Finding, Faith, Finding Safe, Finding Potatoes: Trading Religion for Amazing Grace

Finding Faith, Finding Safe, Finding Potatoes is the story of a Jewish girl who struggles as a child to fit in with her peers and, as a woman, to find love, purpose, and a sense of belonging. In her early twenties, Marsha finds acceptance when she becomes a Christian during a trip to Idaho. Her subsequent journey leads her to an African American church where the “saints” nurture her as a prodigal daughter returning home, a group posing as Christians who turn out to be a front for the Unification Church founded by Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and a mega church that becomes notorious in the late eighties for a practice called “Spiritual Connections,” a form of “worship” where members dance with partners to whom they are not married. In each of these organizations, powerful autocratic leaders use mind control to pressure members to disconnect from their families, nonconforming friends, and their individuality.

Though Marsha senses an incongruity within each community, she cannot identify what is bothering her, and blames herself for not being spiritual enough. Even when problems too obvious to ignore come into focus, she is conflicted between her church and her faith.When Marsha learns to surrender her unhealthy relationship with church, she finds freedom and the courage to accept herself as a one-of-a-kind authentic believer in a God who offers amazing grace and unconditional acceptance.

Faith, Safe, Potatoes is a story that will encourage individuals who have been wounded by a religion that promised love, hope, and joy but instead held them captive to endless rules, unrealistic expectations, and disappointment. This story will appeal to individuals who are seeking a strong, loving relationship. It will also appeal to dog lovers, people who struggle with infertility, eating disorders, or feelings of inferiority.