It’s the Fortnight for Freedom. Are you praying? And speaking up? And praying some more?

You know what you should read in the next week, or at least start during this Fortnight for Freedom? Well, yes, the Bible. Yes, what the Bishops are saying.

But also Death Panels, by Michelle Buckman.

Death Panels builds a world that my children could live in, a world that’s not so far from possible. It takes the most dangerous and difficult issues of our time to a viable conclusion, one that’s painful and horrifying.

And yet Death Panels cannot be compared to other apocryphal works, because it doesn’t give up on human life, but rather shows that, in the midst of the darkest hour I could imagine for my children’s future, there is hope.

Buckman’s story leaves the reader wounded and motivated, changed and even renewed. It causes us to look at ourselves and consider just what we’re doing to stop – or continue – the dangerous trends of our time.

Here’s a book that turns our times, our cultural ideals, our basic assumptions, on their collective head. Here’s a book that exposes politics for the wrangling it is and points to another way. Here’s a look at what religious suppression could look like…sooner rather than later.

Death Panels is a must-read and certain to be a classic. Instead of scaring us into action, it shows us that, despite human failure, Truth can triumph.

We need a message like that as we fight for our religious liberty. We need to be inspired. And nothing has the power to inspire (even as it entertains) the way a good story does.

Go ahead, pick it up. See if you agree.