Author recounts growing up in Churches of Christ — and her sexual assault by a preacher.
By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle
The biggest villain — and rightly so — in Nancy French’s memoir “Ghosted: An American Story” is a preacher who gives the seventh-grader a ride home from Vacation Bible School.
“In his early twenties, he was too young to be a preacher,” French writes. “But the hiring criteria for country Church of Christ preachers was a car salesman’s enthusiasm, a firm handshake, and baptism by immersion. He preached at a rural church down the road but came to our church for midweek or evening services. His dad was an elder at our church, so he was like church royalty.”
French details how the preacher, whom she identifies only as Conrad, sexually assaulted her and changed the trajectory of her life.
Churches of Christ figure prominently — and generally not positively — in the life story of French, a best-selling author and ghostwriter for celebrities and conservative politicians.
The book also recounts French’s less-than-perfect time at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn.
Unresolved trauma from her abuse explains part of her negative experience at the Christian university. Theological differences play a role, too, as the writer favors a style of Christianity with a more direct manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
But Lipscomb provides one major blessing for French: The university connects her to her future husband, David French, a conservative lawyer who later earned a Bronze Star as an Army attorney and now works as a New York Times columnist.
“Ghosted” focuses on how the Frenches lost friends and colleagues alike when they became critics of Donald Trump, the twice-divorced billionaire who won the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and ascended to the White House.
This review appears in the online edition of The Christian Chronicle.
Faith. Family. Fastballs. 