The Rise and Fall of Evangelical Influencers

In early 2021, social media influencer and pastor's wife Caressa Prescott made the startling admission that she had just come out of rehab. Prescott told her followers on Instagram that her ongoing mental health struggles, including an eating disorder and substance abuse, had led her to seek help in a treatment facility for several weeks. Prescott's audience of nearly 50,000 followers received the news with equanimity. Many wished her well and applauded her bravery in coming forward with such a personal and vulnerable admission, especially as a prominent and public Christian woman. At the time, Prescott had a significant social media following due, in part, to her husband, Ben Prescott, the affable, somewhat goofy Australian pastor of Free Chapel Orange County in California. On top of that, her father, Jentezen Franklin, is a well-known televangelist who was one of President Trump's evangelical advisers and serves as senior pastor of the multi-sited Free Chapel Church in Georgia. In evangelical Christianity the role of pastor's wife (and to a lesser extent pastor's daughter) carries its own authority and prominence.