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Unmasking the Myths of White Evangelicalism
by Holly Berkley Fletcher
What do we learn about white evangelicalism from those raised by its heroes? From historian Holly Berkley Fletcher, herself a missionary kid, comes this first-of-its-kind examination of how the experiences of missionary kids illuminate broader currents in American Christianity.
As sidekicks to their parents' and churches' ambitions, missionary kids (MKs) face questions many white Christians eventually ask: about God's calling, sacrifice, faith, privilege, racism, abuse, and what belonging means. In The Missionary Kids, Fletcher reveals how MKs have intimate access to the movement's logic, longings, and ideals.
With penetrating research, sly wit, and an empathic gaze, Fletcher lays bare complicated emotions and troublesome truths. She investigates how calling, multiculturalism, saints, and indispensability can distract white American Christians from their own tradition's sins and failures. Drawing on her experience as a Southern Baptist MK in Kenya, on conversations with other missionary kids, and on the work of psychologists, historians, missiologists, and researchers, Fletcher paints an intricate portrait of family life on the front lines of the missionary movement. From boarding school to war zones, and from sexual assault by adult missionaries to fending for themselves so as not to distract from the work of the Lord, MKs bear the weight of their parents' choices and their churches' ideals. Fletcher delves into the "missionary industrial complex" that shapes the lives of missionary families, listening to MKs speak of the vexing, wordless longing for the places they've lived.
For many years, few people sought out MKs' real voices. God had called their parents to do great things, so the kids were beside the point. But the children of missionaries are beneficiaries of evangelicalism's rewards and victims of its failings.
And now they are ready to talk.
"Historian Fletcher incisively explores the dark underbelly of American evangelical missionary work via the experiences of missionaries' children...Robustly researched and sharply analyzed, it's an illuminating exposé with important implications for evangelical Christianity." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Insightful and hard-hitting." ―Library Journal
"It's long past time for the church to grapple with how we do 'mission work' across the globe, and The Missionary Kids is a good wake-up call. Holly Berkley Fletcher, herself a missionary kid, exposes a relatively unpublicized underbelly of mission work—the children taken to unfamiliar locations, disconnected from their parents, and left to fend for themselves all in the name of God." ―Nancy French, author of Ghosted: An American Story
"Dr. Berkley Fletcher's very personal look into the experiences of white evangelical missionary kids (MKs) will leave few readers unprovoked. Many will be provoked to shock and further disillusionment with the white evangelical subculture. Many others will be provoked to defensiveness, protesting about all the people missionaries serve or the many MKs who've cherished their experiences. (I found myself provoked in both directions as I read.) Most importantly, however, this book will provoke serious discussion about the blind spots of American Christians and what it really means to love God and love people, within our homes and abroad." ―Samuel L. Perry, professor of sociology, University of Oklahoma, and author of Religion for Realists and coauthor of Taking America Back for God
This information about The Missionary Kids was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Holly Berkley Fletcher is a historian, essayist, and former intelligence analyst. She was raised in Kenya by missionary parents. She earned a PhD in American history and taught in universities for several years before being hired as an Africa analyst by the Central Intelligence Agency, where she worked for nineteen years. She lives in the Washington, DC, area with her husband, two kids, and dog.
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