Sarah McCammon

I found this to be a thought provoking book. As a member of a traditional evangelical church, ( not of the born again or Pentecostal variety) I was certainly interested in this topic.
There were many things of which I relate described by the author and some of the exvangelicals she interviewed. The major thing that struck me was the movement of the evangelical church towards a marked political focus. This was not a thing that I experienced in my younger years in the church. Our church held fast to a separation of church and state, which I feel is a very good thing both for government and the church. I have experienced a significant change within the church in the more recent era beginning with The Tea Party movement years and further exacerbated by the Trump era. This has been hard for me, and I appreciated much of what Sarah and some of the others who were quoted shared about their struggles. I have as well much concern about this move to insert religion into politics.
As a Christian, I did have some issues with some of the more extreme reactions to evangelicalism. I can certainly see how people have been terribly hurt by the church and family, but I think sometimes people chose a radical reversal as a response. This saddens me see as it may be embracing a response as a reaction rather than a belief. The world is sometimes a hurtful place and that includes religion and churches. I can't lump God into this category even as I question religion's theology. Some of that may come from age or acceptance of the flaws of all religions, and some from the benefits and blessings I have received through faith and a community that supports me in general. I found that there were others who as well chose to retain faith even in the removal of their presence from evangelicalism. I think this is very individual and a part of finding our way within our accepted boundaries. For me, I need God even if I sometimes question the church. I felt Sarah did a good job of sharing from all walks without forcing the reader to accept any one truth for themself.
This was clearly a personal story but as well a piece of journalism relating to the topic through the inclusion of many voices. As such, it was a good book to read about the topic and will certainly provide a look into the increasing challenges facing the evangelical church. My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.… (mer)

The Exvangelicals by Sarah McCammon uses personal examples coupled with sociological analysis to examine why and how there has come to be a significant group known broadly as exvangelicals.

First, you will find some who will bristle at the calling out of the white evangelical church by intentionally misstating what the book is about. This isn't about the entirety of the white race, and is largely sympathetic to those who have fallen under the abuse of the Bible currently being done by the white evangelical church (an umbrella term that covers more than one denomination). So anyone you see making that false "analysis" is just trying to hide their own racism and comfort with going against much of what is in the Bible. You'll also see self-professed history fans who don't have the reading comprehension abilities to understand the book and thinks that using personal examples means a writer shouldn't move outward from the personal to the societal. Can't help that some aren't capable of complex thought, just let them pretend they're intelligent and ignore them.

While I think a full-fledged memoir from McCammon would be interesting reading, that isn't what this book is meant to be. It is memoirish as a frame upon which to show the commonality between her experiences and those of many others. This isn't done in a mean or uncompassionate manner, and the use of the stories from so many others makes this more than one person's struggle to recover from a cult-like environment. Even the term exvangelicals isn't taken for granted, some of the people in the book don't use that term and explain why.

Living in Lynchburg Virginia and seeing the hypocrisy firsthand of most, yes most, of those affiliated with Liberty and Thomas Road Baptist makes this an even more interesting read for me. My housemate got her masters from Liberty and even while going there saw through the charade (this was during Jerry's heyday). When she read the book she recognized the types of struggles these people went through.

Highly recommended for those who want a glimpse into both the personal struggles many evangelicals go through, even those who stay in the church, and the intentional misrepresentation of history and theology the movement feeds its followers. Seeing what is in the books that are used to indoctrinate, um, teach (?), their children will make you shudder that a human would so mislead their own flesh and blood.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (mer)