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

by Blake Chastain

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?

Writer and podcaster Blake Chastain is uniquely positioned to understand this phenomenon. Raised evangelical, he went to a Christian college intending to become a pastor—until he found himself unable to reconcile his faith with the prejudice and even abuse he saw being done in God’s name. He created the popular hashtag #exvangelical and the hit podcast of the same name, and soon became part of a growing movement of people walking away from toxic religion and using the unique tools of the internet to speak out, find healing, and build new communities.

In Exvangelical and Beyond, Chastain delves into evangelicalism’s deep roots in American politics and society, and explains why and how so many Christians—and ex-Christians—are forging a new path online. Blending history, personal narrative, and incisive analysis, this is a must-read for anyone who has left the church, is deconstructing their own faith, or simply wants to understand religious culture in America.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, Christian, Politics, History, Audiobook, Spirituality

288 pages, Hardcover

Published September 24, 2024

Reviews

[Nic · Rating 5 out of 5]

TW: mentions sexual abuse by church leaders, racism

There’s something weirdly comforting (and eerie) reading a book about someone’s similar experiences with religion. From now on, when a well meaning person asks me why I don’t go to church anymore, I’ll point them to this book.

Regarding leaving a congregation or religion, Chastain says, “This is melancholy work.” And he’s right. He put into words so many of the things that still anger me - and to some extent, still cause me grief.

The White evangelicalism that reinforces the value of Whiteness, of making a strict in group culture and devaluing all others has been devastating to BIPOC like myself. The virulent anti LGBTQIA+ hatred still haunts me.

It’s also the realization that as a group (yes, I know, not all- but more than enough), in exchange for political power, this brand of religion embraced so many hatreds. They’ve peddled conspiracy theories and elevated a vile leader all while telling so many of us who grew up among them that we weren’t welcome. That’s what makes it all feel particularly egregious.

Exvangelicals have been in the church. Some, like myself, knew little else. Everything -absolutely everything- was expected and demanded. There’s so much I could say but I’d just recommend this book. He explains why the queer/BIPOC/abused/people just slightly outside of the homogeneous culture have left in droves- and why we’re still rather stunned.

[Annalise · Rating 3 out of 5]

His writing is good, but I'm just not sure if it adds anything else to the conversation.

[Edward ott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book. A real look into why so many people are leaving

[Cindy Coats · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is excellent and a necessary tool for people both in the faith space and who have left. I attended the same college as Chastain and looking back now I see how insane those requirements were. As someone with a ministry degree who has separated from the faith, this encapsulates so much. Chastains voice is necessary if we are going to hold the American evangelical church accountable and get back to actual scripture and not white male American interpretations of scripture.

[Andria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Appreciate a book that can do what it sets out to do in under 300 pages. Chastain's overview of the origins of white Christian evangelicalism and its rise to political power in the United States is both informative and succinct, making it accessible to any reader no matter their level of engagement with the movement. I was a little worried he wouldn't be able to pull off the conclusion, which questions where those who left evangelicalism should go next, but it provides a few starting points without being exhaustive. The bibliography is extensive and well documented so while this isn't an instructional book in itself, there are plenty of places to go from here. Most persuasive I think was his argument that reform movements either from within or outside of evangelicalism are doomed to failure, and he backed this up with ample evidence from the movement's history. Indeed, the biggest players in evangelicalism today were often the loudest detractors of yesterday's reform movements. Interesting stuff well articulated, I recommend it.

[Marcie Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, this book is at the top of its class. I really appreciate Chastain’s exploration of a wide variety of vital questions surrounding evangelicalism. I also value the way that he synthesized multiple academic and historic sources, along with limited personal anecdotes. I absolutely recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic.

[Katharine Strange · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last 5 years have seen a number of books come out on the topic of white Evangelicalism and its embrace of MAGA culture. You could be forgiven for wondering if there was anything left to say on the topic. But anyone who truly wants to understand our current cultural and political moment ought to read "Exvangelical and Beyond."

Not only does Chastain bring an insider's perspective to white Evangelicalism, he presents a clear throughline of how what was once a fringe Christian movement came to dominate American politics and lead to the election of Trump. Evangelicalism, he successfully argues, is much more than a series of theological positions, it's a subculture, a worldview, and a political ideology all rolled into one.

Christian identity and American patriotism can feel hopelessly intertwined with white Evangelicalism, but this book offers hope for how we might unwind this racist, misogynist system and turn towards something more just.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing new that hasn’t already been covered.

[Kari Schooley · Rating 3 out of 5]

What to say….I didn’t agree with all of the content. My main disagreement is with the idea that a person can be an “exvangelical” if they leave fundamentalism, yet it doesn’t matter if they are atheist, agnostic, Buddhist, Muslim, in another sect of Christianity or confused afterward. Exvangelicals, to me, would be a Christian who leaves fundamentalism and evangelicalism and stays within Christianity. Otherwise, you’re just an ex Christian who left the faith altogether because of fundamentalism and evangelicalism. Most of the book equated evangelicals with right wing republicans while saying that both of those were wrong. I hesitate to say wrong….most outlooks are just different and not focused on the same things.

