disclaimer: let me just say that I grew up reading a lot of Francine Rivers' novel while growing up and I will read them again for nostalgic reasons. I loved those books but if I said they weren't problematic in itself, I'd be lying.
now, I was reading this eBook by Dayo Benson, a great Christian author btw, on Amazon and my brain just went on this mini rant on why many Protestant authors rarely acknowledge Catholic and Orthodox Christian characters in their stories (a mistake I hope to rectify in my own stories). so far, I only have two examples of Christian novels that acknowledge Catholics as being Christians: Withered Rose by Valicity Elaine (a great novel imo) in which the main character consults with a Catholic priest about an arranged marriage she is forced into (I know, I know) and The Scarlet Thread by Francine Rivers where Alejandro asks Sierra if she has a problem with him being Catholic and the latter responds with "God is present both in a Protestant and Catholic Church" (paraphrased btw because it is long since I read this novel).
after this, my brain then went off a trajectory on how Francine Rivers may have made some problematic characters and storylines and I can't look no further than The Scarlet Thread. I mean, Redeeming Love is right there but I won't be addressing that because I feel that everyone has addressed that and two, I haven't read Redeeming Love.
again, would I read Francine Rivers' novels if given a chance? hell yes but I gotta call out the problematic stuff I did read in The Scarlet Thread.
so, we start with Sierra and Alejandro (Alex) Madrid who are high school sweethearts who got married and had kids. you see, life was perfect for them until Alex got promoted and had to move to Los Angeles which is nothing bad if you look at it.
however, the issues start when Alex starts to disregard his wife's opinion, isolate her from her family by moving again to a new house and to top it off, he introduces her to a woman (Audrey or Audra, I really don't care) who uses every opportunity to demean Sierra because unlike her who is all learned and bourgeois, Sierra is a simple town girl who just got into the city.
oh and it gets worse from here. Sierra's mom, who supported Alex uprooting the family to LA and advised Sierra to agree to her husband moving them, comes down with an advanced stage of cancer and Sierra has to take care of her. while all this is taking place, Alex does not bother to visit his MIL or even support his wife who is going through a gruelling time.
and when Sierra's mom dies and the funeral takes place, Alex uses this moment as the perfect time to abandon his grieving wife (not before confessing that he was cheating on her with a younger colleague of his and asking for a divorce). and when Sierra lays out to him the kind of man he is, he calls her a bruja which is Spanish for witch (now that I am looking back at this, I have a feeling he wanted to call her a bitch but considering this is a Christian novel...)
while he is asking (or demanding) a divorce from Sierra, he blames it on her not being appreciative of him (like bro, you relocated your family without consulting her) and her being so nagging and etc. which is like bro, you've been treating her like a secondhand citizen instead of your equal as she is your wife while she was taking care of your kids and putting on faces for you 😐
Sierra, at first, refuses to sign the divorce papers which causes Alex to call her and again call her selfish and a spoilt brat which again...😐. to make things worse, Audra also steps in as Alex's lapdog to demean Sierra and btw, fuck Audra, all my homies hate Audra.
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