In The Name of God [Paperback]

Scott Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1999

Reverend Billy Baker has moved off the television screen and into the White House. In the name of God, the former televangelist has set up a military dictatorship in a future United States where science is a sin, where thought and expression are forcefully discouraged, and where the fate of the world depends on the minds of those individuals who stand against God and Country. Follow John Warner, Daisy Sapphire, and other members of the Underground as they face off with President Baker and his Christian Police Force in their heroic quest for freedom, truth, love, and life.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Scott Smith grew up in LaGrange, Georgia. He currently studies both Film and Neuroscience at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He plans to attend film school after college.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Part One: One Nation Under God

After fourteen hours of manually transporting stacks of Bibles from the conveyor belt to the shipping depot, John Warner followed the crowd of fatigued workers to the auditorium. John didn't want to go to the auditorium. He wanted to make love to Daisy Sapphire, and then fall asleep to the rhythmic sound of waves crashing on a warm, sunny beach. But the ubiquitous Christian Policemen wielding semi-automatic rifles compelled him to confine his desires to the realm of phantasy.

When everyone was seated in the auditorium, Bradley Manning, Chief Executive Officer of Word of God, Inc., spoke into a microphone:

"Today, as you all know, marks the tenth year of President Baker's service to the United States of America. And we would like all of you to share in the celebration of his decade of service. We have a special treat in store for you, brothers and sisters. In a few minutes, President Baker will address the nation in a live television broadcast-and we are all going to watch it."

A murmur rippled through the audience. As workers in an industrial commune, they rarely had the opportunity to watch television. The last time most of them had watched television was about a year ago-in the same auditorium-when the last of the fugitive clones were executed. As President Baker's first official Act of God in 2057, he outlawed cloning and demanded that all clones be arrested and executed because they were "soulless creatures brought into this world by the sin of science, not by the grace of God."

After the murmur abated to awe-inspired silence, Chief Manning pushed a couple of remote-control buttons that dimmed the lights and lowered a gigantic television screen. The television did not impress Manning. As C.E.O. of a major publishing company, he had his own television in a deluxe apartment near the industrial commune. He found television to be rather boring since President Baker's Communication Regulation Act of 2058, though he would never say so out-loud. Manning secretly preferred television programming of the old days; back then, he could zip through hundreds of unique channels instead of choosing between seven government owned and operated networks. His favorite channel in pre-Baker times had been the Jerry Springer Network.

Manning stopped reminiscing about the good ol' days when a ten-foot-tall image of President Baker's face appeared on the screen. Baker's hair was as white and straight as the teeth which comprised his divine smile. He wore a navy blue suit and a tie of the same color. Behind him hung the new American flag. Fifty-four white stars formed a crucifix in the center of a blue rectangle that bisected thirteen red and white stripes.

"Good evening, brothers and sisters," said Billy Baker with the same tone he had used in his early days as a televangelist.

"Ten years ago, in those bleak times of the past, the Lord chose me to deliver this great country from darkness. He chose me to cleanse this nation of sin by ousting Satan's minion, Ann Dallas."

Ann Dallas had been President of the United States of America before Baker. As a member of the Transhumanist party, she won the election of 2052 with the campaign slogan "No more death! No more taxes!" She proposed a mechanized, cybernetic economy of ideas in which every citizen would be a shareholder in a tax-free government. She encouraged space colonization and longevity research with government grants and prizes. During her administration, scientists discovered another vaccine for AIDS and two different cures for cancer, engineered a domed community on Mars, and developed nanotechnology capable of reviving the cryonically preserved.

On March 2, 2053, nearly every American tuned their television screen or computer monitor to the first attempted cryonic revival. An ebullient President Dallas stood beside the doctors as they jump-started a heart that had been in suspended animation for 55 years. Unfortunately, the nanotechnology did not work as well as it had in the chimpanzee trials. The patient, Mark Andrews (1939-1998; 2053-2053), came to life briefly, only to flail around on his bed and say, "Can't see! Where's Lolita? Eee! The goddam pins and needles! Oh...shit."

