Living the Story of America Rising

by Christine Sunderland @Chrisunderland

As Christian storytellers, are we affecting our culture for good? Are we using the talents that God has given us? Are we making a difference? We live in an increasingly polarized culture, both national and international. As we watch civilization collapse around us, what part can we play and what responsibility do we own, for the past, the present, and the future of this great country?

My daily prayer is, “Let my will be thy will. Let my words be thy words. Let my stories be thy stories. Let all be infused with thy love. Lead me, O Lord. Work thy will in me.”

Today is the anniversary of the horrendous attack upon the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001. In The Fire Trail (eLectio, 2016) I told the story of this terrorist attack in the central chapters of the novel, from the point of view of each of the major characters, relating their memories of the tragedy in which four passenger airliners, hijacked by nineteen terrorists, became suicide bombs. Given my novel’s theme that the line between barbarism and civilization is a thin and disappearing one (symbolized by the fire break trail above UC Berkeley), the story rises to this central peak of memory, then descends.

I didn’t plan this structure. I had not focused on the obvious fact that my tale, set in September, about law and order and the disintegration of public safety, should at the very least recognize the magnitude of this event in the center of the month.

But I listened each day to the direction God desired me to take with this novel. And suddenly I saw it (wondering how I missed it): I needed to decide, at the very least, whether or not to give this memorial a key part to play.

And so I rewrote the middle of the novel, realizing September 11^th’s importance and the vital need to never forget, just as we remember the Holocaust of World War II and the abortion holocaust since 1973.

I believe our country is heading towards tyranny of the few over the many, something many of us did not see coming. Innocent men and women today are persecuted for political reasons, elections are no longer free and fair, show trials are staged, opposing voices are silenced, and the powerful weaponize fear among our citizens. As Christian novelists, we have a wee small voice to witness to our God of love and salvation, truth and freedom. We must speak before we too are silenced.

We must change the culture of death and despair with words of life and hope, imbued in heroes who face the Goliath state, who are poised to sling the stones of truth.

And so I call upon publishers as well, to give voice to those who tell the truth about who we are and the path we must take as Christians in a world of materialism and doubt. Those who died in the bombing of the New York Trade Center must not be forgotten. Western Civilization must not die under our watch, under the watch of Christian artists. For artists create culture, and culture creates a national conscience.

Since September 11, 2001, monuments to America’s freedom and justice have been toppled, national heroes have been maligned, and testimonies to our history have been erased from national memory. We as Christian writers must restore those monuments and heroes and testimonies, for the generations to come.

Christian fiction writers invite readers to live inside a story, for art proclaims truth, entering the heart, mind, and soul. Enter our pages, we say, and travel with us to a greater understanding of who we are and are meant to be. In this way, as the Greek playwrights taught us, we achieve catharsis, wrestling with the tragedy of fallen mankind, with our own sufferings and those of our world. Open the book and turn the pages. You will be given the gift of wisdom to refuse the evil and choose the good (Isaiah 7:5).

While all my novels deal with threats to Western Civilization and the responsibilities of freedom, the role of law and order, and the need for an educated electorate for democracy to survive, The Fire Trail, set in 2014, and Angel Mountain, set in 2018, place recent crises front and center.

My novel-in-progress, The Music of the Mountain, set in a post-pandemic world not foreseen three years ago, explores civilization forced underground and democracy saved, one book at a time. For as long as there are writers and readers, there will be ideas exchanged.

Christian novelists, addressing our current culture with stories of redemption and renewal, offer to resurrect America, the land of the free, the hope of the world. Only then will our nation rise from the ashes of Nine-Eleven to honor truth, goodness, beauty, and love, living the story of America rising.

Christine Sunderland has authored seven award-winning novels: Pilgrimage, set in Italy, Offerings, set in France, Inheritance, set in England, Hana-lani, set in Hawaii, The Magdalene Mystery, set in Rome and Provence (all Oaktara), The Fire Trail (eLectio), set at UC Berkeley, and Angel Mountain (Wipf and Stock), set on Mount Diablo, east of Berkeley. She serves as Managing Editor for the American Church Union (www.AmericanChurchUnion.com). Visit Christine at www.ChristineSunderland.com (website and blog), Facebook, and LinkedIn.