Bumbling to Zion

Bumbling to Zion is set in the years 1966 and 1967, probably two of the most turbulent years of the Vietnam War era. Matt McCoy, the main character, is fresh out of high school and needs to enroll in an institute of higher learning (any institute) in order to receive a student deferment from the draft. Because of his bad high school grades, Matt is only accepted at Pure White Light Bible College in Flinthill, Tennessee. The pro-war beliefs at the ultra conservative college and Matt's anti-war beliefs are regularly in conflict. Matt, however, ends up falling in love with one of the college's fundamentalist students and befriending the preacher of the Sink Mountain Signs' Following Church of the Prince of Peace, whose congregation follows the signs mentioned in Mark 16: signs like speaking in tongues, drinking deadly things, and taking up serpents. To his surprise, Matt discovers that the beliefs of the signs' followers, and his own anti-war, anti-government beliefs aren't that much different. During the summer of 1967 (the "Summer of Love") Matt goes to Haight-Ashbury, where he gets involved in the whole hippie scene. A disillusioned Matt McCoy, however, escapes from Haight- Ashbury and returns to his native east Tennessee, where, he realizes, he belonged all along.