Wow, I could totally relate to this story! Coming from a fundamental background, full of legalistic rules, I know exactly what Sarah was talking about and how she felt. Beware of trigger warnings when it comes to religions trauma.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Digital Advanced Readers Copy, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

Thank you @sarahmccammon_journalist @netgalley @stmartinspress for this gifted e-book!

The Exvangelicals by Sarah McCammon was published in March of this year, and I read it immediately. Reviews for books regarding my former faith tradition are so hard to right, though, that I’ve been just sitting on this review for the last 8 months.

When I think back on all of the reasons that I left Evangelicalism, I’m overwhelmed. I’m overwhelmed my own feelings of rejection, by the dance between white evangelicalism and Christian nationalism, by the hateful opinions held and shared openly by some (former) fellow churchgoers during the past few election seasons, during the height of BLM and during Pride Month.

I became Christian when I was 15: a likely story, I had a conversion experience at a youth group retreat. I have a BA in Biblical Studies. I volunteered for several years in ministry. I decided after last election season, however, that I no longer wanted to be a part of or associated with those spaces.

Sarah skillfully untangles the reasons that many have moved away from evanglicalism with both personal conviction and journalistic skill. If you’ve been in this deconstruction stage for a while, you might not find much that’s new here, but it’s always helpful to find someone who can put all of the overwhelming feelings I have regarding the Church into words for me.

🖤 Tell me something good

🏷️
#thenewevangelicals #exvangelical #faithdeconstruction #christiannationalism #nonfictionbooks #nonfictionnovember #deconstruction #crisisoffaith #rockthevote #electionday

The first definitive book that names the massive social movement of people leaving the church: the exvangelicals.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio & Netgalley for sending me a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! I was reading this book and decided to DNF it at 64%. There are some parts of this book that read like a memoir but then other parts of this book read like an NPR news article which makes sense that it reads like that because she’s an NPR journalist but I was expecting more of a memoir. I’m disappointed.

as someone who has been deconstructing their own walk, this book was great read.
i am happy to know that I am not alone in the feelings that I have surrounding the evangelical movement.

This ended up not being for me and I didn't finish it.
Being the type of book I hate to give a rating, so I'll put a 4 down.

Why do evangelical Christians' children grow up to leave their parents' churches? Sarah McCammon, perhaps understandably, is interested only in the ones who turn against their parents' teachings, and ignores the ones who fit themselves into their parents' churches or even their ministry, or who don't attend or give money to the church but remain sympathetic. (Fair disclosure: I'd be in the last category with regard to my mother's Seventh-Day Adventist church.) She's most interested in the ones who are attracted to left-leaning political views and reject the Religious Right on what are basically political reasons. There is that tendency young people have to idolize sexuality, to overlook the historical reality that religious people have always felt called to discipline the body and control their sexuality (and, no, it's not done most of them any harm). There is, in the public careers some preachers' kids have made of denouncing their parents' church, that ongoing bid for attention and sympathy behind a little in-family dominance display. "Look at me, Mommy, Daddy, I'm all grown up, I'm bigger than you are now!" Somehow it seems to backfire on them, to make them seem more childish.

Here, anyway, is a well written defense of these Young Apostates from one of their number. McCammon's beloved grandfather admitted long-suppressed "gay" tendencies in widowhood, and her parents didn't seem to believe he'd be with McCammon in Heaven. Christians need to read this sort of thing and remember that we're commanded not to try to judge whether people may or may not be saved. While some of McCammons complaints are the kind of merely political agitation her parents have probably outgrown, too, some have sound biblical bases and would be good for discussions among Christian parents and Young Apostates. Sometimes what Young Apostates seek outside the church are things they should be finding inside.

First and foremost, this book has convinced me that NPR reporters are incredible at writing well-researched, accessible nonfiction (my first experience was Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital by Elise Hu).

Second, I highly recommend this book to former “church kids” like myself. I picked up this book expecting it to be a chill, fun memoir from someone who grew up evangelical and that was not the case! Sarah McCammon uses her own experience as a starting point, but goes deep into the many topics she covers through research and interviews. She begins by stating that there really isn’t a term ‘exvangelical’ - meaning those who have left the evangelical church - because not everyone who has left the church considers themselves an exvangelical.

McCammon does a fantastic job of examining the many abuses of the church while respecting the many paths former evangelicals have taken since leaving the church. I grew up in a significantly less strict household (plus my family wasn’t religious itself - long story), but I was able to feel deeply connected to the anxieties and fears that many young people have experienced while immersed in the evangelical world.

This book will be particularly interesting to those who have been in the evangelical church, or those who have had an interest in fundamentalist christianity. Focus on the Family makes quite a few appearances.

Such a powerful read - especially those of us interested in religious trauma. I'm so glad that I got the chance to read it early and will definitely be recommending it to multiple people who enjoy these types of novels. I enjoyed the characters and especially enjoyed the writing by this author. I'm excited to see what the author comes out with next as I'll definitely be reading it! Thank you to the publisher for my early copy of this book!

NPR’s Sarah McCammon investigates her own religious upbringing in “The Exvangelicals”
31-minute radio and podcast interview on North Carolina Public Radio WUNC, broadcast April 3, 2024 at 9:42 AM EDT

NPR political correspondent Sarah McCammon gets personal, and reports on the motivations giving rise to the "Exvangelical" flight from the white Church

Guest
Sarah McCammon is a National Political Correspondent for NPR and co-host of the NPR Politics Podcast. She is author of the new book The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church published by St. Martin Press.

