Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America and Found Unexpected Peace

by William Lobdell

Hardcover, 2009

Status

Available

Call number

277.3082092

Genres

Religion & Spirituality

Collection

Your library

Publication

Harper (2009), Edition: 1St Edition, Hardcover, 304 pages

Description

William Lobdell's journey of faith--and doubt--may be the most compelling spiritual memoir of our time. Lobdell became a born-again Christian in his late 20s when personal problems--including a failed marriage--drove him to his knees in prayer. As a newly minted evangelical, Lobdell--a veteran journalist--noticed that religion wasn't covered well in the mainstream media, and he prayed for the Lord to put him on the religion beat at a major newspaper. In 1998, his prayers were answered when the Los Angeles Times asked him to write about faith. Yet what happened over the next eight years was a roller-coaster of inspiration, confusion, doubt, and soul-searching as his reporting and experiences slowly chipped away at his faith. While reporting on hundreds of stories, he witnessed a disturbing gap between the tenets of various religions and the behaviors of the faithful and their leaders. He investigated religious institutions that acted less ethically than corrupt Wall St. firms. He found few differences between the morals of Christians and atheists. As this evidence piled up, he started to fear that God didn't exist. He explored every doubt, every question--until, finally, his faith collapsed. After the paper agreed to reassign him, he wrote a personal essay in the summer of 2007 that became an international sensation for its honest exploration of doubt. Losing My Religion is a book about life's deepest questions that speaks to everyone: Lobdell understands the longings and satisfactions of the faithful, as well as the unrelenting power of doubt. How he faced that power, and wrestled with it, is must reading for people of faith and nonbelievers alike.… (more)

Media reviews

The Christian Century

Lobdell is to be commended for his forthright account of a journey from faith to doubt to loss of faith, one that is surprisingly free of bitterness and cheap shots.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Devil_llama

The author details his personal journey from non-faith to devout Christian and back to non-faith. He discusses how being on the religion beat for a major newspaper led him into a state of doubt as he began to witness the unfolding of the church sex scandals, and the responses of not only the church

hierarchy but the members of the congregations. He lays out an honest assessment of the process by which he explored the various questions that had nagged at him even in childhood, and his attempts to recapture some of the faith he once felt, and the peace and serenity when he finally let go. The author writes in an accessible manner, without sparing himself, and avoids the use of lofty language. He is not writing a philosophical treatise but a personal story, and his questions and the answers he receives are couched in the ordinary language of everyday faith. An important book about how we can hide from ourselves, but eventually we might just be awakened by a dash of cold water. This is a major contributor to the spate of atheist literature, because it is honest and looks at religion where we live.

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LibraryThing member CherieDooryard

I expected this to be an in-depth meditation into losing one's faith, but it wasn't. It was even more interesting. Lobdell's journey into and out of the Christian faith is the weakest part of the book and is secondary to the insights he gained about the state of Christianity in America during his

time as the LA Times religion reporter. (While he does discuss other faiths in passing, the vast majority of the discussion centers on Christianity.) In the midst of converting to Catholicism when the sex abuse scandal broke, Lobdell is plunged into a world of pedophiles, faith healers, and charlatans who rock his faith in God and ultimately drive him to atheism. The main problem, he discovers, isn't simply the fraudulent leadership. It's in the refusal of laypersons to question, condemn, or demand better from people who are openly defying the very tenets they are supposed to be promoting. Why aren't they defending the abused and disenfranchised? As he asks over and over again, "Why aren't Christians acting more Christian?"

This sounds depressing and it is. This is a very sad book to get through. He also faces some of the most horrible abuses of the Catholic Church straight on, so if child abuse disturbs you, you should be aware. He does not mince words. But unless you are extraordinarily sensitive, I think this book is worth reading. Lobdell doesn't have any answers, but he is absolutely asking the right questions.

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LibraryThing member whitreidtan

This is an honest, thoughtful, and fascinating memoir about Lobdell's struggles with religion. The book opens with an accounting of the ways in which his life is going wrong and a friend's quiet assurance that Lobdell needs to walk with God to find the peace he so desires. Taking this to heart,

Lobdell starts going to church, eventually becoming born-again. Eager to share his newly minted faith, as he moves from the church that drew him back into the fold, to a Protestant church, and ultimately into RCIA classes to become a Catholic, journalist Lobdell decides that God has called him to write about religion so he pitches the idea to his bosses. Initially he doesn't get the job but eventually, his dream comes true and he starts writing about faith, and not just his Christian faith, in a way that few other journalists have attempted. But all is not well with Lobdell's faith as he starts uncovering the nasty side of organized religion. He was on the front lines as the pedophile priest scandal rocked the Catholic church and he examined in depth a rather seedy (but quite wealthy) televangelist who fleeces his congregation among other stories. And as Lobdell plunges farther into the stories, he starts to lose his belief in God. His journey into and out of faith took him years and I suspect that it isn't quite finished, as Lobdell himself says he's not entirely comfortable with his unbelief but which path the next leg of his journey will take remains to be seen. His writing on faith and its lack is respectful and thoughtful. And he has obviously spent much time reaching the conclusions he has but he never denigrates those around him who have managed to hold onto their faith in the face of what he says is overwhelming evidence that it is unfounded. His writing is direct and honest and his journey is definitely painful. But I for one am glad he allowed us to walk with him, even if I'm not certain I come to the same conclusions he does.

