This is a book that's going to sit on my heart for a very very long time. I knew a lot growing up in a Christian household.. the "values", the child rearing beliefs. I attended church at least weekly, volunteered with the church and even taught Sunday school for a period of time.

I was also a strong will child that was exposed to some of the stories within these pages.. thankfully not to the extreme as some of these individual but still there. This strong will never left, I decided I wanted out of the church pretty young. My parents were upset to say the least. I, an avid reader, decided to take it up on my self to read every word in the bible.. I think I read the entirety front to back at least 3 times. I highlighted what I believed to be problematic and presented this to my parents. Lol.

I do also think that there are major differences between Canada and the USA. The church has a lot of power in the states. I am absolutely appaled that they are the only country not to sign the convention on the rights of a child. That 300k minors were married to adult men. That children can be homeschooled and never tested or checked in on.

I feel as though we look at other countries, other cultures and see their treatment of women and children and think it's horrible. I'm afraid the United States is right there with them, they just conceal it better.

I truly think everyone with the ability to vote should read this.

Thank you netgalley for the earc in exchange for an honest review.

I receieved this as a digital ARC from NetGalley.

I thought I read enough books on the rise of the religious right and evangelism - but turns out I needed to read one more?

This book did a good job of explaining specifically *why* evangelist Christians choose to support Trump and his cohorts from 2016 to present. Man as a mostly non-practicing cradle Catholic I am always fluxxomed by people who literally believe all of the Bible (especially the books the wacky books aside from the Gospels).

Wild Faith explores how to religious right has co-opted politics in very harmful ways. Lavin does a fantastic job of explaining the connective tissue between evangelicals and Trump/Trump supporters. I highly recommend this to any newbies interested in learning about the Christian right/Christian Nationalism.

I'm not sure if this book made me depressed or just gave me a better perspective on the world around me.

Lavin explores how the Christian Right and evangelicals have co-opted our politics. How they have forced their Old Testament rules of behavior on their family. How, in many ways, they have left the Jesus of the New Testament behind.

I really did vacillate between being depressed and glad that it wasn't just me and that the world as a whole is better than this. Christianity should be joyful and full of grace and love - not the rigid dour world so many want to make it. I wish the author had ended with more of a solution-based "how do we move forward from here" approach.

I do recommend this book especially for those who grew up in a strict religious household.

I was given this by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review - all opinions are my own.

A very interesting look at the connections between evangelicals and Trumpist right wing politics. The sections that focused on the connective tissue between those two worlds were most interesting to me.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Talia Lavin’s “Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America” is a searing and meticulously researched examination of the rise and influence of the Christian Right in contemporary American politics.

“Wild Faith” is a compelling investigation that traces the evolution of the Christian Right from its segregationist origins to its current prominence in shaping policy and public opinion.

The book addresses themes of power, ideology, and resistance, highlighting the ways in which the Christian Right has leveraged its influence to enact laws that negatively impact marginalized communities.

Lavin’s writing is rigorous and accessible, making complex political and social dynamics understandable to a broad audience. Her prose is sharp and engaging, blending journalistic clarity with a passionate call to action.

“Wild Faith” is a timely and essential read, particularly in the current political climate where debates over religious freedom, civil rights, abortion, and democracy are increasingly polarized.

Lavin’s work serves as a warning and a guide, urging us to recognize the signs of encroaching authoritarianism and to mobilize against it.

Talia Lavin’s “Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America” is a powerful and necessary book that sheds light on one of the most influential and controversial movements in modern American history.

“Wild Faith” offers a compelling and insightful exploration of the Christian Right’s impact on America. It is a must-read for anyone committed to understanding and addressing the forces shaping our society today.

Levin has done it again, this time delving into the alarming world of Christian Nationalism and providing a terrifying window in how this groups extremist members envision the future of the country.

