A Good Book; interesting reactions

This week for class, we read The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall. If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it. It is a beautifully written novel narrated by Cynara, a slave who lived on Tara with Scarlett, Mama and the others. Because of it's contraversial nature (the estate of Margaret Mitchell, the author of the original Gone With The Wind, filed an injunction causing it to have a sticker on it declaring it is a parody), I must add a disclaimer that if you are a true and avid fan of the original, this book might shock you. It is a post modern indictment of Gone With The Wind's portrayal of slavery. The discussions in class about this book were rabid and venemous. Because most of my classmates are civil war afficiandos, they decried this book's portrayal of Mama and Ashley. They took the book's characterizations literally, not figuratively, and they were deeply disgusted and offended. Not to give too much away if you plan on reading this book, but Randall created Ashley as a gay man who was in love with one of Prissy's brothers. It is actually kind of funny, but I think that might be insulting to gay people given that Ashley's character is so weak. However, my opinion was not shared by the class. They hated that Ashley was gay. It was surprising that it drew such ire from many of my classmates, except a few people, who shared my view of the book. (one of my classmates who liked the book also happens to be church of christ.) This made me think of homosexuality, and how it is a pet sin among many Christians, who see it as worse than any other sin, say like greed or pride. From what I understand, it is the 'gay agenda' that many christians hate. This is troublesome to me, because I obviously have a Christian agenda in my life. Everyone has some sort of agenda, and I don't think we should fault others for thinking that they are correct just as we believe, hope and have faith that we are correct. While I understand decrying sin, I cannot understand how homosexuality brings out the absolute worst in Christians, instead of the best. I am positive that Christ would be loving towards homosexuals, just as he is to me, a fellow sinner. While I totally believe that Christians should not advocate for this lifestyle, I believe that we should not view this sin as worse than any other. But having said that, I was just thinking it is amazing what kind of emotions literature can evoke, and how some authors, like Randall, can create books that invoke emotions. Words are amazing, and authors that manipulate them to invoke such emotions are true artists, whether you agree with them or not.