Turning pages

Anyone who knows me, knows I love to read (seems pretty obvious considering I teach English, right?). Anyway, I just finished reading Julia Scheeres' memoir Jesus Land. Talk about an unbelievable experience (hers, not mine). Rather than focusing on her entire life, she chronicles her high school years. The title is appropriate, and actually a bit ironic. I had actually thought that perhaps this would detail the life of a believer, of the glory of growing up in Him, but, unfortunately, that was not her experience. Her parents were abusive, and unloving. It was as if they had dual personalities; to the church, they were God-loving people who supported the work of missionaries throughout the world, but to their children, they were cold monsters.

Even more tragic was the racism within the home. Scheeres' has two adopted brothers who are black; though externally it appeared as if the family really cared about the welfare of these boys, internally, life was filled with hate, anger, and violence. The author points out the marked difference in treatment she received and her brothers received.

Then, as if her life with her parents wasn't bad enough, she and her "twin" brother David (they were the same age) were sent to a reform school in the Dominican Republic. Again, how tragic that people claiming to be Christians could treat other humans so poorly was astonishing. The more I read, the more I saw the extremism and the legalism that some bring to the faith. No wonder there are those who hate Christians; their experiences are so skewed and so damaging, that it's hard to believe that not all believers are like that.