Straight White American Jesus Raised on the Prosperity Gospel: Fear, Shame, Poverty, and the Making of the Christian Right
Jan 26, 2026
Josiah Hesse, journalist and author of the memoir On Fire for God, grew up inside prosperity gospel culture during the 1980s farm crisis. He recounts family sacrifice, tithing nearly everything, and how fear, shame, and economic collapse shaped faith. The conversation moves from intimate memories to the rise of the Christian Right, purity culture, religious trauma, and the long road out of evangelicalism.
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Raised In A Prosperity Church
- Josiah Hesse grew up in northern Iowa during the 1980s farm crisis and his parents poured everything into a prosperity-gospel church.
- That church shaped family life, finances, and expectations even as it involved scandal and exploitation.
Prosperity Theology Preys On Desperation
- Prosperity teaching targeted desperate, working-class communities by promising material miracles and status.
- Preachers modeled wealth publicly, making success appear as spiritual proof and funneling resources upward.
Giving Everything While Living Scant
- Hesse's parents gave large sums and labor to the church while the family lived on very little.
- He estimates they gave around $250,000 while bringing home roughly $10,000 a year as a family of five.
