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Re-examining religion: ‘Do good. be nice. have fun’

Posted on February 3, 2009 by Staff

BY Vicky Dickson
Staff Writer


Writing fiction is as close to being God as you can get.”

You might not expect to hear those words uttered by a twice-baptized fellow who grew up attending church five days a week. But James Protzman isn’t your average Jesus invocator. Nor is he your average graduate of the United States Naval Academy or your average business writer – although all that appears on his resume. As does his work as a founding blogger on bluenc.com and his term on the Chapel Hill Town Council.

Pretty impressive. What’s even more impressive is that he’s managed to write a fascinating novel, Jesus Swept, along the way. A story of encounters between margin dwellers and establishment types that is set in motion by a thousand-year-old silver bracelet, the novel should be especially interesting to residents of Chapel Hill and the N.C. coast, where all the action takes place. A street sweeper called Jesus, the orphaned twins Hook and Sinker, a development director at Duke who hears the voices of pelicans and a mysterious old woman called Dog all grab a reader’s imagination – and don’t let go, even after the last page is turned.

In a way, Jesus Swept is a knotting together of the disparate threads of Protzman’s life. Business writing taught him tight construction and blogging gave him the opportunity to get instant reader feedback on his writing. The church services he was forced to attend at the Naval Academy, with their emphasis on Christian soldiers fighting for God and democracy, inspired Protzman’s rejection of his own religious upbringing.

The portrayal of organized religion in Jesus Swept might well persuade readers that Protzman has little use for the church. Given that his most unsympathetic character is a preacher – and a randy, not-very-honest one at that – few readers would expect to see the novelist giving a sermon at a Unitarian church in Hillsborough, as he did one recent Sunday. They’d perhaps be even more surprised to know that the inspiration for Jesus Swept came during a long-ago service, in the form of a bumper sticker Protzman doodled that said, “Do good. Be Nice. Have fun.”

That phrase evolved into a Venn diagram, three circles interconnecting in a “sweet spot” that is, for Protzman, the ultimate goal of living. He’s personally pretty comfortable with the “Do good” part, is getting better at “Be nice” – but thinks he has a ways to go with “Have fun.” (Although he admits to loving the work of writing Jesus Swept – so maybe he’s closer than he thinks.)

And that phrase – “Do good. Be nice. Have fun.” – is the real message Protzman hopes readers will take away from Jesus Swept. Given the enchanting characters, fast-paced plot and alliterative word play, “Have fun,” at least, should be a slam dunk.

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