Testimony, Jon Ward
Testimony, Jon Ward
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Testimony
Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation

Author: Jon Ward

Narrator: Jon Ward

Unabridged: 7 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/09/2023


Synopsis

Jon Ward's life is divided in half: two decades inside the evangelical Christian bubble and two decades outside of it.

In Testimony, Ward tells the engaging story of his upbringing in, and eventual break from, an influential evangelical church in the 1980s and 1990s. Ward sheds light on the evangelical movement's troubling political and cultural dimensions, tracing the ways in which the Jesus People movement was seduced by materialism and other factors to become politically captive rather than prophetic.

A respected journalist, Ward asks uncomfortable but necessary questions, calling those inside and outside conservative Christian circles to embrace truth, complexity, and nuance. He recounts his growing alarm and grief over the last several years as evangelical conservatives attacked truth, rejected personal character, and embraced authoritarianism and conspiracism. He shares his search for a faith that embodies the values he was taught as a child.

Ward's experience and reflections will resonate with many listeners who grew up in the evangelical movement as well as all those who have an interest in the health of the church and its impact on American life.

About Jon Ward

Jon Ward is the chief national correspondent at Yahoo! News. He has covered American politics and culture for two decades, including as a White House correspondent traveling aboard Air Force One and as a national affairs correspondent writing about two presidential campaigns. He is the author of Camelot's End: Kennedy vs. Carter and the Fight That Broke the Democratic Party and hosts The Long Game podcast. Ward has written for the Washington Post, the New Republic, Politico, Vanity Fair, HuffPost, and the Washington Times and lives in Washington DC.


Reviews

Here we are, three months into 2023, and I’ve already read three thoughtful memoirs by current or former evangelicals. Beth Moore’s “All My Knotted-Up Life” examines, in part, the church’s response to sexual abuse and Donald Trump. “Orphaned Believers,” by Sara Billups, addresses young evangelicals......more

Goodreads review by Gina

In some ways, Jon Ward's story is my story. Like him, in recent years I've had to reassess a lot of things I believed about the evangelical movement and its convictions, as I watched too many people I'd looked up to trade integrity for power. Like him, I've battled disillusionment and experienced pr......more

Goodreads review by Kate

There are three kinds of people who will read this book: 1. Those who have been hurt by the church, indifferent to the church, opposed to the church, and/or skeptical of a church who claims a divine moral high ground while acting against its own stated moral principles. 2. Those who have wholly embr......more