Overview

From the author of the award-winning memoir Not the Mother I Remember, comes an extraordinary story of love and faith and a unique window into the Jesus Movement in the 1970s. In 1973, Linda was a flute player and music major at a California community college, until she met and fell madly in love with a charismatic piano player, plunging into his world of music-making and drug-fueled parties. When, just three weeks after their wedding, he reveals that he's been ""born again,"" Linda makes the spontaneous decision to follow him into his new religion and, unwittingly, into a life of communal living, male domination, and magical thinking. With unflinching candor, Amber Starfire chronicles her journey as Linda Carr into the evangelical church culture, where she gives up everything for her husband and their music ministry. But in the process, she loses her most valuable assets: her identity and sense of self-worth. It is only when Linda returns to live with her birth family and faces her complicated relationship with her mother that she finds new purpose and the courage to begin to extricating herself from the limiting beliefs of her past. Accidental Jesus Freak is the story of one woman, one marriage, and one kind of fundamentalism, but it is also the story of the healing that is possible when we are true to ourselves. Both a cautionary tale and celebration of personal empowerment, Accidental Jesus Freak is a powerful reminder for anyone who seeks to live a life authentic to who they truly are.

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9780999444108

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Reviews

Accidental Jesus Freak is a compelling story of why a smart and creative woman wholeheartedly surrenders to a fanatical religious sect that repeatedly trashes her self-respect and abuses her emotionally. Starfire's memoir is not just a courageous look at one woman's awakening; it offers wisdom for all of us on how to recognize and claim our authentic selves, and create not just happiness, but lives that fulfill our hearts and spirits.-- Susan J. Tweit, award-winning author, speaker, teacher Gripping and beautifully told, harrowing and lovely, Amber Lea Starfire's Accidental Jesus Freak is an unforgettable story of what it means to follow in the orbit of others--her husband, religion, men who think they know better--only to finally realize she's a star with her own powerful gravity. Anyone who has ever sought their true path will be unable to put this story down.-- Jordan Rosenfeld, author of Women in Red and Forged in Grace. Amber Starfire's ability to bring home a young woman's life through the trials of religious misanthropy, marriage and ultimately her quest for identity and meaning makes for a wonderfully compelling and timely read. This is the journey of the feminine told with insight, vulnerability and honesty.-- Susan G. Weidener, author of Morning at Wellington Square, Again in a Heartbeat, and A Portrait of Love and Honor In Accidental Jesus Freak, Amber Lea Starfire tells a compelling personal story with eloquence and grace. That alone would be a praiseworthy. But there's more. This memoir offers an unflinching view of a young woman's journey from college music student seeking love, purpose and spiritual guidance, to born again Christian wife and mother who goes all-in to follow the tenets of her restrictive religion. Her path is fraught with adversity, but her resilience and drive ultimately enable her to create a life that is authentically hers. In a larger sense, this book contributes to understanding societal forces that shaped people's lives in the second half of the twentieth century and continue to influence us today. And as a work of art, it stands as an example of the best of what memoirs have to offer.-- Laura McHale Holland author of Reversible Skirt and Resilient Ruin Amber Lee Starfire had a psychedelic-fueled conversion to religion that took her on the road and on the run through 1970s America and 1980s Europe. Living amid a spiritual, fundamentalist Christian community, she reports from the front of being deeply embedded in a communal sensibility and on what happens when she decides to create her own destiny and find a life of her own.-- Marion Roach Smith, author of The Memoir Project, A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life

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