Evolving in Monkey Town

Evangelical Monkey Business

A Review of Evolving in Monkey Town

Evolving in Monkey Town by Rachel Held Evans explores her personal journey through Christian fundamentalism. This book mirrors much of what we do here at ill-legalism. Evans claims, “I was a fundamentalist not because of the beliefs I held but because of how I held them: with a death grip. It would take God himself to finally pry some of them out of my hands.” (p.18) She explains the anguish in her journey: “I went from the security of crawling around on all fours in the muck and mire of my inherited beliefs to the vulnerability of standing, my head and heart exposed, in the truth of my own spiritual experience.” (p.23)

When I first flipped through this book, my eyes landed on page 186 where the author addresses young girls about the confusing messages they receive from the church concerning gender roles. She states:

I would tell them that the idea of a single, comprehensive biblical worldview to which all Christians can agree is a myth and that it’s okay to ask questions about people’s interpretations. I would tell them that this doesn’t diminish the beauty and power of the Bible but rather enhances it and gives Christians something to talk about. And I would tell them that womanhood, like the Bible, is far too lovely and mysterious and transcendent to systematize or explain. (p. 186)

This sense of mystery concerning various aspects of Christianity is a theme throughout Monkey Town. It stands in contrast to the focus of the main players in the Scopes Trial in 1925 with their attempts to eliminate mystery from both science and religion. Evans grew up in Dayton, Tennessee—home of the Scopes Trial where William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow squared off to settle the question of creation or evolution. She attended Bryan College (named after the famous lawyer and statesman) where her father, a theologian, worked in an administrative position. She explains growing up saturated with the apologetics of Ravi Zacharias during the cultural wars of the 80s and 90s and how she could argue her way through challenges to her beliefs. She even formulated her own well-developed argument against Darrow’s challenges in the trial. She sat under the teachings of Dr. Kurt Wise, who is a young-earth creationist despite earning his degree in paleontology from Harvard University under Stephen J. Gould.

Evans highlights both the humor and irony of evangelical witnessing tactics of the times, for example, “My strategy was to be effusively friendly to everyone I met, always looking for openings in the conversation that would naturally lead to a discussion about substitutionary atonement.” (p.41) It should be no small concern that adults continue to encourage this approach for Christian teenagers. Sadly, much “witnessing” by fundamentalists and evangelicals mirrors the statement: “Some have said that Bryan won the case, but Darrow won the argument.” (p.60) This is the feeling of many apologists who wonder what is happening when they have all the answers but questions still refuse to be corralled and conquered. Blaming the questioners works for awhile, but as Evans found out, eventually the questions come, not from an unbelievers, but from the face in the mirror.

Evans’ story reminds us that many fundamentalists and evangelicals search for certainty and never learned to have a healthy doubt. While she doesn’t spend time examining the tenets of modernism, she does provide a picture of its pitfalls and, with humor and concern, shares her own journey as a result of the marriage of Christianity to modernity.

Evans makes an important distinction between faith and belief. She relates how, in her teens, Jesus seemed to have “packed his bags and moved from my heart into my head.” (p.105) Living from a rationalistic approach at the expense of the heart is a common problem with modern Christians, and her journey is an important one for us to examine for insight into this dynamic.

She also explains her approach to Christianity and the Bible after embracing uncertainty and mystery. In my view, her focus on obedience instead of on doctrine (in chapter “Jesus, God in Sandals”) somewhat misses the mark. Fundamentalists already have obedience radically addressed through legalism. The spotlight on obedience does little to address the many issues uncovered in Monkey Town. While Evans found her heart again, partly through obedience, this may not have the same result for those who find obedience part of their cerebral approach to Christianity. A more comprehensive understanding of “heart” and the division between the head and heart would direct readers towards healing.

Evans calls herself an evolutionist—the kind that evolves from “certainty, through doubt, to faith.” (p. 23) She does not provide answers in the traditional Christian sense, but she does provoke an open dialog for many who find their faith in a monkey town sort of trial.

by Rachel Ramer