By J.R. LUCAS (Crossway Books; 1985)

Evangelical fiction whose publishers clearly had outsized hopes.  As the back cover states, “Every so often a book comes along that radically alters what people think about the world.”  That book, apparently, would be WEEPING IN RAMAH, which furthermore “could very well bring down the curtain on the age of abortion–the bloodiest era the world has ever known.”  Yes, this book is against abortion, being a reverse HANDSMAID’S TALE set in an abortion-happy dystopia (and something of a companion-piece to 1984’s A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR PEACE, PROSPERITY AND HAPPINESS by Franky Schaeffer and Harold Fickett, which takes the form of an official document that proposes abortion be made compulsory, along with voluntary euthanasia and cannibalism—the implication being that those latter two things will inevitably follow the former).

In this future America a three month waiting period has been instituted for parents after giving birth, to make sure their offspring are fit enough to move forward.  The term “defective” has replaced “handicapped,” resulting in the slogan “Make American Stronger—Kill a Defective,” while babies are termed “meat.”  People are arrested for going against a doctor’s orders regarding baby killings, while the “meat” is used in horrific experiments by doctors who invariably enjoy their work far too much.  There are other problems with this society, but they all spring, it seems, from its attitudes toward abortion.

Sarah is a Christian minded nurse who rescues aborted fetuses as part of the Movement, which is dedicated to subverting the system.  Other Movement members include the dedicated family man Mike Adams and his daughter Leslie, who puts her life on the line for her beliefs and, in the dreary final third, ends up reading the Bible in a jail cell.  That’s hardly what I’d call an exciting wrap-up.

Did this book succeed in convincing this reader to change his views?  ‘Fraid not.  Aside from the fact that my feelings on the subject (if you’re against abortion don’t have one) are pretty entrenched, this book is too preachy and narratively bereft to be persuasive.  In the words of the Christian reviewer and editor Henry Carrigan, “Good writing is lacking in a lot of Christian fiction. It’s pedantic, the prose is awful, the writing is static and it’s difficult to believe the characters.”  That about sums up WEEPING IN RAMAH.