I am so blessed to have escaped the fundamentalism of my early years which formed my early faith through guilt, shame, and ominous foreboding; God never wanted me to have a burdened relationship with Him. We were always meant to be walking in a friendship with God as He modeled in our creation. The abuse happened so prevalently in that environment of shame, and there are so many fundamentalists and evangelicals who must answer for that and for equating their gospel with God’s. The reason why this book gets a 3 is because it gets us thinking and talking and pondering. We need to know what we believe and where we stand and not just glide through in a “faith.” Christianity is not the cultural norm anymore, so many people who believed or followed a belief system because of their parents, family, school, church, or social community will not truly believe in Christianity. Falling away can be influenced on abusers but not blamed on them. I have many more thoughts, and overall, this is a good read for Christian’s bc we need to know why and how people leave a faith. Bottom line for me is that my relationship with God is personal…no person can take it away or give it to me.

[Melissa Gilbreth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well rounded approach to a big topic. I appreciated that he referenced other writers.
He connected how so many of us feel when the very people that taught us who Jesus was and is and what He stands for are instead committing to the elevation of Trump that has blatant disregard for human beings. The dichotomy of what should be and what actually is is heartbreaking. So many have turned a blind eye to those in need to support Trump.

“It wasn’t just non-Protestant denominations they decried. It was any sort of liberalism or modernism, which after all, blames society’s problems not on the individual, but on the capitalist systems that fundamentalist corporate leaders profited from. In Gleig’s words, “they wanted this orthodox standard to align with, in fact to enshrine their corporate evangelical framework.”… “and instead of saying they had a political agenda, they just said they wanted to get back to old time religion”.
-Blake Chastain


Stop and think about that. Evangelical leaders like Dr. Dobson are making millions of dollars by promoting their own brand of faith only loosely connected to Jesus’s ministry.
Watch out for these false prophets. The “rules” in the Bible were NEVER to be enforced over the love and mercy of God. Jesus preached a people first message and consistently lived that example.

[Marnie Buck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really important book for those trying to understand how the evangelical church has evolved into a political force in the United States and lost its soul in the process. A historical and illuminating look at how the movement has never been quite what it might have appeared to be, offering an explanation to those who feel so unmoored by the church in Trump's America.

[jm_rives · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blake Chastain's book “Exvangelical and Beyond” is an excellent entry point in understanding White evangelicalism and the inevitability of the Exvangelical phenomenom. Chastain begins with a insightful overview of the history of the White Evangelical movement in the United States, and although not comphrehensive, it surfaced details I had not know before that were infuriating, but painted a clearer picture of how we arrived at our current political state. Interspered in this historical review, Chastain recounts some of his own experiences growing up in the movement that I found relateable and that echoed my own experiences coming of age in the under the shadow of the "Moral Majority". I highly recommend Blake Chastain's "Exvangelical and Beyond: How American Christianity Went Radical and the Movement That's Fighting Back".

[Abi Kyea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super fascinating book about Exvangelicals and the current political climate, though not an easy read. It's written like an academic paper and I was only able to power through because of how interested I am in the topic. I just read The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church and found it much more accessible and personally impactful. Both books provided a lot of complementary value though, and paralleled my evangelical upbringing closely.
Based on my experience, this book was accurate about the Evangelical "bubble" that dismisses any opinions outside it, even experts in their fields.
And, this helped me process how so many in my past and current circles could support Trump.

"[Trump's] incessant lying inoculated both the Republican Party and white evangelicals against the effect of political and social shame. His capacity for duplicity extends so far beyond any concept of hypocrisy that the word 'hypocrite' doesn't even really apply; he has no morals to be hypocritical about, just ego and a desire to be worshipped that his followers (which include many evangelicals) are happy to fulfill. He made it acceptable to be unapologetically authoritarian, a trait evangelicalism needed no help cultivating ... In Trump, evangelicals found a resonant apocalypticism -- a belief that members of their in-group embody all that is good, that their enemies embody all that is evil, and they have to defeat their enemies by any means necessary to prevent society from falling into ruin."

Other memorable quotes here since I read the physical book...

"Proponents of the Social Gospel, for example, advocated for measures like labor reform and public services as a way to end socioeconomic inequality and make earth more like they imagined heaven to be. Per historian Kevin Kruse, they 'significantly reframed Christianity as a faith concerned less with personal salvation and more with the public good.'
Moody and others, in contrast, saw a different path toward alleviating suffering, one grounded in the capitalist framework called 'Christian work.' This approach 'presented individuals as the source of social ill and the primary means of potential change' and 'cultivated the idea that a business sensibility could strengthen both individual piety and Christian society by wedding robust emotions to strict self-control, in the name of an optimized relationship with God.' Essentially, the external markers of being a "good Christian" were individualism and self-reliance -- the same traits that would supposedly let a person succeed within capitalism."

"The expectation that the end of days was nigh conditioned believers to expect the world to get worse before the inevitable return of Jesus, which bred both apathy about their present earthly condition and a longing for an unrealized heavenly future."

