About this item
A memoir of leaving the evangelical church and the search for radical new ways to build community, reckoning with religious trauma and Midwestern values as a means to unveil how evangelicalism directly impacts every American - religious or not - and has been a major force in driving our democracy towards fascism. Jeanna Kadlec knew what it meant to be faithful - in her marriage to a paster's son, in the comfortable life ahead of her, in her God - but there was no denying the truth that lived under that conviction: she was queer and, if she wanted to survive, she would need to leave behind the church and every foundational building block she knew. Heretic is a memoir of heretical rebirth. From the story of Lilith to celebrity purity rings, a newly married Kadlec interrogates how her indoctrination and years of piety intersects with her Midwest working-class upbringing as she navigates graduate school in Boston, revealing another insidious truth - that conservative Christianity has both built and undermined our political power structures, poisoned our pop culture, and infected the way we interact with one another.
About the Author
Jeanna Kadlec is a writer, astrologer, former lingerie boutique owner, and recovering academic. Her writing has appeared in ELLE, NYLON, O the Oprah Magazine, Allure, Catapult, Literary Hub, Autostraddle, and more. A born and bred Midwesterner, she now lives in Brooklyn. HERETIC is her first book.
