On fire for God : fear, shame, poverty, and the making of the Christian Right--a personal history

Author

Josiah Hesse

Call Number

• 921 H5873 (CEN, OSH, POW)

Browse similar titles by call number

Edition

First hardcover edition.

Publication Information

New York : Pantheon Books, 2026.

Physical Description

x, 353 pages ; 25 cm

Summary

"Hillbilly Elegy meets Educated in this powerful hybrid of memoir and sociopolitical observation that explores the ways evangelical Christianity has preyed upon its followers while galvanizing them into the political force known today as the Christian right. Written in vivid prose, On Fire For God is a stirring and urgent examination of the far-reaching emotional, political, and sociological effects of the Christian Right. With unflinching honesty, exvaneglical journalist Josiah Hesse shares his personal journey from the stifling working class town of Mason City, Iowa, through the institutions of the Christian right: a toxic mixture of schools, ministries, and Christian camps that taught creationism, foretold horrific stories of the rapture, instilled sexual shame, and fearmongered followers into believing ceaseless agony was awaiting sinners in the afterlife. At the same time, greedy preachers siphoned his community's wealth while preaching a doctrine of prosperity and humiliating the poor. Hesse reveals how this brand of Christian conservativism traps working-class believers into an isolated bubble of racism, xenophobia, martyrdom, and self-loathing-turning them into passive, low-wage workers who would never dare to ask for higher wages or utter the word "union." Like many of his peers, Hesse eventually escaped his hometown a high-school dropout, ultimately finding himself squatting in Denver where, for the first time, he truly considered that perhaps God doesn't exist, the world wasn't going to end, and that he was woefully unprepared for a future he never thought would arrive. While prevailing theories about the disappearing working class point to opioids, automation, or globalism as the culprits, Hesse's story of awakening and escape exposes how conservative Christian conmen routinely strip communities, such as Hesse's hometown of Mason City, Iowa, of their wealth, rationality, and self-esteem. His story goes far beyond that often-asked question: "Why did 81% of evangelical voters-the majority of them poor and working class-support Donald Trump?" Instead, Hesse brings deep feeling and piercing immediacy to what he describes as the socioeconomic tragedy of the American working class"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

• Midwestern gothic
• Turn and face the strange
• Unfortunate son
• Get your Jesus freak on
• Revelation romance
• The camel and the needle's eye
• Blood on the scarecrow
• On fire for God
• Prophets of profit
• Reaping the whirlwind
• The wages of sin
• Suffer little children
• Walking under water
• Child left behind
• Guilty stains
• Protecting belief
• Unworthy of healing
• An education
• Campy boy
• Pure
• Martyr me, Manson
• The boys in the band
• A is for apologetics
• Tuning in, flunking out
• Children of the industrialized corn
• God's pyramid of debt
• Hydrocele and Hydrocodone
• Man's dominion
• The fruit of knowledge
• It's work
• Boy on fire
• Monetizing trauma
• Think of the children
• Exercising demons
• Satan versus psychology
• God's plan for your investment portfolio
• The swamps of sadness
• Reach out and touch faith
• Mama, I'm coming home
• Beach Buddhist bingo.