Highlight: CU America Member, Carrie Sheffield
By erin conner, writer and communications associate
Carrie Sheffield, a Harvard alumna and a member of Christian Union America, is releasing a memoir this March entitled Motorhome Prophesies and launching a subsequent book tour across the U.S.
Sheffield, a columnist and broadcaster in Washington, D.C., shares insights with millions of Americans on networks like CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CBS News, CNBC, BBC, and more. From ABC’s Good Morning America to HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, PBS, and C-SPAN, she brings a voice of virtue to the American communications and media industry through boundless interviews for articles, appearances on television shows and podcasts, and at forums across the nation. Consequently, many Americans know the professional side of Carrie Sheffield's life.
In her memoir, we learn about a different side of her life. The book's overview states, "Carrie Sheffield grew up the fifth of eight children with a violent, mentally ill, street-musician father who believed he was a modern-day Mormon prophet…She and her seven siblings were often forced to live as vagabonds, remaining on the move across the country. They frequently subsisted in sheds, tents, and, most notably, motorhomes. They often lived a dysfunctional drifter existence, camping out in their motorhome in Walmart parking lots. Carrie attended 17 public schools and homeschool, all while performing classical music on the streets… at times while child custody workers loomed…Carrie struggled with her mental health during college and for most of her adult life."
Motorhome Prophecies, her publisher writes, highlights how "she eventually seized control of her life, transcended her troubled past…thanks to the power of forgiveness, cultivated through her conversion to Christianity. By God's power and grace, she evolved from a scared and abused motorhome-dwelling girl to a Harvard-educated professional with a passion for empowering others to reject the cycles of poverty, depression, and self-hatred."
Photo Credit: Stephen Voss
In the book, Sheffield writes poignantly about intergenerational sin and trauma and what this does in an individual's life. She writes about the importance of being honest with yourself about your choices and encourages her readers to not do the Enemy's work through self-sabotage. The first chapter opens with the verse from Scripture, "Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing" (1 Peter 3:9). A thematic component of the book is that true freedom is freedom from sin and the lasting effects of it, not freedom to sin because of the pain of victimhood and oppression.
Another topic she discusses is idolizing temporal aspects of life. According to a recent Christian Post article, "It was Tim Keller's work, particularly his book Counterfeit Gods, that provided Sheffield with a framework to understand the emptiness of idolizing temporal aspects of life — in her case, money, power and political ideologies. In this article, Sheffield said, “I had also worshiped at the altar of the human intellect, going to Harvard where I'm surrounded by agnostics and atheists, people who had never actually really grappled with faith…the reason why we worship them is because they're good…but once you move into that posture where it becomes your God and your religion, then it becomes toxic." Sheffield writes more about this specific aspect of her journey in a Christianity Today article "The 2016 Election Sent Me Searching for Answers," in which she shares how politics had become a false idol and how she needed a deeper source of purpose and meaning.
Such counter-cultural messages about the reality of sin and the emptiness of idolatry are powerful ones that can tear down arguments that stand against the knowledge of God. Current sociological research reveals that younger generations in our nation are becoming more secular; as there is a decrease in religious practices, there is also an increase in suicide, depression, anxiety, and other mental health struggles.
In this context, Sheffield's book is timely, exemplifying the truth that transformation and healing are possible with God–that freedom, purpose, and hope are found in Him. Her memoir illuminates, both anecdotally and through evidence and reason, that God is real and able to be known through creation and Christ. Motorhome Prophecies holds the potential to reach a wide variety of audiences, from alumni at America's top influential educational institutions to the socially disenfranchised, from intellectual atheists to the LDS community.
As a Christian leadership ministry, Christian Union believes all followers of Christ are called to preserve the presence of God in their spheres of influence, no matter how secular. Sheffield's work illustrates how this is done in the media industry, giving hope not just to individuals but to a nation about the life-transforming power of returning to God.
Live near NYC? Click here for information on an upcoming book event with Sheffield.
Learn more here about becoming involved in Christian Union America.
