I loved this book and could resonate with much of McCammon's experience of growing up as an evangelical and not knowing your place as an adult.

Do you know what the word exvangelicals means? Exvangelicals “are former evangelicals who for social, political or theological reasons, find themselves at odds with the current state of the conservative American evangical ethos.” The author is perfect for exploring evangelicalism in her memoir. She had been raised in a deeply religious evangelical family. Her home fostered a fear of the outside secular world. She had been led to believe that one thing she had been taught such as dinosaurs roamed the earth with Adam and Eve.. she experienced religious trauma where obedience born of fear was the norm. Politics were her breaking point. The author says that she is still healing.

This is a fascinating look at evangelical ism from a perspective that is personal and investigative. It is an intriguing, insightful with excellent information.

As a Floridian experiencing the rise of Neo-Christian Fascism I jumped at the chance to read this book and it did not disappoint. It's hard for me to imagine the level of brainwashing and cultism that has gone into cultivating the Evangelical audience when I myself have never been associated with Evangelicalism. My only real-world experience was my daughter being prophesized to in school which led to her asking to join Awana with her school friend. I agreed, since I have always held the stance that I would take my kids if they asked, and she quickly realized that if she said what they wanted to hear she'd get candy but she didn't actually accept any of their beliefs. She's now a staunch Atheist.

Getting a behind the scenes look at the religion; not just through Sarah McCammon's own experiences, but in her expose to others was eye-opening and insightful. I learned a lot which is what I hoped to get out of reading The Exvangelicals. McCammon did a great job at explaining some of the more common terms as well, like deconstruction and what that looked like for people. She also took great care to explain how different the process is for each individual and that the timeline is also individualized and personal. McCammon dipped into the political spectrum a bit, especially the rising of Donald Trump and the God-like status he has achieved within the Evangelical movement. I thought her viewpoint, experience and first person retellings of the people around her to be thought provoking and relevant. McCammon did not shy away from the racial divide within the Evangelical movement. She offered insight into the failings of the movement and how they continue to lose among the African American and the young.

There is something to be said about knowledge and power and I am happy for McCammon and those like her from being able to free themselves from, what is essentially, an organized cult.

Thank you SMP for the gifted ARC.

We know the statistics. Young people (and others) are leaving the evangelical church. Some are leaving the faith altogether while others are deconstructing and then rebuilding their faith to a state they feel is more authentic to the example of Jesus.

McCammon shares her own experiences as she helps readers understand the history behind the current atmosphere of the evangelical church. Many were taught to disbelieve science, for example. Kids raised in a closed environment of evangelical fervor are now facing confusions and disillusionment. She also shares stories of others who have had similar experiences, troubled by evangelical actions, whether in the area of modern politics or other social aspects of the culture.

Much has been written on the shrinking evangelical church. While this book does not provide any shocking new insights, it is a good book for Christians to read to understand the historical harm done in the name of Christianity, alienating many people.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book. It was truly enlightening, and a bit frightening. I have a new appreciation for the strength and courage it takes to leave something you’ve been indoctrinated to believe is the only path to Heaven when you start to observe the inconsistencies that mar the facade of perfection. Many exvangelicals observed those they used to trust to offer moral guidance making very immoral decisions (particularly politically) and this caused them to question the people they’d placed their faith in.

Imagine viewing your parents as god-like and all-knowing, only to discover they have questionable views that don’t align with the ways you always imagined they were. Their morals are more malleable than you imagined. They have adopted the view that the ends are more important than the means; if that means choosing amoral leaders who may enact policies they support, suddenly the moral character of the candidate is irrelevant. I fear even non-evangelicals have experienced that kind of disillusionment within the past eight to nine years.

During the Clinton impeachment hearings, the moral character of the president was lambasted and Christian leaders argued that a man of questionable character was unfit to lead the country. Suddenly, that doesn’t matter anymore. Due to all of the TV coverage of Clinton’s affair, the author’s mother asked if she knew what oral sex was. Fearing it might be a trick question, she responded, “I think…I think it’s just what it sounds like, Mom?” After giving it some consideration, her mom responded, “Well, I think… I think, if you have Jesus, you don’t need oral sex!” This made me laugh out loud.

