Stumbling Toward Faith

I read a lot. I really read a lot! Sometimes I read great books. Other times, eh...not so great. Let me just express that this book is not a great book...it is an amazing book! Renee Altson puts her life's story into words. And it is captivating!
So often as pursuers of truth, we feel the need to disguise our own faults, messiness, fears. We desperately pretend that everything is perfect. I know in my life that pretending to be happy wasted a lot of energy. Altson does not "sugar coat" it. Life is not a box of chocolates. If you asked Renee Altson, I dare say she would say life is like a lost child, forever searching for the end of that proverbial dark tunnel.

Altson's life is extraordinary. Here is an excerpt from the first page of her text:

i grew up in an abusive household. much of my abuse was spiritual---and when i say spiritual, i don't mean new age, esoteric, random mumblings from half-wiccan, hippie parents. i don't mean that i grew up thinking all the wrong ideas about religion or what it meant to be saved because i was given too much freedom or too many options. i don't mean that my father protested the phrase "under god" in the pledge of allegiance or told me there was more than one way to heaven.

i mean that my father raped me while reciting the lord's prayer.

i mean that my father molested me while singing christian hymns.

and from the back cover:

raped by her "christian" father, rejected by church leaders, abandoned by her addicted mother, author renee altson's story is difficult but essential reading.

this disturbing, beautiful narrative will unsettle your understandings and assumptions of what it means to live as a believer in christ. altson's heart-wrenching reflections and insightful prose and poetry ask questions we rarely get to the bottom of:

why does god allow evil to exist?

where is justice?

where is healing?

what is the point of faith? of belief?

if you dare to confront these questions, this powerful, poetic memoir can change your perspective on faith and the church.

I have worked in social services for nearly 6 years. helping others overcome abuse, neglect, abandonment, addictions. In six years I have endured a lot of horrible situations. But the abuse depicted in this book is greater than all I have seen.

The very fact that this book is published by emergentYS is inspiring to me. emergentYS is responsible for publishing the works of McLaren, Yaconelli, Kimball, and other forward thinking Christians leading the emergent movement among today's followers of Christ. To my knowledge, this is the first book of it's kind published by this company.

If you have the time, pick up this book. It will break your heart.

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