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    In the Land of Believers: An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church
    In the Land of Believers: An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church
    In the Land of Believers: An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church
    Audiobook13 hours

    In the Land of Believers: An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church

    Written by Gina Welch

    Narrated by Judith Brackley

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Ever since evangelical Christians rose to national prominence, mainstream America has tracked their every move with a nervous eye. But in spite of this vigilance, our understanding hasn't gone beyond the caricatures. Who are evangelicals, really? What are they like in private, and what do they want? Is it possible that beneath the differences in culture and language, church and party, we might share with them some common purpose?

    To find out, Gina Welch, a young secular Jew from Berkeley, joined Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church. Over the course of nearly two years, Welch immersed herself in the life and language of the devout: she learned to interpret the world like an evangelical, weathered the death of Falwell, and embarked on a mission trip to Alaska intended to save one hundred souls. Alive to the meaning behind the music and the mind behind the slogans, Welch recognized the allure of evangelicalism, even for the godless, realizing that the congregation met needs and answered questions she didn't know she had.

    What emerges is a riveting account of a skeptic's transformation from uninformed cynicism to compassionate understanding, and a rare view of how evangelicals see themselves.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateApr 26, 2010
    ISBN9781400186426
    Author

    Gina Welch

    Gina Welch, a 2001 graduate of Yale University, teaches English at George Washington University. Her writing has previously appeared in Meridian, Time Out New York, and Playboy. In the Land of Believers: An Outsider's Extraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church is her first book.

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    Reviews for In the Land of Believers