In regard to the abortion issue, her mother told her “...she believed that eventually the country would find itself in a civil war over the issue, much like it had over slavery.” Apparently, abortion is largely compared to modern-day slavery, which I find fascinating since they don’t see compelling women to carry pregnancies to term the same way. I mean, in what way is a fetus forced to be a slave? As the author points out, issues of racism are paradoxically dismissed as “largely a thing of the past.”

Reading about the role of discipline in Christian households, largely due to “experts” like James Dobson of Focus on the Family, was truly disturbing. In regard to spanking, “he says that if a child cries for longer than five minutes, the parent should ‘require him to stop the protest crying usually by offering him a little more of whatever caused the original tears.’” I found that so deeply troubling, and it makes me fear for evangelical Christian children who are homeschooled, since no one will ever see the evidence of the abuse.

The author interviewed several counselors who work with exvangelicals to try to address the trauma experienced during their childhoods. “If I’m saying, at the moment you’re born, ‘you’re sinful and you’re broken; there’s something wrong with you,’ and that’s reinforced in the very earliest messages that you receive as a child,” one expert explained. “Talking to exvangelicals, if you ask the question, ‘What does it feel like to be safe?’ Often, they don’t have a really good answer. They know how to survive, but they don’t know how to feel safe.”

Sociologist, Christian wrote in his book, American Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving: “American evangelicalism…is strong not because it is shielded against, but because it is—or at least perceives itself to be—embattled with forces that seem to oppose or threaten it.” He continues to explain that without that tension, “evangelicalism would lose its identity and purpose and grow languid and aimless.”

Essentially, evangelicalism is fed by opposition to other POVs, and adherents are specifically indoctrinated to believe their POV is the only valid one. Not much room for compromise, which is a shame.

This was very interesting to me. I grew up in the 80's and 90's, and I was part of a church, but now I don't attend very often. She weaves in her story, as well as other people's stories. I liked the blend of memoir and the introspective look.

I am intrigued by the trend I see unfolding before me. Deconstruction/Exvangelicals/None .... whatever the label may be, the truth is hard to ignore. There is a group that is walking away from the church. What is interesting in that is that it isn't new. Old statistics show that 50% of people from 18-30's walk away from their faith, for reasons that weren't really shown before, and yet people from this same group starts showing up back at church in their later years. I've read different books as to why, just from my own curiosity, and what I've seen, good, bad, or indifferent, is that there isn't a big item that is identifiable, but more that it's a personal choice (this is NOT invalidating THEIR choice, just observing what I've seen). Sarah McCammon's The Exvangelicals book is a lot like others in that it showcases specific individuals experiences and their understanding, as well as her own (thank you for those willing to share). How Sarah's book is different is that she has gone a step further and put those experiences into identifiable categories that helps one understand a common theme or thread as to why this is happening, especially the new one of Religious Trauma, which isn't really new, but is now being spoken and validated among different help/counseling/therapy groups. Overall, I found this very informative, and easy to read, as well as eye opening for understanding the numbers that stood alone for so long.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

As a Millennial who was raised Southern Baptist smack dab in the middle of the purity culture revolution who has been examining her own struggle with faith and evangelicalism, I found this book to be very insightful into understanding how we, as Americans, got to the place we are now. (Whew, deep breath after that run on sentence). I am still sorting out my own trauma of being responsible for other people's impure thoughts or actions because I *gasp* bared my shoulders or showed my knees. I appreciate any and all reflective takes on this culture and how to go about disentangling ones self from it.

