Political thriller, Dystopian theocracy, Corporate Oligarchy
Date Published: October 31, 2024
Publisher:Rebel Island Press
Lies, fear, and the Holy Bible are the country’s undoing in K.C.
Boyd’s second, dystopian tale, a story that all too closely resembles
an America in which Project 2025 rules. Vividly depicting the present-day
racism, greed, and religious hypocrisy, Secretary of Faith serves as a
cautionary warning to Project 2025.
After an orchestrated victory, the newly elected President redefines the
country by changing its name to the United Christian States of America.
Next, he reduces the traditional number of seats in his cabinet to four, and
adds a fifth, the Department of Faith, appointing his lifetime mentor,
Christian Hillcox, as its first ever Secretary.
The rule of law is no more. Sanctioned by the administration, violent mobs
take to the streets. Media is state-run; neighbors inform on neighbors;
loved ones vanish, never to return. When a natural disaster strikes the West
Coast, an already well-organized Resistance emerges and Secretary Hillcox
finds himself in a battle to maintain both the administration’s
narrative and his own position through evermore frightening means.
In a showdown between Good and Evil, the question is—will citizens
rise to the occasion and save the Republic?
INTERVIEW
Introduce yourself and tell me about what you do:
Twenty years ago, from Ohio, I became alarmed by the then-stealth marriage between Christian extremism and politics. Ohio’s then Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell, made a brief run for Governor. He used his taxpayer-funded SOS website to post a 20-point religious moral code, one that came directly from the now- #MeToo disgraced Bill Gothard’s “(Christian) character-building ethics.” Politicking from the pulpit, to no IRS consequence, he was helped by the Ohio based Center for MoraI Clarity, a group created in the form of a pastoral pyramid scheme. Thankfully he lost and the scheme died, but that was then, and this is now.
Alarmed by what I’d seen, I attended other right-wing religious/political conferences, both in Ohio and across the country, watched countless hours of televangelists, and followed the as-yet unknown pastor-influencers online.
Tell me more about your journey as an author, including the writing processes.
During the course of my journey, I met many excellent non-fiction authors who were writing about the same things I was concerned with. Having a wildly creative mind, I decided to tell the tale through fiction. We are a story-culture and often as not, people are more likely to read – and learn through – a page-turning thriller. My first book, Being Christian – A Novel, https://shorturl.at/bKQnt is about an abused South Texas small town boy, Christian Hillcox, who goes from a difficult childhood to ultimately becoming a worldwide televangelist and pastor with as much political clout as he has failings -are sex, lies, even murder. I began Secretary of Faith during the Trump administration, put it down for too long until I realized I needed to reengage through fiction. I did not plot out either book – they seemed to flow from my fingers.
Tell me about your Book
The year is 2028 and Christian Nationalist James Alger wins the presidential election in a landslide, bringing both houses of Congress with him. He changes the country’s name to The United Christian States of America, eliminates all Cabinet positions but for four, and adds a fifth, the Department of Faith, tapping Christian Hillcox (of Being Christian-A Novel) as its first Secretary. He eliminates agencies, replaces former Democratic judges with theocrats, and uses biblical law to rewrite the Bill of Rights. When catastrophe strikes Portland, Oregon, Christian sends no help there– only pastors to save souls. Advancements in technology and a strong Portland-bases Resistance provide the pathos, terror, and soullessness of a Bible-based, power driven society.
Any message for our readers
As we stand on, or fall into, the precipice of politicians using religion to control and dumb down American citizens, it is up to individuals to decide what kind of world we will live in. Will climate, thanks to the corporate/religious merger, destroy the planet? Will women no longer matter? People of color, sexuality ethnicity, different religions be forced to the sidelines or worse? These are the existential and very real questions we face today.
Story
Religion provides comfort. More than that though, it has always been about power, about control. We see that happening today at a time when End Times believers have the tools to bring the world to their much prayed-upon End. What is
About the Author
After twenty years of visiting megachurches in Ohio and across the country,
attending various 'Values Voters'' conferences, and watching untold hours of
televangelists preach the 'Word', K.C. Boyd decided to use her flare for
fiction to share the dangerous truths she saw. As human beings have always
responded to story, Boyd felt the need to communicate the grave danger we
face-particularly from religious extremists who now stand arm in arm with
genuine fascists-through story.
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