Jessica Wilbanks

'When I Spoke in Tongues' is one of two books I won in the LibraryThing Early Readers program about 2018, but for various reasons never received, and now, five years later have ordered for myself.

Jessica Wilbanks writes from the heart her story of growing up as a Pentecostal Christian, speaking, maybe shyly, in tongues, truly wanting to be the person her parents and her church believed was the right way to be. She tells how during the last two years of high school she pretended to her parents, though she no longer considered herself a believer. Still, for years through college and beyond some part of her yearned for the ritual, the community, the drama of the church services from her youth.

Her story carries her through several relationships, through several moves, jobs and graduate school, and a trip to Nigeria to research the roots of Pentecostalism and its current-day churches in that country.

Finally, though she had never completely broken the links with her family, she gives us a final chapter telling us how she came to an understanding of her lost faith and how she saw her life continue to unfold ahead of her.

It's a well-told story. The early and late parts had the most impact for me.… (meer)

Synopsis: Jessica Wilbanks memoir on her exploration of faith and leaving behind the strict religious upbringing of her past. As she struggles with her faith she digs into the roots of her childhood religion and finds both wonderful and terrible things there.

My Rating:

4/5

This book is near and dear to my heart. I have gone on my own religious journey so I can empathize with Jessica and her struggles with growing up in a conservative faith that is a huge part of her life and then beginning to question that faith and it's pillars.

I was drawn in from the beginning to Jessica's struggles. It was interesting to see the pivotal role her religion played in her upbringing and the hardships she faced as she began to question that faith. I really loved the insight she gives into her family relationships as her beliefs waiver. Leaving a childhood faith takes courage and is not easy to do no matter what that faith is. There are also relational consequences because those who remain in the faith often can't understand those that left. There is a very touching scene in this book where Jessica struggles with those things particularly in regards to her brother.

Jessica does a great job at exploring why faith is so important to many people and particularly what it brought to her family which was suffering from poverty. She does a great job of understanding why her family and friends need their religion and what purpose it serves them while also exploring why it isn't for her.

Later in the book she wants to learn more about her faith's roots. Jessica's faith is practiced in Nigeria so she goes there. One of the things she finds is that some children in Nigeria are abandoned because it is believed they are witches. I found that part of her travels interesting though this section of the book was a bit slow for me and not as engaging as her youth and family experiences of growing up in the faith.
If you have ever left a conservative religion I believe you will really relate to this book and Jessica's struggles and so I recommend it.… (meer)

Jessica Wilbanks' family life was drenched in the Pentecostal substream of Christianity when she grew up, recognizable from my own teenage and young adult years. Revival meetings, altar calls, speaking in tongues as proof the Holy Spirit lives in you, sheer numbers of converts, and a quest for rules and space to live your life and behave like a model citizen. At sixteen, Jessica stepped out, no longer able to accept certain faith tenets. Booze and drugs, same-sex relationship replaced the life within the boundaries of a religious family.

Her father maintains in contact. Eventually, Jessica also learned to respect her mother. The whole family is on a faith journey. Where her parents in their own way leave certain extreme denominations, Jessica wants to dig into the Yorùbá roots of the Pentecostal faith in Nigeria, since so many Africans immigrated to the U.S. and planted churches on every street corner. Promises of health and prosperity, gatherings attracted thousands and thousands. After a terrifying car crash, Jessica could start forgiving herself for leaving the church and her family and finding her own way to practice faith and love.

When I Spoke in Tongues is a painful story with lots of insights in Pentecostalism, making it less accessible for nonbelievers. Who else but a former Pentecostalist would try whether or not she's still able to speak in tongues? Money trails, pitfalls of sexual harassment and manipulation within a church setting are not interesting for any reader. For a true nonfiction work, the memoir is too polished. It leaves out many details on partners, rationale, travels and specific elements of faith. or of the painful and complicated process of losing one’s faith and moving across class divides. Where cynism or plain atheism would be the easy way out, love, in the end, binds the broken family together without casting out God.… (meer)