May 19, 2015
Valerie Tarico, a psychologist and writer, and Rachel Held Evans, a popular Christian blogger and author, have much in common. Both are women who grew up in evangelicalism and dared to ask questions about God, the Bible, and their religious tradition. Both graduated from evangelical colleges. Both have written books about where their questions have taken them. But the conclusions they reached were altogether different. (Tarico’s story of leaving her Christian faith can be read here and here. Three of Evans’s books are reviewed on our website here, here, and Searching for Sunday here.)
I’ve been reading the writings of both women for years so was fascinated to find their names linked together on an AlterNet post, as Tarico interviews Evans. I think you’ll find it as interesting as I did.
Read Valerie Tarico’s post on AlterNet, today’s Link of the Day: “Can This Woman Make Evangelical Christianity Sane Again?”
Thanks for posting this. Rachel Held Evans has such a succinct way of expressing her faith. Two quotes stand out for me:
“RHE: What troubles me is the notion that we can somehow read a sacred text without interpreting it. People say they are just reading the text. That’s not possible. The idea that we can approach a text without bringing our imperfect often greedy often selfish selves to it…”
“RHE: …As a Christian, as a follower of Jesus, I think it’s appropriate to think of Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of scripture, that in his life and death he put into practice what scripture was meant to teach us.”