Deconstructing Faith Does Not Require a Poster Child
The about-face of authors such as Hillary McFarland and Joshua Harris causes understandable hurt and uproar. It may be better not to care so much.
In 2010, Hillary McFarland’s Quivering Daughters was a unique breakout book in my area of fascination: women raised under Christian patriarchy and those who escape it. McFarland offered a text that reflected what I would hear from sources over and again throughout the coming decade, how much they loved their parents, how much the faith they imposed hurt them.
It was a book that gave a lot of comfort to many young women who grew up burdened with helping parent their plentiful siblings, while shouldering restrictive doctrines that dictated their clothing, education, and relationships. Some of their stories were shared in the book.
Recently, I’ve seen grief on Twitter as some of McFarland’s readers spotted on her website a lengthy post explaining how “In my foolishness and unbelief, I tested God..” She continues, “I was afraid of Him, and thought lies about Him and myself… He heard the sinful things I said and saw the sinful things I did.”
