Evolving in Monkey Town

I fell for Rachel Held Evans' personal story right from the beginning. I've never met Rachel, but her story felt much like my own. I couldn't put this book down. Luckily, I had a long plane trip scheduled last week and this book was the perfect travel companion.

This is a delightful book about a girl who grew up as part of the Evangelical sub-culture in the small town made famous for being home of the Scopes Monkey trial. It's well-written, playful, open, and honest. Anyone who has lived in, around, or simply crossed paths with southern-fried Evangelical Christianity will find something to like about this book. The author is not harsh or judgmental about her self-described roots in fundamentalism, but she's willing to risk opening up her experiences for a good honest examination. It's a refreshing story about how the author made her way out of that kind of religion and into something exciting and full of life.

"What makes a person a fundamentalist is not what beliefs they hold, but how they hold them, and I was holding onto mine with a death grip, partly because I was convicted, but mostly because I was afraid. I was afraid of being wrong. I was afraid of not having all the answers. But mostly I was afraid of change."

Rachel let go of some long held beliefs and that caused a few problems along the way. I enjoyed reading about the interesting people she's met, the tension she wrestled with along the way, and her willingness to leave a few things unsettled. Resting in uncertainty can seem like a difficult place to be, but it's actually very liberating. In my opinion, it feels much more honest and much less suffocating.

"I'm no longer ready to give an answer about everything. Sometimes I'm not ready because I feel that an answer does not do justice to the seriousness or complexity of the question. Sometimes I'm not ready to give an answer because I honestly don't know what the best one is. Sometimes I'm not ready to given an answer because I can tell that the person asking doesn't really want one anyway."