Shaking the Gates of Hell
A Search for Family and Truth in the Wake of the Civil Rights Revolution
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Narrated by:
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Cameron Scoggins
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By:
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John Archibald
About this listen
On growing up in the American South of the 1960s - an all-American white boy - son of a long line of Methodist preachers, in the midst of the civil rights revolution, and discovering the culpability of silence within the church. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and columnist for The Birmingham News.
"My dad was a Methodist preacher and his dad was a Methodist preacher," writes John Archibald. "It goes all the way back on both sides of my family. When I am at my best, I think it comes from that sermon place."
Everything Archibald knows and believes about life is "refracted through the stained glass of the Southern church. It had everything to do with people. And fairness. And compassion."
In Shaking the Gates of Hell, Archibald asks: Can a good person remain silent in the face of discrimination and horror, and still be a good person?
Archibald had seen his father, the Rev. Robert L. Archibald, Jr., the son and grandson of Methodist preachers, as a moral authority, a moderate and a moderating force during the racial turbulence of the '60s, a loving and dependable parent, a forgiving and attentive minister, a man many Alabamians came to see as a saint. But was that enough? Even though Archibald grew up in Alabama in the heart of the civil rights movement, he could recall few words about racial rights or wrongs from his father's pulpit at a time the South seethed, and this began to haunt him.
In this moving and powerful book, Archibald writes of his complex search, and of the conspiracy of silence his father faced in the South, in the Methodist Church and in the greater Christian church. Those who spoke too loudly were punished, or banished, or worse. Archibald's father was warned to guard his words on issues of race to protect his family, and he did. He spoke to his flock in the safety of parable, and trusted in the goodness of others, even when they earned none of it, rising through the ranks of the Methodist Church, and teaching his family lessons in kindness and humanity, and devotion to nature and the Earth.
Archibald writes of this difficult, at times uncomfortable, reckoning with his past in this unadorned, affecting book of growth and evolution.
©2021 John Archibald (P)2021 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
One Of NPR's Best Books Of The Year
“Evocative...a complex, fraught exploration of ‘the complicit and conspiratorial south’...a sincere, poignant synthesis of memoir and social history of a troubled time.” (Kirkus)
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"A fascinating blend of family memoir and moral reckoning.... Archibald’s honest account of one family’s uneasy journey through the civil rights and gay rights revolutions makes it clear that there are no easy decisions - or answers - when grappling with issues of faith and social justice." (The Washington Post)
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Story
What do we really know about modern practicing polygamists - not fictional ones like the Henrickson family on HBO’s Big Love? We’ve seen the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the news, the underage brides in pioneer dresses on a Texas ranch. But the FLDS is just one of many groups that have broken with mainstream Mormonism to follow those parts of Joseph Smith’s doctrine disavowed by the LDS Church. Gaining unprecedented access to these communities, journalist Sanjiv Bhattacharya reveals a shadow country....
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Great stories (+), religious amateur hour (-)
- By Douglas on 09-26-13
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Unveiled
- The Bible, the Qur'an, and Women
- By: Esther Ahmad, J. Chester
- Narrated by: Saira Ayers
- Length: 4 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Born the unwanted third daughter, Esther Ahmad grew up Muslim in Pakistan. Her faith and country drove every aspect of her first 18 years, from what she wore and what she ate to her prospects for work and marriage, even to the manner of her death. Unveiled chronicles Esther’s conversion to Christianity and her escape from radical Islam. Chapter by chapter, Esther lays out the lies of the Qur’an and holds them against the truths she found in the Bible.
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Fantastic Testimony
- By Paula on 04-28-22
By: Esther Ahmad, and others
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The Prophet
- By: Khalil Gibrán
- Narrated by: Peter Batchelor
- Length: 1 hr and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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World-famous 26 prose poetry fables written in English by the Lebanese-American poet and writer. It was originally published in 1923. It is Gibran's best known work. The Prophet has been translated into over 100 different languages, making it one of the most translated books in history.
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Literally the best book!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-25-20
By: Khalil Gibrán
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Crazy for God
- By: Frank Schaeffer
- Narrated by: Frank Schaeffer
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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By the time he was 19, Frank Schaeffer’s parents had achieved global fame as best-selling evangelical authors and speakers, and Frank had joined his father on the evangelical circuit. He would go on to speak before thousands and publish his own best seller. But while coming of age as a rising evangelical star, Schaeffer felt increasingly alienated, and as a result, he experienced a crisis of faith that would ultimately lead to his journey out of the fold - even if it meant losing everything.
