Trevor Trumpet, The Peoples’ Prophet

“Trevor Trumpet, The People’s Prophet”; is a satirical work taking aim at world religions, and the way in which they often fail to live up to their own teachings. G created our world millennia ago, but has become increasingly frustrated by the direction that the Earth has taken since creation; wars, greed and inequality abound, and G and his sidekick JC are looking for a new prophet to fix it up. Trevor Trumpet, a random, unremarkable Sydneysider, who manages a waste recycling plant, gets decapitated by a semi-trailer on the way to visit his mum who is confined to an aged care compound on the Central Coast of New South Wales. Trevor is summonsed to meet with G and previous prophets and is sent off for training at Prophet Camp. Here, he almost completes most of the modules, including “Surviving a Stoning” and “Preaching in Tongues” is awarded a Cert 3 in Propheteering, and provided with a GPhone to stay in touch before he returns to Earth to spread G’s messages of peace and love. Back on earth, with his head botchily reattached, Trevor is arrested for impersonating a dead person, but after DNA testing, is issued with a Resurrection Certificate by the State Coroner. The novel follows Trevor as an eclectic and unlikely support crew assemble around him, including a police Sergeant, Derek the Foul-mouthed Attack Dove, a female state premier, a celebrity agent, and a street woman. Trevor then heads out on his mission and visits New Zealand and the US whilst trying to counter opposition to his messages. All the while, G, and his sidekick JC, keep Trevor under observation and offer him helpful advice via the G Phone. After doing his best, which is frankly fairly unimpressive, Trevor travels to Jerusalem to deliver his last message. This book is not intended to insult or offend anyone, although it probably will. It is, however, intended to use humour to jolt people into thinking critically about their own beliefs, behaviours, and attitudes to life and their fellow humans. The preachings of most prophets are mainly hard to fault (with the exception of a fair amount of misogyny!). Prophets have tended to focus on love, peace, and kindness towards other humans. But organised religions, both through their individual clergy and institutionally, have committed awful crimes against humanity over the centuries, and they are still doing it. So why is it that violence, wars, poverty, sexual abuse, and sheer exploitation of the vulnerable continue to persist? And worst of all, why do various religious leaders encourage their followers to attack devotees of other faiths in the name of their own particular prophet? Clearly the teachings of individual prophets have been reinterpreted and corrupted significantly over time to suit the purposes of the less than holy. This book introduces a new fictional prophet, Trevor Trumpet, who gives it another go! So give this a read. I hope you enjoy it, it amuses you, and gives you food for thought. —- ISBN: 9780645692105