Insightful. Issue-facing. Christian Fiction.
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He turned his back on God a long time ago. But God never forgot him.
Six months after struggling actor Lane Harris lost his husband in a tragic accident, he lands a movie role guaranteed to put him on the Hollywood map. But one producer holds the power to shut down his shot at stardom—and she’s a Christian. If she finds out he's gay, it's over. Lane is careful not to say too much around her.
When an alcohol-fueled tryst with his co-star ends in humiliation, and his landlord hands him an eviction notice, Lane looks for someone to talk to. He finds a confidant in the Christian producer. After a night of too little sleep and not enough coffee, he lets slip his sexual orientation. Instead of a verbal flogging, the woman recounts recently losing her own husband.
The only Christians Lane knows condemn him upon learning he's gay. But this one is different. She doesn't embrace his sexuality, but instead of treating him with disdain, she offers compassion. Christians are supposed to hate people like him. So, why doesn't she?
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With Mercy's Eyes is an issue-facing Contemporary novel for adult churched Christians. It addresses homosexuality and same-sex attraction from a Biblical perspective without falling into the trap of the extreme responses we too often see from modern churches. It holds similar views to Jackie Hill Perry, Becket Cook, Rosaria Butterfield, and Christopher Yuan.
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Purchase Hardback, Paperback, and Ebook versions of With Mercy’s Eyes.
A complete list of content warnings is included in the book, along with chapter numbers. The CW list below does not include spoilers or chapter numbers.
Before you purchase this book, please be aware of these Content Warnings:
This book discusses the following topics: homosexuality, same-sex attraction, suicide and suicidal thoughts, sexual assault, infant loss, terminal illness, death, domestic violence, depression, and mentions of abortion.
These subjects are never taken lightly. Each one is very present in our world today. This book portrays individuals who both do and do not hold to a Biblical worldview, and some characters don’t handle crises very well.
There is NO sexually explicit content in this book; however, because of the heavy themes and subjects, the author personally recommends this book for readers age 25+.
About the Author
D. T. Powell has loved stories since before she can remember, and it was one of those stories that God used to change her life and prompt her to start writing. In addition to writing book reviews for a magazine, as well as original contemporary and speculative fiction, she has actively contributed to the fanfiction community since 2013. Her original work has been published by Writers Digest, Clean Fiction Magazine, Twenty Hills Publishing, The Order of the Pen Press, Wolrdsmyths, Finding God in Anime, and Cadence Writing. She enjoys reading, playing pickleball, and playing an occasional video game. You can find her online as dtill359.
Her favorite verse is Psalm 126:5, “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”
Check out D. T.’s author website to learn more about her sci-fi and fantasy work, her presence in the fanfiction sphere as a Christian author, and her work with Clean Fiction Magazine.
The Story of This Story
For some time before I started drafting With Mercy’s Eyes, God let me know in quiet ways that there would come a time when I wrote a book where the main character identified as homosexual. At the time, I was working full-time, taking care of my home and family, and trying to learn how to write all at the same time. I was in no position physically, mentally, or even spiritually, to start writing this book. Besides, a homosexual main character in Christian fiction was unheard of.
To further complicate things, when I understood what God was asking of me, I was terrified—of what my family would think and say, of what people on both sides of this argument would do and say, of whether I could even write something like this.
It took a couple years, but I finally listened to God and wrote the first partial draft of With Mercy’s Eyes. But out of fear, I used a pseudonym. After that, I put off finishing the book for the better part of a year. Again, out of fear. I tried working on other original fiction, reasoning that the projects I had in progress would be easier to market and, therefore, better to finish first.
I tried with everything in me to write something else. But God made it impossible. Sentences and paragraphs that worked one day would make no sense the next. It got so bad I couldn’t put two words together, no matter what I did.
This went on for a week before I finally said, “Okay, I get it,” and obeyed God’s call to work on this book. Once I started back to writing With Mercy’s Eyes, I was finished within a couple months. It was the easiest book I’ve ever written. And, after finishing the editing process, I took time to read accounts from other people who’d come to Christ and turned away from a homosexual lifestyle. Their experiences and those of the characters in With Mercy’s Eyes lined up in uncanny ways.
Also during the writing of With Mercy’s Eyes, I ended up learning something else that changed my life. I discovered what my spiritual gift was. The connection between this book and my gift wasn’t immediately clear to me, but what I didn’t know was that my gift was already shining through this book. As I spent time further studying my spiritual gift, I started seeing connections, both between myself and this book and between this book and others’ testimonies of God leading them out of homosexuality.
(I talk more about that connection in the study guide portion of With Mercy’s Eyes’ print and digital versions.)
Now, I have the privilege of getting to see how God uses the story He prompted me to write. My prayer for you, the reader, is that this book will be a help to you in understanding how God views a group of people modern Christianity has given up on.
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