
As she navigated graduate school, a new home on the East Coast, and a new marriage, another insidious truth began to reveal itself -that conservative Christianity has both built and undermined our political power structures, poisoned our pop culture, and infected how we interact with one another in ways that the secular population couldn't see. From the story of Lilith to celebrity purity rings, Kadlec interrogates how her indoctrination and years of piety intersects with her Midwest working-class upbringing. Within, Kadlec reckons with religious trauma and Midwestern values, as a means of unveiling how evangelicalism directly impacts every American-religious or not-and has been a major force in driving our democracy towards fascism. Jeanna Kadlec knew what it meant to be faithful-in her marriage to a pastor's son, in the comfortable life ahead of her, in her God-but there was no denying the truth that lived under that conviction: she was queer and, if she wanted to survive, she would need to leave behind the church and every foundational building block she knew. This is a memoir of growing up Evangelical-of indoctrination, family, and working poor middle America-and a sharp critique of how the tenets of conservative Christianity have built our power structures and political systems, in addition to how they've shaped our culture and our daily interactions with each other.įrom writing about Lilith and celebrity purity rings, to coming out and discovering F/F fanfiction, finding community outside of Christianity in the face of millennial loneliness, to interrogating the liberal and academic stigma against faith, this memoir traces the damage Evangelicalism, with its demands for unquestioning obedience, has caused in individuals, communities, and our country, past to present-and also imagines how could we radically leave it behind: new methods of building community, finding meaning, and reintegrating concepts of fellowship and love into our everyday discourse.A memoir of leaving the evangelical church and the search for radical new ways to build community. Jeanna Kadlec was a devout Evangelical and the wife of a pastor's son before she came to the double realization that she was queer and that she had to leave the church in order to survive.

A memoir of leaving the Evangelical church, reckoning with religious trauma while also interrogating just how much Evangelicalism has and continues to A memoir of leaving the Evangelical church, reckoning with religious trauma while also interrogating just how much Evangelicalism has and continues to affect all Americans-via our power structures and pop culture-and how it drives our democracy towards fascism.
