One part Educated, one part rebuttal to Hillbilly Elegy, On Fire for God explores the ways evangelical Christianity has preyed upon its followers while galvanizing them into the political force known today as the Christian right. Exvangelical journalist Josiah Hesse grew up in the stifling working-class town of Mason City, Iowa, raised in the institutions of fundamentalist Christianity: a toxic mixture of schools, ministries, and religious camps that taught creationism, instilled sexual shame, and foretold horrific tales of the rapture and the ceaseless agony awaiting sinners in the afterlife. In the churches where he worshipped, greedy pastors siphoned their flocks' wealth while preaching a doctrine of prosperity and humiliating the poor. Meanwhile, as economic struggles grew in the community around him, his fellow believers lambasted organized labor and shunned the social safety net, an army for God against the evils of progressivism. Like many of his peers, Hesse would find himself