Then he died-again.

Mark Andrews' second death sent a shock wave of fear through the mind of every citizen. President Dallas tried to explain that failure was part of the scientific method and that the nanotechnicians had discovered the source of error (something about T-cells in the immune system) and would rectify the problem soon. But most people refused to listen to her. Already skeptical of Dallas's radical ideas, many Americans turned against her. To make matters worse, financial nightmares became realities in the recession of 2053. Everybody blamed Ann Dallas for the economic disaster, though the improvidence of American consumers and the policies of her predecessors were at fault; their Trade Wars with China had come back to haunt the United States now that China controlled the global economy. Most Americans were low on cash, confused, and scared. And Reverend Billy Baker took advantage of their vulnerable mentality.

As the world's most famous televangelist, Baker began his verbal assault on President Dallas soon after Mark Andrews' second death. Baker already had the support of all religious groups because of Dallas's well-known atheistic statements such as: "Religion does nothing for man that man cannot do better for himself."

Baker brutally attacked Dallas's atheism and her support of science. He blamed either science or Ann Dallas for everything wrong with the world. "Science is Satan's playground," he often said. He tantalized famous scientists with obscene amounts of money and bribed them to claim that "science is moving recklessly towards Doomsday" and to condemn fellow scientists who "insist on playing God." He referred to President Dallas as "Satan's minion" and accused her of mocking the Omnipotence of the Lord. He called for a return to "Christian values" and the establishment of the United States as One Nation Under God. He claimed that a "solid Christian work ethic" was the only answer to the economic problems. In a time of political disorientation and discontent, he founded the Fundamentalist party and ran against Dallas for President of the United States of America in 2056. And he won-in an election with the lowest voter turnout of the century.

Product Details

• Paperback: 70 pages
• Publisher: Buy Books on the web.com (January 1999)
• ISBN-10: 1892896397
• ISBN-13: 978-1892896391
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,033,906 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not great literature, but a scary extrapolation, February 11, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (LA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In The Name of God (Paperback)

I've actually only read the two sections available online, and thus my review is not the best-informed. However. . .

I liked the book, but not as a book per se. I thought that it was wonderful in its comments on religion and on the personal traits of televangelists. Likewise, its themes supporting science and literacy are admirable.

I also liked the writing, which I thought was very clean, very lucid, though not the most memorable.

However, I thought that the characters were very shallow, almost cariacatures. I also thought that the exaggeration in the setting was really too much, in a sense. It came across as rather prejudiced, the sheer evil of the acts commited by President Baker.

On the other hand, fundamentalists are capable of astounding beliefs and hypocrisy, but this goes back to the problems with characterization by making the characters unrealistic.

Yet the characters are not the important thing here. The important parts to me are the the culture and the imagery of the angelic figures revolting against the image of God. The ideas in this book are what make it interesting, and while they aren't entirely original (Harlan Ellison and Ray Bradbury captured different parts of this picture, and Isaac Asimov used nearly the same society in one story,) no other book that I've seen reveals the anatomy of a religious takeover so completely.

(And I love his choice of BGM. John Lennon!)

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Scathing Critique of Religion and a Darn Good Story, February 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: In The Name of God (Paperback)

Wow! I wish my writing had the same high levels of efficiency, wit, irony, intensity, profundity, and unity as the writing in this book. "In the Name of God" is destined to be a classic in the realm of freethought fiction. It's a futuristic sci-fi adventure, a love story, an artistic and philosophical statement, and an all-too-plausible tale of religious horror--all in one book!

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, August 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: In The Name of God (Paperback)

A frightening, 'Prophetic' look into our future. A must read.....for anyone who wants to see what our future 'could be'. Well, done.

Linda Kerr-Iwaniw, Editor-in-Chief, PentDragon Press