lmer has had a history of raising hell and being an agnostic. He converts, but still suffers the same problems. He still drinks, smokes, and has casual sex. He gets accused of messing around with one of the parishioners of his first church, and when he is able to escape that ordeal, he then gets kicked out of seminary for drinking. He takes some time off as a business man, but ends back in the ministry, this time in a traveling evangelism show, sort of the predecessor of televangelists. He gets off of smoking and drinking, but is still an adulterer, which is his major character flaw. He eventually gets married, and takes his preaching seriously. But he still commits adultery with at least two women. And just when the reader thinks that he is going to clean his act, he gets back into the cycle at the end of the novel. Although he is the most prolific sinner in the novel, he has company. Jim, his first true friend, has all the same vices as Elmer. Sharon is an adulteress and Frank is an agnostic. Everyone in this story has vices that they will not, or cannot, give up. That is true with all humans, which is what makes the theme universal. Everyone should read a book like this because he can learn something from it. However, many right wing conservative Christians want to censor this book because they say it attacks the Christian religion and is in poor taste. They are completely wrong, however. They should embrace this book as a warning on what not to do. ...
