Hillbilly Elegy

society. Evolution and the Big Bang
became ideologies to confront, not
theories to understand. Many of the
sermons I heard spent as much time
criticizing other Christians as anything
else. Theological battle lines were
drawn, and those on the other side
weren’t just wrong about biblical
interpretation, they were somehow
unchristian. I admired my uncle Dan
above all other men, but when he spoke
of his Catholic acceptance of
evolutionary theory, my admiration
became tinged with suspicion. My new
faith had put me on the lookout for
heretics. Good friends who interpreted
parts of the Bible differently were bad