Last year, here in Portland, I went to an author event at my local bookstore. The book was called “On Fire for God: Fear, Shame, Poverty, and the Making of the Christian Right.” It was a memoir by Josiah Hesse.The event description said the memoir was about Hesse’s “bleak and difficult childhood in a small, rural Evangelical community in Iowa.”My guess is that his literary agent or his editor understood how hungry mainstream publishers are for books that attack and slander the Christian faith.Apparently, Hesse suffered mental anguish as a child when he was told by church elders that he was going to be tortured in hell for his sins.Breaking with his church and family while still in his teens, he struck out on his own, eventually becoming a successful writer and journalist. Now he had written a book exposing the Christian right.Dissing ChristiansHesse was doing a national book tour. He was traveling the country doing interviews and podcasts. He had just been featured on National Public Radio.Needless to say, the mainstream media loved this book. A full frontal attack on the Midwestern evangelicals is always welcome in their circles. Especially if the author escaped the oppression of the church and found shelter in the safe spaces of progressive liberalism.The book event began with Josiah Hesse making a grand entrance into the bookstore’s event area.I didn’t know what to expect from such an author in terms of appearance, but I was definitely not expecting the rock-star shag haircut, the crisp white shirt, the shimmering black dinner jacket, or the elegant cravat around his neck.Had this guy come here on his yacht? His face had definitely been moisturized. He looked like he could be in an ABBA tribute band.Getting to know the authorHesse took the stage and began his talk. He described growing up as an evangelical Christian.As a young man, he was sensitive and imaginative and didn’t fit in. His parents, meanwhile, were loyal evangelicals. His dad believed in the “end times” and the eventual rise of the Antichrist.In his teen years, Hesse’s feelings of alienation from his family and community got progressively worse. It didn’t help matters that he developed a taste for wearing high heels and trying on his mother’s clothes.Small-town boySo it turns out that Josiah was gay! Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Eventually, he did what so many young gay people do: When he was old enough, he moved to the nearest big city. In this case, Denver.There, he scraped by, working odd jobs and picking up writing gigs. Over time, he was able to develop his talent and eventually got a literary agent and published a book called “Runner’s High” at a major publishing house.Watching him talk, he seemed like an upbeat guy. He told funny stories. He didn’t seem traumatized by his Christian upbringing. He was just gay. And now he was a successful writer who was gay.RELATED: My search for America’s last decent public libraries Joe McNally/Getty ImagesFamily tiesI also noticed the “breaking with his family” part of the story wasn’t quite as severe as promised. In his talk, he described returning home, hanging out with his dad, meeting up with old friends, reconnecting as best he could.It was an interesting and relatable story.So what happened to the evil Christian right? That’s what the book was supposed to be about. Where’s the trauma? Where’s the abuse? Where are the scars?The Portland audience seemed restless and disappointed. Where was the evil? That’s what they came for. WE WANT OUR CHRISTIAN EVIL!Not following the scriptI haven’t read the book, so I don’t know for sure what’s in it. Hesse did quote some statistics during his talk.These statistics seemed designed to reassure the anti-Christian audience that he was on their side. Trump is bad. Conservatives are neanderthals. Christians are brainwashed and in some cases predatory.But I was skeptical. I didn’t believe Hesse was really this simpleminded. He was clearly an intelligent guy. He wasn’t super political. He didn’t hate his family, or his town, or his old friends.He had moved away from his rural community, as any talented gay person would do. He found his people in Denver. And now he was writing books and living his best life.Go where the money isMy guess is that his literary agent, or his editor, or maybe Hesse himself understood how hungry mainstream publishers are for books that attack and slander the Christian faith.They especially love books that confirm the stereotype: “small-town Christians = bigots + racists.”These memoirs are so popular that there’s a formula:The author is abused and humiliated by the sadistic locals.The author breaks free of their bigotry and finds his way to the “good people,” i.e. college-educated liberals in coastal cities.There, the formerly oppressed author can flourish and be his true self: gay, or nonbinary, or furry, or poly-whatever.Everyone lives happily ever after. That’s the genre that Josiah Hesse’s “On Fire for God” supposedly belongs to. (See also “Educated” by Tara Westover, another memoir with almost the exact same storyline.)Did Josiah strictly adhere to that formula? More or less. My main impression of the author: He looked happy. His writing career was going great. He was on a national tour. He was staying in nice hotels. He was wearing a cravat.And I’m sure his publishers got what they wanted too. Another book that confirms that educated people, good people, moral people are uniformly against the Christian right, which is apparently an ongoing threat to our nation.The only problem is: Whenever someone writes a book about the “dangerous Christian right,” it turns out he is just describing another small town in Iowa — usually, a town where, if you actually went there, you would find kind, decent people who, when you brought up the “Christian right,” wouldn’t even know what you were talking about.
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