I’m home after a wonderful, whirlwind book launch week for The Exvangelicals, to celebrate my younger child’s entry into adolescence. After six book talks - D.C., Richmond, St. Louis, Chicago, Evanston, and Chicago again - I flew back home for birthday festivities, which included cheesecake, chocolate cake, salmon and brisket (or, what the newly-minted 13-year-old deemed “surf and turf”) with our lovely blended family.
I’ve been listening to you read your book to me as I go to and from work each day this week, and last. I identified with much of what you wrote, as the adopted son of a former southern Baptist pastor, and as the husband of a former Church of Christ spouse who was raised in her church since birth.
For me, and later, my bride, it was the election of Barack Obama that forced me to reconsider my belief system where it related to religion, the Bible, and church. The election Barack Obama brought out so much subtle, overt, and microaggressional racism within my own congregation, I could not help, but to clearly see that what I believed, and what I had learned my entire life, was smacking me in the face with what I was now hearing from my church “brothers and sisters.”
Follow that up with the rabid attachment to Trump — who is the antithesis of the teachings of Jesus Christ — and you have a recipe for an Exvangelical.
My wife and I do not even identify as Christians any longer because in our minds, the term Christian has become synonymous with so much that is wrong in our country today. I would say we are more spiritual today and, as the comedian and radio host John Fugelsang regularly says, “We still believe in God. We just don’t believe in his fan club.” We feel the same way about the white “Christian” nationalists who regularly fly their American flags, and their ‘Blue Lives Matter’ flags. We feel these people have hijacked patriotism, and Christianity and made them both something they were never meant to be.
Thank you for writing this book. I’ve been looking for other books related to the topic, but I cannot seem to locate any that are similar. I know there are other stories out there that would be interesting to read.
I am happy you found the life you deserve with the family of your making.
An excellent book!
I’ve been listening to you read your book to me as I go to and from work each day this week, and last. I identified with much of what you wrote, as the adopted son of a former southern Baptist pastor, and as the husband of a former Church of Christ spouse who was raised in her church since birth.
For me, and later, my bride, it was the election of Barack Obama that forced me to reconsider my belief system where it related to religion, the Bible, and church. The election Barack Obama brought out so much subtle, overt, and microaggressional racism within my own congregation, I could not help, but to clearly see that what I believed, and what I had learned my entire life, was smacking me in the face with what I was now hearing from my church “brothers and sisters.”
Follow that up with the rabid attachment to Trump — who is the antithesis of the teachings of Jesus Christ — and you have a recipe for an Exvangelical.
My wife and I do not even identify as Christians any longer because in our minds, the term Christian has become synonymous with so much that is wrong in our country today. I would say we are more spiritual today and, as the comedian and radio host John Fugelsang regularly says, “We still believe in God. We just don’t believe in his fan club.” We feel the same way about the white “Christian” nationalists who regularly fly their American flags, and their ‘Blue Lives Matter’ flags. We feel these people have hijacked patriotism, and Christianity and made them both something they were never meant to be.
Thank you for writing this book. I’ve been looking for other books related to the topic, but I cannot seem to locate any that are similar. I know there are other stories out there that would be interesting to read.
I am happy you found the life you deserve with the family of your making.
Signed,
A Southwest Missourian