This was an eye-opening investigative journalism memoir about the massive social movement of people leaving the Evangelical Church. It was so interesting to read about political alignment as it pertains to religion as well as many of the falsehoods that many of us are raised to believe. Now there is a large group of people who have awakened from this haze and are learning how to live without guilt, which is obviously difficult as that is a hugely important plot point in the religious world and I'm sure this book will help many people feel not so alone in this journey. I hope this gives hope to those who want a new life based on their own thoughts and beliefs.

Thank you to NetGalley, St Martins Press, and Macmillan Audio for the gifted copies of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A thought provoking look at the evangelical church and grappling with reasons to leave it. This is a memoir of the author's own experiences and it may not feel true for every person's experience. However, she handles difficult matters with careful examination. Well worth reading or listening to the author's presentation.

I like books like this that combine someone's personal experience with research. The author has experienced the evangelical lifestyle, and has been seriously affected by it. She also sees how it negatively affects so many.
Even though there was a lot of negative, it also showed a lot of people's perspectives. Overall, a fascinating read.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me listen to this fantastic audiobook, which has a really good narrator

I don't know what to write. I don't want to offend anyone.

I guess my father was a proto-exvangelical. Raised in a Midwestern Southern Baptist church, as an adult he had next to no tolerance for charismatic religion. From what I've since seen, my grandparents' church was on the more sedate end of evangelical. (It probably has something to do with our otherwise rather stoic farm community.) When I moved to the South for college, I thought "holy rollers," etc., were largely made up for entertainment purposes. Boy, was I wrong! What I saw in my college town not only reinforced all of the stereotypes, it proved them to be severe underestimations.

Here's why all of this matters: my exposure to "real" evangelicals during my college years demonstrated a strong inverse correlation between evangelical identity and I.Q. To put it bluntly, the more evangelical, the more charismatic, the less intelligent. (The lower on the entire SES spectrum, in fact.) Now, I know people who have left the white evangelical church, some for the reasons discussed by Sarah McCammon. However, the people I know should probably not be described as "loving . . . and leaving the white evangelical church." "Ran from the ignorant/backwards crazy as if their hair was on fire" might be a better descriptor of the exvangelicals I know.

The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church is both heartfelt and scholarly. Sarah McCammon introduced me to a new group of people, and I feel sad for them. What impressed me the most was how intelligent, rational, and middle-class everyone was. Like one of the exvangelical interviewees, I believe in organized religion's ability to provide valuable cultural rituals. I see how, for good or ill, immersive the evangelical life was for these people. It is obvious that there would be a feeling of being adrift without its structure. I wish nothing but the best for the exvangelicals. They are finally trying to live (ironically enough) the Wiccan Rede: an it harm none, do what thou wilt. Godspeed.

I would like to thank Macmillan Audio for allowing me to experience this NetGalley audiobook.

I've been listening to a lot of the Holy Post's podcasts and YouTube channel which is where I first heard the idea of deconstruction and Exvangelicals. I wasn't raised with a fundamental church background, but attended a couple throughout my college days well into my late 30's and was influenced by it and understood what McCammon was talking about. Like many people in the book, 2020 was a turning point and I just felt super confused, alone, disillusioned, and knew I couldn't do it anymore. I wish I had this book 4 years ago to know it wasn't just me! All that to say, I'm probably the perfect audience this book was meant for so when it came up as an audio book on Netgalley, I was very excited to read it. I devoured this book in 3 days which says a lot since I'm not a big non-fiction reader.

What I really liked about McCammon's book is how well written it was and how she really brought in a lot of perspectives. A lot of Christian books I've read are heavily opinion oriented just from one person's perspective. You can really tell with the writing style that McCammon is a serious journalist from NPR and not just another person with a bone to pick. She does tell her story and definitely has opinions, but she tempers it with research, poll results, and interviews from others in the same position. Her overall bent is that the far right Evangelical movement is harmful, but I felt she tried to be very logical and even with that view. I was able to look up a lot of the people and references she talks about and most are not so logical about that view. I liked that the book explores many facets including politics, purity culture, LGBTQ+, Women's Roles, and corporal punishment. I think the hurt people feel is very real and as a counselor, I do like that she spent a chapter advocating for finding professional help from therapists even while acknowledging how hard that can be.

The only thing I didn't really agree with is McCammon's conclusion seems to be that there is no place in Christianity, or Evangelical Christianity at least, for people who are not the stereotypical white Evangelical. While I've certainly felt that pressure in the churches I've attended, I still hold out hope that there is a place for the rest of us- maybe not in my small Wyoming town, but certainly in the Christian world at large. She instead recommends finding community in other places like the internet or different interest group which isn't bad advice, I guess, but I'm just not ready to give up hope yet.

