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My wife and I recently celebrated our 41st anniversary. We have three adult children and three grandchildren with two more on the way. I am a retired professional engineer, and I had a thirty-three year career in the field of telecommunications. I am an electronics hobbyist and possess an amateur radio license. We travelled extensively and did a lot of camping and canoeing when our kids were younger.
My wife Julie and I were also long-time members of a religious cult, the Worldwide Church of God. After we exited the church in 1998, I engaged in an exhaustive program of research into the inner workings of our former church as well as those of other high-controlling religious organizations. This research, coupled with our own past church experiences, formed the basis for crafting a fictional story about the effects of extremist religious dogma on young people. I was aware that some of the more fanatical members of the church had abused their children terribly in their ongoing efforts to conform them to idealistic and rigid behavioral standards. Those standards were based on the church's abusive and misguided ideas about how to raise children.
I had no idea when I started writing where my efforts would take me, but I soon became emotionally invested in the story and the characters. Little did I realize at the time that The Threefold Cord would be followed by several sequels.
Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite
The Threefold Cord by James Alan Anderson is the harrowing tale of three young boys brought up in the rural hinterlands of Manitoba, Canada by an abusive father who was caught up in a religious cult and a mother who was frequently emotionally absent. Twin brothers Kevin and Robert always knew their father had never wanted another child, let alone twin boys. The family was financially strapped and two more mouths to feed were two too many in his opinion. Besides, their father doted on his first-born son, the dimwitted and lazy Raymond. Consequently, they spent their first seven years living with their maternal grandparents, about a mile from their parents’ house. When little brother Jonah joined them a few years later, the three estranged brothers formed an unbreakable bond. Fortunately, the trio did not see their abusive father and despised older brother very often but all that would change when the twins turned seven. Their father had become a member of the Radio Church of God and, subject to their harsh teachings, he believed the family needed to be together, with him as its domineering and authoritative ruler. Kevin and Robert, at the urging of their grandfather, decided that the three of them should become the threefold cord of biblical stories; unbreakable. No matter what pain and suffering their father would throw at them in the years ahead, they would protect each other and especially their younger brother.
The Threefold Cord is a deeply compelling read as it chronicles the abuse and torment perpetrated on these innocent yet surprisingly mature young boys. Author James Alan Anderson has done a wonderful job of highlighting the special nature and shared experiences of the twins. The love these two boys have for their grandparents and their younger brother Jonah shines through on every page but the connection between Kevin and Robert truly is the highlight of the story. I was pleased the author explored their differences as well as their unique commonalities. The fierce love and desire to protect each other that these two demonstrate, at an age when most children only have to worry about what next toy they will play with, is truly remarkable. I particularly enjoyed how the twins, even as pre-teens, were able to analyze and objectively criticize many of the absurd and often hypocritical rules and doctrines of the Radio Church of God, or as it later became, The Worldwide Church of God. Of course, this criticism would invariably bring harsh and bitter punishment from the head of the family and his proxy Raymond. The boys quickly learned when it was best to keep their mouths shut. I also greatly enjoyed the boys’ recounting their trip to the Church’s annual gathering in Texas. The road trip and the boys’ astute observations of the Church hierarchy and the mindless rituals were a true pleasure to read. This is a tale of redemption for the twins, in a way, but one can see that the journey is far from over and all three of them are about to embark on the next leg of their life’s journey, which I am looking forward to reading. This is an enthralling story that I highly recommend.