    3.5/5

    60 ratings17 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Trying to get a grasp of the forces driving much public opinion and political action during the last decade, Gina Welch decides to go to one of their sources: Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell. Welch understands that she won't learn much approaching as a reporter or an outsider, so she decides to go within, presenting her secular-Jewish self as a prospective church member. It's a little dicey at first, but as Gina becomes part of the church's young-adult ministry, she begins to learn Evangelical religious teachings and how they inform the worldview of their followers - and over time, is surprised to discover that some of it makes sense to her. And as she develops more connections within the TRBC community, she grows more anxious that they'll discover she isn't truly one of them. When she returns from a mission trip to Alaska with some members of the ministry, it all comes to a head.I was fascinated by this memoir. The "will she be unmasked?" element added a bit of suspense, but I was absorbed by Gina's undercover journey, particularly as her ambivalence grew. I was interested in the information she conveyed about the workings of TRBC in particular and Evangelicals and their practices in general; as a former Southerner, I've known a few, and I feel that I have a little better understanding of them now - which isn't the same thing as agreeing with them. I think Welch reached similar conclusions. While she is honest about her skepticism, which doesn't ever really go away, her portrayal of the people she gets to know at TRBC is pretty even-handed, and at times even compassionate. She acknowledges the elements that provoke snark about Evangelicals among the less-reverent - including her non-church grad-school friends in Charlottesville - but rarely engages in it herself. Welch's writing doesn't call a lot of attention to itself, and my only real issue with it is that some of the church members she talked about didn't make individual impressions on me; I suspect that those were people she didn't get as close to in real life, though, and therefore wasn't as capable of differentiating them for the reader.This could be seen as a "stunt" memoir - a project undertaken just to produce a book - but I don't think that's entirely correct or fair. Gina Welch's investigation was motivated by her own desire to learn and understand, although she did land a book contract after it was in progress. Her personal growth over the course of her two years in TRBC comes across in her story, and the perspective she gains is enlightening to both herself and her reader.
    • 4/5
      The author of this book--a liberal, secular Jew with a Master's degree--decided to start attending Jerry Falwell's church in Lynchburg, Virginia so that she could come to a better understanding of what Evangelical Christians are about. SHe pretends to be a potential convert (and then an actual convert) so that she can fit in and see what really goes on and what the people are like. I found her story to be tremendously interesting and written in a sensitive but honest way. I am a liberal Christian--not an Evangelical--so I could relate to some of her concerns about Falwell's beliefs (the role of women, abortion, etc.), and some of the practices of Falwell's church were certainly new to me as well. But it was also interesting to me to see how a non-believer who has never really been to church perceived a church service, the music, the attitude of the congregation to visitors, and the overall experience. I think this book could be interesting both to non-Christians who are curious about an unknown world and to Christians who want to see how outsiders perceive them.The author finds that, although she does not share many of the beliefs of the church members, she nonetheless has things in common with them and that many of them are nice, genuine people. I appreciated that she went into the experience with an open mind and tried not to be mocking or judgmental (even when she must have wanted to roll her eyes). I thought she found a nice balance between describing the events, and her reactions to them, honestly, and in describing them in a way that the church members probably would not find too offensive. She says that her mission was to promote tolerance between liberals and Evangelicals, and I think the book really shows that attitude.
    • 4/5
      If I were to rate this book by its stated intention, I would have given it two stars. As an attempt to bridge the gap between the secular world and the Evangelical world, the book contributes precious little of substance. Instead I rated this book on its value as a means to draw someone into an experience that is created through words: most of the book was about as interesting as any other well-written book detailing someone's investigation into some part of the world, but the ending actually gave me the nausea that I imagine she must have felt and made my skin crawl the way I assume her skin crawled before making the big reveal.But again, I'm judging the book based on how well it told the story of Gina Welch, its author; as an investigation into the 'Land of the Believers,' it offers little. The book begins with Welch's preconceptions of who Evangelicals are - the book then proceeds to confirm most of those preconceptions, but with affection. That is to say, Welch confirms that Evangelicals are every bit as homophobic and ignorant as she initially believes, but now they are taking up prime real estate of her Dunbar Number. She loves them, but yeah they are what you think they are.The book details the adventure of Californian Gina Welch discovering that her liberal worldview does not exclude her from the kind of prejudice she (prejudicially) assumes to be the domain of the Evangelical Christians surrounding her in the state of Virginia. She