Pagan Worship by Patrick Beacham is a book that starts strong by satirizing Donald Trump and many of the aspects that run adjacent to him like religious hypocrisy, herd mentality, and cult of personality. However its plot and characterization are askew and meanders to an out of place and jarring ending.
David is the son of Britt Hastings, the pastor of the Church of Divine Friendship in Orem, Utah which has made his family very wealthy and famous. Despite the pleasant seeming name, it's definitely a cult. Britt has a tight psychological hold on his congregation and his family including his wife, Maureen, David, and his daughter, Angel. However, his followers supported Donald Trump during the 2016 and 2020 elections. Britt hops on the Trump Train and before too long his family is enthralled by a much larger cult than their own and David questions his own allegiances.
This book is a savage call out to current Conservative politics and what happens when it intertwines with religion. It takes aim at religious leaders and followers who pay lip service to such traits as humility, charity, ethics, values and then back someone who exhibits none of these. When church services are used to disparage political enemies and vilify so-called “sinners” because they look or think differently than them instead of speaking anything about Christ’s love or compassion. When they live in billion dollar mansions yet insist that their flock give more than 10 percent and remain in squalor. When they call liberals snowflakes and scream about “identity politics” but expect separation of church and state to not apply to them because Christians are somehow “special.” When they complain about federal government overreach but want to restrict reading and learning materials in school, strip LGBT rights, and won't let women decide for themselves what to do with their own bodies. They claim to be pro-life when it comes to an unborn fetus but offer only self serving thoughts and prayers when it comes to preventing full grown children from being shot. When mental health is only addressed in deflecting from gun control or vilifying LGBT people but seeing actual mental illnesses as due to a “soft and permissive upbringing” and a need to “pray the illness away.”
This book is 100 percent dead on. If anything it understates the Evangelical movement's main actors.
Britt is an example of such an Evangelist. He was raised in the Church of Latter Day Saints but found the Mormon religion “impure.” What he did see however was that starting one's own religion could be a great source of wealth and power. After comparing other religions, Britt created one, financed by Maureen’s family and based on his own interpretation of the Ten Commandments and the Gospel
He tells his flock that they need a friend to guide them to Jesus and who else would be that friend but surprise surprise none other than Britt Hastings himself.
Britt’s arc is one of gaining power and money through his religion. His limited understanding and perception of Christianity appears to strip down to the fundamentals and provide an easy path for others to follow. However, it puts him in a position of power over the followers. Acting as a buffer or an advocate between them and God gives him an advantage in interpreting religion for his benefit. As with many cult leaders, he at first acts like he was sent by God. Then he becomes the only communication with God. Afterwards the leader usually sets themselves up as a Messiah, one who is sent to save the people and was chosen or declared a child of God. Then they make their followers believe that they are God. By that time all bets are off and as Voltaire said “anyone who can make one commit absurdities can make them commit atrocities.”
That's what people like Britt Hastings and Donald Trump demand: complete and utter obedience, devotion, and worship. The monetary gain is the start but the real nucleus is the following, getting gullible desperate people to obey them without question. Setting them apart from others, feeding on their hate and prejudice, causing them to question everyone else around them including friends and family, and mobilizing that hatred and isolation into their devotees. Anyone can get rich by scamming people but not just anyone can create a cult with themselves as Supreme Leader and God. Britt and Trump are masters at that.
While Britt is suspicious of Trump and the church’s involvement at first he is still a large part of it. It is certain that he recognizes the same mentality in Trump that he does in himself. But there is also something else at play. While others see God in Trump, Britt sees the Antichrist. He doesn't want to save the world, he wants Trump to destroy it to fill Biblical prophecy. There is only room in Britt’s cult for one God but that doesn't mean that Trump can't play a crucial part.
Britt's arc is one of gaining power but David's is one of gaining knowledge beyond what he is taught. His parents mold him and his sister into their good little Christians and while Angel morphs into a perfect little Neo-Nazi inheriting the worst of the Evangelical religious traits, David questions his upbringing.
In school two teachers gave social experiments that opened his mind up to group mentality and a distinct unease for the people who implement it. This foreshadows his eventual hatred for people like his father and Trump, those who use and control people for gain and deification.
During homework assignments, he willingly reads news from various sources that his parents had previously forbidden. These acts open up his mind to other perspectives and issues that his church minimizes or derides. However, David's search for knowledge becomes more personal when his friend dies and a schoolmate reveals secrets about his father. David brings forward things that he previously ignored or handwaved and recognizes the hypocrisy and evil that people like his father and Trump represent.
The book definitely has some great potshots at religious hypocrisy and the role that it plays into politics and the satire and commentary is top notch. However on a mechanical level, there are some huge flaws in the book’s presentation especially in the final chapter.
I won't reveal too much but events happen without any build up or foreshadowing. It comes out of nowhere and would have been accomplished much better with a distinct arc leading towards this confrontation. There are also some frustrating questions and logistics with these events that remain unanswered or undeveloped.
For example another far better book which satirized Trump was Paul Chasman’s Lakshmi and the River of Truth. It was not only a good satire but a good story because it followed a consistent path. Because it was set in a dream world, even the illogical became logical and moved the story forward. There was some inconsistency and one plot point left unanswered but for the most part, the book was able to provide a coherent and consistent narrative that flowed.
With Pagan Worship, however, the plot point had nowhere to begin and nowhere to end. It is almost too broad and cartoonish how it was written as well. It's uncertain whether its meant to be darkly comic or serious. Either way, it is confusing and arbitrary. It probably is meant to shock and provoke but it is very hollow without any meaning behind it and there could have been.
This could have been a moment where David recognizes the similar situation between what he witnessed and what he lived through. He could have had an important conversation that could have been filled with irony and double meaning in hindsight. It's almost maddening how much this affects the novel especially when it's the most important turning point and is simply revealed without any setup and minimal following.
The final moments however provide a dramatic irony in the form of an emotional gut punch. David finds himself in the very position that he was trying to get away from and plays the last role that he ever wanted. He becomes a tool in both his father's and Trump’s plans and gives them exactly what they want. In David's drive to be independent from his family and his former politics, he becomes more beholden to and identified with them. In destroying his link to his past, David ends up destroying himself.
