What horrors. Growing up I wasn’t attached to religion but my cousins were. It’s wild the things you can see and hear. Altogether interesting read for me. The essays could be done more succinctly but I still stayed interested. I think we’ll be seeing more things like this as people keep searching for meaning

Wow, this was everything I was hoping for and more! Religion is such an interesting topic, but evangelicals are even more interesting.

Joelle Kidd sheds light on the corruption, coercion, manipulation, and much more that takes place in Christianity and the media their leadership creates and use as a tool for fear mongering.

From forcing one sided opinions on kids, to guilt tripping followers for not following every ridiculous rule, this book gives many examples of the way evangelicals share their message and force their beliefs on others.

Loved this! I look forward to picking up a copy for my bookshelf.

Thanks to ECW for the chance to read!

Funny, scary but also deeply informative. I learned so much about a subculture I know almost nothing about and its effects on today’s world. Evangelical Christianity having its own separate pop culture sphere was something I was not familiar with but I found myself so engaged that it’s now a topic I’d be so interested in reading more about.

I really enjoyed this! I liked how it was organized by type of media or topic, and I thought the blend of research/analysis and personal memoir worked really well. And WOW was it relatable as someone who also grew up in evangelical Christian culture! I do feel like it could have easily been shortened with more determined editing, however.

Joelle tells us all about Christian pop culture through themes such as movies, purity and fear. She gives us her own personal experiences while bringing in very well researched evidence and testimonials.

I really liked the testimonials from others because they gave real life examples of how this pop culture affected their lives. It helped highlight how everyone is different in their experiences.

I listened to the audiobook and read it on my kindle at the same time but omg listening to the narrator say “quote” “unquote” every two seconds was winding me up 😂

I really liked the chapters on movies and purity! I felt like I learned so much more about these chapters but also knew some bits and pieces. I like when there are parts I already know because these help me to learn more too! I think I expected a lot more about movies/music/tv/celebrities type of pop culture and there was a lot more politics than I expected 😅

At the halfway point of Jesusland, Julia Scheeres delivers a raw and unflinching memoir about growing up in a strict evangelical household alongside her adopted Black brother. The writing is both heartbreaking and compelling, exposing the deep fractures created by family dysfunction and rigid faith. So far, it’s a powerful story of love, resilience, and the search for freedom.

Thanks to NetGalley and ECW Press for the ARC of this title.

This one got its claws into me right away by immediately evoking Chris Rice's "The Cartoon Song", and as a survivor of the Weird Evangelical Christian Culture of the 90s/2000s, this was extremely helpful in confirming many of these pop culture things I remember from my childhood/tweendom actually happened and were kind of weird. The book also does a great job of unpacking all of the deconstruction/reflection members of my generation have been doing with these elements, and what they say about the larger culture around them as a whole.

Canadian author Joelle Kidd's first book is a fascinating, unsettling exploration of the evangelical Christian pop culture of the 2000s, and its legacy in religion, politics and society today. Though dense and at times quite academic, it is an excellent book to read if you are hoping to unpick the origins of the religious bent of public life in North America and its inherent peculiarities.

Kidd, whose adolescence spanned the first decade of the 21st century, reflects on how she - like many of her peers in both Canada and the USA - has had to reckon with the fact that the political views and values which she has come to hold in adulthood 'radically clash' with the faith she was raised in. It is refreshing and illuminating to hear someone raised in evangelical Christianity calling out the messages of shame and hatred which have long been packaged in earnest, wholesome-seeming content - whether that be pop music, films, teen magazines or self-help books. Kidd offers a comprehensive interrogation of each of these sources, and makes a strong case for the straight line which can be drawn from evangelical pop culture to the policies of successive Republican federal governments promoting war-mongering, homophobia, xenophobia and Islamophobia and restricting women's rights under the guise of protecting American 'family values'.

After spending part of her childhood in post-Soviet Eastern Europe, Kidd was enrolled at a private Christian school in Winnipeg in the late 90s, and the early part of the book recalls the culture shock she experienced in being transplanted from a largely secular society to an entirely Christian one. This perspective allows her to evaluate the strangeness of Christian pop music, for example, in a way that may not be possible for a commentator who never knew any different. Certainly, as an English person who grew up loosely affiliated with the Church of England, I have never really understood the appeal of Christian music, film or literature when more-respected secular alternatives exist, but Kidd makes it clear that, for children and teenagers whose entire family, social circle and education is bound to their faith, it is only natural to consume this sanctioned culture. Certainly, pop culture makes sense as a natural expression of evangelism - how better to spread the Word to as many people as possible than with catchy music and shiny movies?