While I could write forever about each new, and alarming, fact I learned in reading this book, overall it traced an interesting history of how Christian Nationalism came to the forefront of American politics. Intrinsic in this history is the way that the fight to make evangelical belief the required norm for all Americans has always left the far right on the wrong side of history. Using "Christian Values" has been the shield for child abuse, the fight against child labor laws, book banning, healthcare restrictions and preventing women from divorcing abusive spouses. We see this mirrored everyday at every level from Moms for Liberty (The Southern Poverty Law Center identified hate group) working in local school committees to a heavily conservative Supreme Court placed by a grifter that Christians believe is a literal Biblical Figure sent to save the country.

Additionally, for those of us not raised in any particular faith (having this Wild (Not Christian) Faith has certainly made us all outsiders), the book provided really important insight into just how religious extremists perceive American Politics. I did not know that a period of biblical law would be required for ascension to the promised land...but it sure makes the fight for conservative judges make more sense. I did not know that the fall of Palestine to Israel is an important step in the path to biblical domination...but it sure makes current global policy make more sense. The driving force behind the Satanic Panic, the fear of "the mark of the beast" and the concept of Trump as the biblical figure Cyrus certainly all make a lot more sense when you realize how much of the country is operating under a book club run amok.

I would consider this a must read before the 2024 election. Levin provides a critical prism through which the upcoming campaigning can be viewed. Read it as a companion piece to Oreskes and Conway's "The Big Myth" for a truly unvarnished view of how the church has fought against the best interest of Americans for as long as it has been an institution under capitalism.

This was a great look at the religious right, looking at topics including church, education, politics, and parenting. Was helpful to understand the origins of some very popular right-wing policy points and get a preview of where our country is headed if Trump is elected to a second term.

In her upcoming book, Wild Faith, How the Christian Right is Taking Over America, Talia Lavin details a dark, dangerous picture of far-right, fundamentalist, evangelical Christianity, to be released just in time for the 2024 election. In the afterword, Lavin tips her hand a bit. The spark which ignited this book was her viewing of the documentary, The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin. The Remnant Fellowship, founded and led by Shamblin following her rise to fame as a Christian diet guru, is not your typical evangelical church. Most evangelicals would be mortified to know that their church and their faith was being equated with that of Gwen Shamblin. Lavin says, “The name of the church doesn’t matter; it was showy and excessive in its habits, with a charismatic leader, but that is true of many churches in this country.” Upon watching the documentary, which features the unfortunate story of the death of a child due to parental maltreatment and the subsequent defense by Shamblin’s church, Lavin began to wonder about other children who grew up in similar circumstances. This led her to listen to the voices of numerous ex-evangelicals, sharing the pain of being raised in far-right, abusive homes. She heard the very real stories of people who had suffered under harsh treatment by parents who were church-going, Christ-worshiping, political conservatives. Lavin rightly pins some blame for such abuse on evangelical teaching of the past, by such names as Dobson and Gothard, even quoting Susanna Wesley’s 18th century opinions of Christian child-rearing. Lavin’s approach was to ask for the stories of those who had been raised in a fundamentalist Christian home. The pained accounts she heard fueled Lavin’s coverage of the Christian right.

The picture Lavin draws is ugly. Trump-worshipers. Women-haters. Racists. Child-abusers. Abortion-clinic bombers. Insurrectionists. Money-lovers. Book-burners. Self-professed prophets. Apocalypticism. Witch-hunting. All of it is wrapped in the American flag in the name of Jesus. Lavin’s thesis is that these horribly deceived people are out to take over the nation for Christ, deny women’s health care, repress sexual expression, beat your children, radicalize the public school system, reset equal rights and civil rights to pre-1950’s, and take away your right to vote in free elections. I don’t deny that people like this exist. I agree with Lavin that their agenda needs to be thwarted. I believe that their idea of a “Christian nation” is not the freedom of religion established by our constitution. Lavin’s carefully researched and well-written diagnosis of far-right, fundamentalist, evangelical, Christian-nationalism, and her fear that it will grow and take over our country, is scary, indeed.

