The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta

I saw this review posted on another site and felt the same way:

"From beginning to end, this book is a blatant attack on Christianity (and a confused one at that). Either the author is adept at creating ignorant and intolerant characters or he is himself seriously confused about salvation. I don't recall a single reference to the Bible that seemed even remotely interpreted correctly. The "pastor" in the story is not by any accounts even ordained, but began to lead a congregation after having a violent tirade regarding the morality of technology in the Best Buy (before he'd even cracked open a Bible). The things he says seem more cult-like than Christian. I kept hoping there would be some sort of redemption here, but it never happened.

The main female character is an extremely intolerant sex-ed teacher who feels like her life's work is being attacked by those wanting to promote abstinence. I suppose we're supposed to link the efforts of the school board to engage in an abstinence training as the influence of fundamentalist Christians, but none of those individuals even claimed to be Christians.

The main male character apparently wanted to join the church as a way of diverting his attention from his self-destructive and self absorbed behaviors. As if claiming to be a Christian is all it takes to remove oneself from harmful influences. Then, when he reverts to those desires, he blames God for not stopping him, completely excusing his own culpability."

My Comments:
I was very surprised at the blatant Christian Bashing this book is. I would not recommend this book to another Strong Evangelical Christian.