Sarah McCammon’s The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church uses relevant anecdotes from her evangelical childhood and skillfully weaves her story together with sociological data and interviews of former evangelicals. Her conclusion is definitive. American evangelicalism actually causes harm.
Tragically, McCammon ends the book not only having denied the existence of Hell, and the need for the gospel, but of the resurrection of the dead. The entire contents of the Christian faith discarded, she hopes that she will be able, one day, to peacefully. As McCammon acknowledges, it is not exceptional to find people who have left the faith of their childhood. One new feature of deconstruction facing evangelicals today, however, is the preponderance of “trauma” narratives. Evangelicalism, according to McCammon, isn’t just wrong-headed or untrue. It is harmful.
It is an abiding consolation we read about the disappointments and judgments of those who have walked away, that our Lord Jesus, as He stood on trial before an earthly ruler who would condemn Him to death, insisted that the Truth—He in Himself—would be the salvation of all who believe.
This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with JOURNAL author Anne Kennedy about her online article, “Fear, Loathing, and Deconverting from the White Evangelical Church: A Review of ‘The Exvangelicals’ by Sarah McCammon” This is also part of an ongoing column entitled, “Theological Trends”.
Other recent articles and podcast with this author:
Episode 386 Can a Christian Attend a Gay Wedding? Alistair Begg and the Bad Pharisee
Can a Christian Attend a Gay Wedding? Alistair Begg and the Bad Pharisee
Episode 379 Enough For What? A Review of Scot McKnight’s ‘The Bible is Not Enough’
Enough For What? A Review of Scot McKnight’s ‘The Bible is Not Enough’
Episode 374 Did Pope Francis Authorize Priests to Bless Same-Sex Couples?
Did Pope Francis Authorize Priests to Bless Same-Sex Couples?
Episode 370 Sheila Wray Gregoire, Sex and The Evangelical Girl