God’s Peculiar People Analysis
Iain Harding
In God's Peculiar People, Elaine Lawless looks closely at the residents of a small Indiana town.
The lives of these southern Indiana residents are turbulent, challenging, and repetitive. Due to
their work in the quarry, husbands rarely stick around. Their deaths are considered normal, even
expected, and remarriage is accepted and common. The economies of the rural towns of Indiana
are turbulent. The work disappears around winter, leaving everyone scrambling to keep food on
the table. Yet, it is an expected change. Religion is the most stable source of joy for the people of
southern Indiana. But, this Pentecostalism follows unique views found in very few other places.
Residents endure physical isolation that doesn't serve them in their search for stability. But
physical isolation isn't the only aspect of their solitude. In pentecostal spaces, non-churchgoers
are often shunned, lambasted, and rejected entirely.
Marriage in Pentecostal towns of the southmost portions of Indiana is a ritual that often happens
early in life and often again later down the line. Women and men will be married, the woman
will move to the man (as it is a patriarchal society), and the couple will begin a boisterous and
often large family. The mother will stay home, cook, clean, prepare the house, and raise the
children, while the father will risk his life day in and day out to provide what little income he
can. This much is true of nearly every household in the region. Yet there is a darker, more
unpredictable side to marriage in these small residences. The nature of quarry work is dangerous.
So dangerous that it is common to lose people in accidents. Many mothers end up raising their
children alone. Since there is no husband to provide for the family and little work outside of
quarry work, the woman may remarry, and the cycle begins anew. Interestingly, the ritual of
marriage seems to be a low priority in the town. Although marriages are not arranged, being
married is essential, but the ceremony is not. One person even mentions that they barely
remember their wedding, noting that they must have gotten married simply for the change in
name. With the unpredictable nature of the husband's job and patriarchal duties, it is no wonder
that marriage is seen more as a necessity than a want.
Work in southern Indiana is brutal, inconsistent, and dangerous. Limestone is the main export of
southern Indiana, and the stone can only be farmed in the summer months. It's an arduous
process that results in countless deaths every working season. In the first ten pages of God's
Peculiar People, ten different people were mentioned to have died-8 of them of nearly identical
circumstances. With all the deaths associated with the work, it's no wonder the wives despise the
area of work their husbands are often forced into. Elaine Lawless writes, "These quarry women
are survivors, and they were not sentimental about it." (18). The women lament the dirt on the
clothes, the walls, and the skin. There's no escaping the quarry, not even at home. Yet with all the
dangerous, dirty, difficult work, the money never seems enough. Often homemade remedies are
relied upon, home-sewn clothing is work, and expensive goods are not had.
The horrors of the quarry push the women towards religion. After speaking with the women of
the area, it became clear just how crucial pentecostalism is to their way of life. It is their method
of social interaction, their way of interacting with people outside the home. In addition, it
provides people with things to organize while they wait for their husbands to return home.
Perhaps most importantly, it gives them a reason to live, keep going, and struggle onwards. So
crucial, in fact, is the church that one Alice Benson cites her husband's lack of faith as her
primary pain in life, bringing her years upon years of anxiety and hurt. Pentecostalism as a
religion is quite unique. Speaking in tongues, witchcraft, and demons are staples of the faith.
Inhabitants of southern Indiana were brought up in the church, so much so that it became a way
of life for them that provided comfort and stability in the most challenging times.
Outside of the church, people frequently live in solitude. They live far from their friends, far
from their church, and far from their families. The father, mother, and children live as a nuclear
family; the only outings are to church, work, school, and shopping. In addition, the church's
community reinforces isolation by encouraging churchgoers to spend exclusive time with other
churchgoers. One woman even speaks of feeling ashamed for having a non- pentecostal friend.
This demonstrates how self-reliant and homebound the women of southern Indiana are. By
observing the standard social practices of isolating behaviors and limited social opportunities,
much of the housewife's time is spent at home with their families, cooking, cleaning, or
preparing for the next social event. For another window into their society, look no further than
the number of children they had in the family. Families in the area are often quite massive. One
family has ten children in it! That is an enormous family by urban standards, yet it seems to work
in their environment. This hints toward either cramped living conditions or sizable houses. It also
suggests that the women in the home likely work just as much as the man, though in a different,
less dangerous way. It may also explain why their unemployment checks may not provide
enough income for them. These two ideas offer insights into the lives of southern Indiana
residents.
With all of the information collected by Elaine Lawless, it would be impossible for the concepts
and stories not to have a profound impact on the reader. Perhaps the most striking thing is the
seemingly nonchalant way they discuss death in the limestone quarries. When speaking about the
deaths in the quarries, there is a casual, this-is-how-it-is attitude about the conversations that
shocks and provokes questions in the reader. It would be fascinating to see the actual statistics of
the deaths within quarry jobs. When comparing the Indiana residents' lives to the more urban,
modernized ones, it must be said that this is the most glaring difference. Death in the workplace
in the city is rare unless the job is construction-related. And yet even with said difference,
religion still provides a vital way of life for many in the metropolitan areas. It gives a sense of
community and is equally as important in everyday life to many, many people (though perhaps
Judaism is a more common religion in an urban environment.) There are many differences
between the two worlds, but there are similarities as well.
The southern Indiana residents in God's Peculiar People endure many hardships and follow a
simple, concrete lifestyle. The male breadwinner can die at any moment, and their deaths can be
considered normal. The rural economies do little to provide stability as well. Work dries up by
winter, stranding many without jobs. While the people have religion to keep them happy in such
testing times, the church also has a darker side, encouraging isolating behaviors within its
devotees. Their physical isolation does little to help, with many people living in remote
locations. But still, with all the triumphs and heartbreaks, these people fight on every day.
Citations
Lawless, Elaine J. “1.” God's Peculiar People, The University Press of Kentucky,
Lexington, 2015.