decides to take an anthropological journey into Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church, going so far as to try to have an experience she can point to as her conversion moment and joining certain smaller groups within the larger church, predominantly a singles ministry. Her heart is progressively won over; her mind remains steadfastly secular. Her journey reaches its zenith in a missions trip to Alaska where she participates in leading 101 people to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior, after which she decides that she can no longer continue lying to the people who have become dear friends to her and consequently bows out of their lives without explanation. The story as a whole tends to drag. Welch adds a lot of details that I believe were included to add flavor and to make subtle suggestions to lead the reader to certain conclusions (X Woman wore too much Y kind of makeup, implying vanity; I painted my nails in good girl pink before heading to church, implying scrutiny; his chivalry was reaching performance art levels, implying chauvinism), which is perfectly acceptable, reasonable, and desirable in a book like this, but after a while the details just feel like they are mucking up the pace. Then there are times when Welch discards the notion that the story is about the church and just begins talking about her day-to-day existence, which leads me to believe that Welch was aware that the fact that she made this journey was more interesting than anything she might have discovered in the course of it. Ideally I think the book could have shaved off a third of its length and been more effective, but that could just be my attention span talking (I would say the same about this review I'm writing, so, hypocrisy). By the third portion of the book, which details Welch's trip to Alaska, you become certain that this is no longer about Evangelical culture. She tries to keep the spotlight focused: she throws out general observations about Evangelicals based on particular occurrences with varying degrees of shoehorning, but they cease to feel organic at that point. Soon you realize that this is a story about the lengths this woman will go to to write a book. It's a story about someone feeling so little about an entire people group that rampant deception in the course of developing intimate relationships seemed perfectly acceptable to her, and then falling in love with those people while still holding onto this devastating deception.I quickly became bored reading about Alaska, but I didn't stop. The mundane events of the Alaskan mission trip are not interesting, but you feel the tension building because you know she has to reveal what she has done to her friends. The spotlight shifts from the group to Gina herself - who is becoming progressively more aware of the gravity of her deception.Approach it based on what it advertises and you will be disappointed. Approach it as what it is - a story of the depths one will go to in order to tell a story - and you might find yourself intrigued. Further, and perhaps this is the books greatest contribution, it is a cautionary tale about failing to see those who are different from you as still being people. This seemed to have been one of the goals of the book and this goal the book fulfills by virtue of existing. The book itself is the warning.
    • 3/5
      Gina Welch, in an attempt to gain a better understanding of evangelical Christians, pretends to be interested in learning about Christianity (later, when that gets her virtually nowhere, she pretends to be a convert and is even baptized). Although she never espouses the beliefs of Thomas Road Baptist Church (made famous because of its founder, Jerry Falwell, who dies during Ms. Welch's study), she does make some genuine friends and realizes that evangelicals aren't nearly as alien as she thought.I come at this book differently than the author does; I once drank the kool-aid and was an evangelical Christian myself for several years. It was interesting to see a non-believer's take on the whole spectacle (and, really, it is one - I was pentecostal, and that denomination can be certifiably crazy). Although I agree, to a point, with the whole "we just need to understand one another" vibe of the book, there are some problems to the whole peace, love, and understanding conclusion. The first was experienced by Ms. Welch herself: until she pretended to be "saved," she couldn't go anywhere in the church. She never would have made her close friends had she continued to simply be interested in the church or religion; you have to go full-force into the lion's den. Otherwise, all you are ever seen as is a potential convert. You aren't a person. And I say this from my personal experience, both as a (FORMER) evangelical and as the one tossed outside of the circle because I wasn't a sheep (I don't mean that offensively; I was literally called a goat more than once). Secondly, it's relatively easy for Ms. Welch to gloss over the rampant homophobia present in evangelical circles. She does mention it a few times, but like the "disbelief" in climate change, it's not a central issue. And I didn't expect it to be; she's not gay. However, I am, and I've seen the ugly face of Christianity that Ms. Welch just didn't see because of it.Altogether, the book is okay, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.
    • 4/5