Kidd's credentials as a former evangelical Christian lend credibility to her arguments; she is not some prejudiced outsider trying to make trouble, but rather someone who has experienced first-hand the negative impact of this type of religiosity. Significantly, she is careful not to renounce her faith or her experiences of Christianity entirely, which might make her seem more of a disgruntled former devotee with an axe to grind; indeed, she speaks effusively about how she loved being a part of a community and how some of the people she loves most are still part of the evangelical Protestant church. One of the recurring themes of the book is Kidd's struggle to reconcile the teachings of a gentle, generous Jesus with the narrow-minded, hostile Christians she encountered growing up.

And why now? 'Just like the comeback of spaghetti straps and low-rise jeans, the 2020s seem to be cycling back into the same political territory,' Kidd writes of her decision to reflect on a decade that ended fifteen years ago. In a chapter on purity culture and complimentarianism (the idea that women and men have complimentary, God-given roles in the household, those of warriors, protectors and spiritual leaders, and submissive sexual servants respectively), Kidd traces the roots of these movements back to the 'muscular Christianity' of the late nineteenth century, itself a reaction to the expansion of women's rights and the subsequent perceived erosion of male dominance in society. Highlighting the tenets of this movement (manliness, morality, health and patriotism) underscores the relevance of having a conversation about 2000s evangelical Christianity in 2025: there is a clear connection between muscular Christianity over a hundred years ago, through the advent of the megachurch in the early twenty-first century to the politics of Donald Trump and RFK Jr today. It is impossible to untangle evangelical messages from those of the supposedly secular federal government; as Kidd writes, 'Evangelical Christianity is inextricable from American culture.' Evangelicals vote Republican so Republicans have to keep their support through focusing on key 'moral issues' such as abortion rights, marriage equality, prayer in schools and the separation of church and state. From there, issues such as the War on Terror in the early 2000s and the anti-immigrant sentiment of the Trump administration just become additional fronts in an anti-Christian culture war. Unless we reckon with the corrosive influence of evangelical Christianity now, history shows that we are doomed to see its power resurge over and over again.

This chapter unpicks the messages - insidious and overt - which Kidd and other girls of her generation were pelted with from all angles. Even in the secular world, the 2000s were a brutal time to be a young girl. It would have taken an unusually strong sense of self not to internalise the tabloid headlines about Renée Zellweger 'piling on the pounds' to play Bridget Jones or Martine McCutcheon's character's (normal, healthy) weight being used as a punchline multiple times in Love Actually. Then there was the pillorying in the press of young women who dared to date multiple men during their twenties, not to mention the hideous online countdowns to young female celebrities such as the Olsen twins and Hilary Duff turning eighteen and thus becoming 'legal'. It is harrowing to read about the ways in which young Christian girls were instructed
about purity, modesty, and gender compliancy, church leaders, teachers and evangelical authors, filmmakers and musicians cherry picking and deliberately misrepresenting Bible verses to hold women accountable for the sexual urges of men.
Jesusland makes it clear that these people are acutely aware of how to utilise evolving culture and technology to reach their intended audience - from pop music, magazines and message boards in the early aughts to podcasts and social media in the mid-2010s. Their messages are designed to empower young men to adopt an aggressive, authoritarian attitude to church and family and young women to submit to the masculine authority of God, their fathers and their husbands.

In this chapter, Kidd hands the mic to a variety of friends and acquaintances, each of whom has their own experience of purity culture making them feel inherently sinful for having normal biological urges, making them believe that they should have no expectation of sexual pleasure, and denying them the tools to protect themselves from abuse, infection and pregnancy. Though anecdotal, these dozens of accounts are powerful evidence for the author's assertion that she and her peers have been 'deeply, permanently affected - some even broken -' by this culture.

The rest of the book tackles a wide range of topics, including televangelism and prosperity gospel, and the Christian stand-up comedy to alt right pipeline. Each of the nine essays is meticulously researched, thoughtful and incisive, with some chapters incredibly ambitious in their scope. The essays are long, and some could have benefited from some editing to trim down unnecessary detail. Some readers may come to Jesusland expecting a more superficial riff on the author's memories of growing up evangelical and be put off by the depth and ambition of the book, but it is an incredibly observant, enlightening book which has left me with a far greater understanding of the subject.