I was truly excited to read McCammon's new book The Exvangelicals. As a Christian (and a white American one) I'd been lamenting for years the problems in the white, American evangelical church. My family and I changed from an evangelical church to a mainline denomination in 2020. I wondered if the Exvangelical label fit me and my family's experience.
According to McCammon, most Exvangelicals are young-ish adults who grew up in fundamentalist or very conservative Evangelical households. Their parent were strict and adherence to church attendance and doctrine was held above all else. Many of these kids grew up in a holy bubble - protected from the sinful influences of American society, while at the same time being told to be influence the world for God and lead people to Jesus. The author recounts her one main experience outside the bubble when she was a teenager. She worked as an intern in the US Congress in Washington DC and lived in a dorm with other teens. It was there she began to see the cracks in the facade of the bubble - non-evangelical people were not wholly evil.
The author grows up and follows all the rules of evangelicalism - she dates a good Christian boy in college and marries him young. She explains how surreal it is to go from "sex is bad sex is bad" thinking to flipping the switch on her wedding night "sex is now good and God is cheering you on!" She explains the Purity Culture movement of the 1990's and how sexist and damaging it was to young girls and women. A young woman was not only responsible for her own morality, but also responsible for not causing a man to stumble. There were a lot of rules to follow.
The one area that I had hoped McCammon would explore more is Evangelicalism's inherent sexism and subjugation of women. In many evangelical churches, a woman (in the 21st Century!) cannot lead, cannot become ordained, and may only serve under the leadership of a man, unless it's in nursery ministry. Women may not speak to or even email their (male) pastor without their husband's presence and permission.
The topic that McCammon cites as the true dagger in the soul of American Evangelicalism is their devotion to Donald Trump. People who had used the Bible to uphold a strict moral code and way of life and faith were willing to throw all of that under the bus when it came to DT. And I have to agree with her quite strongly - any religious body that attaches itself to a political candidate in this way is doomed. Because that is not what Jesus is all about.
I enjoyed reading this book, even though I realized I do not fit the exvangelical definition. I am still very strong in my faith and practice, just no longer affiliated with the evangelical church.
Thank you to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a compelling story which brings together personal experiences from the author and lots of other people with academic studies of evangelicalism, conspiracies, and right wing activism. It strikes a great balance between academic and personal sources. It was really accessible to me as someone who grew up about as far from the evangelical right wing as you can get.

This was a hard but very good read. I learned stuff I cried.. definitely worth picking up and taking a look yourself

Wow, this book opened some fresh wounds, and healed some others. As someone who left an extremely fundamentalist religion over 20 years ago, I thought I had worked through all of these things, but I guess I was wrong. If this is something that's in your past, too, be aware that you're going to have some strong feelings throughout this read. The sections on religious trauma and purity culture were particularly enlightening for me. To be able to put a name to some things that I've been living with for years and seeing that my thoughts about it are not mine alone was fascinating. To be honest, I highlighted so many passages that I probably should just re-read the whole thing. Be aware, there is a slightly political slant to some of the chapters, in that Sarah examines some of the reasons she believes so many churches whole-heartedly support Trump in spite of his pretty clear moral failings. I do think that she did this respectfully and without bias, but that's just my opinion. I appreciate that she also gives a very lengthy list of resources for us of other books and podcasts to explore. These run the range of people who have given up on religion entirely to those who have left the fundamentalist pieces of church behind and are still seeking a spiritual refuge. I loved Sarah's honest and frank account of her journey, and would highly recommend this to anyone struggling with this, or even to anyone curious about the exvangelical movement.

Even though I didn't grow up Evangelical myself, I know quite a few "exvangelicals" and am fascinated by the deconstruction many of them are going through. I thought this book was very well done, informative and readable. I also liked that it wasn't a complete rant of a book, it was clearly very thoughtful and introspective, and I enjoyed the mix of memoir and journalistic writing.

What an incredible book to read as someone who has come out of a high demand religion. Although my experiences were different, there is an underlying commonality that really binds a lot of us together. Someone else who knows you how felt and what you experienced is truly such a gift in this world. I will be recommending the book to several in my community to add to their collections,

This book is about a topic I’ve been very interested in recently, Evangelical Christianity, specifically what life is like for those who choose to leave the church, many of whom call themselves “exvangelicals.”

I really enjoyed this one. I was expecting it to be more of a memoir than what it was, which was a lot more research and fact-based, versus her own lived experiences. To me, that would have a five star book, but I gave this 4 stars. It was very well-written, and I loved how much she highlighted that leaving the church is so much more than just not sharing these beliefs anymore, but potentially losing your entire community and support system. The author spends a lot of time covering the Trumpification of Christianity, and I found that to be specifically fascinating. An extremely thought-provoking and analytical look at the deconstruction movement!

