Narrative Summary
Interview with Lindsea Roberts by Chelsea Carroll
Lindsea Roberts is a young woman who was raised in a Christian family. She is
representative of the many young adults who were raised in or made to go to a Christian church
as a child. These children grow up to be young adults who are faced with their own decisions
about what to believe, whether or not to attend church, and where to attend if they so choose.
This interview with Lindsea captures some of these struggles and changes she faces as she
moves on from her small-town life in Missouri to her new life working as a certified nursing
assistant in nursing home.
Lindsea explains in her interview that her mom was her biggest spiritual influence.
Although her father was very present in her life, she does not carry much of a memory of his
presence in the religious sector of her life. Lindsea says she feels that she was forced to attend
church with her mother. The family switched churches a few significant times in her memory.
These switches led them to attendance at two very different Christian denominations—
Pentecostal and Baptist. Lindsea does a great deal of recalling the differences she recognized
between these two types of Christian churches, and her reactions to these differences as a young
child.
Although she is not currently involved in a church, Lindsea still considers herself to be
Christian. She holds all the beliefs that are basic to Christianity, and encounters Christianity on a
daily basis at her job working with the many residents of a large nursing home. Lindsea is still
quite in tune with what she has been taught throughout her childhood church experiences, saying
that she knows she needs to pray, read her Bible, and attend church. Her traditional Christian
values are also obvious in that she seems to feel a little guilty about not doing these things as
often as she used to, saying she just hasn’t had the time lately.
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Summer 2011
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Lindsea goes on to describe a majorly discouraging moment in her adolescence, during
which the youth pastors of the church she attended treated her unfairly, leading her to believe
that they were hypocrites. This led her to conclude that there are many hypocrites filling the
Christian churches she has had experiences with. She said that there was a particular moment in
her religious journey when the youth pastors essentially turned her away from church attendance
altogether. When asked about church, Lindsea acknowledged the importance of attending church
to a Christian, but noted that attendance is not mandatory for salvation.
When asked about future plans, Lindsea said that she plans to have children. Some things
that will be important to her are raising her children in church and instilling into them some of
the Christian values that she felt her mother and the Christian community instilled into her.
Lindsea explains that, in her opinion, it is important to raise her future children within the
Christian communities she has been a part of. She says this is because it seems to be important to
grow the Christian community. Most Christian people, in Lindsea’s experience, look forward to
having children, and that attitude shows up in her as well.
Several of the questions in the interview pertained to how women were viewed and
treated within the Christian communities she has been a part of. Lindsea holds some views
regarding the topic of women and Christianity that are starkly different than those traditionally
held by the churches she has attended. She speaks of the most current church that she has
attended, saying that the pastor at that church has, on several occasions, spoken out directly
against women holding major roles of authority—such as preaching and praying aloud. Lindsea
brings a more modern perspective on females and the religion to the interview, discussing her
personal opinion regarding the matter.
At the beginning, the main point of this interview was to look at the perspective of a
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Fall 2011
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young adult recently emerging from her childhood world under the watchful eye of family
members and the church. In addition to this sort of information, the interview also serves the
purpose of providing a very important and interesting perspective of a woman who has attended
both Pentecostal and Baptist churches. Some very important differences between these two
locally common denominations of Christianity are pointed out. In addition to pointing out the
differences, Lindsea offers her own personal reactions to these, including a story about her
experience at a Pentecostal summer church camp.
Within the Christian community, it seems that many children, when faced with their own
decisions, end up choosing a different path than what their parents had them on as a child—
whether that new path be a new religion, less involvement in the Christian church, or a complete
disconnect from religion in general. Lindsea still considers herself a Christian, even after she has
been faced with the possibility of making her own decisions. Nonetheless, she provides
interesting perspective on the topic of her transition from Christian child to adult. Although her
story as a religious woman is still being written, Lindsea makes a wonderful contribution to the
other stories within the Religious Lives of Ozarks Women Archives.
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Fall 2011
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