes aware of an evil presence following her. Ultimately, she goes to the Holy Land as the perpetrators of the crime are revealed. The book culminates in a climactic Second Coming, in which the "Christ" figure is a woman.
By questioning the most fundamental belief in Christianity – that Christ will return as a man – Brown throws open the door to questioning many popular beliefs and misconceptions about the religious world. "Is religion violent?" Brown asked. "Of course it is. Only a naïve fool would deny this. You can see it with ISIS and all sorts of extremism that capture the world's attention today. You can even take a perspective that secular wars are actually driven by God's desire to influence history. For example, without World War I, you would not have the Arab-Israeli conflict, a war that features powerfully into the narrative of the coming rapture. Do you think that's a coincidence? I don't think so."
The book has raised angry denouncements from certain religious voices, who complain that it is sacrilegious to consider that Jesus will return to the world as a woman. "Forgotten Word" is being adapted into film by Atlanta based film company Lucky Film 13, who are also working alongside Neil Shulman creator Of Doc Hollywood for his new film.
http://www.samjanebrown.com/the_book.html.
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