My 2006 endeavor for NaNo was less then...well, truth is it sucked. Royally. But I'm back in 2007 with a fresh idea and hopefully no catastrophes will befall my family this year to keep me from writing.
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So my story idea is a futuristic warning type story for humanity, namely America. I got the idea from spending way too much time at Cafemom.com hanging in the Atheist Parents group and listening to religious drivel from most of the rest of the moms.
Taken from my post at the Cafe:
anyway my idea is that sometime in the future (haven't worked on the timeline yet) America goes through a religious revolution but not a good time. Instead of shedding the shakles of opressive religions they take a step backwards and the religious majority (Christians) take control of goverment (with church leaders convincing an ignorant public to use their faith and just do as they are told and vote these people in).
Their intentions are "pure" in that they really believe what they are doing is for the good of all Americans. They start be getting rid of abortion and bringing prayer and organized religion back into public schools. At first it seems innocent. But as years go buy it starts to get out of control.
Eventually the American Christian Church is founded and it starts to replace many smaller denominations of Christianity until the president declares it the only allowed Christian religion in America. All other churches are changed ocer or dissolved, dissenters are considered heritics and traitors to the American way. Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and any one else are supposedly safe but their lives are made so unbareable that most flee the country for Canda and even Mexico. America is no longer the safe haven for immigrants. The borders are closed to everyone the people deam unAmerican.
Those that believe in "pagan" or "evil" religions are thrown in jail and those that don't believe at all either just go along with the church or are encouraged to leave or face jail time. church attendance is monitored to make sure every man, woman and child attends each week and eventually "church squads" are formed to check on those not attending and make sure they are "good Christian" Americans and find out why they were in't in attendance.
Sunday becomes a holy day again and all businesses are closed, save life saving buildings (hospitals, fire and police). If you are found working (even in your yard) you are fined.
The church pretty much rules all that happens in America. They monitor TV and soon control it, only allowing certain shows they deam appropriate for the people. God and Jesus must be mentioned in every single show and the shows must somehow reinforce their morals and beliefs. Kids are brainwashed at school, sunday school, church and bible studies to not question the church or face damnation (or jail time).
Parents that try to teach their kids anything else have their children taken away and charged with moral neglect and sent to prison (with the murderers, rapist and the like).
The 10 commandments are law. Swearing is prohibited and you are fined on the spot for swearing. Smoking, drinking and drugs (including some prescription meds) are banned. Boooks deamed unfit are taken from libraries and homes are searched for contraban (think anything on the banned book list the last 100 years and a little Nazi book burning).
Women are no longer allowed to wear pants and must dress modestly. thongs, mini skirts, low cut tops and anything else they deam unfit are outlawed and no longer sold. As soon as a woman has her first child she is required by law to quit her job and stay home until the child is 14. that transfers to the youngest child in the family. birth control is outlawed so abstinance (even in marriage) is taught. it a family has more children then they can afford the woman is jailed for not keeping the faith while her children go to a good christian home.
okay. that is like the back drop to the story. i didn't mean to write all that but it kind of worked some of the ideas out of my head.
the story itself is about a women who grew up in this and is tired of being told what she can and can't do and wear and read and believe. so she rebels, causing all sorts of trouble for her family. but her gramma supports her because she remembers what it was like before the church. mostly it will show snippets of life before the story through flashbacks so we can see how things slowly got out of control and a thing people thought was good turned into a monster and America was destroyed.
I haven't worked the plot out yet. I'm mostly working on back story.
3 comments:
Hi, I followed your blog from Cafe Mom.
I'm a Christian . . . and I think your idea is an excellent one.
The big problem with ANY theocracy--even a Christian theocracy--is that it legislates from the outside. True religion can only come from the heart. I think that's why Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is within you.
I'm not crazy about the moral decay of our society these days, and sometimes I think we can all use a good dose of true Christianity.
But true Christianity is not a matter of living by any outward law. It is a matter of living in a relationship with Christ.
I hope you put up some excerpts. It'll be interesting to see where you go with your idea.
Thanks. I feel the same way. Even though I don't believe in god anymore I always felt that church and spoken prayers weren't so much about believing in god but about showing everyone else that you believed which I always thought was no one's business. It should be between the person and god. But that is how I saw it.
I have no problems with "real" Christians. It's the fanatics that bug the hell out of me because they can't see past their own inflated heads sometimes.
Organized religion scares me. It is all about power and control and always has been. Long before I gave up believing in god I gave up on organized religion. It held nothing for me.
Oh, and I added a link to your blog on mine. NaNo writing buddies unite, lol.
Link away. :-)
I've also had bad experiences with organized religion and I hope that's made me more compassionate towards people who don't attend church.
I still believe in God, although I don't always understand how He works at times!
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