Wow! eBook
Jesusland: Stories from the Upside Down World of Christian Pop Culture No Edition
Author(s): Joelle Kidd (Author)
- Publisher: ECW Press
- Publication Date: August 12, 2025
- Edition: No
- Language: English
- Print length: 344 pages
- ISBN-10: 1770417796
- ISBN-13: 9781770417793
Book Description
In 1999, after three years of secular living in Eastern Europe, Joelle Kidd moved back to Canada and was enrolled in the strange world of an evangelical Christian school. Immediately, she found herself in a strange world of upbeat Christan pop music, purity education, and desperately trendy Bible redesigns, trying to make sense of this unfamiliar preteen cultural landscape.
In
Jesusland, Joelle writes about the Christian pop culture that she was suddenly immersed in, from perky girl bands to modest styling tips, and draws connections between this evangelical subculture and the mainstream, a tense yet reciprocal relationship that both disavows the secular while employing its media markers. But none of this was just about catchy songs; every abstinence quiz in a teen magazine was laying the foundation for what would become a conservative Christian movement that threatens women’s healthcare, attacks queer and trans rights, and drives present-day political division.Through nine incisive, honest, and emotional essays,
Jesusland exposes the pop cultural machinations of evangelicalism, while giving voice to aughts-era Christian children and teens who are now adults looking back at their time measuring the length of their skirts, and asking each other if their celebrity crush was Christian enough. With care and generosity, Jesusland shows us how the conservative evangelical movement became the global power it is today by exploring the pop culture that both reflected and shaped an entire generation of young people.Editorial Reviews
Review
“The author’s argument provides much food for thought.” —
Library Journal“This is not just a strikingly timely book, it is also a fascinating, funny, upsetting and, in the end, beautiful one…Jesusland is the work of an emerging writer — a true writer — already displaying the will and conviction to do the dirty work, the care to think systematically and exhaustively about the cumbersome data, the modesty not just to gander without but also to peer within and the verve to whip it all into a whole built on prose that flows, darts, returns and comes to apt rests again and again.” —
The Winnipeg Free Press“A delightful and thoughtful insider’s tour through the Y2K culture wars that pitted evangelicals against the devilish masses and now tell us so much about our fractured political present.” — Sarah Berman, author of
Don’t Call It a Cult“This book is 10/10.
Jesusland is an essential read that is part memoir, part hilarious pop-culture analysis, and part investigative journalism that critiques the Christian evangelical subculture of the early 2000s. If you want to understand the origins and agenda of our current political climate, read this book.” — Tara Teng, author of Your Body is a Revolution“I could not put down
Jesusland: Stories from the Upside Down World of Christian Pop Culture No Edition. Joelle Kidd was speaking my language. While Joelle’s primary intention might have been an inside look at how an ultra-conservative Christian movement used every secular trick of the trade to groom an entire generation of children, what was revealed was a dangerous organization that not only threatened a woman’s rights and worth but was slowly becoming a global threat…a must read.” — Gilbert Speaks, BiffBamPop!“An introspective memoir/media criticism. Recommended for readers interested in left-leaning religious memoirs.” —
Library Journal“Joelle Kidd boldly explores evangelicalism as a unique and complex subculture, where holy books can be repackaged with traditional gender markers, where a religion that denounces greed can also be the home of prosperity gospel, and where peace and love meet ‘muscular’ Christianity.” — Jen and James Bryant, creators of
Fundie Fridays
