Andrew Park /Between a Church and a Hard Place: One Faith-Free Father’s Struggle to Understand What it Means to be Religious

Thursday

3/18/10  7:00pm-8:00pm

Andrew Park discusses BETWEEN A CHURCH AND A HARD PLACE: One Faith-Free Father’s Struggle to Understand What it Means to be Religious (or Not)

When his three-year-old son first said the word “God,” panic erupted over Park’s face. Teaching his children about ethics, good manners, penmanship and the perfect free throw were no problem for Park. But when his son started asking about religion, he was stumped. Raised without a religious tradition in a family where teenage rebellion meant being born again as an Evangelical Christian (as his brother did), Park always believed he’d be a nonbeliever. But when his children confronted him with questions, Park knew it was time to find the answers.

In BETWEEN A CHURCH AND A HARD PLACE Park takes readers along on his tour through religion in America on his quest to find a comfortable middle ground for himself and his family.  Colorful and though-provoking, Park chronicles his explorations through the varied and often contradictory influences of religion in his life so far ― his great-grandfather’s pioneering role in the Pentecostal movement of the early 20^th century, his liberal intellectual parents’ rejection of the Protestant faiths in which they were raised, his childhood in the Bible Belt city that produced Billy Graham and Jim Bakker, and witnessing his older brother’s rebellious immersion in a Charismatic church.

Along the way, Park grapples with what it means to be irreligious in an exceptionally religious society and whether peaceful coexistence with people of faith can ever truly be achieved. With the perfect blend of humor and humility, he uncovers what it means to embrace religion–or not–while still being a good role model, and most importantly, still being true to himself.