The Lights on Tenth Street

[ch33ly]

Has anyone read The lights on Tenth Street by Shaunti Feldhahn? I just finished it and I really enjoyed it. I was hoping someone might be up for discussion?

[oceanflower]

http://www.letstalkfiction.com/images/10thStreetCover.jpg

Book Description
They have the house, the two kids, and the minivan. They have a well-meaning but shallow church. What Sherry doesn't know is that Doug has a shameful struggle with his thought life. When an exotic dancer's life intersects theirs, this suburban couple has to make a hard choice: do they risk their convenience and security for her sake, or do they cross to the other side of the road? The dark forces will not easily give up their most important pawn. But Ronnie must come out of the darkness, for only she can unravel a plot of devastating destruction.

About the Author
Shaunti Feldhahn is the author of the bestseller The Veritas Conflict. She works with the We Care America coalition, which empowers existing faith-based programs to provide practical and spiritual help to the poor. She earned her master's degree in public policy from Harvard University in 1994 and worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as a financial risk analyst. Shaunti, her husband Jeff, and their young daughter live in Atlanta, Georgia.

[oceanflower]

This sounds like a very good book. I'd like to read it.

This is from the author hereself:


Before I began this book, I had never given much thought to the issues raised in this book about the sex industry—from the difficult struggles that so many devoted Christian men have with their thought lives, to the young women caught in the grip of the “exotic dancer” clubs. I guess I just believed—as many of us do—that it was not touching me or my community personally. What I didn’t realize was that this industry impacts all of us in both subtle and pervasive ways, whether we are aware of it or not.

Further, although I knew that Jesus befriended prostitutes and others ostracized by society, I could never (to my shame) imagine myself doing the same. Now, after a year of research and writing, I count a number of former strippers as dear friends. And I realize that even in the depths of their entrapment in that life, that they were normal people caught in an abnormal situation. That is not to excuse sin, but when we recognize that everyone has a story, it is much easier to look on them and love them as a person, rather than focusing solely on their behavior.

The genesis of The Lights of Tenth Street arose from hearing the Christian testimony of a former stripper and prostitute. She had grown up in a small, depressed town, was sexually assaulted as a teenager, and was lured into the strip club life thinking it would be a glamorous way to make lots of money. Instead, it was depraved and awful, a dead-end trap. After she had spent years in that life, a Christian woman in her neighborhood knocked on her door, inviting her to her church’s Christmas banquet. And when she took her up on it, to her immense surprise, she found nothing but love and acceptance in their church, even though she didn’t know how to dress or act. That former stripper now has a wonderful ministry to other strippers and prostitutes.

When I heard that story, I somehow knew that the Lord was nudging me to write a book that would feature just such a girl, to show the incredible transforming power of unconditional, nonjudgmental love. But that wasn’t all. As the months passed, I realized that the flip side of this sort of story—the consumer’s side—leaves in its wake many devastated men (and, increasingly, even women) who have been ensnared by pornography. So there had to be two character plotlines—one to follow the young stripper, the other to follow the Christian couple who will eventually reach out to her...but to do so, the husband has to confront his own secret addiction.

When I started the book, these issues weren’t even on my radar screen. But they just kept getting bigger and bigger. I was truly shocked to realize the depth of this problem in our culture, including among devoted Christian men.

I think it is safe to say, however, that what shocked me as a woman would be no surprise to any man on the planet. And I bet that many of my female readers are in the same boat. I knew, of course, that men and women are different. But as I tried to get inside my male character’s head, my eyes were dramatically opened to just how different!

It has become one of my main prayers that the Lord will use this book to open the eyes of women, that we might understand the cultural and personal battle all around us...including one that almost certainly affects the men and boys that we love. And it is also my prayer that the Lord will use this book to open all eyes to the need to reach out and love those who are lost and hurting—just as Jesus would.

Shaunti Feldhahn

http://www.letstalkfiction.com/Shaunti.html

[ch33ly]

I would encourage anyone interested to read it! It's a wonderful book. She intertwines she plot-lines so well. And the way she presents the "light" and "dark" forces in phenominal.
She also has another book, and I'm trying to find of copy of that one.