SHIPPED: An Odyssey Out of Christian Fundamentalism

A funny, sort-of-filthy, insightful memoir of escaping Christian Fundamentalism.

Eight weeks before his graduation from a strict Christian Fundamentalist college, Rowan Kessler is called in to the Dean's office for a minor infraction. Except, nothing at Pensacola Christian College (PCC) is minor. As Rowe is questioned over and over about the same few facts, he suddenly cracks and begins making up lurid details off the top of his head about his innocent lunch of chicken nuggets with a girl from town. He leaves nothing out: Sex, drugs, rock and roll, and even some Satan worship find their way into his over-the-top confession. In short order, Rowan finds himself on the road: SHIPPED: forced to choose between going home to a father who will likely knock him around, or joining old friends from PCC to work at the call center and share living expenses.

Suddenly free after an incredibly restrictive four years, Rowan narrates his odyssey of life on his terms, a funny, bawdy, and sometimes heartbreaking account of becoming a responsible adult man of personal integrity. The journey is replete with plenty of sins as Rowan tries everything, but eventually he finds his way and realizes that he has come to possess a real love of his life, and real friends, not the counterfeits offered in Christian Fundamentalism. And he chooses to become a man of integrity. There's nothing preachy in Rowan's account. Indeed, it ends abruptly because he has run out of paper. His wife supplies some end notes.