      In the Land of BelieversAn Outsider's Extraordinary Journey Into the Heart of the Evangelical Church By Gina WelchPicador 333 pgs978-0-8050-8337-8Rating: 3.5 Gina Welch writes "...And you're never more like Christ than when you're forgiving the unforgivable."She also writes "...You can see anything you want if you've already decided what you're looking at."These are my favorite lines from Gina Welch's cultural experiment. Ms. Welch was raised a secular Jew by a single mother in Berkeley, California. She is a Yale graduate. She teaches English at George Washington University. She is a practicing atheist. I just wrote that last sentence and I'm not sure what it means. All of which I point out simply to say that she is not a typical attendee at church. And certainly not an evangelical Christian church. And never a member of Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church (TRBC.) But she was. She went undercover in the temple of the Moral Majority in Lynchburg, Virginia in the guise of a seeker.Ms. Welch successfully pitched the book idea for her to go incognito into the land of Evangelical Christians and return to tell the tale. Which I find a little weird because after all they aren't vegetable cult worshippers or something. Nevertheless, Believers is the story of her experiences at TRBC. Ms. Welch spent years at this endeavor. She was baptized; learned to appreciate Christian rock; studied her bible; joined the singles ministry; made friends; even went on a mission trip to Alaska.Gina Welch surprised me. This book is not the book I thought it would be. Ms. Welch expected to dislike the people she met. She expected to dislike the teachings. She expected to dislike the theology and doctrine. She expected to disagree with the politics. Ms. Welch also surprised herself. Her beliefs did not change fundamentally. But she made friends. She came to enjoy the sense of belonging. She felt the concern of people who genuinely practiced what they preached. She came to appreciate the teachings of a historical Jesus; a man whose values already meshed with hers.And then she had to confess to her pastor and her new friends that she was an impostor. This is the story of Ms. Welch's exploration; her answers; and the questions yet satisfied. This is a good book that could have been better. Ms. Welch is good at description: of people, places and sensations. I got bogged down now and then. The pace picked up during the Alaska mission trip. I found some of the claims of guilt feelings over her dishonesty to be unmoving. But some of these people were a pleasure to spend time with and know that they exist and are doing good in the world.I'll include this again because I like it. "...And you're never more like Christ than when you're forgiving the unforgivable."
    • 4/5
      This interesting book by "secular Jew," Gina Welch, is a fun read for those who want to know more about a particular side of Evangelical faith. I think that Christians will be more likely to finish the book once they begin it because they will be familiar with the lifestyle portrayed and more interested in the outcome of this stealth reporting by the author. Ms. Welch went undercover to learn the ins and outs of "Evangelical" Christianity. She chose what she considered to be a bastion of Evangelical faith: Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University. While Thomas Road and Liberty can be considered Evangelical, I would go further and say they are Fundamentalist, and not necessarily representative of all conservative Christians. In her place I might have chosen a school like Wheaton College. Nevertheless, Christians (conservative ones at least) will gain insight into the way they are viewed by some who do not hold to their beliefs. Ms. Welch was very generous with regard to how she portrayed the lifestyles of the "believers" she observed. Still, as I read the book, I could not get out of my mind that Ms. Welch was constantly deceiving those around her. I couldn't imagine how someone could fake a conversion to a faith that puts such a strong emphasis on truth. I call to mind that Jesus said He is "...the way, the truth, and the life..." (John 14:6). All in all, the book held my attention, but it wasn't the page-turner I thought it might be.
    • 4/5
      One of my reading themes for several years has been the promulgation of Christianity in East Asia, but I always have difficulty understanding the mindset/motivations of evangelical missionaries. When I found this new work about evangelicals in America I thought it might help me out a bit and indeed it turned into an interesting read. The basic dilemma in examining the evangelical movement (or any social effort which involves strong human emotions and beliefs) is how to manage bias or pre-prejudice, and this is certainly the case with In the Land of Believers. One can either read works by evangelicals themselves, or interview them directly, and receive one type of "bias", or one can do what this author did and join the evangelicals (although remaining a non-Christian herself) and try to maintain an objective viewpoint in order to describe their work without the bias of passion. Unfortunately, this tactic results in the author's moral self-examination which distracts somewhat from the central thrust of the narrative.Overall, however, this is a refreshing look at the breaking down of prejudice (the author thought she wouldn't be able to relate to the evangelical contacts but they became her friends) and she came to respect many of them. I still don't completely understand the motivation of people who want to preach and proselytize, but I did gain some insight. As a side-note, this is also an interesting travelogue through some tracts of America from Virginia to Alaska.
    • 4/5
      I received this book as part of the Member's Giveaway program. My track record with these books and Early Reviewer's has been a little spotty so I was not expecting too much. That said, this is one of the better books I have read recently. Gina Welch's infiltration of Jerry Falwell's church was an intriguing story. I have read some of the reviews on Amazon where the reviewer seems to have a real problem with her deception. I get that. But, in my experience (as well as Ms. Welch's apparently) it's not always so easy to ask questions and receive honest answers from people that different from you. So I'm going to put aside any lingering discomfort I may have.What made this book so fantastic is that it is not a "conversion" story. Ms. Welch's core beliefs remain the same throughout her journey. What does change is her understanding of a different culture and her respect for those involved in the Evangelical Church.I really enjoyed this book and have recommended it to several people.
