In April of this year, I drove to Biloxi to visit the set of the film adaptation of Julia Scheeres’ memoir, Jesus Land, which I posit is the first exvangelical memoir. For Literary Hub, I wrote about visiting the set of Jesus Land, and why it matters that it’s being made into a movie now in 2025 (hint: religious extremism, plus loss of civil rights). Also, about what it was like to meet Julia, whom I’ve known online for 20 years—we even shut down our reform school together—in person.
This is how I describe Julia’s book Jesus Land in the essay:
“Scheeres’s memoir Jesus Land recounts how Julia, a white teenager from a strict Christian family in Indiana, followed her adopted Black brother, David, to Escuela Caribe, a brutal reform school in the Dominican Republic, which was run by white evangelicals, many of whom most likely identify now as Christian nationalists. There Julia and David, who is now deceased, were subjected to levels of oppression so extreme it’s almost impossible to understand unless you went through it—later when Scheeres wrote A Thousand Lives, her book on Jonestown, survivors who’d never spoken to anyone before trusted Scheeres “because you get it.”
Not only was Julia and David’s mail censored, but who they spoke to, if they were even spoken to (many students were punished with a form of silent treatment), how they were spoken to (Escuela Caribe utilized attack therapy, a form of group therapy where the client is humiliated, to control behavior), and how they even moved was controlled. All students were forced to perform long hours of physical labor, while also being subjected to unrelenting physical, emotional, spiritual, and, at times, sexual abuse. And even though all students at the school were oppressed, the punishment inflicted on David was even more intense, due to the staff’s often outright racism.”
In this essay, I discuss why, in a time when religious liberty is being weaponized, it’s important that Jesus Land is being made into a movie. Not to be bleak, but kids right now are literally being tortured in the name of Jesus.
I also wrote a lot about what it’s like, right now, as someone who grew up in the faith, to witness this.
Here’s one passage:
“I’ve never seen the religious right like this before,” Scheeres says as we sit cross-legged on the table, batting away mosquitoes. “It’s worse than the Reagan years, the intolerance, the misogyny and the racism, the widespread fear of people who have any sense of compassion for their fellow humans.”
I nod in agreement. Thinking about my dad who, back in pre-internet times, connected with his Christian extremist buddies through mail-order cassette tapes, newsletters, “Christian” conferences, and Focus on the Family radio, I say something about how everything is turbo-charged now—it’s so much easier for extremists of all flavors to communicate through the death boxes we all cart around.
As my eyes drift to the cluster of pines behind her, I think about how I, how we, grew up believing in a Jesus who taught us to love one another, the Jesus who loved the poor and sick, the Jesus who literally kicked the sellers and moneylenders out of the temple, how that’s not the Jesus of today. Instead, the head of the Southern Baptist Convention now posits that empathy is an artificial virtue. Instead, in 2024, eight out of ten evangelicals voted for a twice-divorced felon and sexual predator, whose campaign was bankrolled by a drug-addled billionaire.
Julia tells me how all week, parents of the cast members have been coming up to her on set, talking about how Jesus Land, a book most haven’t read, is a relevant story, important to tell, especially now. She tells me how a lot of them are wearing religious sayings, like “Blessed” on their T-shirts, or Bible verses, or little crosses. Their reaction surprises her. “These are white people, right? Most of them are for Trump. My book has riled up a lot of Christians. They’re trying to ban it across the country. It’s so scary now. Coming here [to Mississippi] I was a little on edge.”
She continues, “I don’t think they’ve been exposed to the racism and the hypocritical Christianity that I was exposed to as a kid. They don’t believe it exists, they haven’t read about it, or they don’t want to hear about it. But their kids are acting in this movie. And they’re going to be so surprised.”
I say something, reminding her that not all Christians are like the ones we knew, that there are progressive Christians, ones who are open-minded, and she smiles. “Yeah, this movie is good guidance for how not to be a Christian, right?”
You can listen to it…or, if you’re at all intrigued, read the entire essay at Literary Hub. Big thanks to Jonny Diamond, Emily Firetog, and of course Julia Scheeres, Saila Kariat, and the cast and crew of Jesus Land. And thank YOU, for being here, and reading!
