Lyz Lenz tell her own story about embracing and then escaping from the Evangelical tradition. Born in Texas and raised mostly in South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa she has always lived in the middle of the United States. Her escape from Evangelicalism also required her to leave her marriage. Lenz is a journalist, her interviews on people in Midwestern churches made up a large part of this book. One person who like Lenz moved away from that expression of Christianity said "if the car breaks enough you trade it in" Lyz added "the car was breaking, I was ready to give up driving". Lyz Lenz left the Evangelical tradition that was repressing her but she did not leave her faith. She is now a Lutheran. ( )

I really struggled with this book. The concept was so intriguing to me: "...her country and her marriage were torn apart by the competing forces of faith and politics. What was happening to faith in the heartland?" And I felt like there were times she made some really good points. But the overall organization of the book was like watching a hamster, and that frustration overwhelmed the positives.

Herein lies the core problem Lenz must face as an author...which story is she telling? Is this a memoir of the breakup of her marriage? Is it a feature about religion in the Midwest? Is this a diatribe against Evangelicals and their rejection of women as leaders? She manages to touch on all these themes, often stridently, and sometimes all in the same paragraph. It got to the point where I couldn't follow her narrative and the points she was making got muddled.

Which is unfortunate, because 1) I live in the Midwest and am concerned about its future, 2) I voted against Trump, 3) I sympathize with her complaints about organized religion and Evangelicals. In other words, I should be a built-in appreciative audience for her and would think I would have devoured this book in minimal time. I didn't. Yet, I will recommend this book to friends and relatives because I was deeply bothered by the anecdotes of rudeness & prejudice she details. And I have to believe that if change is to happen, we need to all be aware of the problems and commit ourselves to doing our part here and now to move forward. ( )

This book. It pierced my soul and hit incredibly close to home. I am Midwestern, Evangelical, and a Democrat, like Lyz Lenz. While my marriage did not die, so much of what I assumed about my faith and my patriotism did after the 2016 election. This book could only be written by a Midwesterners, because it tackles contradictions with both clarity and empathy. Lenz also directly addresses white privilege in a way that white women need to hear. Read this book. ( )

This felt like a weird mix of a memoir and a dissertation. Lenz and her husband divorce over a mix of feminism (she's for it, he isn't), religion (she wants a voice in her church leadership, he wants her to stop), and politics (Clinton v Trump). Also, Lenz goes across the midwest looking at small, often failing, sometimes struggling or thriving, churches.

The two threads don't mix well. There's not enough of her personal life to be a memoir, but there's not much of a thesis about the churches. Also, the prose drove me up a wall. ( )

Interesting read. Easy for me to identify as a person who grew up in SD, lived in Southern MN for a while and has relatives/friends in other parts of the Midwest who could be on a similar path. A pretty furious young woman disillusioned with I might call the hollowness of the religious communities she encounters. Addresses her perception that the traditional religious churches in rural america see themselves as pious and moral only as closed unquestioning bodies. The longing for the decency of the past is an illusion and a way to resist changes of all kind . In the author's experience Love Thy Neighbor is only a tenet of the church if "neighbors" are like you. She has little patience for the mega churches that she sees again as exclusive and divisive. I find myself agreeing on that part. Lenz also spends time looking at the influence of farming and living on the land. The fickleness and harshness of the weather may require people of the prairie to cling to what may feel like the unchanging nature of religion. Worth reading, it's not very long, it is well written. ( )