Thank you to NetGalley and ECW Press for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 rounded down.

After picking this up, I soon realized the content was a lot more than I had expected or bargained for. Obviously it's still a deep dive on Christian Pop Culture from the 2000s, but Joelle Kidd doesn't shy away from the cultural commentary and the impact it had on Christianity and wider secular society. The pop culture is really just more like jumping off points to talk about things like Christian Zionism, the rise of toxic masculinity in Christian spaces, and the why Christian comedians aren't funny. For this reason, it wasn't necessarily as "fun" as I expected it to be, but it was informative. I only sort of grew up Christian anyway- so the pop culture stuff wouldn't have been that recognizable to me.
For context, I realized as a child that church was boring and god was cruel, so even when I went to church I never listened and would think about what audience members would be hit if god decided to make a light from the ceiling fall on them. I don't know what this says about me, but I could relate to the parts where Kidd was questioning her faith at least.
All of this to say, this book helped me to realize just how many ideas garnered from pop culture can permeate political spaces, despite this apparent separation from church and state (duh). When you pull on these threads, the whole tapestry starts to unravel.

"It's strange the responses you garner when you tell strangers, friends, and new acquaintances that you're writing a book about 'evangelical Christian pop culture of the 2000s.'" (loc. 25*)

As a child, Kidd knew enough to fall in line with the people around her—but inside, questions burned. As an adult, having stepped away and looked back, she returns to ask just what it was that she went through—and why evangelical pop culture is so powerful.

I'm reminded of "Rapture Ready!", which I read more than a decade ago. Where "Rapture Ready!" investigates the phenomenon of Christian pop culture (think: books and bookstores, movies, theme parks, and on it goes) from an outsider's perspective, Kidd was in it—she knows just how insidious the messaging can be.

"Ideas about gender were being marketed alongside, and becoming entangled with, religion. Every pink Bible and God's Precious Daughter T-shirt was also selling a script, and every glossy issue dropped in a millennial teen's mailbox had lots to say—about purity, modesty, and gender compliancy." (loc. 365)

I escaped this particular phenomenon when I was growing up (merry heathens and all that), but as an adult I find it fascinating, even moreso in light of the current political situation. Kidd did not grow up in the US, so her experience of evangalical religion was in some ways more muted than what we see in the US, but in other ways...well, her school was stocking the "Left Behind" books, and mine was not. A lot of this book ends up being about power (who has it, and how they're using it to amass more power and more money) and the ways in which certain savvy individuals and organizations have capitalized on...on a willingness to buy anything branded with a particular set of beliefs, I suppose. And the ways in which pop culture has been used to twist those beliefs and dig them in deeper and deeper.

It's a disturbing book but an interesting one. Probably the best fit for those who have a little more American evangelical Christian background than I do (and who can look back with at least one eyebrow raised), but also one for those who just, you know. Read the news and are a little too curious sometimes.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

More than interesting,relevant,funny,serious,honest and am really glad read this book,reccomended for anyone who like me this rings many bells as was our upbringing
Very very well written

I requested this on a whim because I was just so captivated by the idea. And as someone who grew up with next to no religious involvement, it's always interesting for me to read or watch things about the total flipside of that. I enjoyed that this book was both memoir and non-fiction portions, I feel like that made it a really fresh and compelling read. There was so much interesting information captured in this book, and I do really recommend it. Even if you're not necessarily interested in religiosity, etc. I think you'd still enjoy this from a non-fiction standpoint. Great read!

I picked this up on a whim because I have a couple of friends who grew up in evangelical Christian culture in the 2000s and they tell me the wildest stories about some of the things they were taught, so I wanted to gain some more insight. This book is part-memoir-part-nonfiction and I do generally really like that combo in a book, with this one being no exception. Kidd explores modesty culture, gendered teen bibles, and Christian media (music, movies, etc.) and I found the exploration of the offshoots of Hallmark movies in the more Christian-approved Great American Family movies.

My main reason for picking this up is not because I am a Christian or have ever been one, but because I have a fascination with Christian culture and I’ve never read anything focusing on Christian pop culture specifically. It sounded interesting, and it was!

Some things I learnt about that I never knew existed include Christian magazines aimed at teenage girls that were modelled after similar teenage girl magazines I read growing up in the 2000s, Christian radio (although I was already familiar with Christian pop music, I was unaware about the existence of Christian rock music), megachurches (I knew of them, but I did not know that they were so big or that there was one made entirely from glass), and branded Bibles.

