My new novel, New
Frontier, explores the dangerous twists and turns of a topic rattling
around in my brain, I think like most people in the western world, for the last
decade or so, Religious Terrorism. 
Beyond that though, once I started toying with such a volatile and
tricky substance in the story, the theme expanded into the realm of religious
commercialization.

In a world without governments, where capitalist anarchy
reigns supreme and super-conglomerates have taken the place of old
nation-states, I started trying to visualize what life in this world really
looked like a street level.  It doesn’t
take much, we already see in our world today with a government trying to
regulate every aspect of life, that faith is big business, so I extrapolated
that without those shackles preventing any crossovers that capitalism and faith
would make extraordinary partners.  The
second I started picturing preachers and bishops and sheiks out to make their
fortune, out in the open, the picture looked too familiar not to feel
overwhelmingly disturbing.

The compromises I made in exploring this aspect of religion
brought out a side of my own beliefs dormant under the cynicism which so often
defines my own outlook on faith in a higher power.  I just couldn’t accept the cultish and overly
simplistic view of an opportunistic preacher milking a congregation of sheep of
all they were worth, it missed too many of the finer points in the debate and
made people who held such faith out as fools. 
My own experience in life, my friends and family, tell me that there are
millions of intelligent, moral, and courageous people who believe with all
their hearts in a higher power, so why reduce their beliefs to nothing in a
novel meant to express the full potential of mankind?

Hence, the use of four characters in particular to explore
the idea of religious commercialization and religious terrorism, which I felt
conveyed the rich tapestry of the question, and perhaps touched on the
occasional truth.  The first of these
characters is by far the most identifiable, the most offensive, and likely the
character which many groups who take up arms against anything they deem an
assault on their beliefs will concentrate on as well.  Ironically, the Reverend Higgle is actually a
true believer, a fact not shared by his fellow members of the board of the
International Trading Company.  It’s just
that Higgle doesn’t believe that doing the lord’s work requires poverty, but in
fact his wealth only makes him a more powerful instrument for the lord, and
perhaps he even influences the decisions of his secular bound colleagues.  What Higgle does represent, far and beyond
the crassness of monetizing faith, are the aspects of religion which most
frighten me.  He builds communities where
the faithful never encounter outside ideas; they can spend their whole lives
surrounded only by the word of god and fellow devotees, and so never face tests
in their faith.  Higgle wields versus
from the book of revelations like a sword, thoroughly enjoying the control he
holds over his flock, and more than happy to send them into a panic or rage to
achieve what he believes must be done. 
This last aspect of his character crosses over into another dimension,
truly believing that he is the instrument of god he takes for granted that his
own wants and desires are in fact the will of the creator, and that other
people are beneath him and need his blessing.

The second character in question, Hector de Anza, stands in
stark opposition to the Reverend Higgle, and was the first time I began fleshing
out the idea that perhaps New Frontier
did admonish religion, but also celebrated faith.  Hector is a staunch believer in Christ and
the Lord, stopping numerous times in the story to pray, even in the middle of a
crisis, but he follows his own path and not one laid out for him by religious
authority.  Perhaps the most moral and
direct character in the tableau of the future presented in the book, Hector
never chides others for their own beliefs, he tests his own, but always comes
back with a certainty in his faith.  This
quiet and unassuming man also practices the verses of the bible I witness
forgotten so often in our own daily life, forgiveness and acceptance of his
enemies.

The third character, Jean Girard, flashes through the story
like a brilliant and dangerous comet in the stars.  This man is a member of Higgle’s flock, but
beyond that, he actually does represent the small minority of the faithful
which embrace their preachers will as their own and follow orders with cultish
devotion.  All this man needed to hear
was that the crew of the Argos, the ship at the center of the novel, were the
minions of the devil, and he was prepared to throw his own life away to get at
them.  Jean is the religious terrorist of
the novel, and a simpleton, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that he
believes, right to the very end, that he’s doing the Lord’s work.  He is Christian mostly because I believed
that I couldn’t use a terrorist of another faith while showcasing the other
aspects of the religious argument through other Christians.  The horror and fact of religious terrorism
doesn’t lie in what religion the perpetrator believes, but in the insane
lengths they go to in trying to celebrate their deity, their faith, through
slaughter, and I thought that became brutal clear when Hector and Jean face
each other and their contrast is brought out into the open.  They embrace the same faith, but used that
faith in such different ways.

The final element of the religious theme in the book comes
into play with Suresh Singh, a devote atheist who scorns religion as phony
hocus-pocus and instead embraces science with the same zeal the other
characters above embraced their faith in god. 
It is with this man, this secular and often contradictory man, that the
evidence for and against faith flows through, and who witnesses the worst and
best of humanity over the course of the novel. 
In the end he is not made a believer, his own principles won’t allow
that, but he is forced to acknowledge the possibility of something beyond,
something science might not ever explain.

How will the increasing commercialization of
religion alter ideas about faith in the future? 
What happens when communities increasingly separate themselves in these
modern times and practice such ardent mental isolationism?  I don’t have the answers, I might not ever,
but I’m always excited to explore the question.

For more, check out the publishers page or head on over to Amazon.