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LibraryThing member writemoves

Many of us have experienced the spiritual road that Lobdell has travelled. Lobdell has articulated the twists and turns that the journey takes us. Some reach a final destination. Many continue to pursue the journey. An excellent book that is well written and compelling.

LibraryThing member dulcibelle

This is a very thought provoking book. Lobdell is an excellent writer and this book was very readable. It was interesting to read how a person loses his faith while reporting on religion. I found myself wanting to reassure the author that "religion" and Christianity are NOT the same thing. I found

myself thinking that perhaps he was trying to get his answers in the wrong place. Many of the people he interviewed about faith were important in the "church". I think if he had spoken to more of the laity he may have gotten different answers to his questions. I know I had different answers of my own to most of what bothered him. However, when it comes down to it, faith is just that - faith - and it can't be measured or learned. You either have it or you don't. I'm sorry about the author's decision (by my beliefs he made the wrong one) but I'm glad he's at peace with his decision.

This book would make a very good book club or Bible study read. It raises interesting questions about faith and religion. However, I don't know that I would recommend it to someone suffering from their own crisis of faith until they had reached their own decision.

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LibraryThing member jocraddock

Coming from a professional journalist, this is a well-written book and intriguing story. However, I found that his summary arguments in defense of his "loss of religion" were just as fundamentalist-based and proof-texted as those he had railed against.

LibraryThing member xuesheng

The story of one man's journey to and then away from faith. The author was a religion columnist for the LA Times. Some of the stories he covered there including those on church and minister corruption and priest sexual abuse and its cover up, shook his faith and left him unable to answer questions

about God and his faith. So he found peace in letting "letting go of God." I found the book fascinating.

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LibraryThing member herdingcats

In this open and honest memoir, Billy, a newspaper reporter, explains how he became a born again Christian and grew in his faith and prayed that he could get a job reporting on religion. He got the job and believed it was an answer to years of prayer. He enjoyed learning about religion through the

stories that he reported. As he grew in his faith, he moved on from the evangelical church he met with to a Presbyterian church and then began attending a Catholic church going through a one year catechism class in order to convert and join his wife in her faith. Then, he was assigned to report on the Catholic church priest sex scandals. He was one of the first reporters to learn about it as the first stories came out. He continued in his faith, believing that the problems he was reporting on were confined to that one parish. As time went on, he went to meetings w/ the survivors of the priests' sexual abuses (which were disgusting and horrifying), and he interviewed priests and biships and he learned just how corrupt the Catholic church really is. At the end of the year, he could not join the Catholic church. He then was given more investigative religion stories and met Ole Anthony and interviewed Benny Hinn.
After all that, it is no wonder that he lost his religion.
Sadly, he lost his faith in God as well, believing that what religion teaches and what he saw of the religious institutions was what God is all about.
This book is well-written and very interesting and thought provoking.

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LibraryThing member satyridae

Lobdell brings rigorous journalistic practices to this memoir, and his willingness to do so adds immeasurably to the work. He starts out as a sort-of-Christian, experiences a conversion to (what I think of as Evangelical Lite) Christianity and attends a mega-church with happening music. From there

he begins to explore the Catholicism of his wife's youth, ultimately deciding to convert. During this several-decade span, he is working as a journalist, eventually as a religion reporter. The last third of the book chronicles the journey Lobdell takes as he delves into the Catholic Priest/Pedophile scandal and consequently loses all of his faith.

It's a mesmerising journey, made all the more riveting by Lobdell's intense commitment to searing honesty. One makes this trek with him, every step of the way.

Recommended.

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LibraryThing member Sullywriter

A fascinating spiritual memoir about a religious journalist who finds himself losing his faith in the coruse of reporting religion stories for the Los Angeles Times. Honest and compelling.

LibraryThing member Aleesa

Fascinating read.

LibraryThing member jonbrammer

Lobdell's experience of losing his faith is something that many in the non-believer community can understand. He didn't decide to quit religion out of spite or because if his reporting on evil within the church (although this certainly was important). Instead, the faith that he felt as a young man

slowly dissipated until he felt nothing. In the end, he comes to discover that religious faith is not something that can be faked, and that religious experience is so personal that the dogmas of major religions are irrelevant to the individual's spirituality. I agree with other reviewers that I wish he had discussed religious and secular thinkers whose writings could have shed light on the issues he was struggling with: writers like Hume, Russell or Augustine. But Lobdell's honesty and fearlessness saves the day - finally we have a secular tract on religion that treats both believers and non-believers with respect.

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