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Recommended!
- By Catherine Heard on 10-29-10
By: Frank Schaeffer
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Becoming Elisabeth Elliot
- By: Ellen Vaughn
- Narrated by: Connie Shabshab
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Elisabeth Elliot was a young missionary in Ecuador when members of a violent Amazonian tribe savagely speared her husband, Jim, and his four colleagues. Incredibly, prayerfully, Elisabeth took her toddler daughter, snakebite kit, Bible, and journal...and lived in the jungle with the stone-age people who killed her husband. In this authorized biography, Ellen Vaughn uses Elisabeth’s private, unpublished journals, and candid interviews with her family and friends, to paint the adventures and misadventures God used to shape one of the most influential women in modern church history.
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Great book!
- By Dove on 09-27-20
By: Ellen Vaughn
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Lead Me
- Finding Courage to Fight for Your Marriage, Children, and Faith
- By: Matt Hammitt, Bart Millard - Foreword
- Narrated by: Matt Hammitt
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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In Lead Me, Matt identifies the tension many men experience when trying to balance work and home life. With bracing honesty, vulnerable storytelling, and practical application, Matt challenges you to be faithful both to God's vocational call and to His call to lead your family well. Discover the extraordinary joy of actively and intentionally pursuing your wife and children. Matt reminds us that it's messy. It's difficult. And it's the most rewarding thing you can do, beyond following Christ.
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Raw reality
- By Hickupnorth on 10-27-24
By: Matt Hammitt, and others
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Becoming Duchess Goldblatt
- By: anonymous
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, Lyle Lovett, J. Smith-Cameron
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Becoming Duchess Goldblatt is two stories: that of the reclusive real-life writer who created a fictional character out of loneliness and thin air, and that of the magical Duchess Goldblatt herself, a bright light in the darkness of social media. Fans around the world are drawn to Her Grace's voice, her wit, her life-affirming love for all humanity, and the fun and friendship of the community that's sprung up around her.
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Oh Dear Duchess!
- By Rebecca Lindroos on 07-20-20
By: anonymous
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Does Jesus Really Love Me?
- A Gay Christian's Pilgrimage in Search of God in America
- By: Jeff Chu
- Narrated by: Jeff Chu
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian's Pilgrimage in Search of God in America is part memoir and part investigative analysis that explores the explosive and confusing intersection of faith, politics, and sexuality in Christian America. The quest to find an answer is at the heart of Does Jesus Really Love Me? - a personal journey of belief, an investigation, and a portrait of a faith and a nation at odds by award-winning reporter Jeff Chu.
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This Is Where I Found Hope in '20/'21
- By Josh on 01-24-21
By: Jeff Chu
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Cry Like a Man
- Fighting for Freedom from Emotional Incarceration
- By: Jason Wilson
- Narrated by: Damany Jackson
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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His grandfather’s lynching in the deep South, the murders of his two older brothers, and his verbally harsh and absent father all worked together to form Jason Wilson’s childhood. But it was his decision to acknowledge his emotions and yield to God’s call on his life that made Wilson the man and leader he is today. As the founder of one of the country’s most esteemed youth organizations, Wilson explains the dangers men face in our culture’s definition of “masculinity” and gives listeners hope that healing is possible.
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Just a sad story, no useful tips
- By Grzegorz on 08-15-21
By: Jason Wilson
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Known
- Finding Deep Friendships in a Shallow World
- By: Dick Foth, Ruth Foth
- Narrated by: Dick Foth, Ruth Foth
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In a shallow light-speed world, how can we really know and be known by another person? How do we make true friends? The Digital Age is all about change, but the need for true friendship never changes. We are designed for real engagement with others - for affirmation that goes beyond a simple "like" on social media, for connection over meals, for hope and excitement about the future. Above all, we need to be known and accepted for who we are.
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Love the Foths
- By Jenni B on 07-22-17
By: Dick Foth, and others
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Wrath
- Wrath Trilogy, Book 1
- By: D. R. Roquemore
- Narrated by: Mara Lynne Thomas
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Revelation chapter 6 clearly says that God's wrath begins at some point after the midpoint of the Tribulation. That means Christians will be here for the first four or five years. In Wrath, the first in a three-book series, D. R. Roquemore follows a fictional family in Texas who discovers the truth about the Rapture. Their story begins a few months before the start of the Tribulation period and follows their attempts to survive the rise of the Antichrist and the subsequent wars and famines.
