Her daughter, Leah, captures her mothers religion very well when she says, "my father wears his faith like the bronze breastplate of God's foot soldiers, while our mother's is more like a good cloth coat with a secondhand fit.'' This quote is very true, as her father is the evangelical missionary leader who parades his religion around, as he craves for the reputation of being a "good person," because he preaches the bible. Orleanna does nothing of the sort she worships the lord, because she believes in him, and his word, she does not praise him, simply to look good. As Mathew 6:1 states, "Be careful not to do your "acts of righteousness" before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven," Nathan Price, is very hypocritical as he does his good deeds to be noticed, while Orleanna does them out of faith and moral righteousness. .
Rachel is the oldest of the four daughters, at 15 years of age, the whiny would-be beauty queen who "cares for naught but appearances," can think only of what she misses: the five-day deodorant pads she forgot to bring, flush toilets, machine-washed clothes and other things, as she says with her willful gift for malapropism, that she has taken "for granted," the bible and her faith were no where near the top of her list. Her only way of surviving in the Congo was simply to not adapt at all; as she says ''The way I see Africa, you don't have to like it but you sure have to admit it's out there. You have your way of thinking and it has its, and never the train ye shall meet!'' Thi .
quote not only applies to her views of the Congo, but also of her views on religion. While growing up with her father, her religion was forced upon her, as for their punishment the children were sentenced to "the verse", in which they were required to right out one hundred lines direct from the bible by memory. She doesn't seem to enjoy the idea of faith, but there is no doubt that she realizes it's there.