    • 3/5
      Gina Welch is a secular Jew who infiltrate Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church on a mission to find out the truth about Evangelical Christians. When she starts out on her journey she is many things that are despised and feared by the Evangelical Christian right. She is a hip, secular Jew from California with a degree from Yale. Needless to say, it takes her a while to figure out the right way to infiltrate the Thomas Road Baptist Church but she eventually does and when she does she finds it easy to make friends and she finds that the members of the Church are kind hearted and friendly and provide her with a sense of community. This despite the fact that the church members had views which she found repugnant.I found the book to be well researched and well written and engaging. The subject of Evangelical Christians is a very important one given power shifts in this country over the last forty years. I do have one huge caveat. Throughout the entire book she seems to be bearing a lot of guilt for infiltrating the church and for making friends based on false pretenses. When she starts the book and even at the end she does not seem to know all that much about Christianity and seems to have many preconceived notions about the Evangelical Church. If being dishonest with her “fellow members” of the Thomas Road Baptist Church was going to cause her so much guilt (and frankly in my mind this should have caused her guilt), she might have used other more honest ways of getting to know the hearts and minds of evangelical Christians. I say this because she does tend to concentrate a lot in the book on her guilt, which has a tendency to be somewhat cringe inducing. On the upside it creates an interesting tension in the book. Will she get found out in this chapter?!Welch seems to have gone into her project with a preconception that because Evangelicals had such different views than her that there was no way for her to relate to them and nothing that she could learn from them. Because of that, when she found that she could relate and that she could learn, it took her by surprise and made it difficult and traumatic to disengage from the church.Nonetheless, I did enjoy the book. Welch's writing about her subjects was very sensitive. I just would have found it more enjoyable if she used interviews with present and former members and/or had observed the Church from the detached viewpoint of an impartial observer as opposed from the viewpoint of someone who by all appearances was completely engaged in the church. She might not have gotten as complete information as she did. However, because I felt that her crisis in “leaving” the church created a huge distraction, for me this would have resulted in a stronger book.
    • 1/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      Author Gina Welsh decides to explore the world of Evangelical Christianity by infiltrating the Thomas Road Baptist Church founded by none other than the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Gina pretends to be a seeker and chooses to conceal her secular Jewish identity as she befriends people and participates in church activites. She also fails to disclose the fact that she is writing book about her experience. This choice ultimately creates a great deal of conflict for Gina and the people who come to love her.The author's experience rings true with me as someone who once joined and then left a similar congregation. She is honest about the sense of community, trust and friendship found within her church family. However, as she had feared, she is repulsed by some of the attitudes expressed, particularly, about the role of women and homosexuality.I found this to be a thought-provoking and timely read. I would be interested in reading more from this author in the future.
    • 4/5
      Author Gina Welch, a young secular Jew raised in Berkeley spent two years “undercover” at Jerry Falwell’s Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. She wanted to learn firsthand about Evangelicals, so she pretended to be a prospective church member. Her book, In the Land of Believers, recounts the experience. During her exploration, Welch became acquainted with many church members and befriended a few of them. She attended church services and various church-related activities. She received the sacrament of Baptism and joined a group of missionaries on an evangelization trip to Alaska.Prior to her journey into the church, the author had many preconceived ideas, questions, and fears about Evangelicals and acknowledges this in the book’s introduction. It was such thoughts that prompted her to explore the church in the first place. The resulting book is an interesting and well-balanced account of her experience. I thought Welch might be unduly critical or mocking in her assessment of the church, but that wasn’t the case. As I read the introduction and noted Welch’s adamant assertion that “I cuss, I drink, I am not a virgin. I have never believed in God”, I wondered if her association with the Evangelicals would change her, and if so, how? Would she possibly become a Believer?I don’t know that the journey was “extraordinary” as the book’s title claims and I wouldn’t say that Welch had any revelations during that time, but there were quite a few enlightening experiences. Overall, In the Land of Believers is a thoughtful and unbiased account: an interesting and worthwhile read.
    • 3/5
