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Ok, I can obviously breathe easier. You guys already have some great discussion going on, and I think you’re all on to something. Definitely agreee with you, David, that we do not want someone who’s hardcore anti-God just suddenly going WoOhOo JESUS!!! That happens WAY too much in fiction.

I thunj Alaia has a valid point that if there was something convincing and realistic to show the sin it could be pulled off, depending on how hostile the character is to start with. If they’re like full blown communist we might not have room in the word count to go through their mental transformation, but your general crabby neighbor who hasn’t been to church since his dad ran off with a preachers wife back in ‘62 could possibly soften up within the small word space.

And I love Katherine’s point that not all conversions have to be huge miraculous occasions. (I mean technically all conversions are miraculous, but you get my point.) I’d venture to say a large portion of salvation stories are pretty general. I mean, the reason we scoff so much at out of this world salvation scenes in fiction is because even in real life those gigantic miracle conversions don’t happen as often. You know, how many of us were drug addict gangsters, riding our Harley straight to hell when suddenly the bike flipped and we were skidding down the highway and told God if he’d just save us we’d follow him forever?

I got saved as a five year old kid when my parents sat me down and explained heaven and hell and sin, and asked me if I wanted to be a Christian. My exact thought was, well yeah, who wouldn’t want to be? Do I did. Kinda the definition of childlike faith.

So not saying we need to go with something that simple, but it might be something to consider that simple conversions might be the most believable.