Hopeful Uncertainties: A Rant Is as Good as a Prayer

By Kirk Stapp

Jason Cord is wounded while serving in Vietnam. He reaches out to God and experiences nothing. After his military service, he marries Jeanie, life is good until she suffers a major stroke, leading to her untimely death. Jasons loss turns to anger. He puts God on trial and finds God guilty of indifference to human suffering. He sends rants heavenward. God ignores him. Captain Matt Parris returns from Iraq, his faith clouded in regrets and guilt. He is dying from cancers that decimate his body, but not his soul. He seeks to find a rock on which to anchor his drifting faith and the courage to confront his doubts. Matts former high school teacher, Jason Cord, agrees to become the executor of Matts will and his caregiver. They share their thoughts and reservations about God and faith, which become the basis of an unlikely friendship. Jasons teaching career is coming to a close. He resists the smothering edicts in No Child Left Behind, high-stakes bubble tests replacing critical thinking. He invites Matt to speak to his American Government class. Matt puts together a handout describing Dominion Theology. After Matts presentation, Jason is suspended from teaching for insubordination, violating the First Amendment Establishment Clause and lacking pedagogical judgment. He requests a public hearing before a hostile school board. The suspension/termination hearing brings into focus Jasons frustration with a public education system promoting rote learning in students and teacher obedience. Matt confronts his fathers extreme Dominion beliefs and the gap that has grown between them. It is Jason and Matts honest struggles to understand mystery that fuses together their friendship and reveals who they are and their hopeful uncertainties.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1432794906
• ISBN13: 9781432794903
• Release Date: September 2012
• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Length: 332 Pages
• Weight: 1.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"