متقدون حباً لله .. الخوف والعار والفقر ونشأة اليمين المسيحي

Burning for the Love of God: Fear, Shame, Poverty, and the Rise of the Christian Right Combining the style of Learned with Hillbilly Elegy, evangelical Christianity both exploited and galvanized its followers into the political force known today as the Christian Right. “Of all the books I've read about young people destroyed by the fundamentalist religion they grew up with, this one stands out in particular,” says Frances Fitzgerald, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Evangelicals. Former evangelical journalist Josiah Hess grew up in Mason City, Iowa, a stifling working-class town, and was raised in the institutions of fundamentalist Christianity: a toxic mix of schools, ministries, and religious camps that taught creationism, instilled sexual shame, and predicted horrific stories of kidnapping. In the churches he attended, pastors drained the wealth of their congregants while preaching prosperity doctrine. Meanwhile, as society's economic difficulties worsened, Hesse's faithful followers attacked labor unions and ignored the social safety net, becoming God's army against the evils of progressivism. Only after fleeing Iowa in search of something higher did he consider the possibility that the world was not about to end, that he was completely unprepared for a future he had never expected. Written in a lively literary style, On Fire for God is an honest memoir of religious trauma and survival, and a moving study of the emotional, political, and social effects of the Christian Right. Returning to his hometown in search of answers about his upbringing and the political forces influencing the region, Hesse questions prevailing theories about a vanishing working class, which blame opioids, automation, or globalization. The story of his awakening and escape reveals how, over generations, conservative Christian con artists have managed to trap working-class believers in an isolated bubble of racism, xenophobia and self-martyrdom, while robbing communities like his of their wealth and dignity. In his book, “On Fire with God,” Hesse delves into the depths of his personal experience to shed light, with poignant emotion and poignant realism, on what he describes as the social and economic tragedy of the American working class.