146 of 159 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Spying on the Folk That Read the Good Book, January 7, 2010
This review is from: In the Land of Believers: An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Gina Welch's In the Land of the Believers left me disturbed. To be fair, this might be my baseline state, per friends and family. But if one measure of a book's success is to get under the skin of the reader and stay there for awhile, In the Land of the Believers most definitely succeeds in this category.
The premise of this non-fiction book is simple: Gina Welch, a born and reared non-believer, goes undercover to join Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church (TRBC) in Lynchburg, Virginia, in a purported attempt to understand what she terms "Evangelicals". Welch contrasts herself with the Evangelicals: "I am a secular Jew raised by a single mother in Berkeley.... I cuss, I drink, and I am not a virgin." Falwell's church, ground zero for the now-eclipsed Moral Majority, was close enough geographically to serve Welch's purpose.
Welch starts with a trip to Scaremare, a church sponsored haunted house (termed a "hell house") designed to both metaphorically and literally scare the Hell out of participants. From this spooky beginning, Welch moves on to joining a TRBC sponsored singles group, EPIC (Experiencing Personal Intimacy with Christ), eventually being baptized (full immersion) and travelling to Alaska on a mission to capture one hundred souls for Christ (final tally 101 souls).
While the premise is simple, execution of the plan becomes complicated by Welch's penchant for developing relationships with the people she has gone undercover to observe. What might have been a documentary fact-finding expedition becomes instead a memoir about Welch herself as she gradually discovers that the church members are not caricatures, but humans, and how this discovery affects her. The primary theme evolves into a line written on the last page of the book (excluding the Epilogue): "So this--this became the basis of my love for Evangelicals: I was going to choose to see the mystical oneness. And once I started to see it that way, loving them wasn't very hard to do." Not "very" hard, but still hard. And therein lays a portion of what begins to get under my skin.
In the beginning of this tale, Welch sets the conflict up well. She describes her thoughts about TRBC pastor Jerry Falwell: "I considered him a homophobe, a fearmonger, a manipulator, and a misogynist--an alien creature from the most extreme backwater of evangelical culture." By the end of the story? Gina's feelings are...the same. Except that now she has some sincere affection for the old boy. Welch lays out her pre-conceptions about Evangelicals at the beginning of the story: "They were shrill and prudish, they loved bad music and guns and Nascar, told corny jokes, and spoke in sound bites.." By the end of the tale, she confirms all of the above, and adds on several occasions that Evangelicals have a very raunchy sense of humor. Additionally, we know that Evangelical men have an affinity for heavily pomaded hair (or conversely, shaved heads), and Evangelical women have a propensity for bright lipstick and clothing that brings to mind the Confederate Railroad country song lyrics "I like my women a little on the trashy side."
Why might this be disturbing? Welch states "The collateral damage of going undercover, I thought, was mitigated by the possibility that the enterprise would open channels of understanding writ large between Evangelicals and the rest of us." Given that the Evangelicals in the book, with rare exceptions, conform to Welch's pre-conceptions, it's a reach to say that her justification for deception succeeded in its aim.
One might ask about the notion of going undercover in the first place. Keep in mind that going undercover is something usually, if not always, done to investigate criminal activity. The FBI infiltrates extremist groups, with the aim of preventing terrorist acts. Investigative reporters go undercover to document crimes or corruption in progress. The CIA goes undercover to spy on enemies (ideally). The theme of undercover is this: It is justified only when significant harm to a community or a nation is threatened. Must one go undercover to investigate people legally accessing their freedom of religion? Welch's comment: "I sort of managed to balance the whole messy moral equation on an unsteady ball bearing of cliché: You have to break some eggs to make an omelette." Yes, Gina. But people are not eggs, and your omelette was not improved understanding of Evangelicals, it was a book from which profit will derive.
So, I'll come clean here about being disturbed. Two of my four brothers, and one of my three sisters, are Evangelicals. They are richly developed human beings, and each possess a broad and well developed sense of humor. My brothers don't pomade their hair. My sister dresses impeccably. Each of them contributes to the whole community that they live in, not just the narrow confines of their church communities. Welch would have learned far more about Evangelicals by simply introducing herself and talking to my siblings than by her elaborate deception. My siblings DO open channels of understanding between themselves and others that see the world differently.
Me? I'm a non-believer. I'm a work-my-tail-off-for-my-community, school board member, charity donating, non-believer. I feel no need to lie to my siblings, my patients (I'm a family physician), or my community about my views in order to "open channels of understanding." I just ask people questions, and answer them, a process that works amazingly well to promote understanding. And when a non-believer feels the need to participate in a two year long deception to get information available for the asking, it damages by association the reality of the integrity that so many non-believers take pride in. This disturbs me. In The Land of the Believers is an interesting book, Gina Welch is an above average writer, and discussion will be lively if your book club chooses it. That creepy feeling under my skin, though, will be there a long while.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
31 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A viewpoint worth exploring, February 28, 2010
This review is from: In the Land of Believers: An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
When Gina Welch, a secular Jew from California, decided to infiltrate the world of Thomas Road Baptist Church (Jerry Falwell, founding pastor) in Virginia, it seems she had preconceived ideas of what she would find. She was surprised.
Instead of discovering a people who mindlessly followed charismatic leaders, Gina found sincere believers who were part of a loving community. She soon found herself drawn into the fellowship of people who honestly cared about her. Somewhere along the way, she came to love the music and found genuine friends.
While reading this book, I was surprised and challenged at several points. Because I am a Christian, sometimes it was a stretch to understand Gina's viewpoint and why she found certain aspects of the Christian culture peculiar. What she pointed out was often I the way I think and talk. I found it revealing and important to see the Christian culture from an outsider's viewpoint.
As I looked closely at my motivation for choosing this book, I realized my expectations were also unsupported. While the followers of Falwell's ministries are professing Christians, I express my Christian beliefs differently in some ways. As I read, I realized I had hoped that Gina would confirm my approach to the faith as a better approach.
To the contrary, I found myself humbled. As Gina described her experience, I found I have more in common with the people she encountered than differences, especially in terms of love for others and the essentials of faith.
Gina, the people you met at church are the people who accepted you, forgave your deception and still desire a relationship with you. They pointed to a God who still desires a relationship with you. Keep searching.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
If It Feels Wrong, Then Don't Do It, July 14, 2010
This review is from: In the Land of Believers: An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church (Hardcover)
I really wanted to like this book. Evangelical Christianity has long been a mystery to me, and I love books that can give me an insight into these communities.
The main issue I had with this book is that Welch has an apologist tone for her actions. I get that she used deception, but the underlying embarrassment she has about her lying made the book unreadable for me.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
