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Starting from her earliest memories, indoctrination of eternal damnation posed an irreconcilable contradiction. Why would God damn His own creation to Hell? No one, especially the loudest spewers of damnation, can answer Debra’s question, nor are they disturbed by the dilemma.
Forced to accept these Protestant fundamentalist teachings, she concludes that if one truly believes in damnation, one would do anything and everything to spare their fellow man from the terrible fate. Yet she observes that no one in her life seems to carry this same concern. She’s suffocated by the burden, and obsessed by the contradictory dilemma. Yet she remains unwilling to sacrifice her life for such an impossible cause. Seeing no end, eventually guilt and confusion paralyze her teenage mind, and she’s unable to function in day-to-day life.
Out of her parents’ house and away from the church, the grasp of eternal damnation loosens as Debra experiences a new life as wife, mother, and grandmother. The very few reprieves from fundamentalism that she experienced as a child blossom into lifelong friendships that give her insight into pure love and kindness.
In a rigid faith tradition that confused control for care, Debra endured wounds that cut to the core of her spirit. Her memoir traces the long path of disentangling those lies, discovering authentic kindness, and reclaiming her own voice. For anyone who’s ever wrestled with doctrines that masquerade intolerance as devotion, this book offers both recognition and release.