The Purple Dragon

What happens when you've got a burning desire to serve God on one side, and on the other a rooted addiction holding you back? No one knows about the addiction, after all, and the only thing between you and taking off on that two-year Mormon missionary service are some paperwork and some interviews with the local church leadership--that and a few little white lies, right? Well, maybe not lies . . . not really. You figure that if you can just hold off on lifting those books from the gas station display spindle, or the magazines from work, or that second edition The Hobbit from your friend's place . . . . If you can just hold off until the interviews, and then a little bit longer until it's time to leave for the Missionary Training Center, well, then, shoot! It's all downhill from there, right? And no one needs to know!

Eugene Cross, accidental victim of a special breed of self-justifying kleptomania, learns the hard way that this is not how it works. Righteous desires? Check. Good and supportive friends and church leaders? Check. The required courage to face down the addiction and effect a complete repentance? Hmm. Not so much. Not yet.