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Must Read! Very well written
- By Joseph Byler on 02-08-18
By: D. R. Roquemore
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Black Boy
- By: Richard Wright
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Richard Wright's powerful and eloquent memoir of his journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. At once an unashamed confession and a profound indictment, Black Boy is a poignant record of struggle and endurance - a seminal literary work that illuminates our own time. The once controversial, now classic American autobiography measures the brutality and rawness of the Jim Crow South against the sheer desperate will it took to survive as a Black boy. Seventy-five years later, his words continue to reverberate.
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Outstanding
- By Trevin Harvey on 11-11-20
By: Richard Wright
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My Vanishing Country
- A Memoir
- By: Bakari Sellers
- Narrated by: Bakari Sellers
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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What J. D. Vance did for Appalachia with Hillbilly Elegy, CNN analyst and one of the youngest state representatives in South Carolina history Bakari Sellers does for the rural South, in this important book that illuminates the lives of America’s forgotten Black working-class men and women. Part memoir, part historical and cultural analysis, My Vanishing Country is an eye-opening journey through the South's past, present, and future.
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What America Needs NOW!!!
- By Unknown on 05-22-20
By: Bakari Sellers
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Breathe
- A Letter to My Sons
- By: Imani Perry
- Narrated by: Imani Perry
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Breathe explores the terror, grace, and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistently unjust world. Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity. She admits fear and frustration for her African-American sons in a society that is increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However, as a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of love.
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Delightful peek into the heart & soul of a mother
- By Treesey on 10-08-19
By: Imani Perry
What listeners say about Shaking the Gates of Hell
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- M Pering
- 03-27-21
Humor in Serious Times
John Archibald delicately and humorously weaves family stories with the heavy weight of racism and bias in Alabama and within the walls of the church. God loves all His children. Why is it so hard for us to love one another as He wishes? Religious institutions need to practice what they preach. Thank you, John Archibald!
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- A. Ennis
- 03-28-21
A must read
A family love story that doesn’t shy away from hard topics, disappointment, and the recognition that good people often fall short in the face of racism, bigotry, and hate. A powerful reflection and charge to do better.
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- AMS
- 10-02-22
Excellent book
Recommended for everyone. Compelling and thought provoking. John Archibald has once again written something that has given anyone and everyone something to think about.
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- Dawn Todhunter
- 03-12-21
Beautiful.
Oh. My. Gosh. (Sorry Reverend Archibald). I don't even know where to start. I have been an avid reader of John Archibald's column for years. His Pulitzer was well deserved. This book is deserving of awards as well. It is an achingly tender remembrance of his Methodist minister father, but it is so much more. He struggles to come to terms with his disappointment that his father chose to remain silent during times of racial injustice, and again in the face of discrimination against the LGBTQ community. A search through his father's file of labeled and dated sermons only confused him more. Beautiful sermons, but lacking few if any references to the turmoil erupting around him.
John takes us on a journey from his birth in 1963 to the present (with a few side trips into the years before his birth) through those sermons, his memories, and interviews with many who knew and loved his father. Along the way he discovered that in the case of his father,action often spoke louder than words. Still, he longed for the words.
This book is an extremely emotional and startlingly honest look at God, family, church and society. I found it hard to step away, and seriously considered abandoning all my responsibilities until I finished the book. I didn't, but boy, did I ever want to. I'm exhausted. Emotionally wrung out. But I will read it again. And again.
I do have one rather large complaint with the performance. I am always astounded at the prevalence of mispronounced place names in audiobooks. Doesn't anyone research this stuff? Please have the narrator record the name Monte Sano and replace every single MONTE SAYNO. That would up my rating of the performance from 4 to 5 stars.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Dale Clem
- 03-15-21
I loved Archibald’s memoir!
This beautifully written book isn’t just about a Methodist preacher struggling to speak out against racial discrimination in the past. It convicts and inspires those in the church today to speak out against discrimination of any kind including LGBTQ people. Archibald’s deep love for his family made me want to hug my own!
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- Henry D. Prater
- 05-27-21
Moving.
A must read/listen for any person of faith. A challenging , moving, and inspiring story.
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- Wendy G
- 02-21-23
Good but I hoped for more.
Good book, worth reading, but as a fan of the writer's journalism, I had hoped for a bit more from this book.
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