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Megan Hustad and her family try to reconcile an evangelical upbringing in a post-Christian America
When Megan Hustad was a child, her father uprooted their family from Minneapolis to embark on a cross-cultural journey in the name of evangelical Christianity. As missionaries they brought the Gospel to the Caribbean island of Bonaire and later to the outskirts of Amsterdam. After a decade away, they returned to the States only to find themselves more alien than before. The evangelical landscape had transformed from the idealistic, market-averse movement it was in the 1970s to one where media-savvy pastors held sway over mega-churches. As the family struggled with the economic and spiritual aftermath of their break from middle-class Middle America, Megan and her sister, Amy, began to plot their escape.
Megan sets her sights on New York City, where everything she was denied as a child would be at her fingertips, and Amy makes her home among the intellectual swagger of New Englanders. But fitting in proves harder than they'd imagined. As much as Megan tries to shake them, thoughts of the God she was ignoring follow her into every party and relationship.
In More Than Conquerors, Hustad explores what happens when the habits of your religion coincide with the demands of your social class, and what breaks when they conflict. With a sharp tongue and deep insight, Hustad offers a vivid account of the cultural divisions, anxieties, and resentments that continue to divide our country and her own family.
When Megan Hustad was a child, her father uprooted their family from Minneapolis to embark on a cross-cultural journey in the name of evangelical Christianity. As missionaries they brought the Gospel to the Caribbean island of Bonaire and later to the outskirts of Amsterdam. After a decade away, they returned to the States only to find themselves more alien than before. The evangelical landscape had transformed from the idealistic, market-averse movement it was in the 1970s to one where media-savvy pastors held sway over mega-churches. As the family struggled with the economic and spiritual aftermath of their break from middle-class Middle America, Megan and her sister, Amy, began to plot their escape.
Megan sets her sights on New York City, where everything she was denied as a child would be at her fingertips, and Amy makes her home among the intellectual swagger of New Englanders. But fitting in proves harder than they'd imagined. As much as Megan tries to shake them, thoughts of the God she was ignoring follow her into every party and relationship.
In More Than Conquerors, Hustad explores what happens when the habits of your religion coincide with the demands of your social class, and what breaks when they conflict. With a sharp tongue and deep insight, Hustad offers a vivid account of the cultural divisions, anxieties, and resentments that continue to divide our country and her own family.
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Reviews
"Where does the family end and the self begin? When does a religious upbringing end and a life of considered belief begin? Few of us get to the bottom of those questions in our own lives, but Megan Hustad has sought to answer them with clarity and bravery."
Paul Elie, author of The Life You Save May Be Your Own
"Megan Hustad examines the world of international Christian evangelism as only an insider can. With fierce wit and relentless scrutiny, she reveals all the good intentions and bitter disappointments of a problematic movement--all the hope, naïveté, and ingenuity required of her family as they spread the good news abroad. What endures is the tremendous love the Hustads share for one aother. Somewhe
Domenica Ruta, author of With or Without You
"Sensitive, intelligent, and deeply empathetic, More Than Conquerors is the story of a family that is both unusual and utterly relatable. As Megan Hustad tells us early on, this is not a book about abuse or neglect but about four very different and yet well-intentioned people who struggle to do the best they can by one another without renouncing their own beliefs or their own dreams. Hustad narrat
Adelle Waldman, author of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.