Hillbilly Elegy

Virgin Mary covered in feces. For the
first time in my life, I felt like a
persecuted minority.
All of this talk about Christians who
weren’t Christian enough, secularists
indoctrinating our youth, art exhibits
insulting our faith, and persecution by
the elites made the world a scary and
foreign place. Take gay rights, a
particularly hot topic among
conservative Protestants. I’ll never
forget the time I convinced myself that I
was gay. I was eight or nine, maybe
younger, and I stumbled upon a
broadcast by some fire-and-brimstone
preacher. The man spoke about the evils
of homosexuals, how they had infiltrated