At 17, Blake Chastain decided he would become an evangelical pastor. A quarter century later, he’s an unofficial chaplain-activist for those who’ve left evangelicalism behind.
His new book, Exvangelical and Beyond: How American Christianity Went Radical and the Movement That’s Fighting Back, has a dual purpose: “Hold accountable those who have wielded faith like a cudgel and offer comfort and understanding to those who have been harmed by the powerful and mighty.”
Chastain says he coined the word “exvangelical” in July 2016 as a hashtag and the name of his podcast, but his is not the first book on the movement.
Blake Chastain
He portrays evangelicalism as a theologically malleable, consumer-oriented, media-driven bricolage that “functions less as a religious movement than as a Christian nationalist one with a dangerous amount of control over American politics.”
And he sees exvangelicals as brave but often grieving souls who are more than justified in their rejection of a movement that has become “a force for harm” and sanctifies individualism, machismo, racism, patriarchy, capitalism, injustice and social coercion through political power.
Chastain never became a pastor but has found new callings. He works for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Chicago and reaches a dispersed exvangelical flock, reminding them: “I am not alone. Neither are you.”
Some who once tasted the joys of Christian community now long for new connections. “The community-finding aspect of online deconstruction is crucial, because community in and of itself is a significant part of the lived experience of evangelicalism,” he writes.
“As people’s distrust in their churches grew, as they began to question and deconstruct their beliefs, they were able to turn to the stories of strangers online and find people with the same concerns and experiences. It was the beginning of a new counter-public.”
These folks may be leaving, but they’re not going quietly, he says. “We didn’t come to it casually, and we can’t be dismissed casually either.”
Evangelicals offer a variety of explanations for the exvangelical movement, and Chastain says Russell Moore is one of the few who listens and understands. Others, not so much:
- Matt Chandler described leaving as “some sort of sexy thing to do” and claimed it was “impossible” for anyone who truly knew Christ to deconstruct.
- David Jeremiah called exvangelicals apostates, false teachers and a sign of the end times.
- The Gospel Coalition said some leavers were motivated by a “desire to sin” and “street cred.”
Chastain describes the process of fleeing metaphorically: “If you’re raised within a bubble, you can’t always sense its distortions or feel its boundaries, until one day you press the edge of the bubble and it bursts open.”
In his podcast, he leads guests through a three-part structure:
- Act I: Exvangelicals’ lived experience of evangelicalism
- Act II: What led to their break with evangelicalism: a single cataclysmic event, or a slow death by a thousand cuts?
- Act III: Where are they now, religiously and spiritually?
For some, the cataclysmic event was when evangelicals embraced Donald Trump.
“It was a shock that made us wonder how the very people who had formed our faith could rally behind a man whose personal impiety, contemptible treatment of others, and inhuman policies stood in such stark contrast to so many of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth,” Chastain writes.
White evangelicals’ zeal for Trump also signaled the death knell for any hope for an evangelical housecleaning. It “was a moment of clarity for many would-be reformers; they no longer saw reform as possible. The relationship became antagonistic,” he writes.
Chastain’s Act III hasn’t been written yet. He says he chooses hope, but not in any new spiritual quest for the foreseeable future: “Those nerve endings are shot.”
“If this admission makes you sad, it has at times made me sad, too,” he confides. “But I would rather be honest with you, and with myself.”
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Politics, faith and mission: A conversation with Sarah McCammon | Opinion by Greg Garrett
I asked people why they’re leaving Christianity, and here’s what I heard | Opinion by Brandon Flanery