Book review: Churched

Despite the fact that my roommate feels comparing Churched to Anne Lamott is quite blasphemous, it was an...interesting...read. Having grown up in a relatively conservative church/family, I knew there were fundamentlists out there, I just didn't know how crazy they were. ;) Sure, some of his experiences are probably exaggerated (whose childhood memories aren't?), but it becomes clear very quickly in the book that what the people of Matthew's church lacked was a proper understanding of the Gospel--they forgot grace. Add in an obsession with hell, the "sin" of having long hair on guys and you have a collection stories that will make you grimace a bit and wish some would actually read the Bible instead of pretending they know what it says.

I've read a few books about growing up in the church--Mark Lowry probably being best-known author/comedian on this topic, and although Churched isn't as funny as Mark, it's not a half-bad read if you're looking for something to make you laugh a little and wince a little more.