Overall, 5 stars! I really felt like I understood a lot more and that I wasn't alone because of reading this book and highly recommend it to anyone who is going through a similar journey or just wants to learn more about what it is.

This book was healing for me in ways no other book could be. Although Sarah is a decade older than me, she grew up in the midwest (Kansas City) at the height of the 80’s-90’s evangelical movement, same as I did. It’s almost eerie how similar our childhoods were. And since then we both have journeyed away from evangelicalism and would consider ourselves “exvangelical.” This book was part memoir and part journalistic essays on evangelicalism, with interviews from those who have left.

What fascinated me most about this book was Sarah’s astute observation that the people who primarily have left evangelicalism recently are the ones were the most ardent and devoted followers growing up. They’ve become disappointed in how evangelicals have aligned with the far right after decades of saying we should be like Jesus. The Republican Party is so far from Christlikeness that it’s left many wondering whether they were lied to or it was a sham all along. It’s the hypocrisy and thirst for power among evangelical leaders that pushes millennials like us out. I feel this, deeply. Every story Sarah shared and Sarah’s own personal journey resonated with me immensely.

Sarah works for NPR now and her journalism skills were perfect for the job of describing the current exvangelical dilemma. I highly recommend this book if you’ve been on your own journey of deconstruction and growth after growing up in evangelicalism. Matt and I both listened to the audiobook, which was a fantastic medium because Sarah used her NPR voice to narrate the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of The Exvangelicals by Sarah McCammon.

Sarah McCammon writes a half journalistic approach/half memoir approach to the increasing amount of people leaving the Evangelical faith, and the result is magnificent. As a former Evangelical myself, and graduate of the same undergraduate college as McCammon, I identified wholeheartedly with so many things, and found it very interesting. Excellent reporter, excellent reader, and excellent story.

What I liked:

- this was super interesting. I haven’t read anything by an ex-evangelical before, and I really enjoyed getting a peek into this author’s life.
- I liked how the author tied in the implications of evangelicalism and Uber conservative politics. Her stories from her time writing on the campaign trail were impactful.
- as someone who grew up in what I’d call “purity culture lite”, I liked to hear how purity culture has had lasting implications on people’s lives, well into adulthood.
- I love listening to a memoir read by the author. I think it makes the story that much more impactful.

What didn’t work for me:
- my mind wandered a bit during parts of this that I found a little dry, but overall I really enjoyed this memoir.

As the evangelical movement takes on more political power, readers from outside that world will be curious what goes on inside it. This book is a compassionate view on what it's like from the inside and what it takes to leave. Readers who share the author's experience and those who don't will all learn something from this book

This past weekend, I came across my high school diary. The last entry was from my 17-year old self, grappling with the hypocrisy of Christianity and the improbability of a god existing. I mention in this entry that the only reason I even want to believe is because I am terrified of eternal damnation.

And there is the rub.

Fear of hell is, largely, what keeps most skeptical Christians religious. If you take away that fear, what real motive is there to believe? Perhaps to find comfort in the face of the unknown; to make excuses for the terrible things that happen while staying true to your faith. After all, who wants to believe in a god that lets awful things happen? It has to be part of a larger plan, right? The sad truth is that it's not, and facing reality is not something a lot of people have the mental strength to do. Fiction is far more preferable.

Enter: religion.

I have been a part of a movement I didn't even know existed until now, since I was a teenager: the Exvangelical movement. I grew up Protestant and went to an Evangelical church, but I never understood how people could actually believe what was being taught. I had no emotional connection to it, and despite going to a Christian school for the first half of my school years, I recognized the complete lack of logic and denial of reality early on. Carbon dating has shown the Earth to be far older than 2000 years. If humans are living for less than 100 years on average now, with all of the medical advances and interventions, how was it possible for humans to be hundreds of years old in the Bible? (It wasn't.) And then there's purity culture, which I don't have much energy to write about in this review, other than the fact that a) it makes absolutely no logical sense to not form an intimate relationship with someone prior to committing your entire life to them, and b) reproduction is our entire purpose for existing from a scientific standpoint. Teaching people to deny very natural feelings and desires never ends well and is nothing but a tool of power and control.

Religion clashed with logic, and logic won out for me.

