MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

As a child Ms.Buck went to a church in China with her Presbyterian missionary family. She attended the Buddhist temple with Wang Amah, her nanny. When the family was on furlough she became a Christian at a church in West Virginia at age nine. When she married John Lossing Buck she wanted a Christian and an American for a husband. Ms. Buck’s father died in 1931.She did not agree with her missionary father but she refused to debate him openly. In 1932 she entered into the the liberal-fundamentalist controversy saying all a Christian needs is to love Jesus. In the 1940’s she had decided opinions about the mistakes of the missionary movement. In her novel “All Under Heaven” of 1972 the woman character attended a church service, has a strong disagreement about one part of the sermon and will not return to church. When her second husband died a “family minister” led the funeral service. When she died no clergy was present at the burial. H.V.Deshpande writes of Ms. Buck’s views quoting extensively from a Ted Harris book published near the end of her life. Her separation from membership in any religious organization at an adult stage of her life was accompanied by frequent use of phrases and symbols in her writing and speaking that are easily traced to the Jewish Christian Bible. In her older years she claimed no religion for herself but would never get in the way of another’s pursuit of faith.