Heritage Column for November 10, 2005 By Fred Anderson
When Ray Allen retired from the active pastorate in 1995, he admitted that he might have “a book or two” in him. Recently he was as surprised as anyone that one of his new brainchildren was born as a novel. While he might not give best-selling novelist and Virginia Baptist John Grisham any competition, Allen has ventured into the new genre with all the same gusto which he enters into any activity.
When Ray Allen retired from the active pastorate in 1995, he admitted that he might have “a book or two” in him. Recently he was as surprised as anyone that one of his new brainchildren was born as a novel. While he might not give best-selling novelist and Virginia Baptist John Grisham any competition, Allen has ventured into the new genre with all the same gusto which he enters into any activity.
Light from the East is the story of Roy Cobb, a Virginia minister who journeys on a mission to the mysterious world of India and its mystics. He has been sent by his church’s wealthiest member, Frank Thornton, on a quest to find healing for Frank’s injured spine. Cobb and his wife, Sarah, encounter culture shock, explore the practice of meditation and enlist people into their circle of friendship.
As a new novelist, Allen has borrowed a technique from John Grisham. He has kept it squeaky clean. It has been said that Grisham writes books which he would not be embarrassed for his mother to read. However, Ray Allen does include that part of life which Victorians would have identified only as a three-letter word which ends in ‘x’ but the minister-turned-writer does not use it gratuitously. It is there because it contributes to the story. And that’s ‘nuff said on that subject!
The main character also faces some brokenness as he recalls an earlier episode in his life. Brokenness and healing is a theme for Allen and a good one for any evangelical Christian minister.
In 1982 Allen delivered the annual sermon at the BGAV meeting in Alexandria. In part, he said: “How strange it is that we humans often must be broken before we look up. How strange it’s that we, like Isaiah, even as Baptists, trust so strongly in the powers of this world. So often we have to be broken before we give consideration to the power of another world. Then how wonderful it is that in our brokenness God will stoop down and touch us.”
In his sermon Allen insisted: “God doesn’t break us. Life breaks us. Then we can look up and be touched.”
In his novel Allen has the main character resolve his own suppressed feelings and find forgiveness. He also gives Pastor Roy Cobb the opportunity to enable his paralyzed friend, Frank, to find power over his brokenness. In a powerful moment in the story, the pastor confronts his wealthy church member: “OK, you dummy, this is what we are going to do. Right now you are going to ask God’s forgiveness. Then I am going to forgive you. Then you are going to forgive yourself. Now pray.”
Again, like Grisham and other accomplished writers, Ray Allen utilizes the world which he already knows best. Grisham’s novels often involved a lawyer which is the field from which Grisham comes. After 35 years as a pastor, Allen writes from a pastor’s perspective.
Indeed the book is almost autobiographical. He sets the Virginia portion of the story in Lowesville. Roy Cobb had a life-effecting experience in the armed services. He attended the University of Richmond and there he met his future wife. At age 36, Roy Cobb became pastor of “one of Virginia’s largest churches.”
The main character continues to describe himself as “a poor boy from a mountain hollow in Virginia off to India, a place he had read and dreamed about as a boy.” The character likes chicken at the well-known Mrs. Rowe’s Restaurant off I-81.
Raymond Fulton Allen came from the Nelson County hollows around Lowesville. After high school, he joined the U.S. Army. It was only after the stint in the armed services that he enrolled at the University of Richmond. Already he was married to Ann Cobb whose last name must have been adopted for the novel’s character. At age 36, Ray Allen became pastor of the ever-enlarging Baptist church set in the heart of Virginia Tech at Blacksburg. Even in retirement, Allen prefers life in a Virginia country hollow only this time it is in Moneta near the playground of Smith Mountain Lake. Like any Baptist preacher, he eats and likes chicken.
There is another similarity and perhaps the most significant. Roy Cobb goes off to India and makes a friendship with an Indian. In 1980 Ray Allen took the first of what became many trips to India. Early in his journeys he made a lasting friendship with Kunjumon Chacko, an Indian Baptist minister who operates an orphanage. Chacko has become known by many other Virginia Baptists and the Virginia Baptist Mission Board has shared in the several ministries in which he has been instrumental.
Light from the East is a Christian novel, written in a breezy and captivating style, which makes for an easy read while offering some deep thoughts on the meaning of life. It particularly is engaging for those who know the author and keep second-guessing what happens next. (Light from the East is available from www.publishamerica.com or send $20 to the author at 1080 Mead Valley Rd., Moneta, VA 24121.)
Oh, and remember that Allen believed that he had “one or two” more books in him? He is working on the second one which will be a history of partnership missions among Virginia Baptists and he asks anyone with stories about mission trips to share them with him.