About ten years ago this young woman named Rachel Held Evans contacted me because she was beginning to see Christianity differently and wanted to write about it. She sent me her manuscript, and we worked on her book together. She published four books in total. I got to know her, we became friends, and I enjoyed coaching her.
I appreciate how Rachel represented a different kind of Christianity, and her courage to ask the hard questions and confront the absurdities and abuses of evangelical Christianity. She wrote:
“It seems that a whole lot of people, both Christians and non-Christians, are under the impression that you can’t be a Christian and vote for a Democrat, you can’t be a Christian and believe in evolution, you can’t be a Christian and be gay, you can’t be a Christian and have questions about the Bible, you can’t be a Christian and be tolerant of other religions, you can’t be a Christian and be a feminist, you can’t be a Christian and drink or smoke, you can’t be a Christian and read the New York Times, you can’t be a Christian and support gay rights, you can’t be a Christian and get depressed, you can’t be a Christian and doubt. In fact, I am convinced that what drives most people away from Christianity is not the cost of discipleship but rather the cost of false fundamentals.”
When I received the news of her death on May 4, 2019 I was devastated. We miss Rachel deeply. I hold our friendship in my heart. I honor her life, her voice, her legacy.
Oliver Sacks wrote, “There will be no one like us when we are gone, but then there is no one like anyone else, ever. When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate—the genetic and neural fate—of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.”
Jim Palmer
