Fleeing Fundamentalism

August 14, 2006
The religion depicted in this absorbing memoir of falsehood and betrayal is fundamentalism gone berserk: it has turned into an inhuman, apocalyptic, darkly controlling force that reshuffles common sense, "jumbling all logic into madness." After indoctrination at a Bible college, Cross finds herself in a marriage from hell replete with abuse, addictions and mental illness. Her husband, a popular young pastor, uses religion to mask the alternate reality he has created, a netherworld that will potentially destroy not only his career but the entire family's safety and sanity. With the courage of a trapped animal, Cross reinvents her life, waiting tables and going on welfare in order to earn a degree and support her three children. For a time discarding God, the Bible and organized religion along with her malevolent husband, she eventually redefines spirituality as "a road of discovery—not of submission to a rulebook." Cross's brief summaries of Christian history are at best simplistic, and some readers will contend that the fundamentalism she portrays is an aberration, not the norm. Still, her heartfelt condemnation of public hypocrisy couldn't be more timely. In her ex-husband's own self-indicting words: "Isn't it ironic, a guy condemning sinful society and completely without a conscience himself?"

October 1, 2006
Cross converted to evangelical Christianity as a teenager. Subsequently, her existence followed a predictable path, or so she thought: attendance at a Bible college, early marriage to a fellow Christian, children, and life as a minister's wife. Her life seemed to be over before it had begun. But then things didn't proceed according to plan. She and her husband became emotionally distant, and after he admitted a form of sexual addiction, their marriage fell apart irrevocably. At the same time, Carr underwent a journey of self-discovery, a goodly part of it derived from her decision to study the roots of Christianity. The more she learned, the more skeptical she became of her Bible college education. She grew increasingly impatient with what she considers the misogyny of the fundamentalist tradition in particular. Divorce and graduate school preceded finally making peace with her past and her former spouse. A painfully candid account of faith gained and faith lost, of forgiveness, and of the often rocky road of spiritual growth.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)