Flea Market Jesus

Americans live their lives through institutions: government businesses schools clubs and houses of worship. But many Americans are wary of the control these groups--especially government and business--exercise over their lives. Flea Market Jesus provides an up-close look at the rugged individualism of those trying hardest to separate themselves from institutions: flea market dealers. Having spent most of his life studying American religious organizations Art Farnsley turns his attention to Americas most solitary and alienated entrepreneurs. Farnsley describes an entire subculture of white Midwesterners--working class middle class and poor--gathered together in a uniquely American celebration of guns and frontier life. In this mix the character Cochise voices the frustrations of flea market dealers toward business politics and especially religion. Part ethnography part autobiography Flea Market Jesus is a story about alienation biblical literalism libertarianism and deep-seated religious belief. It is not about the Tea Party the Occupy movement or the Christian Right but it shines a light on all of these by highlighting the potent combination of mistrust resentment and personal liberty too often kept in the shadows of publicdiscourse among educated elites. -- Publishers website.