"In her small hometown, librarian Ruth Cornier has always felt like an outsider, even as her beloved father rains fire-and-brimstone warnings from the pulpit at Holy Fire Baptist. Unfortunately for Ruth, the only things the townspeople fear more than the God and the Devil are the myths that haunt the area, like the story of the Low Man, a vampiric figure said to steal into sinners' bedrooms and kill them on moonless nights. When a skull is found deep...

In this thoroughly revised and updated edition, leading religion and Middle East expert Charles Kimball shows how all religious traditions are susceptible to these basic corruptions and why only authentic faith can prevent such evil. The Five Warning Signs of Corruption in Religion 1. Absolute Truth Claims 2. Blind Obedience 3. Establishing the "Ideal" Time 4. The End Justifies Any Means 5. Declaring Holy War

"An anonymous caller tells a detective in a small Oregon town that a woman has just bitten off a man's finger. But the man is not the victim, the caller says. The woman is. She's being held against her will by a group of faith-healing fanatics who are trying to cure her depression with violent exorcisms. The detective rescues her, but she is afraid to press charges against the people in her church. Then the detective gets an even more ominous message:...

Dismantles the whole mind-set of the religious fundamentalist. Important reading for anyone concerned about the insidious mind manipulation that cults and fundamentalist religious groups employ to gain converts.