Evangelical's Daughter

One day, Frankie Roberts hears a preacher pronounce that a woman's place is in the home, not in the pulpit. But this mother of four daughters and wife of a pastor in New Jersey won't hear of it; she knows she has a special calling. In 1959, Frankie packs up her children, leaves her husband, and moves to Sioux City, Iowa, to start a ministry. In this memoir, one of Frankie's daughters, the author Debra Roberts Torres-Reyes narrates her mother's story. Availing herself of both humor and honesty, Torres-Reyes describes being raised by Pentecostal Holiness Ministers and living with a fanatical preacher mother who inflicts both physical and verbal abuse on her offspring. The author reflects on how the church s views and actions speaking in tongues, casting out demons, and dancing in the spirit caused her to grow up with poor self-esteem, to suffer panic attacks, and to live in constant mental and emotional torment about The Rapture, demons, the devil, and hell. The Evangelical s Daughter describes how Torres-Reyes ultimately breaks out of a self-destructive lifestyle, joins the military, and later attends college and law school, finally becoming an attorney. This is one woman s true story about finding God and leaving religious dogma behind.