Jesusland: Stories from the Upside Down World of Christian Pop Culture

by Joelle Kidd

Using a blend of cultural criticism, humor, and personal memoir akin to Jia Tolentino’s Trick Mirror or Grace Perry’s The 2000s Made Me Gay, Joelle Kidd writes about her evangelical adolescence through the lens of Christian pop culture of the early 2000s, giving readers a peek into this odd subculture and insight into how evangelicalism’s growing popularity around the turn of the millennium has shaped culture and politics — including today’s far right.

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

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. 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, Audiobook, Memoir, Essays, History, Biography Memoir

344 pages, Paperback

Published August 12, 2025

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC for review. To be published August 12, 2025.

3.5 stars

The copy on this is that it covers Christian pop culture, specifically as it existed in the early 2000s, but there’s a LOT more than Veggie Tales and DC Talk here, which actually makes the book a bit uneven; some chapters are macro, some are micro. Kidd definitely (I think, she’s younger than me, but it appears there was a lot of stuff and she doesn’t even go into the church youth groups, which are HUGE in church culture…or they were for me and I was brought up a Southern Baptist LONG before there were WWJD bracelets.) could have actually filled a whole book with just the pop culture aspects, which is what I thought this would be, but she goes much, much broader on some topics.

Anyway, Kidd was raised an evangelical Christian and was a teenager in the early 2000s. She had lived a fairly secular life in Eastern Europe til she moved to Canada in 1999 then landed smack in the middle of an evangelical school. Soon she was not only getting used to a new country she was faced with Christian girl bands, modest styling tips and was out of step with the mainstream.

In focusing on different areas of pop culture Kidd wants to be clear that some of these things, like purity balls, we’re not victimless crimes. For example, the abstinence quizzes in the Christian teen magazines lay the foundations for attacks on women’s healthcare, gay and trans rights and they create right wing monsters…welcome to America 2025. And the problem is much worse here than in Canada where a far higher percentage of people describe themselves as evangelicals.

Anyway, the book wasn’t exactly what I expected, and a lot of it I had read before, but I still found it worthwhile. Took me awhile to get through it, though.

[Natalie Meagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very apt little recounting of how Christianity uses pop culture to latch onto the masses but particularly teens who are searching for identity while also wanting to find things to help them bond with their peers. The devil works hard but evangelicals work harder.

[PATCHES · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh the horrors! So good. Thank you Libro.fm for gifting me the ALC (advanced listener copy).

[Marcus (Lit_Laugh_Luv)]

I received a copy from ECW Press (who I adore), knowing this was a bit outside of my usual interests. I did not grow up attached to any form of religion, but learning more about Evangelicals (especially in the Canadian context, which is seldom discussed) seemed interesting enough!

If this were shorter, I'd likely push through it, but given the sheer length of the essays and my lack of attachment to their content, I'm not compelled to read this any further. I am admittedly a bit of an essay snob, but these seem in need of some paring down and editing. Passages stray into repeating the same points or circling in on the thesis before committing to it entirely.

I'm sure this will have a better home in someone else's collection, but I'm glad I gave it a shot.

[Ryan Schellenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahhh! Ever feel like a book was written just for you? This book provided so much context and validation to my lived experience in the evangelical church.

[Alanna Schwartz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, funny, critical essays about what exactly was going on with Christian pop culture and where it left us now. As a fellow ex-evangelical, Kidd was snarky and soft in all of the places I needed, bringing me to a place of greater certainty in myself. 🧡

[Marjorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Sarah Knopp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a read. Almost every page felt like 1990s/early 2000’s evangelical nostalgia for me. It was soooo relatable in a heartbreaking, infuriating, (and sometimes beautiful) way. I really appreciate the candle and admission that Christianity has brought lots of anguish, but it also so complicated to completely separate all the warmer memories from the angst. Deconstructing is so complicated, and this book was extremely validating, well-researched, and even brought some laughs through the reminiscing.

[Emily St. Amant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone on a quest to understand “how did we get here?” The seeds of capitalists operating under the disguise of fundamentalist evangelicals as a way to encourage people to vote against their own interests started decades ago, but flowered in the first decade of the 2000’s. This explores how “Christian culture” was used in many ways as a Trojan horse to usher in what can only be called fascism as this point. Purity culture, rapture anxiety, and the like are all things that have done great harm on the individual and community level, but they also enable war mongers and their strong men puppets. To demolish a democracy, it’s much easier if people just go along with it, and psychological conditioning in the form of religion is one hell of a drug.

[Lizzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man growing up in this cultural phenomenon messed with my head !!!

[Natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The topic of this book is essentially just the topic of my favourite conversations to have with my friends who also grew up religious -- "do you remember THIS fucked up thing we used to do and think was normal???" This book was like catnip to me, and it didn't disappoint.

The memoir aspects of this book are especially compelling. Kidd perfectly encapsulated the experience of growing up steeped in Christian pop culture, from an especially weird standpoint of not quite fitting into said culture, since she was never exactly an evangelical. Her experience so closely mirrors my own that it's almost not funny.

The more nonfiction-esque portions are also quite strong, in my opinion. Her deep-dives into the various niches of christian pop culture are well-researched and straightforwardly presented. Still, if I could identify one issue with this book, it's that I wanted more from most chapters. I've read a lot of books and consumed a lot of commentary on these subjects, so some chapters felt less in-depth than I might have liked. But that would have made for an awfully long book, I suppose.

I am giving it 5 stars, in no small part because I found it sooooo relatable, but also because I think it accomplishes what it set out to do and more. This book doesn't just deliver stories from the upside-down world of pop culture, it thoughtfully reflects on that culture's origins, at times bizarre contents, and it's consequences for the targeted consumers and broader society alike. Highly recommend giving this one a read.

[Michaela Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you Joelle Kidd, ECW Press, and NetGalley for the ARC!

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 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.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

this didn't completely come together for me, but I am the target demographic (queer millennial who grew up immersed in jesusland) so it was a fun journey down memory lane. I don't know that people who didn't grow up in the christian pop culture soup of that era would be as entertained, but I do think she did a good job of writing a book for the people who completely rejected Christianity as well as those who stayed but rejected those pieces of it -- written from the inside by someone who can identify and name the problems with nuance but that doesn't exclusively dismiss or rage

[Jason Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Came for the nostalgia hit. Stayed for the existential crisis of faith.

[Abijah Zwiers · Rating 4 out of 5]

a great analysis of evangelical pop culture, especially children’s and young adult media, and the underlying assumptions and beliefs thereof that make it inseparable from problems like christian nationalism and zionism and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments

[Venneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

dnf @ 80ish%
didn’t feel like i needed to go on. i get the point.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really appreciated the fact that this critique of evangelical popular culture was written from an insider's perspective--or, at least, the perspective of someone who was an insider at one point. Too often these kinds of evaluations of the absurdities of Christian pop culture are coming entirely from the outside, and so there's just bad theology and misunderstandings of key terms, and so on. This one definitely gets a few things wrong, too, but there's an innocence to at least some of those mistakes that actually goes towards informing the curious ways that evangelical culture enlightens its young adherents and also overlooks some things. Most of the critiques leveled within the text make a lot of sense, even if really the majority of the book is more descriptive than it is persuasive; the memoir-like elements of the narrative really come to the fore in both prose and structure in a way that sometimes diminishes the historical or cultural incisiveness just a bit. There are often an impressive array of scholarly sources consulted and quoted throughout the book, but sometimes chapters rely too heavily on just a few sources or on sources that aren't scholarly at all (Wikipedia) in a way that subtly undercuts some of the critiques made, simply because the nascent critiques that are there could actually be pushed further and made stronger by just bringing in a few more sources and ideas. Still, an overall interesting read that really asks its readers to think about where they come from and where they stand, and what their own perspectives may have to either offer or owe the weird realm of Christian culture that Kidd so thoroughly describes here.

[Claire Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a very specific demographic that will devour this book (evangelicals who came of age in the first decade of the new millennium) and I fit squarely into it so of course I enjoyed it. I was sucked in from the first chapter on Christian pop music and the phenomenon of the Wow Hits CDs, which I WORE OUT in my pre-teen years before I downloaded Napster and swapped Reliant K and TobyMac for Death Cab for Cutie and Eminem. But this book did more than just take me on a trip down memory lane; it also exposes the dark underbelly of that time that those of us who came out on the other side absolutely knew was there (at least in retrospect). From purity culture and promise rings to the nightmare-inducing Left Behind series and the strange cognitive dissonance of Christian Zionism in service of hastening the rapture, it’s all here.

Unfortunately, however, because of the sheer scope of topics covered, none were handled at more than a surface level, often pulling from other more deeper-researched works. Because of this, it glosses over some big, more nuanced topics while also assuming a baseline of evangelical knowledge (references to the Christian coalition and moral majority come to mind), which work to limit the audience here to those already “in the know.” Ultimately, this is decent as a one-stop shop for nostalgic, deconstructing millennials as a high-level overview of a very specific time period in evangelical culture, but there are other books out there that explore these topics more in-depth that I would recommend.

