We are Not a Crisis: Lament the Problems of the Church If You Must, but Stop Erasing Ex-Evangelicals

Anyone other than an editor of a major centrist media outlet might have decided that in July 2019, the jeremiad-over-evanglelical-hypocrisy think piece should be considered passé. So of course Peter Wehner recently published just another such lament in The Atlantic. Don't get me wrong; I'd rather have pundits criticizing conservative, mostly white evangelicals for their hypocrisy … Continue reading We are Not a Crisis: Lament the Problems of the Church If You Must, but Stop Erasing Ex-Evangelicals

Ex-Evangelical Conversations: Writer and Former Minister Verdell A. Wright

As a trained theologian with degrees from the Howard School of Divinity and Wesley Theological Seminary, Verdell A. Wright is an atheist who knows the Bible well. In fact, while he enjoyed pursuing his theological education, he often found churches somewhat intellectually stifling. As he once remarked, "Depending on what church you’re going to, a … Continue reading Ex-Evangelical Conversations: Writer and Former Minister Verdell A. Wright

Ex-Evangelical Conversations: Author Linda Kay Klein

As the author of Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free (Atria Books, 2018), Linda Kay Klein is a woman who needs little introduction in exvangelical and adjacent circles. Linda and I were both featured in the 2018 CBS Religion documentary special Deconstructing My Religion, and and she … Continue reading Ex-Evangelical Conversations: Author Linda Kay Klein

Setting the Record Straight on #ExposeChristianSchools: Why the Media Must not Cede Coverage of Ex-Evangelicals to the Right

On January 18, I launched the hashtag #ExposeChristianSchools on Twitter as a response to Vice President Mike Pence and conservative commentators like David French lambasting liberals over legitimate criticism of Second Lady Karen Pence for choosing to teach art at Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, Virginia—a K-8 school that explicitly discriminates against members of the … Continue reading Setting the Record Straight on #ExposeChristianSchools: Why the Media Must not Cede Coverage of Ex-Evangelicals to the Right

Ex-Evangelical Conversations: Christian Abuse Survivor, College Student, and Future Journalist Elizabeth Hunter, Part I

Be warned that today's installment of Ex-Evangelical Conversations is a very disturbing read. Currently a senior at a Christian college, Elizabeth Hunter's path has been a harrowing one of survival involving parental negligence, re-homing, sexual abuse, gaslighting, manipulation, humiliation, and starvation, mostly from the adults in her environment who were supposed to be nurturing and … Continue reading Ex-Evangelical Conversations: Christian Abuse Survivor, College Student, and Future Journalist Elizabeth Hunter, Part I

Ex-Evangelical Conversations: Novelist and Journalist Josiah Hesse

There's really no one else like journalist and novelist Josiah Hesse, author of the ongoing Carnality series, in the Exvangelical community, or, presumably, anywhere. His literary work exhibits a dark brilliance, he has an evocative way with words and striking aesthetic sensibilities, and he has been a pioneer both in the production of what could … Continue reading Ex-Evangelical Conversations: Novelist and Journalist Josiah Hesse

Escape from Jesus Land: On Recognizing Evangelical Abuse and Finding the Strength to Reject the Faith of Our Fathers

The View from Jesus Land, USA My great-grandpa was the only member of my mom's side of the family never to abandon the Democratic Party for the Republicans. He would not leave the political party of his father. Similarly, a friend of my family's who worked as a lawyer in a small Midwestern town for … Continue reading Escape from Jesus Land: On Recognizing Evangelical Abuse and Finding the Strength to Reject the Faith of Our Fathers

Authoritarian Christianity, or, what Franklin Graham Really Means when he Equates Progressivism with Godlessness

In a recent New York Times piece by Elizabeth Dias, President and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse Franklin Graham is quoted as defining "progressive" as "just another word for godless." This language might strike some readers as mere hyperbole, or as a polemical swipe at political opponents meant perhaps to be … Continue reading Authoritarian Christianity, or, what Franklin Graham Really Means when he Equates Progressivism with Godlessness