CHRISTIAN FICTION REVIEW

LET THE CHURCH SAY "AMEN" & MORE

The Amen Sisters by Angela Benson is a story about an abuse that apparently has been kept secret for too long -- pastors who misuse their power and sexually abuse women in their congregation. Benson's novel offers insight into this hush-hush world and the lengths that women and pastors go through to keep these secrets. By offering several points of view on this issue from the betrayed women, The Amen Sisters brings to life the fact that pastors are men, fallible and vulnerable, and not the gods that worshippers sometimes mistake them to be. The only points of view missing are those of the pastors, which would have made this a more in-depth read. However, the relationship between the two sisters, Francine and Dawn, and their relationships with the two men in their lives, Stuart and Sylvester, takes the story to a slightly higher level. The Amen Sisters is an engaging, refreshing story of reaffirming love and faith packed with the drama that comes with church-life and the mortals who sometimes confuse the difference between God and man. Like the sexual abuse of children by priests, the sexual abuse of women by pastors must be confronted. So let the church say AMEN and more!