Ideas for novels often came from reality.
Today I saw a news story about an influencer in the United States who ran a social experiment, saying she was a single mother whose baby needed formula.
Then she called 42 religious institutions.
Buddhist, Muslim, Satanist, and Jewish institutions all had a 100% response rate. She even fucking dialed a wrong number and reached a drug dealer, and he agreed to help too.
Only white Christian institutions had a response rate of just 27%. And those who responded were all conservative denominations in Black communities. The only response from a white community came from an old priest at a shabby little church in a small town.
Not a single major cathedral responded. Some even mocked her and told the woman to sell her body. Later, it all came out, and the public uproar blew up.
The people at the cathedrals said God had revealed the truth to them, so they knew she was a scammer. That influencer was a witch, and they wanted to burn her to death.
Real fucking impressive, Jesus, my man.
Actually, thinking about it, wasn't this just a classic plot from old Western fantasy webnovels?
The Radiant Church was corrupt and greedy and didn't care about those at the bottom. The dark heretics generously opened their wallets for the protagonist, while a penniless old priest was the only
one who followed the teachings and stayed true to his original convictions.
This was practically the template for a Western fantasy power trip.