Go and Preach No More: A Legacy Abandoned My Life Reclaimed

“This is damn good! Your writing style is wonderful, your insights are really cool, and the stories are great. The book is unique, it speaks, it is alive!” Nick Overduin, Ph.D.

Rev. William Raff realized he’d had enough of the church he’d grown up in, so he planned an escape, of sorts. A dashed dream would not keep him down, nor would a worn-out dogma he no longer supported. His solution was not ideal, and circumstances prevented him from announcing to his congregation his reason for leaving. Best not to rock the boat.

The legacy he was once determined to fulfill had become complicated, so he set out to find another. And that’s when life got interesting.

In an inspiring memoir, a “deeply communicated” montage of life’s pinnacles and valleys; we walk alongside a seeker of wisdom and truth as he compares childhood mantras with a dogma that no longer fits his idea of Christianity.

Plato’s Cave becomes a metaphor for the years he lived in the controlled environment he and his family grew up in.

You know you’ve exited a cave when you feel the sun.

Life-altering epiphanies seemed God-sent, but looking back, the freedom he found when he opened those doors was proof of his humanity. The resulting personal transformation helped him discover that one can find purpose in a world without God.

• This book is about growing up Christian
• The challenges Christian leaders face
• Deconstructing one’s faith
• Why I quit Christianity
• Healing from Religion
• Personal growth and self-discovery

👉 For readers of Godless by Dan Barker, Why I Believed by Kenneth W. Daniels, and Educated by Tara Westover, this powerful memoir about growing up Christian and walking away is a testament to the cost of faith, the courage to think critically, and the liberation of believing in fact based truths.

Nick Overduin, PhD, Philosophy, offered to buy an advanced copy of my book when I shared its progress with members of the clergy project, a brotherhood we both enjoy. I asked him if I could send him a near—final draft—and get his feedback before I published. He graciously agreed to read it. I did not expect such auspicious notes and rejoiced in how uniquely qualified he was to critique my memoir. There is no way to thank him enough for his generous counsel. It was a gift!

A Peek Inside:

-I am a Homo sapiens. My dad knew that, though he preferred the term “wise ass.” (I reserve the same label for those I cherish the most.)

-The Bible makes quite a thud on the floor when it falls from a minister’s toolbox.

-It happened on the central coast of California, as salty and moist air, still one of my favorite perfumes, combined with the sounds of crashing waves. Dad parked our ’66 VW bus on CA1, the Coast Highway, at the edge of a sandstone cliff.

- I do not exist on this earth as the result of some divine belch moving over sacred dust or clay.

- But he couldn’t just sit me down and have a heart-to-heart talk, and I didn’t see the need to sit down with him, either. We sang “Silent Night” from our own trenches and skirted each other's lines in the sand.

- Escaping religion had left their families crushed, unwilling to forgive. For some of these individuals, it was like stepping out into oncoming traffic.

- While I don’t think of the Gospel of Christ in the same way today, back then it had recently become a thing of profound beauty to me.

- I think it would be best if you wrote it all down, my therapist-self told me. Hang up the old feather bed and beat the shit out of it! Ahh, back to anger management.