Not Your Founding Father by Nina Sankovitch

 

Title:  Not Your Founding Father

Author:  Nina Sankovitch

Narrated by:  Em Grosland

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 12 hour and 27 minutes

Source: Physical Book Review copy from Simon & Schuster #HistoryBuffsBookClub. @History_In_Five Thank-you!  Audiobook purchased on Audible.

What book do you still plan to finish in July?  It’s hard to believe we only have one week left of this month!

On October 9, 1776, Jemima Wilkinson died on her small farm in Cumberland, Rhode Island, and Public Universal Friend was born.  Public Universal Friend started to preach about their rebirth as a genderless disciple of God.  Will they be able to start their church in this new land?

My thoughts on this book:

·       I thought this book would be a great read to help celebrate the 250^th birthday of the United States of America.

·       Friend followed Galatians 3:28 that “there is neither male nor female in Christ.”

·       Friend helped empower women.  Friend preached that women should “obey God rather than men.”  Women took on leading roles in this church.  The church also advocated for freeing of slaves and the inclusion of children.

·       I liked that the author wrote about Friend having no role in politics, but living the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the new land and testing the boundaries of this idealism.

·       What would our country stand for as it was first being formed?

·       Does our country allow for freedom of religion?  At the time of our founding, it did.  Christian Nationalism now tells a different version of history.

·       I wouldn’t call Friend a “founding father,” but more an influential pastor of the time of the founding of the United States.

·       At times I wondered, were Friends followers a cult?

·       This book really showed me that trans/nonbinary people have always existed. Friend didn’t want pronouns used. 

·       Friend’s near-death experience changed the entire course of their life.

·       Author Nina Sankovitch did great research to bring this forgotten part of history to life.

·       There were great notes, bibliography, and index in the physical copy.

·       The audiobook had a good narrator and was interesting to listen to.

Overall, Not Your Founding Father by Nina Sankovitch was an interesting nonfiction book that brought out a forgotten part of the history during the forming of the United States that tested the boundaries of what the new nation would stand for.