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Book Review … In the Land of Believers (Welch)

Tzedakah Ministries recently wrote a blog about one of the most intriguing books I have read this year.  As intriguing as My Jesus Year (see last issue) and written by another Jewish individual who does not yet believe in Jesus as Messiah – In the Land of Believers by Gina Welch.  The post, which in all actuality is an apology letter.

Yes, I did write the word “apology” in the previous sentence.  I apologized because here was a woman who spent months and even a couple of years surrounded by Christians but who again never heard a true and complete Gospel presentation.  And where did she spend these months … in the Singles Group of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia.

But perhaps I should begin at the beginning of Welch’s story.  Gina Welch is Jewish but she is also an atheist and extremely liberal in her politics.  She goes to graduate school in Virginia and suddenly finds herself surrounded by politically conservative, religious Southern Christians.  She decides to explore this world with an eye towards writing a book about her sociological experience.  She decides to go “undercover” and begins attending Thomas Road shortly before Jerry Falwell’s death.  She goes through a “newcomers” class, she joins the church by salvation and baptism, and she becomes an active member of the Singles Group.  She manages to maintain her secret identity for a number of months including being able to attend Falwell’s funeral and going with other singles on a missions trip to Alaska  No one discovers the truth about Gina’s real views on God and Christianity until she “outs” herself to the Single’s minister and her best friend in the group.

After reading this book and/or the blog post, many might want to give into the temptation to criticize Welch’s falsehoods.  And some criticism is deserved including her tendency to have a self-indulgent opinion that she is smarter than anyone in the room.  However, the point that we as believers in Jesus should take away from this book is simply – How could another Jewish person spend a year surrounded by “self-professed Christians” and still walk away without having a personal faith in Messiah Jesus?  Where are we failing?  What are we doing and how are we living that results in seemingly nothing?

Gina Welch wrote a unique sociological work – she is the Jane Goodall of evangelicals.  She also wrote a book based upon a falsehood that will make her a lot of money and garner a bunch of television interviews.  However, and unless something changes, she will also walk into eternity without Messiah Jesus.