‘Exvangelical’ women are leaving their churches
Taylor Yoder, who grew up in an evangelical Christian family in southern Pennsylvania, was active in her church and its youth group. But as a young adult, she found that friendships with LGBTQ co-workers at a Starbucks caused her to reexamine what she’d been told about homosexuality. “Do I really believe that these people deserve to burn in hell just because they don’t believe like me?” she asked herself.
When her family embraced Donald Trump, she continued to unpack, or “deconstruct,” her faith. “What upsets me most is how politics has become so intertwined with the church,” said Yoder. “It turned a lot of evangelicals in my life really ugly.”
Today, at 31, she is an atheist, and one of many formerly evangelical young women who are disengaging from religion, and at higher rates than their male counterparts. Under the handle “skeptical_heretic,” she critiques evangelicalism and its political ties in videos on TikTok, gaining some 240,000 followers — enough to earn a living.
But the cost has been steep: She’s barely in touch with her family, who warn she’s bound for hell.
In this, too, Yoder is part of a trend: “Exvangelical” women have generated a flurry of memoirs, podcasts, social media posts and YouTube channels depicting evangelical culture as oppressive, unhealthy and even harmful. Their critiques converge on four themes: politics, patriarchy, abuse and the treatment of LGBTQ people. They tell of churches rallying behind Trump, keeping women out of leadership and instead promoting a culture of “purity,” while failing to address abuse scandals exposed in the #ChurchToo movement that followed #MeToo.
Some, like Yoder, have abandoned their faith entirely. Others still follow Jesus but seek to reclaim what they believe is a purer, more inclusive version of the faith. The latter are moving to more progressive churches, though many who have trouble finding a church often meet in private homes.
According to the Public Religion Research Institute, 40% of women ages 18-29 are religiously unaffiliated — a percentage that for the first time outpaces the unaffiliated rate for young men, which has remained at about 35%.
Their reasons vary: 80% say they no longer believe their religion’s teachings, 58% cite anti-LGBTQ views, while half say their faith harmed their mental health.
In modern American culture, where young women are urged to shoot for the top in business, politics and sports, the bans on female leadership in conservative churches seem out of step. “Those sorts of messages are not going to comport with young women today,” says Melissa Deckman, CEO of PRRI.
Beth Allison Barr, a Baylor University historian who chronicles women’s roles in the early and medieval church, said she has talked with many frustrated Christian women across the country. “Women don’t see a place for themselves in the church,” Barr said. “They don’t hear women-elevated stories. They do not feel like their callings are appreciated.”
Christa Brown, raised Southern Baptist in Texas in the 1960s, said she loved her church until a youth pastor began abusing her when she was a teen. Speaking out decades later, she discovered how resistant her denomination was to holding pastors accountable. Her 2024 memoir, “Baptistland,” describes evangelicalism as a “culture of domination” rooted in male authority and a lack of accountability.
https://brookingsregister.com/stories/ex...hes,162273
Taylor Yoder, who grew up in an evangelical Christian family in southern Pennsylvania, was active in her church and its youth group. But as a young adult, she found that friendships with LGBTQ co-workers at a Starbucks caused her to reexamine what she’d been told about homosexuality. “Do I really believe that these people deserve to burn in hell just because they don’t believe like me?” she asked herself.
When her family embraced Donald Trump, she continued to unpack, or “deconstruct,” her faith. “What upsets me most is how politics has become so intertwined with the church,” said Yoder. “It turned a lot of evangelicals in my life really ugly.”
Today, at 31, she is an atheist, and one of many formerly evangelical young women who are disengaging from religion, and at higher rates than their male counterparts. Under the handle “skeptical_heretic,” she critiques evangelicalism and its political ties in videos on TikTok, gaining some 240,000 followers — enough to earn a living.
But the cost has been steep: She’s barely in touch with her family, who warn she’s bound for hell.
In this, too, Yoder is part of a trend: “Exvangelical” women have generated a flurry of memoirs, podcasts, social media posts and YouTube channels depicting evangelical culture as oppressive, unhealthy and even harmful. Their critiques converge on four themes: politics, patriarchy, abuse and the treatment of LGBTQ people. They tell of churches rallying behind Trump, keeping women out of leadership and instead promoting a culture of “purity,” while failing to address abuse scandals exposed in the #ChurchToo movement that followed #MeToo.
Some, like Yoder, have abandoned their faith entirely. Others still follow Jesus but seek to reclaim what they believe is a purer, more inclusive version of the faith. The latter are moving to more progressive churches, though many who have trouble finding a church often meet in private homes.
According to the Public Religion Research Institute, 40% of women ages 18-29 are religiously unaffiliated — a percentage that for the first time outpaces the unaffiliated rate for young men, which has remained at about 35%.
Their reasons vary: 80% say they no longer believe their religion’s teachings, 58% cite anti-LGBTQ views, while half say their faith harmed their mental health.
In modern American culture, where young women are urged to shoot for the top in business, politics and sports, the bans on female leadership in conservative churches seem out of step. “Those sorts of messages are not going to comport with young women today,” says Melissa Deckman, CEO of PRRI.
Beth Allison Barr, a Baylor University historian who chronicles women’s roles in the early and medieval church, said she has talked with many frustrated Christian women across the country. “Women don’t see a place for themselves in the church,” Barr said. “They don’t hear women-elevated stories. They do not feel like their callings are appreciated.”
Christa Brown, raised Southern Baptist in Texas in the 1960s, said she loved her church until a youth pastor began abusing her when she was a teen. Speaking out decades later, she discovered how resistant her denomination was to holding pastors accountable. Her 2024 memoir, “Baptistland,” describes evangelicalism as a “culture of domination” rooted in male authority and a lack of accountability.
https://brookingsregister.com/stories/ex...hes,162273
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
