Gina Welch Goes Undercover : In the Land of the Believers

Gina Welch, a Lifelong Atheist, Goes Undercover at Jerry Falwell's Church and Writes a Book About Her Experiences

Gina Welch undertook a personal mission a few years ago when she went 'undercover' at Jerry Falwell's Church called Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg Virginia and has since written a book about her experiences called In The Land of the Believers.

Welch who describes herself as a lifelong atheist, educated at Yale, wanted to 'infiltrate a nerve center of the religious right' as reports the LA Times.

In The Land of the Believers

Gina Welch never told her fellow church-goers who she really was and she states that she wanted to see what her evangelical neighbours were really like, not when they were just being interviewed by the media. She states that for them to talk freely with her she had her 'microphone off', however in gathering material for her book, critics state that her microphone had to indeed be on.

As Welch's journey progresses through the book, she starts to become so involved in her new church life that she has trouble differentiating it from her 'other' life. She starts to become concerned that the people she has met at church will realize who she really is, and that it will upset her when they find out. She even mourns when Jerry Falwell passes away in 2007; something which she never imagined herself doing.

An LA Times book review calls the book a 'melodrama' and states:

Have you read In the Land of the Believers?