Witzig

RESEARCH MEMO – Losing Our Religion

I. BOOKS

Contemporary

The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America (FITZGERALD, FRANCES)

Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Shamed a Generation of Young Women
and How I Broke Free (KAY KLEIN, LINDA)

The End of White Christian America (JONES, ROBERT P.)

Unchurching (JACOBSON, RICHARD)

Historical / Philosophical

Fear and Trembling (KIERKEGAARD, SØREN)

II. ARTICLES

Scholarly/Academic

“Losing Faith in Fundamentalist Christianity: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.”

Ross, Karen Heather. University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
2009.

“‘Losing my Religion’: Sidgwick, Theism, and the Struggle for Utilitarian Ethics in Economic
Analysis.” Medema, Steven G. History of Political Economy. 2008.

“From Religious Revivals to Tariff Rancor: Preaching Free Trade and Protection during the
Second American Party System.” Meardon, Stephen. History of Political Economy. 2008.

“Explaining Group Influence: The Role of Identity and Emotion in Political Conformity
and Polarization.” Suhay, Elizabeth. Political Behavior. March 8, 2014.

“Keeping the Faith: Religious Transmission and Apostasy in Generation X.” Nooney,
Jennifer Elizabeth. North Carolina State University, Department of Sociology. 2006.

Essays

“Letter from Williamsburg” Dombek, Kristin. The Paris Review. Summer 2013.

Popular/Journalistic
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‘Exvangelicals’: why more religious people are rejecting the evangelical label
Hesse, Josiah. The Guardian. November 3, 2017.

Trump and white evangelicals: support for president grows, but millennials leave movement
Burleigh, Nina. Newsweek. April 17, 2018.

A Quiet Exodus: Why Black Worshippers Are Leaving White Evangelical Churches
Campbell Robertson. The New York Times. March 9, 2018.

The Spectacular Nadir of American Evangelicalism

Stroop, Christopher. Playboy. May 8, 2018.

What Should We Do About Trump? Ask Ex-vangelicals

Posner, Sarah. Splinter News. September 26, 2017.

Pastor Joshua Harris, an evangelical outlier, heads to mainstream seminary

Boorstein, Michelle. The Washington Post. January 30, 2005.

III. AUTHORS

Contemporary

Christopher Stroop

Joshua Harris
Evangelical author of the (now discontinued) Ruth Graham-endorsed, best-seller I
Kissed Dating Goodbye, a take on “contemporary secular dating” from an Evangelical
standpoint. He is s current student at Regent College. His brother, Alex, went to
Harvard Law School and clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy. His father—a
Theodore Roosevelt impersonator and his mother—a homeschooling advocate—live
in Oregon and own a terrarium shop.

“In an interview, Harris said the isolation of Covenant Life, and of a small cluster of
churches of which it was a part, may have fed leadership mistakes, including the
decision of pastors — himself among them — to handle a child sexual abuse case
internally instead of going to police.”
(The Washington Post)

Linda Kay Klein

Past

Tim LaHaye
Author of The Unhappy Gays and Left Behind series

IV. BLOGS / REDDIT/ SOCIAL MEDIA / FILMS

Reddit - Exvangelical
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Exvangelical Facebook group

#Exvangelical on Twitter

#EmptyThePews on Twitter

#ChurchToo on Twitter

#ChristianAltFacts

https://www.ex-christian.net/

Podcasts

Exvangelical podcast (BLAKE CHASTAIN)

Host, Blake Chastain: “The evangelical worldview affects the whole person. It leaves no part
of you untouched. It forms your social, cultural, political, sexual, and gender identities. To
reject it is to reject your entire sense of self and society. This is no small thing.”

“An Evangelical Activist Embraces #MeToo”. The New Yorker Radio Hour. June 22, 2018.

Sunday School Dropouts

Blogs

Not Your Mission Field (CHRISTOPHER STROOP)

“Evangelical” podcast: safe space for those “living in, leaving, or coming to terms
with” Evangelicalism Stroop, Christopher. Religion Dispatches. May 25, 2017.

Lamb’s Harbinger

Authorship uncertain… I believe it is SAM KEAN but that needs some independent
verification. It is quite the dramatic title to say the least.

MATT MELLEMA

Stop Calling Yourself an “Exvangelical”

His father is the CFO of Focus on the Family (!), a convert to Anglicanism and
comes off to me as a pompous jerk who really wants you to know he is not pompous and
no, he doesn’t take himself too seriously

Films

Documentary: I Survived I Kissed Dating Goodbye

Look into Exploration Films—Who funded this re-examination? Why?
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CBS: Deconstructing my Religion (“faith special” that airs December, 2018)

V. STUDIES

“America’s Changing Religious Landscape” Pew Research Center. May 12, 2015.