Alongside that, I learnt a lot about Christianity in general and expanded on things I already did know, like the connection between Christianity and the alt-right. This is about evangelical Christianity specifically, which is what the author was raised as in Canada (which was even more interesting, as most of what I know about Christianity is US - specific). There were many, many times I came across something and thought to myself “that’s absolutely wild”.

My only complaint that isn’t really a proper complaint is that I wanted to know more about the pop culture, however I am aware that learning about the intentions and impact behind it was important too and I feel like I took a lot away from this. I’m grateful to this author and everyone else who grew up in something that sounds like a nightmare and went on to share what they went through with others.

2 stars
e-ARC
*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this e-ARC! Thoughts/reviews are my own.*
This book definitely hit home for me as a millennial who grew up in the thick of the 2000s Christian pop culture era described in this book. I attended my grandparents' Baptist church until I was in 8th grade, when I started attending the Methodist church near my school with some of my friends. My family became members there, and my parents actually briefly led the youth group, until we decided to leave the church completely at the start of my senior year. This girl is VERY familiar with Veggie Tales, the Left Behind series, the local Christian book store, and - yes, of course I wore a purity ring.
This book made so many great points about the religious culture in which many of us were raised, such as:
- modesty culture and the tendency to pin the blame on females for not being covered up enough rather than males for looking;
- purity rings and the shame and guilt they perpetuated amongst my generation regarding sex
- the legend of Cassie Bernall in the Columbine shooting and the "obsession with martyrdom" that resulted
- the intersections between Christianity and politics, even up to today's administration
- the general woes of not feeling like you are ever a "good enough" Christian

That being said, I feel that a lot of Kidd's very valid points are drowned out by just how wordy this book is. The essays are at least twice as long as they should be and tend to meander to their points. The formatting of this e-book was also quite strange and had a lot of typos, though this very well may be fixed by the time the final copy is released.

Overall, while this book had some really relevant points and was entertaining at moments, I felt like its message was drowned out by the lengthy, rambling nature of these essays. It hindered my ability to appreciate and enjoy this book, which is unfortunate considering the many insightful points that were made throughout.

An empathetic, funny, and sharply critical collection of essays exploring the Christian pop culture of the 2000s and its influence on today’s politically powerful evangelicalism
This must be read to sharpen our strategy to evangelize in today's political world.

This is one of those books you pick up because you absolutely recognize the shit that the author is talking about on the back cover and want to see how someone else took it when they were exposed to it. Turns out this shit is exactly as mildly nightmare fuel-ly as I remembered, and having someone else validate that experience means a lot. If you've ever wondered what growing up in some of the fundie evangelical circles was like in the 00s, pick this up. And if you remember it, pick it up too, because if nothing else you'll get to see that someone else experienced this shit and came out the other side.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. The opinions written are completely honest and my own.

Jesus land brought me right to my yough. Although I was a Catholic I have many Mennonite friends that introduced me to the Brio ways.

I always recommended to my best friend and Teacher at a local Christian school which I believe the author attended.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me the digital copy to review before the book’s release!

I was drawn to this book for a few reasons. I am Christian, though I’m currently in the middle of a construction of sorts, parsing through my childhood and the way I was raised and how it differs from my current understanding of the teachings of Jesus. My childhood was similar to the author’s, and we are of the same generation, so I could relate to a lot of what she wrote about. We came of age in the early 2000s when a lot was happening! It brought back a lot of memories as an awkward, sheltered preteen confused by a lot that was going on! 😂

This book discusses pop culture and politics, both on a macro level and a micro level as it relates to what the author was experiencing at the time. Her stated aim of the book is: “to return to and reappraise the pop culture that shaped the way I saw my own faith.”

The author has an interesting discussion about purity culture, modesty, and women’s sexuality within the Christian religion AND how it relates to wider pop culture as a whole. She also talks about the boom in Christian films, the “culture wars” following 9/11 (creationism in schools, pledge of allegiance) and the prosperity gospel.

This is a great book and makes it easy to connect what brought us to the current administration!

When I read the synopsis of this book I was intrigued. As someone raised in the Evangelical church this was an interesting book. I like how topics discussed in the book range true to my experiences however, as someone who still practices Christianity it’s so disheartening to hear the damage that it has cause to others, myself included. I will be recommending this book to others.

#Jesusland #NetGalley