Wanderlost: A Review

Leafing through the March 9, 2022, edition of The Christian Century I came across an article written by Jack Jenkins of the Religion New Service title "Immigration reform no longer united faith groups."  In the article, utilizing results from a February poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, Jenkins describes how over the past decade or so support for things like a pathway to citizenship has moved from being uniformly supported by various faith groups and traditions, to something that adds to the numerous differences that they hold.

I was struck that I came across this just as a was finishing up Natalie Toon Patton's book Wanderlost:  Falling from Grace and Finding Mercy in All the Wrong Places. I note that because this volume, which traces her faith journey and her literal journeys after she is ex-communicated from an evangelical megachurch upon the occasion of her divorce, is at its best in the final chapters as she describes her own experiences with a family of Somalian refugees.

After a friend is detained with her family in a detention center in Bangkok, where the author lived with her husband and children, she describes in detail the injustices she experiences.  She wrestles with the theological implications of immigration policy and asks hard questions.  Many of which she doesn't pretend to be able to answer.  She also speaks of how from a perspective of privilege, we can often distance ourselves from the angst of such difficult situations by what some have called Band-Aid charity.  "We like to do good," she writes, "as long as we can keep suffering at arms' length."  (253)

While I found myself thinking some of the sections of the volume were less than fully inspiring, but her writing is always honest and clear.  And the last chapters, with their honest view of immigration issues, is worth the wait and makes most sense when seen in the larger context of the book.

Patton was not, and is not, a refugee in the literal sense of the word, but in many ways,
she was a refugee in terms of her faith journey.  She does find safe harbor in the end, partly due to the fact that she learns how to embrace the questions.

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network.  I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.