      The idea of a writer going undercover to attend and observe an evangelical church is a great premise, but I found many parts of this book tedious to read. She often goes into great detail about what happens in a religious service that I would have no interest in attending and I have even less interest in reading about. After spending so much time among evangelicals, most of her insights are not that illuminating. Any person who has followed the evangelical movement through the media or has communicated with evangelicals in their daily lives is already familiar with evangelicals and this book won’t add much understanding.
    • 4/5
      Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church for many Americans was, and still is, the flagship evangelical institution. So, perhaps its not surprising that it drew, not one, but two self-proclaimed liberals to Lynchburg, Virginia to go undercover and observe the evangelical movement in the finest participant-observer tradition. The first of these accounts was Kevin Roose's The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University, published last year. However, rather than focusing on Liberty University, Gina Welch set out to tackle the church proper, which resulted in In the Land of Believers.At times irreverant, but always respectful, the author weaves an account sensitive to the evangelicals, but never apologizes for them. She finds some beliefs indefensible and points tehm out. I found it a welcome read and informative. She explores, for example, why evangelical Christians can be so generous and helpful to one another, but seemingly cold and indifferent to those who aren't "saved". While I thought Welch's approach sensitive, it bothered me that she deceived so many people, many of whom she got to know very well. The sense of unease this created detracted from my enjoyment of the book. To Welch's credit, she also writes that she felt guilty. However, I wonder if she truly considered the ethics of her actions. Perhaps the reason this sort of exposé is so unique, is it wouldn't make it past the approval committee in an academic setting, solely because it lacks informed consent by the participants. Still, if the reader can overlook the ethical considerations, I'd recommend this book with few reservations.
    • 4/5
      Gina Welch is obviously a curious and opportunistic woman. Evangelical Christianity is a hot-button issue that outsiders try to understand and she took the initiative to try and understand the people, not just the figure heads. In her book, she attempts to infiltrate THE Evangelical Church, the Thomas Road Baptist Church, by guessing how she could pass as a seeking Christian. This part was hilarious to me. I was also raised to be fairly secular, but I've lived in the Bible Belt my entire life. I know all you have to do is tell someone you've been thinking about going to church a lot and they'll drag you to every meeting you can fit into your schedule. No sneaking around necessary. While I don't think this book examined the theology and social structures and ideas of the church fully, I understand why this absence exists. I don't know many Baptists who have considered these things. Welch does an excellent job of showing what Baptists, as a group, are. She considers them as people, not as labels (eventually, it takes her a couple hundred pages, though).
    • 5/5
      While Welch is certainly not the first writer to take this approach to understanding evangelical Christians (in fact, Kevin Roose was undercover at Falwell’s Liberty University writing The Unlikely Disciple at the same time that she was at TRBC), her approach is the most successful one I’ve found because she really does enter the experience as a true outsider with fresh eyes, and she stays long enough to form lasting relationships (Roose was only at Liberty for a semester). The ethnological aspects of In the Land of Believers are intelligent and insightful, and Welch’s reflections on her struggle to understand how she could come to feel deeply attached to a group of people whose fundamental tenets she finds unbelievable and occasionally frightening are fascinating.In the Land of Believers is a book for anyone looking for a deeper understanding of evangelical Christians (or just a really great read). It is a portrait of community that is both unique in its position atop the evangelical movement and stereotypical in its practices and beliefs, and it is a call for greater tolerance from both sides of the line. As a reader who grew up in mainline Protestant churches but who hasn’t practiced for some time and now find myself living in the south and surrounded by people who regularly inquire as to whether I’ve found Jesus, I saw bits of my own experiences within the pages of this book. But I think there’s something here for everyone, religious or not, and even evangelicals would do well to read this book, see themselves from the outside, and gain and understanding of how secular people experience them.This is a remarkable, informative, fresh perspective on a topic that is familiar and a cultural movement that is undeniable and unavoidable. Welch is fair, kind, and balanced (perhaps I should say “fair and balanced?”) in both her presentation of TRBC’s members and her exploration of what it means for her own identity that she comes to love many of them, to mourn Dr. Falwell’s death, and to continue singing church songs long after she leaves. In the Land of Believers will probably land Gina Welch on many a prayer list, but I’m hopeful that it will put her on many “to-be-read” and “best of” lists as well.Read my full review at The Book Lady's Blog.
    • 2/5
      I was expecting more perspective and more of an outsider's viewpoint in this book. Without that, I found it a slow read and a bit of a chore to finish. I would have liked to know more of what the author was feeling throughout the experience. Instead of that insight, I was left to read chapters filled with simple descriptions of events.