And then there's the biggest clash of logic: "Evangelicals" who support Trump. Unfortunately, there is quite a bit about Trump in this book, but it's important to discuss because his run in 2016 has greatly shaped a rise in both the Evangelical and Exvangelical movements. Suddenly, the people throwing purity rings at women think a pathological liar with numerous rape allegations, divorces, and extramarital affairs with porn stars is the second coming of Christ. It doesn't make logical sense, and it never will. The logical Evangelicals have distanced themselves from the group, while the delusional ones have doubled down and essentially made MAGA their religion. They've somehow managed to (try to) justify their hatred with the Bible, manipulating its messaging as they see fit and ignoring the parts they don't want to abide by.

McCammon's lived experience, and that of those she interviewed, is essential to this book. While it was a difficult and triggering read, I also found it very insightful and even at times cathartic. For the first time, I heard stories of religious trauma that mirrored my own. I understood on a very deep level what she and other Exvangelicals have lived through and how difficult it was to come out on the other side. None of us have left unscathed, but I suppose that's the beauty of sharing personal experiences: you realize you are not alone, not even close.

I would also recommend Kate Cohen's "We of Little Faith: Why I Stopped Pretending to Believe (And Maybe You Should Too)" as a supplemental read if you enjoyed this book, as it touches on the better aspects of religion (community/connectedness, tradition, etc.) that you can, in fact, satisfy *without* religion.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced audiobook copy of The Exvangelicals.

This is a book for everyone who's questioned the world and the views that they've been raised into. This book is all about seeing things from outside your world views and how that impacts your life.

When I saw this audiobook available on NetGalley, I requested it so fast! The Exvangelicals by Sarah McCammon covers the whole of her journey from growing up in an evangelical church in the Midwest to her life as a journalist, deconstructing her faith and creating something of her own. People across the nation have been leaving the church in droves and McCammon uses this book to cover the history of Evangelicals and point out why Christians are looking for something different from the religion that's been in place for centuries. She relates memories from her childhood and young adult years when she began to question her faith to her first marriage and life as a journalist that further showed her a change was needed.

I found this book entirely fascinating due to my own personal journey with the Christian faith. I related to all aspects of McCammon's upbringing and her doubts of what she believes. She brings up Christian books that were popular in the nineties and early 2000s that I knew very well and quotes a lot of popular Christian singers from that time that have had a similar journey and I loved seeing that too! I've previously read all of Rachel Held Evans' books and it was touching to see her admiration for the late author. This will be a good book for the library!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book is a journalistic look at the Exvangelical movement from someone who lived it. I listened to it because of its cover and thought is was more memoir than a non-fiction book about the movement. I was unprepared for her to sound like a radio journalist. But it's because she is a journalist for NPR. Once I made the connection I was able to follow along better. I would highly recommend this to anyone unfamiliar with the "deconstruction" or "exvangelical" movement. Sarah carefully takes us through the roots of the evangelical movement and how it intertwined with her life. Many of us who grew up in the world of homeschooling in the 90's were told to work and government and "take it back" Sarah followed that path all the way out of evangelicalism. I wish this had more of her personal story, but maybe that is a separate book to come at a later date. I constantly paused the audio to write down articles, books and people she mentioned along her journey. I will be buying a hard copy to have on hand.

It was pretty clear to me quickly after I started listening to this one that it was not exactly what I had hoped. I was looking for a more objective approach to religion as someone who has seen the extremes. This feels more like another religious person that has just decided to not agree to some of the harmful behavior the church but not all. Thank you for the opportunity.

This book was very interesting. It was written by and looks at the evangelical life by one who lived it and left it. Her story is intertwined with the stories of other people who have left the evangelical church for different reasons. The book is gentle on the church, while also critical about its faults. While I was listening to the audio, my husband came in and sat, transfixed, listening to the rest of the book with me. It is a good story, well told.

The Exvangelicals was a balance between being McCammon's memoir and a study in how those raised in the evangelical church are impacted. While McCammon shares a bit about her upbringing in the church, she also bridges the gap by quoting others who are dealing with their break from evangelical churches. She speaks with those who are still Christians and those who have left Christianity altogether. I found her perspective to be interesting. She acknowledges the positives of the evangelical movement, but also loops that in to explain why it contributes to the trauma of leaving the church or "deconstructing" as many call it.

It is no easy thing to talk about the subject of this book: the quiet voice that lingers in the minds of those who grew up in an evangelical sphere during the past generations. It’s never kind & never sounds like God, but men who wish they WERE God. It sounds a lot like shame. The amount of trauma that was & is dealt by hands that should reflect Jesus’ own scarred ones is horrendous. As someone who grew up in a very similar way to the author (though with parents who were CERTAINLY not as severe), I resonated with so much that was said here in the Exvangelicals.

