Kelsey McKinney On 'God Spare The Girls' And Evangelicalism On 'The Bachelor'

This is the free edition of Rich Text, a newsletter by Claire Fallon and Emma Gray. Rich Text is a space for the indulgent and the incisive, for witty and wistful explorations of the cultural, the personal, and the political in both written and audio formats. If you like what you see and hear, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Rich Text is a reader-supported project — no ads or sponsors!

Welcome to another book club episode of Rich Text. Our second! Three times will make it official, right? Our book today is God Spare the Girls, a powerful exploration of American evangelical girlhood and coming of age, by Kelsey McKinney. (If you missed our first book club episode with Laura Hankin, you can listen to it here.)

McKinney is a features writer and cofounder of Defector Media, as well as the author of God Spare the Girls, which will be out on June 22. Her novel tells the story of two young women, the daughters of a wealthy megachurch preacher, who begin to question their lives and their faith in the wake of a scandalous revelation about their father. You can pre-order the book here!

On this episode of Rich Text, we chat with Kelsey about the appeal of celebrity pastors, what it’s like to grow up in a community whose tenets you come to question, and the way the capitalism intersects with American evangelicalism (and other organized religion) in icky ways.

We also get into one of our favorite topics: the way that evangelical Christianity has become inextricably linked to “The Bachelor.” Come for the book talk, stay for the in-depth conversation about Ben Higgins’ Bible verse tat.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claireandemma.substack.com/subscribe