Fundamentalist churches have such an impact on faith in America these days that it's hard to ignore them. They've impacted me over the years. I didn't know it was fundamentalist as a child. I thought everybody looked at the Bible through the dispensational viewpoint of the notes in a King James Scofield Bible. I thought every child was introduced to Rapture-readiness through Left Behind. I thought everybody had a list of rules -- verbalized and silent, written and assumed -- by which daily life was shaped and measured.
So Matthew Paul Turner's memoir Churched was like returning to a world I know well. His story has helped me to claim mine, with one clear and real exception: Mine wasn't as funny. There are laugh-out-loud moments here. And it really is "one kid's journey toward God despite a holy mess".
Fear becomes the name of faith in fundamentalism. And Turner finds that out soon enough. That fear is controlled through rules, which he also discovers quickly.
In the end, though, Churched tells the story of where that fundamentalism led him (and me and so many others like us): To looking for a new church. Because, as Turner rightly tells it, "fundamentalism has little to do with Jesus". So, over the years, when he visits churches and talks with the pastors, he is simply looking for Jesus. He has run the gamut of contemporary expressions of church in the United States -- big and small, slick and simple.
And that's the real story of Churched. It's one man's story of faith -- compelling, poignant, funny, pointed, sad, scary, and yet hopeful. But Churched is not just a memoir; it's a cautionary tale of what can happen when Jesus is named and yet safely shrink-wrapped in our lives and churches. It's a plea to name and live Jesus -- real, raw, outside the lines and full of resurrection life.
I received this book free, from the Blogging for Books program, in exchange for my honest review.
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