How Fundamentalism Contributed to the Death of Philip Yancey’s Father
How a Christian author overcame his religious upbringing
Philip Yancey, a bestselling Christian author, recently finished his memoirs Where the Light Fell. Many of his books, like Disappointed with God, hint at a challenging past.
This article looks at a recent podcast where Yancey discussed deconstructing his fundamentalist upbringing. Beware of spoilers if you want to listen first!
A tough start
Philip Yancey grew up without a father — his dad died when he was only one. They were often short of money as his mother struggled to provide financially and emotionally. Although living in a small trailer on church property kept costs low — the Yancey boys struggled in a stultifying environment.
His mother sounds like a strong woman. It must have been incredibly hard to bring up two boys alone. But she was also very flawed.
Yancey’s mother came from a tough environment and now found herself in difficult circumstances. She was angry and perplexed. Yet, as Philip pointed out, her theology could not allow her to be angry at God.
Later, as he read the Bible, he realized how distorted their view of God was. The Bible is full of suffering people angry at God like Job, the Psalms, and Lamentations. God encourages us to bring our complaints to him.
Civil rights movement in Atlanta
Yancey grew up in Atlanta during a time of change and protest — the hometown of Martin Luther King Jr. He recalled the time meeting his supervisor at a summer job — a renowned Biochemistry Professor. Yancey was shocked to find out this Ivy League-educated man was black:
If the church is teaching that about people being cursed by God and never being able to rise above a certain level, this doesn’t compute. This man and he became a friend; he’s a gentle, wise, and brilliant man. I realised my church had misrepresented reality. The church had lied to me in a way they said that black people could never achieve like that.
Learning the cause of his father’s death
Yancey had always known his father died of polio. But the situation was more complex. At 18, a trip to his grandparents revealed a long-held family secret.
His visit with a girlfriend led to his grandparents bringing out the baby photos. Nothing unusual about that. But as he opened up the album — a local newspaper cutting fell out. It was about his father.
It spoke about his polio — which Philip knew about. But it was news to him that his father had been taken off life support (an iron lung machine).
His family spoke of a ‘word from God’ that he would be healed and serve as a missionary to Africa. Yancey looked at the date of the article, less than two weeks before his father’s death.
Perhaps the decision to take him out of the hospital cost his life. We can never know. Would Yancey have grown up with a father if they had acted otherwise?
These are painful questions for any family. The news rocked Yancey.
Brother attends a ‘heretical university’
Wheaton College is a well-respected Christian institution. Some call it the Harvard of the Christian world. So Marshall (Philip’s elder brother) getting accepted there would have been good news in many Christian homes.
That weekend, he had arranged a friend to drive him to Wheaton. His mother was not happy — terrified he would lose his faith at what she considered a liberal university.
She did all she could to prevent him. His mother threatened to call the police and have the friend arrested for kidnapping. Marshall, undeterred, booked a flight to get out instead.
Before he left, his mother uttered a curse to her son. The brothers have different memories of their mother’s words. Philip’s brother recalled she would pray for him to lose his mind.
This haunted him ever since. Marshall recalled his mother’s curse after being diagnosed with schizophrenia. The relationship was broken — they haven’t seen each other for 51 years.
Philip’s escape
Philip had a more placid temperament. He didn’t have blazing rows with his mum. His older brother also protected him. Philip opted for a college more acceptable to his mother — a fundamentalist Bible College.
Yancey hated every minute. But being away from home gave him the courage to rebel. He enjoyed asking his teachers sarcastic and mocking questions — exposing their ignorance in some areas.
Reading Bertrand Russell got the desired effect of disapproval from the Bible College staff. They even prayed to cast out demons from him!
Turning point
There were a few things that softened Yancey’s heart toward God. The beauty of nature had always moved him — he began again to see God’s reflection in the world.
The other factor was to experience romantic love. He was immune to being reached by gospel tracts. But God’s creation revealed a world beyond the bleakness of the religion he grew up with.
Yancey was assigned to a group of three students to evangelize people from a local university. They would visit the campus and pray for them once a week.
He rarely joined in during prayer time, but one day, he talked to God. He saw a visual picture of the parable of the Good Samaritan in his mind (Luke 10: 25–37). They saw these unbelieving students as victims they were going to heal, like in the parable. But they were no better than them.
Yancey had thought himself superior to the religious people around him in the Bible College too. But he realised the one he most resembled in the parable was not the good Samaritan — but the victim lying in the road bleeding. He was broken, lost, and helpless.
He needed Jesus to pick him up and carry him on his shoulders to safety. In the visual picture, he saw Jesus as the good Samaritan — not the rigid and cold fundamentalists he’d grown up with. I’ve written about this interpretation of the parable elsewhere and how it goes back to the early church.
Yancey had learned how to fake spirituality from a young age. But this was his first experience of God, “it changed everything”.
A new understanding of God
Philip Yancey had started out in a cold and controlling fundamentalist environment:
The worst thing church did for me was misrepresent God himself. As kind of this cosmic bully up in the sky who’s just waiting to squash people who might be enjoying themselves by straying from this narrow little path. And I heard that God of judgement every Sunday. I didn’t hear about a God of grace and a God of mercy, love, and forgiveness. Not the prodigal son kind of God, a father wanting his family back.
After a time of atheist rebellion at Bible college, it was time to deconstruct his faith. No longer heading toward atheism — he had to rebuild from scratch.
Yancey’s books document that journey. They have helped millions wrestling with their faith (he has sold over 14 million books). Many who have struggled with disappointment with God, family members, and church.
He has always written from the perspective of those ‘sitting in the pews’ rather than the pulpit. With Yancey’s new memoirs, we can see how this early life shaped his writing.
As Yancey wrestled with his doubts, he taught many that it is OK for them to doubt. It is right to question the assumptions they have grown up with. In Yancey’s own words:
“Readers who have fractured families or unhealed wounds — they’re the ones I’m writing to,” he said. “I’m trying to be as compassionate as possible and as truthful as possible in the hope that my stories of dealing with my childhood wounds can help other people come to terms.
