Evangelicals are in the news lately, as an important voting block in the upcoming presidential election in the USA. Since I don’t know much about them and was curious how young people perceive them, I thought I’d read this non-fiction book by a woman who raised evangelical and found herself questioning and leaving the religious group.
Clearly I am not the target audience of this book – a non-religious socially independent person who doesn’t even live in the same country. But this book is looking to support and rehabilitate people who are unsatisfied with the evangelical religion that shuts down and shuns people who ask questions or wonder why there are so many patriarchal-centered rules.
There are plenty of eye-opening conversations related in these pages, but I was sort of expecting that kind of stuff – these religious groups can feel pretty culty to me. There is also a clear warning in this book – the group will fight to protect itself and the money-making religious leaders at the top. It was interesting to read how the group lined up behind Trump in the 2016 election – despite him representing everything that they are against – as a bid to grant themselves more political power in the future.
This book is clearly written from a progressive viewpoint, and sometimes I felt a little like the writer might be hard to identify with for people looking for a more gentle step away from their hard-right roots.
But I’m glad that people are asking questions, and any resource that might help people to relax and enjoy life being themselves is OK by me.
Next I am reading Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn.