There are many important topics brought up in this book to make those who are reflecting on their church & faith experience feel seen & understood. The interviews & different takes bring a wide spectrum of understanding to a multifaceted issue. I loved the emphasis on the spectrum-like nature of looking at “deconstruction”. As someone who DOES still believe in God, but who just resents certain aspects of the westernized Church, there was no aura of utter hatred for God or Christianity, just critiques & introspection. The reminder of the lack of love many groups receive from a body of people, who’s literal functioning is to be the arms & feet of a Christ who chose to love the poor, the broken, & the the outcasts of his day, fuels me with pain. The author does a wonderful job at describing the issue at hand, & also the thoughts & feelings of those who are walking with the aftermath of it. Relatable & poignant, I believe this book will be an excellent addition to the conversation that is deconstruction.

I’m grateful to have been able to listen to this. May we remember the tables that Jesus sat at: with “sinners”—with those he loved.

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, & God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” -1 Corinthians 1:27

Thank you so much to Macmillan Audio for this arc & the chance to read this book.

Thought provoking book.

Sarah McCammon writes a book that is partially a memoir of her own experiences surrounding evangelicalism, and partially an examination of the people who are leaving the evangelical church, their reasons for doing so, and where they are now with their faith. She speaks very critically (and rightly so in my opinion) about James Dobson and Focus on the Family, which was the preeminent authority figure during the 80s-early 2000s, right at the time I was personally growing up and then raising my children. McCammon also touches on topics such as science, the end times, politics (primarily white nationalism and the evangelical adoration of Donald Trump), and what it truly means to walk away from evangelicalism. It is a community, it is a family, and many who have walked away have lost the support of their family and community.

There is so much food for thought and discussion in this book. While I agreed with a good amount of it, I disagreed with some of it--and that's okay. When you are raised in and participating in evangelical Christianity, it is almost unheard of to ask questions, to disagree, to examine things from a different point of view. McCammon encourages people to look at what is being preached about, taught, and espoused and critically think about things with perspective. I think this book would be an excellent jump off point for those who want to wrestle with issues surrounding the Christian church. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author and as she is a reporter with NPR, her narration is skillful.

I related to this book more than I thought I would. Although I currently attend an evangelical church in a predominantly white area, I feel as if things have changed in my church over the past ten years. The current pastor of my church is pragmatic and scientific, he examines the Bible in light of science, not the other way around. He never speaks of anything political from the pulpit other than the broad mention of praying for our leaders. This isn't to say I think it's a perfect church, there are definitely issues and things I struggle with personally, but due to what I mentioned above I have not felt like I needed to become an "exvangelical" as this author writes about.

I know this book already has its critics, and I'm sure that's to be expected when you are saying things that challenge the status quo of a powerful organization. I have long said that the basis of my faith is to love others, period. I have struggled and lost friends over that point of view, simple as it is. If you have any experience with the evangelical church, I encourage you to pick this book up and use it as a springboard for self examination and discussion. Because if your God can't take the questions, is it really God?

I read a review that this book didn’t “go far enough,” but I actually appreciated that Sarah McCammon kept it to a journalistic lens while sprinkling in her own childhood and experiences. If I wanted to share this book with family &/or friends while trying to explain my aversion to the “evangelical” self-title and my disgust toward Trump and what he’s done to our country, I wouldn’t want a book that’s too extreme. McCammon dove into the rise in hatred since trump’s presidency and the hypocrisy within religion which leads to my talking points on backing away from evangelicals on the whole. I appreciated all the different interviews and the wide range of viewpoints and that it wasn’t all Christian-bashing. Overall, I believe that my parents and my childhood community were doing what they felt best, and I can grapple with my upbringing on other terms outside the acknowledgement that a lot of that community I mostly look back on with fondness has genuinely gone off the rails. It’s hard to articulate why I feel so frustrated and saddened by people I once admired and I felt like The Exvangelicals really put my thoughts into words incredibly. I will definitely be recommending it.
I really enjoy an audiobook like this narrated by the author and it really added to the personal stories - especially when she talked about her grandfather and being on the 2016 campaign trail. I’d definitely recommend this in audio form, but I think both forms of this book read well.

This book was a well-written examination of the reasons people are leaving evangelicalism. I appreciated that the author mixed her research narratives with her personal experiences. Topics were well organized and the chapters flowed easily. Overall it was a good book, just not my personal favorite.