The Christian's secret of a happy life

Welcome to Oh God, Now What? I'm Nyla Budu.

[instrumental music] My parents had an unofficial rule when I was a kid that I didn't have to listen to a church sermon if I was reading a book I checked out from our church library.

And that's how I discovered writers like Janet Okie.

If you've never heard of her, I would describe her as an explicitly Christian and Canadian version of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

In it, she charts how Evangelical culture has morphed from Jesus of Nazareth to the more rugged, militarized, and alpha male figures.

Think how Pete Hegseth defines himself and his Christianity.

Kristin's new book out now is a more personal journey.

It's about white Christian women, the culture she grew up in, and it's also a story of American culture, our gender norms, our worship of prosperity, and yes, why so many conservatives were so upset about the, quote-unquote, "woke" Netflix adaptation of Little House on the Prairie.

That was a wide-ranging and masterful engagement, a cultural history on the rise of Christian nationalism and American evangelicalism.

It was a book that was either greatly loved and celebrated or hated, because obviously raising a very pointed thesis, very generative in a lot of rich conversation.

And in this newest book, Live, Laugh, Love, The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made, she moves from the kind of toxic masculinity of Jesus and John Wayne to to perhaps a toxic femininity, though I don't think she uses that phrase, or at least to kind of a toxic positivity.

It's a really fascinating book and a fascinating conversation.

I mean, some of the things that stand out to me, especially we spent some time talking about Hannah Whittle Smith, who was a very prominent writer in the 19th century.

1875, she published this book, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life.

Her children tragically died.

Her husband cheated on her and she didn't have any use for men or especially her own husband.

This is No Small Endeavor, exploring what it means to live a good life.

[upbeat music] In 1875, a woman named Hannah Whitall Smith published a book called The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life.

The title, obviously not modest, [laughs] neither was it a metaphor.

She believed she had found an actual formula.