The problem I have with the book, as an evangelical pastor, is that it aims way to the right of most evangelicals while insinuating all evangelicals within its target. I will list some of my qualms about Lavin’s analysis from my perspective.

Pro-life evangelicals are not out to take away health care from women. It is not their intention to keep women from access to a D & C following a miscarriage. Their motivation is to preserve the life of unborn children. Lavin ignores mentioning the life of the unborn child altogether. There needs to be a nuanced conversation regarding the encouragement of sexual responsibility in addition to state laws that protect women in the case of rape, incest, and life-saving measures.

Many evangelicals are not fans of Donald Trump and would rather have other options. Those who will vote for Trump do not defend him as a moral paragon but simply favor the policies of the Republican right. In a choice (currently) between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, many evangelicals feel forced to vote for Trump while holding their noses. Some evangelicals will write in a name or leave the presidential ballot blank. Evangelical Christians are not a solid voting bloc, as imagined by those on the left.

Corporal punishment is practiced in many homes throughout our country, Christian and non-Christian. Many evangelicals will use it as a last resort, and do not agree with the likes of Bill Gothard. Lavin asked for examples of physical abuse, and she got them. I would argue that they are the exception and not the norm as she implies.

When it comes to the apocalypse, as taught in the Bible, evangelical believers are divided. Lavin’s suggestions that post-millennials are actively working to hasten Christ’s return through political action, and pre-millennials have given up on the world and are waiting for Jesus to return are vastly over-simplified.

Many evangelicals homeschool their children because they do not approve of the curriculum in their local public school system, not because they are segregationist. While the purported “grooming” of children sexually is an overreach, it is true that public school systems around the country expose children to liberal gender and sexual education before many evangelical parents are comfortable.

The word evangelical comes from the Greek word for gospel, or good news. The desire of most evangelicals is to influence our culture through demonstrating the love of Jesus and sharing the good news. Many evangelicals wish for our nation to be more Christian in values but are not Christian nationalists. Jesus came to bring in a spiritual kingdom, not a physical one. He encouraged the use of metaphorical weapons and not literal ones.

There is more I could say, but this review is long enough already. Lavin makes one statement that gives me hope that she does not bake all evangelicals into the same pie. “There are many faithful people in this country who kiss the cross or take Communion and love their neighbor and keep up with old friends and listen to a nice sermon or two. This is not a book about those people.” I just wish she had repeated it a few times to demonstrate that she sees a distinction and realizes that she is punching far right.

I have seen those on the far right lather up fear over the activities of the left. From their fundamentalist pulpits they warn of population control, euthanasia, looting and rioting, the removal of parental rights, the demonization of meat, open borders, unrestricted pornography, etc… They warn us that these atheist libs are growing in number and influence. They provide anecdotal evidence and tell the horror stories of those raised in such homes. Without tempering her treatment of the evangelical right, is it possible that Talia Lavin may likewise be fomenting fear from her pulpit on the left? I stop short of this accusation but wish that she had made it clearer that she understands the distinctions and nuances within evangelicalism.

My thanks to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an advance copy of Wild Faith for review.

This book packs a powerful punch. It documents the rise and wants of the Christian Nationalism movement in the United States. The author does a wonderful job of detailing what they want and how the right got into power.

I thought each chapter was very detailed and provided a lot of introspection, like do they truly believe this? The author argues, YES and don't ever forget it.

The last 4 chapters of the book, threw me out of the research that the author did so painstakingly. The author all of a sudden decided to put in peoples perspectives of growing up in an abusive evangelical family. It was hard to read because no other chapters had first hand accounts, nor did we get a differing perspective. I felt that the author picked the most salacious, the most stunning accounts.

Those last chapters left me perplexed as to why the author put them in. For shock value? Perhaps.

I really liked the book, the research done, and the way that it looked at the Rights rise in America.

Thank you, Grand Central Publishing, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I just finished Wild Faith: How The Christian Right Is Taking Over America, by Talia Lavin.