Religious Landscape Study. Pew Research Center. 2014.

VI. POLLS / STATS/ DATA

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The share of Americans who currently have a different religion than they did in childhood is
42%. (Pew Research Center)

“Nearly one-in-five U.S. adults (18%) were raised in a religious faith and now identify with
no religion.” (Pew Research Center)

When Americans Say They Believe in God, What Do They Mean?

Pew Research Center. April 25, 2018.

VII. PEOPLE TO INTERVIEW

Realistic

Brother 1: Race and segregation in the white evangelical church

What childhood experiences stand out as particularly incongruous with how you think about
Evangelicalism now?
When was the first time you realized you were an Evangelical?
When was the first time you realized you were no longer an Evangelical?
What led you to leave the evangelical church?


Brother 2: Evangelical (Higher) Education + disillusionment

What childhood experiences stand out as particularly incongruous with how you think about
Evangelicalism now?
When was the first time you realized you were an Evangelical?
When was the first time you realized you were no longer an Evangelical?
There was a period of time in your education when you were homeschooled. Can you describe why
that was and what it felt like?
Can you talk about your time at Regent College and what led you to discontinue your enrollment?
How do you feel enrolling in seminary changed your relationship to your church community? Do you
feel it was a separation? An elevation?

Mother: Patriarchy and Domestic Abuse in the Church

Reach

Blake Chastain - Host of the “Exvangelical” podcast

Linda Kay Klein – Author concerned with purity culture and shaming in Evangelicalism
Amy Butler – Pastor of Riverside Church in NYC (example of an integrated, LGBTQ-
accepting evangelical congregation)

IX. THEMES TO INTEGRATE

Loss of Faith
The Essence of Conversion
The Economy of Conversion (WITHIN THE FAMILY, WITHIN BROADER SOCIETY)
Revivalism (AND ITS ENDURING INHERENCE IN AMERICANISM)
Patriarchy and its Effects and After-Effects (ACROSS THE BOARD)

X. PERSONAL ANECDOTES / EXPERIENCES / MEMORIES

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Queerness: re-interpreting crushes on men in the church , how suppression strategies played
out (or not so much) in my own case, finding Tim LaHaye’s Unhappy Gays in the attic as a young
child
Death becoming unexpectedly less anxiety-ridden after leaving Evangelicalism
Elegy – loss of identity and community, struggle to re-define the self, “post-evangelical
hangover”
Freud / Lacan – replacement as a way of mourning. Finding poetry as a spiritual practice

XI. REMAINING QUESTIONS / DIRECTIONS

WHOSE STORY? WHY?

Why my story when there are other more important stories? e.g. Leelah Alcorn. How to incorporate
the stories of evangelicals or exvangelicals who are experiencing or experienced violence in the
community. The power of stories, I feel, is a feminist and a queer touchstone (the personal is the
political, the political is the personal; “coming out” to change minds) and its effectiveness has been
demonstrated by the LGBTQ movement for equal rights

TONE

What to Avoid: a continuation of the masculine, patriarchal tone of theological or intellectual debate
(pissing contests). The exvangelical blog community seems especially susceptible to skewing that
way. I am tempted to write a cynical piece about that impression except I am distrustful of my
impulse (it feels unkind / not generous) and the way it simply perpetuates a cycle or black-and-white
way of thinking. I also want to avoid scorched-earth approaches to evangleicalism as cathartic as that
approach can be.

I am desperate for, hungry for a piece that addresses what it feels like to spiritually wander or be
displaced in the context of Christian fundamentalism. I am interested in ESSENCE of experience.
How can I capture the human essence of conversion / de-conversion in an American context and
still retain a progressive outlook?

OTHER HUNCHES

I have seen a few post-Trump “divided family, divided nation” stories but I am interested in the
opposite. My story may run against the grain because I feel like our family is closer than ever having
left evangelicalism. (All except my minister father who is in the midst of his own private struggle).

I am obsessed with the idea of culture, subcultures, cults, crossover. What are the deep roots?

ETYMOLOGY cult <=> culture <=> subculture

worship (obsession)
cultivation of land

FAMOUS CONVERSIONS

Paul the Apostle on the road to Damascus

Childish Gambino away from Jehovah’s Witness (Colbert interview)
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Prince from 7th day Adventist towards Jehovah’s Witness

Katy Perry – started as a Pentecostal singer (phenomenon of crossover)

Figure 1 Interview Guide used in Ross' study. Could be useful for interviews
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DICTION
Words or phrases that caught my eye
Buzzwords or subcultural jargon 

“faith resources” (ECONOMY)
disenchanted
exodus
disillusionment
apostasy / apostate
disengagement
Shattered Faith Syndrome
unaffiliated

crisis of faith displaced

fallen away “nones”

self-identification cognitive dissonance

purity culture

backslidden