“The devil can quote the Good Book”: Religious Bigotry in S.A. Cosby’s “All the Sinner’s Bleed”

A couple of years ago, I walked through the library looking for a book to read during the winter break. I kept seeing S.A. Cosby’s All the Sinners Bleed, and as I passed it, I thought, “Now is the time to give it a read since I’ll be able to read during the break.” I devoured the book on the way to Louisiana to visit family for the holidays, and once I finished it, I knew that I wanted to teach it someday. I organized my Lost Voices in American Literature course this semester around mysteries and thrillers, and I did that, purposefully, so I could finally teach All the Sinners Bleed.

I knew, from my initial reading, that I wanted to have students think about the ways that Cosby interrogates organized religion in the novel, one of the foundational lynchpins of Southern literature. After my first reading, I wrote about the “Christ-haunted” nature of All the Sinners Bleed, and today I want to expand that discussion some, looking at a few specific passages that explore the ways that individuals manipulate religion to serve their own personal means or use it as a mask to cover up their own oppressive natures.

When Titus goes to Elias’ church, he talks with a neighbor of the church, Griselda. She tells Titus about the young boy that Elias and his family raced, a…