Overview

I was eleven the night I pulled my sin-ridden body toward the altar to beg for God's forgiveness and mercy. While the choir hummed, ""Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me,"" the preacher, his voice, earlier calm and measured, now ramped it up to an emotional high. ""If you don't get saved tonight, you might be killed in an automobile accident on the way home. Then, you'll burn in hell forever. Your mother will look down from heaven, and see your flesh burning, but she will feel no compassion or sadness for you. There's only happiness in heaven. Do you want to take that chance? Come to Jesus tonight! Know the joy of loving the Lord! Or burn in hell forever!"" Even then, I couldn't quite picture Mother sitting on a cloud in heaven, not giving a thought to her daughter roasting in hell. Leaving the Faith of our Fathers, the story of my life, tells how, when, and why I left the church. How that impacted my life, my relationships with my family, and how the rest of my life played out with that background. How I found the way forward. My early memories were of the Northwest Nazarene Church in Nampa, Idaho, which emphasized hell. When I was about twelve, my family started attending another church, which taught us about a ""kingdom"" message, later known by various names, such as the Christian Identity Movement, which believes that White Europeans who settled America were the lost ten tribes of Israel, destined to settle this land and start a nation. The Jewish Conspiracy-the moneylenders-were the Synagogue of Satan. They controlled much of health care, education, entertainment, banks, the government, so we could not put our faith in any of those establishments. Those two were the religious influences in my life as a child. I loved reading. The library was my favorite place. I read the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and many more. Many years later, I would go to England and visit the homes of those authors. Naturally curious, I asked questions. Coming into being an adult, I talked with others, took classes, read more books, including Michener's The Source, in which he describes the elders of Israel authoring the books of the Old Testament. With divine guidance? I watched Bill Moyers interview Joseph Campbell in the series, The Power of Myth. Slowly, I began to question all I had learned. Ultimately, I rejected much of what I had been taught, but the goodness that exemplified my mother's life has stayed with me. I never rejected my family, nor did I want to be rejected by them. Those bonds were tight. After I married and had children, we went from California to Idaho to visit family every summer. Faith is a choice. It should be a free choice for everyone. This story simply tells how I came to make the choice I did, not a decision lightly reached, or obtained all at once. Eventually, I traveled, received college degrees, and my husband died. I wrote out my feelings for over fifty years. I had to write to understand myself, to deal with all that has come at me through 87 years of life. When I told the pastor of the church that taught the ""kingdom"" message that I was going to take some classes at what was then Boise Junior College, he said, ""They will put ideas in your head. You'll never come back here!"" He was right about that.

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Reviews

Lois Kazakoff, deputy editor, San Francisco Chronicle, retired: The day one recognizes beliefs learned at home no longer make sense is often painful, lonely, even sorrowful. Lois Requist chronicles her journey from believer to non-believer in a memoir about growing up in rural Idaho. ""Requist's personal story resonates as our nation grapples with deeply divisive political views that leave many Americans wondering: What do we believe and how do we move forward as a nation?"" Anne Grodin, founder of Lafayette Library and Learning Center Foundation and former mayor: Leaving one's roots is never easy, but do we really leave or just change as each new experience is added to our life's journey? Requist's story is a modern-day treatise of womanhood. She admits that ""I've moved away from the faith of our fathers to a broader, more open, spacious, and free world. It had to be"". Honest and thought-provoking, this story starts with her parents and siblings in lock step to the Christian Right way of thinking. It travels through her husband's traditional view of marriage, and along the way it is shaped by circumstance, ""troubles,"" and by feminism. With rare insights into her family history, Requist's memoir is a voyage of self-discovery. She tells of her intellectual awakening in discovering and writing poetry - while achieving her bachelor's and master's degrees. Yet as she describes it, the simple lessons taught by her mother long ago to recognize, ""the good in people that you don't agree with is the beginning of respect. The basics of what mother taught us about goodness still exists,"" even in today's polarized society. The lesson that can be learned is that if there is simple respect for one another, even though one cannot understand or abide by their decisions, with respect, there can still be harmony. Gayle Vasser, Bay Area News Group, retired: The author captures the reader's attention with her clear-eyed depiction of her early years in small town Idaho in the 1940s and 1950s, part of a large family of meager means. Requist is clear she finds the tenets of the Kingdom Message abhorrent. At the same time, she provides insight into why others embrace the message as they find comfort in believing they are part of something destined and special, especially when they feel left behind by society. For Requist, travel and higher education provided the pathway to a broader life. She continues to visit her family in Idaho but acknowledges that they have little in common besides their shared childhood memories. There is a touch of wistfulness in addressing the divide between her and her siblings, but satisfaction also in forging her own way. Leaving the Faith of Our Fathers is a memoir for our divisive times. Requist illustrates that it is possible to distance oneself from beliefs that are anathema without abandoning the people who hold those beliefs. And she encourages the reader to continue their own journey toward understanding those who may believe differently, by listening, reading and experiencing life. James W. White - author of Giants, The First State, and other stories: Requist's journey starts from a childhood built on unquestioning faith in her small rural town and follows her unique path that led to a fulfilling life as an emancipated mother, author, poet, and civic leader. Her story's challenges and accomplishments make this memoir hard to put down, inspiring us at the end, when Requist encourages us ""...to keep learning, by listening, reading, and experiencing life.""

Author Information

I have been a writer for fifty years. I received my BA and MA from San Francisco State University. I've written poetry, newspaper columns, short stories, and have published three books. From 2012-2014, I was Poet Laureate of Benicia, California. I helped found and work with Benicia Literary Arts to support writers and publish books of literary quality. I've also been involved with my community by cofounding Carquinez Village, an organization to support older people and help them stay in their homes.I've travelled extensively which has influenced my work. I have a strong network of family and friends.

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