The Sunday Interview: The Missionary Myth: How Evangelicalism Exported Christian Nationalism
Summary
In this Sunday Interview, Brad Onishi sits down with historian and former CIA Africa analyst Holly Berkley Fletcher, author of The Missionary Kids: Unmasking the Myths of White Evangelicalism. Drawing on her experience growing up as a Southern Baptist missionary kid in Kenya, Fletcher explores how the evangelical missionary movement became intertwined with American exceptionalism, racial hierarchy, patriarchy, and Christian nationalism. Together, they examine why missionary culture often functions as a form of spiritual bypassing—allowing white evangelicals to see themselves as heroes abroad while avoiding difficult conversations about racism, power, and injustice at home.
The conversation also explores the hidden costs of missionary life, including abuse, isolation, authoritarianism, and the impossible expectations placed on missionary families. Fletcher explains how the same dynamics that have fueled the Southern Baptist abuse crisis and evangelical support for Donald Trump emerge from a culture rooted in fear, certainty, and hierarchy. It's a wide-ranging discussion about faith, identity, and the future of American evangelicalism—and why understanding the missionary movement helps explain some of the most pressing religious and political conflicts in the United States today. The Missionary Kids.