'In the Land of Believers' by Gina Welch

A writer goes undercover as a 'church lady' to write an account of being a member of an evangelical church. The book becomes a melodrama, with the author in the role of villain.
By Laura Collins-Hughes
March 2, 2010

In May 2007, deep into her time as a stealth member of Jerry Falwell's Lynchburg, Va., congregation, Gina Welch had become unsettled about her comfort level there. The most recent alarming development: Falwell -- fundamentalist preacher, Moral Majority founder, bête noire of the American left -- had just died, and Welch, a Berkeley native and lifelong atheist, was sad about it.

Grief, however, was not the reason she stood a few days later in the crowd of mourners near the entrance to Falwell's mega-church, a "Jesus first" pin adorning her chest. She was "undercover," as she puts it, "posing as a church lady" to gather material for her first book.
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"One can't help but wonder what kind of book Welch might have written had she decided against her elaborate masquerade. As Daniel Radosh points out in "Rapture Ready!," his incisive 2008 exploration of Christian pop culture: "By definition, evangelicals engage with the culture at large." With honesty, Welch might have earned the trust of the people at Thomas Road, or at least their cooperation.

Instead, with a youthful blend of cynicism and naïveté, she approached Falwell's flock as if they were the enemy -- thereby setting herself up to be totally disarmed by their humanity. In this minor skirmish of the culture wars, score one for the evangelicals.