It's difficult to respond to a book like this, primarily because if you don't wholeheartedly affirm what the author has said, it's because you're part of the problem and exactly what she's talking about. But...I don't affirm it.

I read a lot of "deconstruction" stories, but they're all the same. It's basically, "I love some things about Jesus, but I don't love other things about Him, so I'm picking and choosing what works for me." It's also very often, "I grew up in the church, but then the world told me how it thinks, and I like the world's thinking better." Then, these stories often become one-sided, heaping an entire host of sins upon the church in an effort to declare that the church MUST be wrong. And, of course, if the world is right, then the church IS wrong...but who is to say that the world is right?

The author shows her bias in many places. If it's not a bias, it's a lack of a reasonable amount of critical thinking. For example, she accuses Christians of being ripe for conspiracy theories because they are always looking for information that supports what they already believe about certain things. But...the world also does this. Everyone does this. Everyone looks for information that supports what they already believe; it's called "confirmation bias." Saying that this leads the church to conspiracy theories is based solely on a perspective that believes that what the church already believes is wrong. She accuses pastors of sometimes spearheading the efforts to effectively brainwash the faithful, but scientists (who engage in a lot of scientism) and media and politics do this in the world, and she doesn't call them out. She talks, as so many do, about Christians trying to legislate their morality and make a country according to their belief system, but the world is doing this, too. No one can do anything BUT act upon their morality and desire a country that supports it - so again, here is a bias against the church, claiming that its fundamental belief system is not worthy of the same respect as the world's fundamental belief system. She continually expresses disappointment in evangelicals for having elected Trump, but also does the math - evangelicals make up roughly 30% of voters, and only 81% of them voted for Trump, which means only half (or slightly less) of his overall votes were evangelicals, so...time look somewhere besides the church for that one. As many persons in the church voted for him, just as many OUTSIDE of it voted for him, and that means you can't put your political dissatisfaction entirely on the church you're trying to tear down.

Perhaps it is because I came to the church late, after having grown up in the world, that I am able to see this so clearly, but it's right there - everything that these "exvangelicals" accuse the church of is true just the same of the world. It's just that the world has the louder voice right now and it uses language in a customarily postmodern way - as a weapon. Books like this do the same, using words as a weapon to try to make a point.

I am not saying that the church has everything right. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But the ideas laid out in this book don't have it right, either. And beyond that, this book gets so much wrong about the church itself. It neglects the bulk of the church, her teachings, her history, her failures, her successes, her hope, her grief, her love in order to make its point, but not once did I read about the very heart of the church, but only the issues on the side - the issues that the world has made of it so that they can talk about everything BUT Jesus and somehow claim the upper hand (or think they have).

And that's the real heartbreak of it all: this book is talking about everything BUT Jesus and claiming that somehow, because of all of these things, Christ is deficient.

My question for those leaving the church in this way, because of this language, because of this draw of the world presenting its alternative narrative, is this: where are you going to go when you find out the world is just the same?

Ok this brought back some very traumatic memories but it is a very relevant and needed book. Thank goodness light js being shed on a serious manipulation.