Converting Kate

Converting Kate

YA fiction
"...Is it dangerous to base your whole life on the Bible and
reject any other book? Like Dad's books? Like not wanting me to read
books for English class? Because if you read, you begin to think.
And if you begin to think, you begin to see how crazy stupid the Holy
Divine Church really is."
Recently thanks to COVID I actually ran out of library books.
Fortunately I had my emergency stash mostly gleaned from Goodwill and
yard sales. Beckie Weinheimer's Converting Kate is actually an older
volume my PhD daughter recommended when she was in high school. I
read it before I had this blog. I wondered if it would be as relevent
in today's world. For reasons I'll list three reasons in my
purrrsonal note, I consider it even more so.
Following the death of her father Kate and her mother, Rebekah,
have moved from Arizona to Maine. Her father's aunt owns a bed and
breakfast. Rebekah will now be running it.
Kate's parents had divorced before her father's death. Her
mother is a member in very good standing of one of those
fundamentalist churches that believes that anyone who doesn't belong
will burn in Hell for all eternity. So their mission is to convert
the whole world. That's probably why it took her awhile to give up on
Kate's agnostic if not atheist father.
Now in Maine Rebekah is pushing Kate to join up with the small
group of teen church members who attend her high school. But she
wants nothing to do with those drably dressed girls who actually pray
and read scriptures in the school cafeteria. She just wants the
chance to fit in and be accepted.
Pretty soon Kate is running cross country (a passion she had
shared with her father), reading books her mom would consider
unacceptable including a stash she inherited from her dad, and
attending a church her mom considers dangerously deluded.
As Kate and Rebekah drift further and further apart and Kate
encounters crises she begins to realize that faith and religion may
not always be one and the same. Her favorite involves seeing through
a glass darkly and then knowing. One day her new minister says:
"...Maybe our lives are actually meant to be lived in the half
dark. Not knowing all the answers. Being open. Questioning. Always
searching but never being finished. And maybe not knowing the answers
to all the cosmic questions can actually make us kinder, more
accepting, and more loving."
(In my mind those are words to live by.)
Kate's faith journey makes for one of the most poignant and
powerful coming of age narratives I've ever seen. I highly recommend
it to anyone YA and up who has ever questioned the religious tenets
they were brought up by.
On a purrrsonal note, here are the three reasons:
1) Fundamentalist parents are still trying to force their
nonconforming sons and daughters to "shape up or fly straight",
especially if matters of gender identity or sexuality are involved.
That's why we keep hearing all the horror stories about conversion
therapy. There are so many transgender students in college and below
whose parents threaten to kick them out of the family if they
transition. Books can help them realize they aren't alone and they're
worthy just as they are.
2) Extreme Bible literalists aren't just stuck in their ways about
matters of scripture and attire. They have a history of being science
deniers. The guy who came up with the Earth revolving around the Sun
rather than vice versa was excommunicated. Today you have those
clergy who insist that masking and vaxing are signs of lack of faith.
3) Pollsters are noticing a trend. Although many younger people are
turning their back on organized religion, many of them are exploring a
wide range of spirituality options. Maybe this is a sign that they're
not afraid of the prospect of not knowing all the answers. I bet many
of them would really like the book.
It's not just younger people though. I really relate to Kate.
I was raised in the Episcopal Church which demanded its own type of
conformity. Mom was director of religious ed and Dad was church
organist. I asked so many inconvenient questions that when I was in
first grade mom started telling me to be quiet in class each and every
week. She was tired of replacing horrified Sunday school teachers.
At eleven I refused to make the adult commitment of getting
confirmed. Mom stopped pressing (or even attending) church after
Harriet's life altering illness caused the congregation to stop
showing Christian charity.
Most of my adult life has been a series of trying to find a church I
felt comfortable in and taking breaks. I've tried the whole
Protestant range without every really fitting in anywhere. And I kept
feeling God's presence more in nature than in any human built
structure. I shocked a lot of people when I didn't get my kids
baptized as infants or make them stay in Sunday school when they lost
interest. I respected their ownership of their identities. I
listened to rather than silencing their questions and observations.
One day I realized I was afraid of totally leaving organized religion,
of believing somewhere there was a church I'd belong. I was afraid
that there'd be nothing after death. Even though the particulars of
Protestant heaven didn't exactly tempt me, the thought of ceasing to
exist scared me witless. Since then I've become comfortable with not
knowing what happens after death and with being much more spiritual
than religious. With feeling God's presence more in nature than in
any building. With seeing through a glass darkly.
The irony is that was when I found myself in a church where I belong
the way I am, questions and all. It's like stopping chasing a
butterfly only to have it land on you. (Jules)
If there are no cats in heaven it isn't heaven. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to my chikdren and younger friends for
being catalysts on my faith journey and my family in Church of
Universal Fellowship where I didn't have to be someone I'm not to be
accepted.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway


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