Published Aug. 7, 2019 by Indiana University Press.
In the wake of the 2016 election, Lyz Lenz watched as her country and her marriage were torn apart by the competing forces of faith and politics. A mother of two, a Christian, and a lifelong resident of middle America, Lenz was bewildered by the pain and loss around her--the empty churches and the broken hearts. What was happening to faith in the heartland?
From drugstores in Sydney, Iowa, to skeet shooting in rural Illinois, to the mega churches of Minneapolis, Lenz set out to discover the changing forces of faith and tradition in God's country. Part journalism, part memoir, God Land is a journey into the heart of a deeply divided America. Lenz visits places of worship across the heartland and speaks to the everyday people who often struggle to keep their churches afloat and to cope in a land of instability. Through a thoughtful interrogation of the effects …
In the wake of the 2016 election, Lyz Lenz watched as her country and her marriage were torn apart by the competing forces of faith and politics. A mother of two, a Christian, and a lifelong resident of middle America, Lenz was bewildered by the pain and loss around her--the empty churches and the broken hearts. What was happening to faith in the heartland?
From drugstores in Sydney, Iowa, to skeet shooting in rural Illinois, to the mega churches of Minneapolis, Lenz set out to discover the changing forces of faith and tradition in God's country. Part journalism, part memoir, God Land is a journey into the heart of a deeply divided America. Lenz visits places of worship across the heartland and speaks to the everyday people who often struggle to keep their churches afloat and to cope in a land of instability. Through a thoughtful interrogation of the effects of faith and religion on our lives, our relationships, and our country, God Land investigates whether our divides can ever be bridged and if America can ever come together.
I really enjoy Lyz Lenz's articles and her newsletter, so I wanted to read one of her books. I do not share her faith, or upbringing, but I do share many of her frustrations and hopes. Every chapter gave me something to mull over and reflect on. Highly recommend, for anyone.
This book makes me love the genre "memoirs". It is a book full of pains, disappointments, and confusions about church and faith in America, with an interesting context: after Trump got elected as the President. I would call it "traumatic writing" because I feel the author is basically licking her wounds.
Her confusion is also my confusion: how can Church, the place for the sacred and love does the opposite. Gradually I learned to seperate the Church from churches, seperate God's will from the church's will, God's words from pastors' preaching... and even if people do things in God's name, it doesn't mean that God's spirit is with them.
As a person sharing similar views and similar wounds, I often cried as I read this book. In fact, my feeling towards faith is very similar to what she felt at the end of the book, not knowing what to believe, …
This book makes me love the genre "memoirs". It is a book full of pains, disappointments, and confusions about church and faith in America, with an interesting context: after Trump got elected as the President. I would call it "traumatic writing" because I feel the author is basically licking her wounds.
Her confusion is also my confusion: how can Church, the place for the sacred and love does the opposite. Gradually I learned to seperate the Church from churches, seperate God's will from the church's will, God's words from pastors' preaching... and even if people do things in God's name, it doesn't mean that God's spirit is with them.
As a person sharing similar views and similar wounds, I often cried as I read this book. In fact, my feeling towards faith is very similar to what she felt at the end of the book, not knowing what to believe, but still can't let go because of the deep impact faith once had in our lives.
God Land is an insightful and challenging critique of Christianity in Middle America. Lyz Lenz clearly still loves her Midwestern home, but laments that the predominant Christian voices are conflating Republicanism, gun culture, and male-only leadership with the message of Jesus.
God Land doesn't try to paint an overly cheery "we just shouldn't let politics divide us" picture. Lenz's own story illustrates how divisive these issues can be on a personal level. She doesn't pull punches as she recounts the end of her marriage, leaving one church, having a church plant die, and her struggles to find supportive community.
God Land's clear affection for Middle America and portraits of small-town Americans combined with Lenz' beautiful prose and painfully honest diagnosis make it a must-read in 2019 America.
