Friends,
I’m delighted to announce that Lake Drive Books editor Stephanie Eagleson has signed survivor, advocate, and abuse recovery coach Emily Elizabeth Anderson for her debut memoir, to be published in 2027.
Emily’s story will astonish, confound, and ultimately amaze you at the strength this human being has mustered in a life marked by abuse by a family member, the grooming and abuse by a famous ministry leader, the struggles that follow, and especially her stepping into her own life and her work in recovery and advocacy.
I’ve often heard it said that religious communities should work to be safer places where abuse won’t happen and where abusers aren’t welcome. They are places of worship, are they not? But this idea frames the problem incorrectly. It’s not a big enough statement.
The deeper question is whether there is something about how we construct faith communities that actually creates situations of abuse—and even, at times, creates the abusers themselves. We have so many independent churches and faith organizations, even very large ones, where powerful leaders have little meaningful authority or guidance over them. We treat pastors like gurus with unquestioned reverence, expecting them to be loving, gracious, and intelligent—but not real people. We also have a serious problem with patriarchal authority and control. Why should it surprise us that there is ongoing and widespread reported abuse? It’s staring us right in the face.
At Lake Drive Books, our commitment to telling stories from the margins has led us to publish authors like Christa Brown, Katherine Spearing, and Melissa Duge Spiers. We are committed to telling these women’s stories for readers like you who want to see them, affirm them, and learn from them. After all, it is those on the margins who often see a bigger version of reality than those in power.
Above, I underplayed the ministry leader involved in Emily’s story. This was no ordinary leader.
This was Bill Gothard.
One cannot underestimate the effect of Gothard on American Christianity from the 1960s through the 1990s. Through the organization he founded, the Institute in Basic Life Principles, his events drew crowds of 10,000 or more at a time, and literally millions of people worldwide attended his programs. His homeschool curriculum and strict model of family life and education shaped the lifestyle of countless parents and the development of their children.
I won’t give away the story, but Emily Anderson was only a teen when she met Bill Gothard in person, who flattered her and made her one of his special people. Later, as a young woman, she stared him down in court along with others who worked for Gothard and claimed that he harassed them.
What will be remarkable about this book is the entirety of Emily’s story. But it is all the more powerful because the abuse was in her own family as well as at the hands of a widely revered, respected, and powerful individual in American Christianity. We’ve now learned about abuses involving a host of influential ministry leaders. These are leaders who are put on a pedestal by our consumerist religious culture, people who are often without meaningful structural accountability, leading powerful, if chaotic, lives.
How does a woman like Emily reckon with abuse, much less abuse that seems to exist so personally and at such a high level in our culture and society? How does she find the words for us all so we can heal and learn?
The sheer act of writing a memoir, telling her astonishing story, is a reckoning in itself. In her daily work, Emily has been a certified coach to countless survivors like herself. You can bet you’ll come away from this book having learned something real about our lives today—something bigger than the worlds that have been shown to you.
Let writers like Emily lead the way.
Books take time, but while we’re waiting, be sure to keep up with Emily at her Substack newsletter, follow her on her popular Thriving Forward Facebook page or Instagram, and to learn more about her offerings to survivors, head to thrivingfoward.org.
David Morris, Publisher, Lake Drive Books
Emily Elizabeth Anderson is a writer, speaker, DV advocate, coach, and the founder of Thriving Forward. After spending twenty-three years in a fundamentalist cult and experiencing childhood domestic violence and sexual assault, she began her recovery journey in 2015 by joining a lawsuit against cult leader Bill Gothard. Today, Emily uses writing and advocacy to support fellow survivors of trauma. Her story and work have been featured by NPR and in the docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets on Amazon Prime Video.