I expected to relate to this book. I did not expect this book to take me on a whole journey. I expected stories of people leaving because of how political the church has become, of how it treats people of different gender identities and sexual orientations, and some other hot issues.

While those are all there, this book dives into so many more things. The lingering effects of purity culture and how it affected people in their future relationships. The anxiety as a child when you lose track of your parents and think you got left behind in the rapture.

Sarah was transparent with her own story and interviewed a mix of people. Some have left but still believe everything they were taught. Some just believe the church now is not the example of the lessons they learned. As well as those who have stopped believing all together.

I think if you are actively involved in church this could still be interesting as Sarah uses her journalism background to tell so many aspects of people’s stories, but it is possible it could feel a little drawn out. But it will never feel like an attack.

But if you are someone who has left or is someone who is still participating but with some reservations this book will give you stories you can relate to as well as maybe some things to think about.

Part memoir and part journalistic investigation—Sarah McCammon’s The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church is a powerful and thought-provoking study of the growing social movement of people leaving the white evangelical churches where they were raised. With the availability of social media and global connectedness, these people who may have been quietly experiencing this alone two decades ago are now finding a community of people who are experiencing the same “deconstruction” as they are.

McCammon brings a mix of her personal experiences and her years working as a national political correspondent for NPR to craft a book that is as poignant as it is thought-provoking. This is not an anti-Christian movement, McCammon clarifies from the very beginning. Many of the people who have gone through this “deconstruction” to exvangelical are still believers and participants in the Christian faith. Some have moved towards other mainline faiths (e.g., Protestantism, Catholicism), others are “reconstructing” the evangelical faith to better align with their beliefs and values, and others are leaving the faith entirely as they explore other faith traditions or spiritual practices. This is a story of the journey that has brought people with these shared experiences together.

Regardless of where their exvangelical journey takes them, many who have chosen this path have found a greater sense of peace. However, getting there often involves confronting years of religious trauma, as well as facing the challenge of learning to follow their intuition about morality and faith that violates the doctrine that once governed their life.

Throughout the book are personal anecdotes (from McCammon and others), but the majority of the first half of the book is more academic and investigative in nature. McCammon shares the deep research that can only come from background as a journalist (I come from a family of journalists and PhDs, so I can tell you that I have experienced firsthand being called out for not having a source!). An interesting thread in the book surrounds the paradox that as the number of people who identify as white evangelical in the United States decreased from 23% in 2006 to 14% in 2022, many of the political aspirations of this group became mobilized during the period (e.g., the overturning of Roe v. Wade, legalizing gay marriage). How can a movement be mobilizing as it is also decreasing in size?

The 2016 election and Trump’s victory (which McCammon covered as a political correspondent), Trumps presidency, and the subsequent rally to re-elect him in 2020 (and honestly in 2024) is discussed at length. One connection between the two seemed to be that as many people left the white evangelical ranks, others started to identify with it because they supported Trump. This shift isn’t exclusively related to Trump, but it is perhaps the most striking example of the shift we are seeing for Americans to choose their religious identification by their political views, rather than the reverse. For instance, people who practice Christianity but want to distance themselves from what was happening on the Right politically began to identify as “nones”—people who don’t identify with any specific religious ideology. The reverse was happening as well.

The point which confronts us directly while reading McCammon’s book is whether the goal of evangelicalism all along was as a political movement, disguised as a religious movement; politics dressed in religion’s clothing, perhaps. Meanwhile beliefs that were never part of evangelicalism in the past are now becoming part of it as the political movement shifts that direction. As all of this happens, monetization becomes a part of deconstruction in the same way that it was a part of evangelicalism in the past. People looking to deconstruct and find resources and coaching to support that transition are finding people who are making money off of those looking to leave the evangelical faith. At a certain point, people are being prayed upon no matter which direction they move. It makes one wonder whether this is a tactic to actually push deconstructionists back towards evangelicalism?

