Book Review: Evolving in Monkey Town
As someone who loves reading Rachel Held Evans’ blog, I was happy to know that she was writing a book. Evolving in Monkey Town follows Rachel’s childhood in Dayton, TN when she was a Christian with all the answers through her early adulthood when she learned that perhaps the questions were more important for her faith journey.
Having grown up in East Tennessee, I recognize much of the Bible Belt culture described in this book. As a teenager I also wrestled with the question of how a loving God would choose to send people to hell who have either never heard of Christ, or who were simply born in a culture where Christianity was not the dominant cultural force. What if I had been born in Saudi Arabia or China, instead of the United States? Would I be held accountable for not rejecting what my parents and culture taught me to be true? What about all those who were born in the Americas before Christian missionaries arrived in the New World? Like Rachel, I was often told that I should be happy to have been born in a time and place where I learned the truth about God. Is it really that simple? I had a hard time believing this to be true, even when confronted with a grandmother who shared with me that although it is hard to understand why God would make the rules the way that they are, that those were the rules and we have to accept them, or to reject God.
It didn’t take me long in life to come to the conclusion that this was a false god and that if, in fact, this was the actual God, I would not be on his side. The good news is that when one takes a closer look at the history of Christianity and the Scripture in particular, it is almost impossible to reconcile the god of modern American Christianity with the one found in our Scripture and Tradition.
If you are interested in these kinds of questions of faith, you will enjoy reading Evolving in Monkey Town. I highly recommend it.
Related Posts:
About The Author
Comments