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Reconsidering Missionary Childhoods: A Critical Engagement with Fletcher’s The Missionary Kids

  The Missionary Kids   By Holly Berkley Fletcher Reviewed By   Geoffrey W. Sutton The Missionary Kids Abstract In The Missionary Kids: Unmasking the Myths of White Evangelicalism (2025), Holly Berkley Fletcher combines memoir, oral history, and historical analysis to examine the lived realities of missionary children (MKs). Drawing on her upbringing in Kenya and interviews with other MKs, Fletcher challenges romanticized portrayals of missionary life by exposing the cultural dislocation, spiritual neglect, and emotional burdens often carried by children in missionary families. The book is structured around four parts: the myth of parents as martyrs, the imposed nature of missionary “calling,” the spiritual neglect of MKs in boarding schools, and the collective testimony of resilience and loss. Fletcher’s dual perspective as both historian and former CIA analyst enriches her critique of evangelical institutions and their impact on children. This work contributes to schola...