Over the past century, my family has given an enormous amount of money to extreme evangelical Christian preachers, back to my great-grandmother in Dallas, who was so poor afterward that she couldn’t buy food or firewood. Nowadays, my mom and stepfather also get their “news” from Kenneth Copeland’s Christian nationalist Victory Channel. Copeland is the preacher with three private jets who asked his supporters for donations so that he didn’t have to fly with “demons” on commercial air travel. Recent guests include Lauren Boebert and the former president.
I wrote about my parents, the Victory Channel, and more, in my first-ever piece for Slate, edited by the wonderful Rebecca Onion.