Annoying book

Last night I skimmed through the first half of The Conviction of Charlotte Grey by Jeanne Cheyney. This is an inspirational romance set in 1770 England. The heroine is a follower of John Wesley. Her family is killed in the fire that destroys her home, and she has to find work for the first time in her life. So, because God is taking care of her (of course) she lands a position as a housekeeper in the house of a rich, handsome young man (who I believe is in the slave trade, though I dumped this book before I could find out). He falls in love with her serene faith, proposes that she become his mistress (to "test" her; some guy, huh?). When she refuses (in the most prissy, self-righteous language), he goes off to make his life right and hints that a proposal is forthcoming. While he is gone, his jealous, controlling mother arranges things to look like Charlotte is a thief, and she is sent to the colonies as a convict. On the boat, the captain is attracted to her beauty and does the mistress proposal thingee again. Again, due to her great faith and integrity, the heroine suffers and is sent back to the hold with her virginity intact.

This is where I stopped reading. First of all, I could see the trials and tribulations and growth of faith coming, and it was just too much blah, blah, blah for me to take. Second, I had a strong feeling that the "hero" wasn't going to make an appearance again until the very end. And, finally, I got ticked off when the heroine said she couldn't appeal to her uncle because "he has had nothing to do with us since we became Christians. To him, we are heretics."

At that point I was getting a strong Lori Wick vibe from this book. Having been raised in the Wesleyan church and being familiar with the story of the Wesleys, I know for a fact that John Wesley did not begin his ministry with the intent to create a new faith or separate in any way with the (Christian) church of England. He only meant to awaken the passive faith of his fellow Christians. So this woman, had she heard Wesley and been influenced by him, would have already considered herself to be a Christian, though she might not approve of the Anglican style of worshipping (or not worshipping, as it were). Charlotte's whole attitude is just wrong, especially for 1770.

This really tweaked me. Why do so many inspirational stories have to have an "us vs. them" mentality?