Sinner by Ted Dekker

From Barnes and Noble

Synopsis

Some say roll with the punches. Drift with the tide. Nothing can stop the inevitability of change. There was a time when 300 Spartans disagreed with such mindless thinking and stood in the gap.

Now it's time for 3,000 to stand in the gap.

Sinner is the story of Marsuvees Black, a force of raw evil who speaks with wicked persuasion that is far more destructive than swords or guns. Beware all who stand in his way.

It's also the story of Billy Rediger and Darcy Lange, two unsuspecting survivors of a research project gone bad, who discover that they are perhaps the two most powerful souls in the land. Listen to them or pay a terrible price.

And it's the story of Johnny Drake, the one who comes out of the desert and leads the 3,000. Follow him and die.

Sinner tells the story of a free land where people who worship as they please and say what they believe are suddenly silenced in the name of tolerance.

Sinner by Ted Dekker is a peek into a future where “tolerance” has become the new religion. Our children are fed a constant diet of the necessity for “tolerance” in school every day. While we become tolerant of cultures and religious beliefs outside our own, we find that the beliefs that are still in the majority are becoming less tolerated. I’ve often felt that as a society, we need to stop focusing on and celebrating the differences between all of us. Instead I’ve thought that if we could use the time our children are taught to celebrate our cultural differences to show our children how very much we all are the same, we would build a stronger more cohesive society. I’m not saying that our huge country shouldn’t be filled with people of all colors, religions, and beliefs. I’m merely suggesting that underneath all of our individual customs, we are all pretty much the same. We all want a better life for our kids, we all want a safe place to live and we all want to be secure. It’s how we achieve this that seems to be the problem.

Dekker makes interesting comparisons with the way our society is heading now. It’s simply not enough to tolerate others, we must always be cognizant of our ability to offend and be offended. In Dekker’s future, our seeming inability to ignore the things we don’t participate in becomes intensified ten fold. And our hyper sensitivity to contrary beliefs magnifies as well. In this scenario, a public Christmas tree becomes, instead of a beautiful charming symbol of one groups belief; a symbol of oppression and hatred displayed only to remind some that they don’t belong.

I believe the goal of Sinner was to point out the direction we’re heading in, to sort of sound an alarm of some sort to both Christians and more secular readers. The book succeeds on that level, Christians will note the way society and our government is slowly eroding the display of their beliefs. The more secular reader can see how government has slowly started to erode our Bill of Rights, and perhaps be a bit more aware of the encroaching of our rights that takes place with such regularity.

I enjoy Ted Dekker’s books and although I haven’t read any of the other Paradise novels, Sinner didn’t disappoint. This particular novel was a tad bit preachier than the other novels I’ve read by this author. I’m not particularly religious, (no I’m not going to say that annoying “I’m spiritual, not religious” line. What the heck does that even mean?) but I usually really enjoy Dekker’s books. Some reviewers have mentioned the Left Behind series whilst reviewing Sinner. I attempted to read that series, but found it just way too contrived and not terribly well written. I know, the series has sold something like a gazillion books, but I just didn’t much like them, so I quit after the third or fourth book.

Dekker’s novel reminds us all that while tolerance is to be expected in a society as broad as ours, we must be on guard against the types of intolerance it breeds.