The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church

Spoiler Disclaimer

Synopsis

NPR correspondent Sarah McCammon was raised in a conservative, evangelical family where she was taught to simply obey God and not question her faith. Throughout her formative years, she threw herself all-in with believing what she'd been told and trying her best to spread the gospel, but as she got older and her experiences with the larger world began to clash with her religious views, she started to have doubts. Plagued by worry over whether her gay grandfather and other family members and friends who weren't saved might go to hell, and concerned that she, herself, might as well if her faith wasn't strong enough, Sarah began questioning all that she'd been taught. Soon she became aware of a mass exodus of people from the pews of the white evangelical church who had dubbed themselves the #exvangelicals. Realizing that their experiences mirrored her own, she decided to pen The Exvangelicals to explore this growing phenomena. Drawing from her own spiritual journey, as well as those of many others within the movement, she has created a work that is part memoir and part investigative journalism to tell the story of the cultural and social impact this relatively new group of people are having on the world around them.

Review

Following an extensive career in journalism, primarily with National Public Radio, The Exvangelicals is Sarah McCammon's first published book. It details her upbringing in a deeply conservative evangelical church tradition, and how that experience impacted her life in both good ways and bad. For years, she struggled with worries over whether her gay grandfather and other family and friends were going to hell and whether she, herself, might, too, if she didn't believe fervently enough. Throughout her childhood, teen years, and even into early adulthood, she was all-in with the evangelical narrative, in spite of her doubts and fears, but eventually things started to shift for her. Her conscience regarding certain exclusionary church teachings began to win out and she ended up becoming one of the many people who've left the evangelical church and have embraced the identity of exvangelical. Ms. McCammon weaves together her own experiences with those of numerous other people who, just like her, have left their evangelical teachings behind. Some have turned to other Christian traditions, while others have adopted different spiritual beliefs altogether, while still others have completely abandoned any kind of organized religion. Throughout the book, she shows that the reasons why people have made these decision are numerous and complex, and not the simple black and white narrative that many have claimed. For some, it might have been something blatant, such as being abused by the faith that they thought would protect them. For many others, it was a more subtle shift with them realizing that the facts of science, the lived realities of their fellow humans, or other truths simply didn't mesh with what they were being taught in the church. But whatever their reasons, everyone deserved to have their stories told and explored as a valid critique of a church that is beginning to lose some of its power in the world at large.

I can't recall where I first heard about The Exvangelicals because mentions of it seemed to keep popping up in the spaces I tend to inhabit. With Sarah McCammon being a prominent NPR journalist, I know that I heard about it on the radio at some point, but the book was also promoted by people I follow like Jim Wallace and Robert P. Jones. In any case, since I identify as exvangelical myself, I immediately put it on my TBR list, and since it was chosen as the upcoming read for my church book club, it was an opportune time to push it to the front of the list. I had a feeling I was going to enjoy this book, but I came away from reading it a little surprised by just how much my own spiritual journey mirrored the author's. Even though she's roughly a decade or so younger than I, our upbringings were nearly identical in many ways, as were all our doubts, fears, and uncertainties regarding the faith tradition in which we were raised. I felt like I could relate to every single thing she discussed and her reasons for leaving the evangelical church. I also like how she interwove her narrative with a number of others to demonstrate the many reasons why people are leaving their former faith tradition. She explores a lot of the main sticking points that are causing people to re-evaluate their faith or that cause them to begin struggling with it in the first place. I'd say that the only real difference between us is in where each of us are in our current spiritual journey. Ms. McCammon seems to still be wrestling with whether she wants to be a part of any organized religion while I've found solace and belonging in Mainline Protestantism, but that in no way diminishes the value of her work to me. Overall, I thought that The Exvangelicals was an extremely well-written book that left me feeling a little less alone in my journey of deconstructing and reconstructing my faith. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is going through similar circumstances and looking for a like-minded community of people.

Visit

Sarah McCammon @ Wikipedia