Pub Date: 8/12/25
Review Published: 3/19/26
eARC provided at no cost by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Nicole N. (A Myriad of Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

I was looking forward to reading this book, and I’m glad to say that it didn’t disappoint. While I wasn’t entrenched in Christian pop culture at a super young age, it was definitely during my formative years in my late teens and throughout my 20s. It’s interesting to read about this pop culture and see how ingrained it was in my life, not realizing how it affected me outside of my small bubble of life. I even found it all the more interesting that the author provided insight regarding the American politics and evangelicalism as a Canadian.

I definitely think this book is more of an observation and commentary, and less about how a lot these aspects made the author feel. She makes some statements about this though, and I think I just wanted a bit more. It sounded like her parents weren’t ultra religious but that Christianity was a good idea with good tenets to follow, so that extended to the author and the school she went to growing up.

I also just can’t help but laugh at myself now that I’m looking back on things. I almost feel like I left the church just before things got “really bad” (however you want to define that), or that I attended a church didn’t shield me too much. (Not saying it still wasn’t traumatic as I look back.)

[Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

“This is what really shook me to my core. What kind of faith was so tenuous that had to be gripped so tightly?”

“And to me, it seems these cultures share a strange kind of imperialism: The will to dominate coupled with an intense sensitivity to attack. Any perceived slight will cause a lashing out. After all, a war necessitates an enemy.”

3.5 stars

This was thoroughly researched and well-written. I felt particularly pulled in by the first few chapters—the book’s exploration of Christianity in media, mixed in with the author’s own experiences, was fascinating. I felt a little lost towards the end of the book but overall, I thought it was engaging and informative.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. I was raised non-religious and became a Christian as an adult, so I missed most of the religious trauma around evangelical purity culture and the fears of hell as a teenager. I find it fascinating to read about 2000s Christian pop culture, and this is a good resource for that. I also like that the author talks about her memories and also revisiting some of the things from her childhood (and generally being horrified). This did also make me want to reread Blue Like Jazz. I'm interested to see if I have the same feelings as the author on a reread, as it sounds like both of us initially really liked it.

I received a free ALC for library employees from Libro.fm.

[Vanessa Funk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I unfortunately had to listen to this a few months apart because I didn't listen to it fast enough for my library hold. I looked back on some reviews and was reminded of a few of the personal recollections Kidd shared at the beginning - I especially had a good laugh at the song "Cartoons", although I felt differently than her and loved it when I was younger.
The chapters around the rapture and the Left Behind series was also very interesting to me - for some reason, I don't feel trauma about the teaching of the rapture so I haven't thought about it much in recent year and thinking about it now was both fascinating and disturbing.
The only thing that I felt pulled me out of the book was how many times she quoted other people/books - I've listened to quite a few nonfiction books and never noticed the "quote, end quote" so much.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cried multiple times reading this. I’ve never felt so seen by a book. It perfectly condensed my experience growing up in the western evangelical microcosm and put words to feelings and experiences that I’m not sure I’ve ever fully processed. I told my husband if he reads this, he can fully understand my childhood haha. Loved it.

[Aighmi* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of food for thought. Really feel like I see a direct, and terrifying, trajectory from the early 2000s to now. The book is well-written, -thought-out, -researched, and -argued. But wow, is it all just so depressing. Because the world is depressing and so much seems so preventable, but the patriarchy has a death grip on so much. We could be making the world better, y'all.

[Amelia L · Rating 4 out of 5]

really enjoyed this even as someone who grew up in a pretty atheist household and doesn’t have much experience with a lot of the deeper aspects of christian pop culture—and it goes So, So deep. fascinating examination behind the messaging of music, books, movies, etc. i especially enjoyed the sections abt the “war on christmas” and the evolution of christian movies.

[Randi J · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a millenial, super interesting deep-dive into the Evangelical Christian pop culture that was pushed on us that we didn't see then. It got a bit dry sometimes, but I think a lot of people my age would find it interesting, as well as, scary and relevant to what is going on today.

[Piper Mcgonigle · Rating 3 out of 5]

dnf at 60% may return to it but the reader of the audiobook is frankly horrible and makes the experience very unpleasant. the book itself is on a topic i find fascinating, though I think she could rely less on anecdotes

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good overview of Christian pop culture in the early 2000s. Some parts were a little overdone, but when this book shone it was cathartic.