SHANNON
By Damaris Kofmehl
Hodder & Stoughton.. 259 pages. £6.99
ISBN 0 340 78648 5
The claim on the front cover, this time at least, seems to have it right. 'The incredible true story of one girl's journey from darkness to light', it says.
I was surveying, with a customarily critical eye, the 'New Books' shelves in a Christian bookshop. I picked up Shannon and examined it. 'The story of a girl who, from frightening depths of open sin, at last discovered the love of Christ. A former member of one of the most infamous gangs in Cleveland, Ohio, whom God turned around.'
I turned to the part which describes Shannon's conversion, towards the end of the book, and glanced through it. There was enough there to lead me to hope that her conversion was genuine. The title of that chapter - 'The Turnaround' - was encouraging in itself. 'What is that but another name for repentance?' I thought to myself. So eventually I bought it.
It was well worth it. Horrifying, appalling and shocking though it is. Shannon's early life is a catalogue of injustices committed both to and by her. She committed her first murder at the age of ten. And it wasn't her last.
But wonderfully, although it is a record of crime, neglect and self-abandonment, over and above that it is ultimately a record of God's grace. Grace is written in golden letters a mile high all over this memorable book. We must not content ourselves with pointing out the underlying theological flaws. These flaws are not insignificant, and on proper occasions I am all for pointing them out. And yes, there is no true conversion without an irreducible minimum of right theology. But I have no doubt that the minimum (plus a bit more!) is here; how tragic it would be to see the flaws and miss, somehow, the superlative, praiseworthy grace of God. Here is a book to illustrate on a grand scale the Saviour's words: 'Which of them will love him more? ... Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much' (Luke 7.42,47).
