Tess Gadwa

Southern Cross: True Stories of Miracles, Visions, Voodoo, Snake Handling, Civil Disobedience, and My Search for Existential Answers a Tess Gadwa

Publisher Marketing: Author Tess Gadwa travels through the South seeking the heart and soul of Christianity among its most loyal followers. True stories of miracles, visions, voodoo, snake handlers, civil disobedience, and my search for existential answers along the back roads of the Bible Belt "This book took me through ten states and over 10,000 miles of highway, to rural Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta, prosperous New South suburbs and New Orleans after the flood. I talked to pretty much anyone who would talk to me-black and white, rich and poor, liberal and conservative, Baptist, Pentecostal, and Catholic. I witnessed protest rallies and Pentecostal tent revivals. I visited megachurches and a pacifist Christian commune. I met a few scary people and many more kind, hospitable ones. I heard some stories you might or might not believe." At once an entertaining travel yarn and a challenge to committed Christians everywhere, Gadwa approaches her subjects with honesty and respect. Whether she is speaking with snake handlers, Pentecostal preachers, or social activists, she coaxes her subjects' authentic beliefs, feelings, and life experiences onto the page. The book's intent is not to convert or to preach, but rather to foster dialogue and honor the lived experience of individuals. Read through and your understanding of the dominant religion of the American South will be forever changed. "With a mesmerizing and colorful writing style... her book has a radical message: that we can learn more from each other than from clergy and church dogma." - Deborah Beeksma, The God Discussion Southern Cross includes interviews with Jay Bakker, founder of Revolution Church and son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, celebrated West Virginia snake handler Charles Dewey Jr., and famed Freedom Rider and civil rights activist Jerome Smith. Yet the emphasis is always on ordinary and lay people and how faith has given their lives meaning and sustenance. Readers of Dennis Covington, Anne Lamott, and Phyllis Tickle will be captivated by the style and the subject matter of the book.