As someone who spent the first 10 years of my life in an Evangelical Christian church (essentially against my will LOL) and was fortunate enough to have a mother who realized the hypocrisy being perpetuated by that Church, I was intrigued by this topic. Unbeknownst to me, I became an exvangelical at a very young age as I saw the abusive treatment and negative rhetoric that was prevalent in my Church. As a child, being taught “God’s way” and taking it literally as a child does, to then hear hateful speech towards LGBTQ+ people and non-christians made no sense to me. To this day, I have strained relationships with family me members due to this hypocrisy (and subsequent support of Trump).

This book only solidifies that there is a real disconnect (whether unintentional or manufactured) by the evangelical christian faith. As mentioned in the book, this didn’t just happen because of Trump, Trump happened because of the lost identity of the evangelical christian movement:

I liked the mix of memoir and research the author provides. I wish she would have touched more upon 1) her mother’s/family’s response to her leaving the faith and 2) the multimillion dollar schemes some of these televangelist have going on. She delved deep into a lot of issue (race, gender, sexuality, etc) but classism within evangelical christianity was barely touched on, because yes, you can be white, straight and Christian but if you don’t open your checkbooks, you’re not REALLY an evangelical.

As someone who grew up Christian but not in the evangelical church I am eternally grateful for that. Sarah's story highlights so many of the reasons that so many younger folk are leaving the evangelical church, and with good reason. I thoroughly enjoyed reading her story and am glad that she and others are sharing their stories.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Sarah McCammon for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! I really enjoyed this one and found it really interesting with the personal stories as well as journalistic investigation. If you’re interested in learning more about exvangelical culture, pick this one up.

It's hard for me to write a review for this book because I think it does have value and so much of it is intertwined with the author's own personal experience. However, as someone who is pretty deep into exvangelical culture, a lot of this was just 101 content for me on stuff that I've already learned quite a bit about. So that didn't really resonate for me. But I can see this being beneficial for people who are newer to deconstruction or less chronically online than me. Personally I wish this had either been more of a memoir or more academic and dived deeper into a select few topics rather than an overview of several.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I was excited to read this part-memoir, part-journalistic examination of the evangelical church, how it's members are indoctrinated, and what it takes for people to leave that faith. The author did a great job of examining how the evangelical movement has shaped and influenced politics in the U.S. for many years, and highlights the dangers still ahead. It's full of accounts and testimonials from other exvangelicals, and is quite well-written and researched.

This book was a perfect mix of personal experiences and broader discussion of the evangelical church. While my experience did not fully match the author’s and I don’t typically use the term “exvangelical”, this book made me feel seen in a lot of my struggles with the church. This book won’t be for everyone, but I recommend it to 2 categories of people: (1) those who’ve left or are considering leaving the evangelical church and want to feel seen or (2) people within the evangelical church who want to understand why people are leaving - but only if you’re willing to read with an open mind. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

I could personally relate to so much of this book, it was kind of scary. McCammon does a wonderful job summing up her own personal experiences though I was left with the sense that she is still grappling with a lot of leftover questions and doubts. It takes an enormous amount of bravery to question the institutions and foundations of your own upbringing, and even more to write a book about it. Well done.
4/5 ⭐️

THE EXVANGELICALS: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church by Sarah McCammon explores the social movement of "exvangelicals". Part memoir and part investigative journalism, this book sheds light on the experiences of some of those leaving Evangelical churches. 
THE EXVANGELICALS: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church explores the current social movement of "exvangelicals". Part memoir and part investigative journalism, this book sheds light on the experiences of and reasons behind some of those leaving Evangelical churches. 

Quite readable, the title sheds light on the controversies, disappointments, responses to, and results of abandoning certain versions of evangelicalism. A good companion book to further understand the history of the movement is Jesus and John Wayne, a title that the author references in this narrative.

THE EXVANGELICALS: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church by Sarah McCammon explores the social movement of "exvangelicals". Part memoir and part investigative journalism, this book sheds light on the experiences of some of those leaving Evangelical churches.

Like myself, McCammon grew up in a deeply evangelical family during the '80s and '90s and was taught to fear God, obey unquestioningly, and never doubt her faith. But when she covered the Trump campaign for NPR, she witnessed up close the negative influence of evangelical Christian beliefs on the political right and the hypocrisy of their support for an individual who makes a mockery of the central command of Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves. McCammon discovered she was not alone in fleeing from the rebranded fundamentalism of her youth.

Some key takeaways:
-Social Media Influence: social media platforms have played a significant role in the exvangelical movement. Online spaces allow people to connect, share their stories, and find support, creating a sense of community for those questioning their faith.
-Political Intersection: as Evangelicals have been trying and somewhat succeeding to UN-separate church and state, this has directly influenced thousands of former Evangelicals to leave that version of their faith.
-Generational Shift: A rising generation of exvangelicals is emerging, challenging traditional religious norms. McCammon sheds light on their experiences, struggles, and the courage it takes to step away from a faith system that once defined their lives.

Overall, this book is a decent introduction to this conversation, but I strongly recommend reading JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez to get a bigger picture of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism. JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE did a better job explaining why white evangelicals rallied behind Donald Trump, despite his departure from traditional Christian virtues, and how this transformation continues to harm our society.

This was an insightful look to what happens when people leave the White Evangelical faith. The author describes her own experiences and interviews other ExVangelicals.

I really liked this. It provided a lot of information in a balanced way (good ratio of life experiences and stats)

The information about the church’s support of Trump was 🤬