As the book goes on, it meanders to be much more about McCammon’s personal experiences and I felt some ambiguity in where her beliefs and stances are on this movement. Perhaps I’m expecting too much, because a good portion of this book is intended to be a memoir. At the same time, much of the early part of the book is devoted to fact finding and laying out how the religious landscape became the political landscape, and they switched places. I wanted more supposition (and perhaps this isn’t the right place to find it) on how this minority group has garnered the influence they have in the political landscape. In a country that operates on a two-party system, many republicans are being pushed much further towards the far right than they would otherwise be because the party leaders are leaning into that narrative. Meanwhile on the democratic side, younger generations who tend to be further left are being forced towards the middle because of an aging voter base who still seeks ways to be bipartisan.

I’m going to stop here because I am getting into a territory where I don’t feel I’m the right person to extrapolate on these points. Regardless of where you fall (Republican or Democrat)—I think you’ll find the information presented in The Exvagelicals to leave you with more questions to ponder than answers. I also wonder whether these experiences that many exvangelicals identify with may not be experiences that current evangelicals have also gone through. There is a question hanging over the book whether the far-right political party has replaced evangelicalism in many ways, changing the way current generations are experiencing the religious movement.

This is a good book for anyone who wants to dive into this topic in a way where the information is presented but conclusions aren’t yet drawn. This book may be controversial, but the execution of it stays unbiased (enough) to allow people from many viewpoints to find things to think about. I suspect many will not come to the same conclusions, though. The second half of the book is much more about McCammon’s own personal journey through the deconstruction process—what led her there, what challenges she faced, and where she has landed. Hers is only one of many thousands of experiences, yet it’s also one that took bravery to lay out for the world to see.

Thank you to St. Martins Press for my copy. Opinions are my own.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the copy of this book.

THE EXVANGELICALS is part memoir and part non-fiction read centering around a mass movement away from the White Evangelical Church. As a Christian myself, this was a really fascinating read, as many of the issues that she brought up, from politics to science and gender roles, are extremely relevant and cause a lot of tension within the church (and society as a whole). She made a lot of good points in the areas of religious trauma, what it's like to have and to leave a community of family and friends centered around specific viewpoints, and how church leaders often do a disservice to their congregations. I'll be thinking about this one for awhile - definitely worth the read!

I really appreciated this book that’s part memoir and part nonfiction exploration of the reasons people are leaving evangelical churches. As a lifelong Lutheran, this isn’t fully my experience, but some aspects were similar to my childhood faith formation.

Ms. McCammon is uniquely qualified to write on the subject because her parents were devout members of an evangelical church, and she’s a journalist reporting for National Public Radio. She grew up in Kansas City so I felt a connection as a fellow Midwesterner.

Blending personal experiences with facts and statistics kept me engaged in ways I haven’t found in other books on the topic. The author’s narration of the audiobook was like having an interesting conversation with a new friend.

The book includes a fair amount of political discussion so reader, know thyself.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, Celadon Books, and NetGalley for the review copies of this thought-provoking book.

This was a really powerful read. A person's relationship with religion and faith is such a deeply ingrained part of who they are and Sarah really got to the heart of what a generation is now working through in deconstructing evangelical christianity and coming to terms with the current direction of the evangelical faith group as a whole.

There were so many parts of this book that gave me deep nostalgia. Starting with the fact that both myself and the author have the same first and middle name - based on the Bible and given by parents who are deeply evangelical and fit much of the description of their generation that is portrayed in this book. Beyond our names, there are many experiences that the author discusses in the upbringing of this generation that were very familiar and brought another perspective for consideration and validated a lot of what I myself have been working through.

I think this book really gave me a feeling of being seen and not alone in the journey that I'm on in reckoning with my upbringing, grounding myself in my faith and dealing with feelings of disappointment and hurt associated with the current evangelical landscape. I also struggle with how to raise my children and really appreciated the different book recommendations that popped up through the narrative in this book.

This was a pretty quick read - I read it over the course of a day - and it definitely gave me a lot to think about and continue to work through. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book. All thoughts are my own!