The Walnut Grove Glacier Wars

Book excerpt: Being a pagan in a small town west of the Mississippi is not easy. Calvin Pfeiffer, a German immigrant working for the University of Iowa, has chosen the rural life in Walnut Grove as a place to settle down and start a family. Except for the local group of fundamentalist Christians-Lyle Anderson in particular-Calvin has decided that Walnut Grove really is not a bad place to live. When Megan rides her bike up his road and stops to chat, Calvin realizes she is the woman of his dreams. As Calvin and Megan fall in love, a group of local fundamentalists headed by Lyle-an influential conservative who has a reputation for ruining the lives of those who dare to cross him-gathers steam about the issue of the local school curriculum, most notably against the idea that glaciers formed the Iowa landscape. It is not long before the fundamentalists accuse Calvin of not living up to community standards, and they argue that the school curriculum promotes promiscuity and homosexuality. While Calvin forges alliances to defeat their antiquated ideas, business school graduates-who happen to be gay-move to town and assist the town in recovering from economic hardship. An all-out war begins and culminates in a virulent school board meeting that will determine the outcome for this quaint town embroiled in controversy.