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Ex-evangelical journalist Josiah Hesse recalls being 'On Fire for God' in new memoir

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom
Published January 20, 2026 at 8:56 AM PST
The cover of "On Fire for God" and author Josiah Hesse. (Courtesy of Pantheon Books and Glenn Ross)
Courtesy of Pantheon Books and Glenn Ross
The cover of "On Fire for God" and author Josiah Hesse. (Courtesy of Pantheon Books and Glenn Ross)

Journalist and author Josiah Hesse was raised an evangelical Christian in Mason City, Iowa. But he eventually left the church and the state.

Hesse writes about that journey, and Mason’s City’s relationship with right-wing Christianity in his new memoir “On Fire for God: Fear, Shame, Poverty, and the Making of the Christian Right-A Personal History.”

Book excerpt: ‘On Fire for God’

By Josiah Hesse

From “On Fire for God” by Josiah Hesse. Reprinted by permission of Pantheon Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2026 by Josiah Hesse.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2026 WBUR
Here & Now Newsroom