Division between church and state has seemed to be a very big divide in America. While I’m not American (and for some of you that instantly means I’m not qualified to make this post, but stay with me here), a lot of our media is very (very) American, and “In This Moment” by Karen Kingsbury looks not just at the amendment of the way the US governs, but also religious freedom and understanding on a human level. So, I’m going to do this post in two parts – Part One will be a review the book itself and how it was written, and Part Two will be how it handled this idea of people in the US seeming to think that God, and mentioning anything to do with Him or His Word, is illegal in the school system and beyond.

PART ONE – The Book

In brief, this books is about a high school principal who is in a school that has so many issues that it’s on the brink of being shut down. In order to save the kids, bring them back into the classrooms and give them hope, he starts a voluntary after school bible club. He knows he might get sued for it, but he does it anyway. He was right – the school starts doing better, but he does get sued.

Okay, so this is a book that comes after many (many, many, many) other books – congrats Karen! Unfortunately, as I did pick this one up with little to no knowledge of the complicated Baxter family, even though it is intended for anyone (read another book or not) to pick this up and follow it, it doesn’t make it super reader friendly. If you don’t know or understand the very complex Baxter family and another family that are friends of theirs, things feel a little chaotic. It led to a bunch of info dumping that was exhausting. This book was almost 75% info dumping. Not just about the backstories of all the various Baxters we get introduced to us, but also around a main character love interests (Wendell and Alicia) where we basically get info dumping of their life stories which actually could have been an entire book on its own without including Luke and Reagan’s story at all.

Alicia’s anxiety and panic attacks were well written in my opinion, but I wish we had seen a lot more of her story unfold in the present because it would have been really interesting. I don’t know if it’s explored in another book and that’s why we didn’t see it, but I had to let a lot of those things go in this book because I quickly realised that for some characters, that was exactly the case.

The case itself was one of the most interesting parts (the only reason I read this book in the first place) of the entire story. I liked the courtroom scenes (though there were some inconsistencies with real court procedure… I picked that up and I’m in Australia!), and it did hold my attention with how the case would unfold. Family and drama dynamics were pretty interesting and I would give this book a 3 star rating.

Trigger warnings: suicide, death, racism, religious bigotry, child abuse, anxiety and infidelity.

PART TWO – Religion Is Illegal in Schools?

Okay, I don’t know the real climate in American schools with God, the Bible and having freedom of religion collide with reality. If it’s as bleak as this book made it seem – that some people think it’s actually illegal to even have their own personal Bible in school – then I’m concerned for my friends across the world. I know there are people who hate God, and don’t want Him anywhere near anything, however, we have recently seen a divide in schools with ideologies that want to be included… so excluding God would be highly hypocritical… Nobody seems to notice that when it’s other religions that are allowed to express themselves in schools and it’s okay, but Christian’s aren’t, and THAT’S where they draw the line… What? But this happens all over the world. We shut out Christian liberties, and give them to pretty much everyone else.

There seems to be a line that people who hate God want to take, and it’s basically to try and eradicate Christians. Just so those people know (if they happen to read this), that’s impossible. God will never be eradicated… because He’s God. You can try all you like, but you won’t succeed – just ask all the underground churches in places like China. Having said that, slowly our society is eroding the rights of Christians and that’s just what we’re facing. However, I refuse to believe people are this ignorant, this bigoted, and this dictatorial in the “land of the FREE”??? Free, unless you’re a Christian (which is what the founding fathers were, I believe).

Anyway, this book did an okay job dealing with this topic, but it felt a little overblown to the reality. I’m hoping it is, at least, because if someone wants to bring a book to school that you don’t like (and it’s their personal book), or someone wants to start an after school club that changes the school for the better, or someone wants to share with other kids that ask about why they seem happy all the time instead of miserable… why are you stopping them? Are you that scared of a God that you don’t think is real? If people are not actively screaming at others that they’re a doomed and hated sinner, but they are treating them with kindness, love and compassion, why do you care where it comes from? You certainly don’t care when it comes from other religions or sources.

---

While I think this book could start some really interesting discussions, the book itself is an interesting read without the context of other stories. Still worth a pick up if the topic interests you, as this kind of thing happens in all countries – not just America.

See You in the Adventures!
Christy Grace