About Bitter Scroll: Decoding the culture swaying American Christian identity
As my friend Seth Haines puts it: If you’re a 90s kid who loved Kurt Cobain even though you were steeped in True-Love-Waits Evangelicalism (with a touch of Nationalist fervor), then Bitter Scroll is for you.
I writes about a range of topics impacting Christian culture here, like: being out of place while growing up a Gen-X evangelical with a Jewish Christian father waiting for the rapture in the conservative Midwest, the dissonance of identifying as a Christian publicly in the progressive Pacific Northwest, and the grief of a changing American church reeling from Christian Nationalism in the wake of the Trump era.
About Sara
I’m a Seattle-based author and cultural commentator. My work has appeared in The New York Times, Christianity Today, Aspen Ideas, and the BBC.
My first book, Orphaned Believers, was released from Baker Books in 2023. Part spiritual memoir of an apocalyptic childhood and part commentary on growing up as an evangelical kid during the culture wars, Orphaned Believers follows the journey of a generation of Christian exiles reckoning with the tradition that raised them and searching for a new way to participate in the story of God. You can order a copy here.
My second book Nervous Systems (Nov 2025) is now available anywhere books are sold! Part memoir of caregiving in the sandwich generation and part exploration of the larger reasons why so many of us are carrying pervasive personal and collective worry. I wanted to understand why, instead of a healing refuge, the church has become an anxious one. Nervous Systems explores modern themes of scrupulosity, wellness culture, tradwifery, caregiving, and energy vampires—offering practical, hopeful ways to live well in the very presence of anxiety.
I take your time reading and engaging here seriously and joyfully. Thank you! As always, message me with ideas for posts or to say hi, and learn more about my work.
