My dear friend, Jayne, recommended a book to me recently. In fact, she *so* wanted me to read it that she sent me an Amazon Gift card, which I used to order it for my Kindle!
Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism and the American Girl lived up to her recommendation. Susan Campbell, who writes for the Hartford Courant (and appears to have a blog here), tells of her girlhood in the church (small "c") of Christ, and suggests that she could still "throw down" in a Bible Bowl with pastors of any tradition and win. I think that's true, after reading her book. She lives a life informed by scripture, even though her life…well, I don't want to tell her story, except to say that as a woman of a similar age who also grew up in a time and place where women's opportunities seemed to me limited, I could identify with her hopes and her disappointments, even if the particulars of our childhoods were very different.
Funny, well-researched and fully-lived, this memoir goes further to provide context for the developments in American Protestantism as well as Feminism. Any preacher will appreciate her chapter about being asked to speak at a Congregational church. I hope we can add this one to the RevGalBlogPals discussion list, and I highly recommend it for your summer reading list!
Oh, this sounds like a book that I would relate to because of my Baptist upbringing. Thanks for posting about it.
I think I may just have to get hold of this too . Sounds very interesting
oh yes–I definitely need to read this!!
Oh my shelves are groaning with the weight of all the books I want to read! Adding two more joyfully. Thanks.
http://datingjesus.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/hey-im-the-radio/
The author will be on WNPR tomorrow morning.
So glad you enjoyed it Songbird. I found it to be so very funny and enlightening. :c)
I _have_ to read this. I was baptized at at church of Christ camp in Arkansas in 1972 (sent there by my grandparents), but couldn’t buy a lot of what I heard so never really attended that particular sect unless I was visiting my grandparents. I could have run into this author at church camp!
I’m about a third of the way in, and really enjoying it. Having been raised c of C in the south, I can totally relate.