Blake Chastain – #Exvangelical – The Beached White Male

Ken's Blog

Musings, reflections, and observations from the Beached White Male

Ken's Blog

Musings, reflections and observations from the Beached White Male

Blake Chastain - Exvangelical and Beyond

Exvangelical and Beyond: How American Christianity Went Radical and the Movement That’s Fighting Back

A pioneer of the “exvangelical” movement examines how toxic right-wing beliefs took over American Christianity—and why people are leaving the church and speaking out against it

With the rise of Trumpism, the American evangelical movement has more political influence than ever—yet at the same time, people are leaving Christianity in record numbers. Why are so many people walking away from the right-wing religion they were raised in, and what are they doing to overcome the past?

Nones, Nominals and #Exvangelical(s) with Blake Chastain

Recorded: August 19 2020

Posted: September 4, 2020

REPRISE: June 6, 2021 – re-broadcast

Podcast Show Notes

Blake’s Bio from the website.

Exvangelical is a podcast dedicated to personal stories about living in, leaving, and coming to terms with the messed up subculture of evangelicalism–and exploring the wide world of faith, belief, and disbelief outside of it.

Hi. I’m Blake Chastain. I’m a writer living in Chicago, Illinois with my wife and daughter. Before I lived in Chicago, I grew up in Indiana and the southwest suburbs of Chicago. I am thoroughly Midwestern.

I am also thoroughly (ex-) evangelical. My family attended United Methodist churches all throughout my youth, but despite the mainline moniker, much of the pervasive culture I was in–especially through youth group materials and the Christian bookstore I worked at during high school–was de facto evangelical. I took my faith seriously. I still do. In fact that’s why I’m no longer evangelical. Here’s some of my credentials.

I attended Christian college. The run-up to and subsequent invasion of Iraq, coupled with studying New Testament Greek, resulted in a crisis of faith that rattled me. (This is commonly called deconstruction.)

Additional crises, as well as anincident of church/spiritual abuse, furthered the deconstruction as the years passed. As fate would have it, I studiedevangelical politics in graduate school,and I stumbled upon the“Creation Care”movement, which rekindled an interest in Christianity–albeit outside the evangelical framework.

Over time I realized there was a lot to continue to deconstruct. 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.

Now I talk with others whose lives have moved beyond evangelicalism and share their stories. By growing up or living in the evangelical subculture, we all have a cultural shorthand to refer to. Those things have resonance. I believe, however, that the true value is in the individual stories that are shared on the podcast. I hope you enjoy the stories you hear, and the things you read, and that you reach out to me at contact@exvangelicalpodcast.com.

You can find me on Twitter @brchastain and follow the show on Twitter at @exvangelicalpod.