What do you know, it's a Christian church, and the searchers discover a Bible in the rubble. Now, the Bible is not without its spiritual power, but the authors' tale of its overwhelming power on the aliens is facile and hard to swallow. The story is purest Bible Belt wishful thinking and unmitigated hoakum. The aliens accept the Biblical teachings without reflection, as if carried by some magic in the mere words. The authors fail to make the Conversion anything but a simple-minded fundamentalist dream that begs the reader's suspension of disbelief and undermines any potential that the story might have.
Fundamentalism is a difficult issue.
To begin with, the word itself is a misnomer. Could be, but it is, more importantly, a political idea. Fundamentalism is a political expression of spiritual belief, hardened into dogma. It is Church as moral government. The personal mysticism at the heart of spiritual matters is put at the beck and call of a politically based filter of the metaphor of scriptural teachings for purposes of organization.