Yvonne Shao – Unfundamentalist

[Editor’s note: see the end of this post for a chance to win a signed copy of Lila, by Marilynne Robinson.]

When I left fundamentalism and evangelicalism behind, I educated myself by reading books on theology, self-help, church history, and current church issues. Rachel Held Evans, Peter Enns, Anne Lamott, Keith Ward, NT Wright, CS Lewis, Barbara Taylor Brown, Sarah Bessey, Lauren Winner, and others came to my rescue.

However, reading non-fiction could only take me so far. Sometimes you need art, because art is a gentle teacher, reorienting your thinking by showing you images instead of facts. I needed that, because no matter how many facts I took in, my default setting seemed to be anxiety. I needed pictures of people leading lives free of dread and worry, pictures of people who relied on God because of love and not fear, pictures of people treating their neighbors with kindness and understanding. That’s where fiction came in.

Here are ten novels that meant alot to me, with a quote from each one.

1, 2, and 3. Three novels by Marilynne Robinson, Gilead, Home, and Lila, are the stories of a gentle small-town minister and his family and friends. Don’t let that fool you, though—nobody gets off easy in these books. When characters’ lives get derailed, through their own actions or the actions of others, these novels emphasise caring for each other and listening.
“It seemed to me to be half sadness and… [Read more…] about 10 Novels for Recovering Fundamentalists

My mother bought me the Eagles’ Hotel California as a Christmas present when I was in junior high. I loved the gritty, glamorous songs even though I didn’t have enough experience to understand most of them. Playing the record before school in the mornings helped me steel myself for running the gauntlet of junior high in a small town.

The songs met me where I was. New Kid in Town radiated within me and seemed realer than real most days.

Great expectations, everybody’s watching you

You’re walking away, and they’re talking behind you.

Hotel California, the ultimate road trip, let me see a future where I could love, lose, and learn. I would be stronger, no matter what love and life threw at me. If the Eagles could do it, I could do it.

However, when a visiting preacher came to our church, he told us about the evils of rock and roll. He played some song snippets backwards, which sounded quite clear after he told us what the garbled words were. I loved the Eagles, but I was more scared of hell. If the Eagles were against God, they had to go. My mother and I smashed Hotel California in the kitchen after we got home that night.

In college, I took the first few steps on my road to prodigal-ness. I missed the songs that had soothed my soul in junior high, and I no longer felt compelled to follow all the religious teachings I had learned, so I got Hotel California on cassette. I played it in my Honda Civic, driving… [Read more…] about Why I Bought Hotel California Four Times (So Far)