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In The Land Of Believers: An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey Into The Heart Of The Evangelical Church (2010)

by Gina Welch(Favorite Author)

3.42 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0805083375 (ISBN13: 9780805083378)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Metropolitan Books

review 1: “I never imagined I would feel a kind of belonging. Because beyond basically appreciating my [Evangelical] friends as fellow human beings, I finally understood what it felt like to believe you knew something that had the power to improve the lives of others.” This from an atheist Jewish Yale grad from Berkeley. In sum: evangelicals are people too, surprise! For unclear reasons Gina Welch goes undercover at Jerry Falwell’s megachurch. She gets involve with a singles group, and a third of the book is about her mission trip to Alaska. This is a half-baked project. The first third of the book I was angered by her ignorance of basic Christian history and evangelical culture. Ignorant! The last third, where she falls for the all-too-humanness of her friends and even grows ... moreto love Christian pop is sappy, and her critical edge is far too dulled, passively putting up with bad theology and privileged white missionaries. A similar project and far better book is Kevin Roose’s The Unlikely Disciple.
review 2: Very interesting book about an atheist girl who goes "undercover" to Jerry Falwell's church and befriends evangelicals and ultimately goes on a mission trip with them to Alaska. Although Welch spends a little too much time saying how "nice" evangelicals are and glosses over the times she witnesses their sexism, homophobia, and exclusionism, this is still a really captivating read. I wouldn't say I learned anything from this aside from maybe respecting people even if they have views that I might consider crazy - because they would consider my views crazy. If evangelicals were more open to getting to know non-evangelicals then I don't think a book like this would even need to exist. less

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