This is a very good look at the Christian right and how it is trying to take over the country. The book focuses mostly on recent times, but also looks at historical examples of their hysteria. The book accurately describes what we are facing: “At the moment, in the national political landscape, there is ample evidence that the Republican Party and its far-right fellow travelers seek absolute power at all costs.” And the Christian right is a major constituency of the party.

The strongest parts of the book are when the author writes about the violent nature of the movement, along with the discussion of child abuse.

I give this book an A. Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

I originally finished reading this on July 10, 2024.

Explores how the religious right with its toxic belief systems that are often segregationist, anti-woman, anti-child, cult like and otherwise insane is attempting to take over the political process in America. Can democracy survive?

The book begins with a nice quote, “in every age it has been the tyrant who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism or religion or both.” Eugene V. Debs. Honestly, I found the people, well, let me make this clear, Evangelical Christians are the people covered in this book, not just your regular person who goes to church every so often, to be so upsetting I could only read bits of this at a time before I would have to go off and do something else for awhile. These are terrible, awful people who feel they have the right to impose their religious beliefs on all of America. Period.

In fact, they think God ordains it. From the “Watchman’s Decree,” recited at Flashpoint Live events, headed by televangelist Kenneth Copeland, “We are God’s ambassadors and spokespeople over the Earth. We have been given the legal power from heaven and now exercise our authority.” Wait, does the FBI know this?

And their great and shining light? The man they believe has been placed here by God to do his work? A man who has been multiple times, has children with three wives, cheated on his current wife with a porn star (then paid her off, resulting in 34 felony convictions), who believes his wealth gives him the power to “grab women by the pussy.” A fake Christian. A they will tell you he’s chosen WITH A STRAIGHT FACE. The hypocrisy of that alone is enough to make every other belief they have questionable.

So, some high points.

14% of Americans identify as white Evangelical Protestants. That is fifty million people. 84% of them voted for Donald Trump in 2020. Forty one percent of Americans expect Jesus to return before 2050. Oh, and they mostly believe in real demons.

Many of the leaders in this group advocate for theonomy, where Biblical law would be the basis for all U.S. law. Including stoning for adulterer. Which is going to make campaigning really hard for Trump.

The “mark of the beast” has been identified a number of times, including Gutenberg’s moveable type, Social Security numbers, bar codes and bitcoin, as well as the most recent monster, the COVID vaccine.

In a 2023 referendum Ohio’s citizens voted for an amendment to the Ohio constitution legalizing abortion. The Republicans of the state legislature stated that they would override the voters and, also, any ruling of the state’s courts.

Following changes to Florida law, including the “Don’t Say Gay” rule, AP Psychology can no longer be taught in the state’s high schools.

Evangelicals want to abolish no-fault divorce which will make it much more difficult for women and children to leave abusive households. In the evangelical system the woman exists underneath the umbrella of the man and is to obey and submit to him. Some evangelical leaders have counseled women that includes when a man is abusive to the wife. Evangelist James Dobson said, “men cannot control their lust, and the burden is upon women to ensure they do not fall into sexual sin.” The Boykin sisters give similar advice to unmarried women, indicating that if rape occurs, the women must have been giving signals and/or not trying hard enough to stop it.

Dobson rises again and is joined by another popular speaker, Debi Pearl in instructing parents to beat children who are as young as eight months old to make them behave. Homeschooling is encouraged, though 15% of children are taught by a parent who has an education of a high school diploma or less. Each year there are reports of children in homeschool situations dying of neglect, as there is no oversight.

These are just snippets of interest. The evangelicals have scored a huge victory with the Dobbs decision and look to keep going. They are dangerous, they are determined and they are trying to do horrific things to America.

This was a very hard book to read right now, given things ramping up to the 2024 November elections, but I do this this book put a lot in context for those of us struggling with all the legal advocacy with a goal to take away people's rights. I wish this book came out earlier. Make sure to read the afterward too.