"... hydrogen bombs, the population explosion, increasing crime, sexual perversion, homosexuality, immorality, dependence on pills and alcohol, political turmoil, and a lack of true faith. The most controversial movements of the day, such as feminism, civil rights, and the battle against communism, served as additional signs.
Lists liked these, as imagined by Graham and other evangelicals, cast the movement's political opponents -- who were often marginalized people advocating for equal rights -- as harbingers of the apocalypse. This cosmology takes evangelicalism's in-group identity formation to a logical extreme; outsiders aren't just strange or bad people, they're the literal end of the world."

"There is something inherently nihilistic about this pre-millenialist worldview. It puts so little emphasis on addressing societal ills -- why try to solve a difficult and unpleasant problem like segregation given that Christ is going to return at any moment and make it a moot point? Instead, an individual response to the gospel is necessary in order to assure individual salvation, and any large-scale issue, real or imagined, simply becomes another bit of proof to reinforce both your political opinions and your apocalypticism."

"Unlike his predecessors who published The Fundamentals, Billy Graham was not a scholar, he was an evangelist first and foremost. Yet he evangelized for the same principles: fundamentalist mores, capitalist apologetics, and a normative whiteness. These ideas coalesced in a school of thought known as Americanism, which Butler describes as 'pride in the nation, in the founders, in the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution -- and most important, in the idea that America was a nation ordained by God to save the world.'"

Damn this sounds familiar...

"*** fill in context... I think this was after 9/11***
I remember how in that class that week, the professor showed us a newspaper headlines about long lines at local gas stations, which people had flocked to because they didn't know if gas supplies would be cut off. He chided any of us who'd filled up our tanks the day before for our lack of faith. It was pretty harsh for an audience of teenagers reacting to an unprecedented global event -- not to mention that, in retrospect, relying on God for the divine providence of gasoline of all things, is an almost comically American-capitalist expression of Christianity.

Contemporary white evangelicals bemoan 'cancel culture,' but in reality they have long practiced it. For the crime of asserting that God loves humanity enough to offer salvation to all, Bell's books were removed from Lifeway bookstores and other Christian retailers."

"my point is ... about evangelicalism. It's about the cruelty of a movement that happily forgets its theology to accommodate capitalism and whiteness but absolutely loses its mind when someone proposes the idea of a God who loves people outside the evangelical in-group."

"Trump's effect on evangelicalism extends far beyond his campaign and administration. His incessant lying inoculated both the Republican Party and white evangelicals against the effect of political and social shame. His capacity for duplicity extends so far beyond any concept of hypocrisy that the word 'hypocrite' doesn't even really apply; he has no morals to be hypocritical about, just ego and a desire to be worshipped that his followers (which include many evangelicals) are happy to fulfill. He made it acceptable to be unapologetically authoritarian, a trait evangelicalism needed no help cultivating."

"In Trump, evangelicals found a resonant apocalypticism -- a belief that members of their in-group embody all that is good, that their enemies embody all that is evil, and they have to defeat their enemies by any means necessary to prevent society from falling into ruin. The real-world consequences of this type of thinking became apparent in the QAnon conspiracy theory that ravaged evangelical churches and other communities. Though not explicitly Christian, it echoed dispensational premillennialism eerily closely, with tis fixation on secret signs and symbols that, if correctly interpreted, would reveal a higher plan to reward the faithful and punish the wicked."

"What part of vaccinations and other public health measures during a pandemic go against Christian doctrine? A century earlier, in response to the Spanish flu outbreak, churches of many denominations readily complied with governmental requests to suspend regular services in the interest of pubic health. But with Trump in power, the Christian bubble was more emboldened than ever to act in its self-interest without regard for anyone else's well-being. Especially during the peak of the pandemic, it was almost as if the rejection of reality became a tenet of the religion. Truth had become defined by what Trump and other in-group leaders said, not by the observable world."

"I think this 'spirituality of care' speaks directly to the lived experience of evangelicals in that it builds on the apocalyptic notions that still haunt our psyches, but it also returns to us our agency. The apocalyptic outlook is often part of our first worldview, and it stays with us even as we change. My undergraduate philosophy professor once asked us to look out the window and describe what we saw. After we did so, he commented that no one said, 'I see glass,; He said -- another metaphor -- that this is how our inherited worldviews work. We don't realize our vision is mediated by anything, even when that something is an impassable barrier."

[Kimberly Loll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating especially from a sociological perspective. I have heard or read a good amount of what was in this book. And I still learned more.

[Ron Badgerow III · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who has left Evangelicalism (and therefore could consider myself an exvangelical), I found this refreshing and necessary. Thank you Blake for creating a space for others like you to connect, share, grieve, heal, and move forward. It is definitely a relief knowing I am not alone and that there are other ways to explore and express myself and my faith (or lack thereof) as I navigate this life and its many challenges.

[Rachael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was curious to read this book by an alum of my own alma mater. He gives an accurate, concise look at how evangelicalism has always been predisposed to certain weaknesses and how things have gone sideways in the 21st Century .. and where to go from here.

[Wendy Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plodding and pedantic.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

American culture has been a constantly changing entity for many decades. At the forefront of this change has been the relationship between Americans and our religious beliefs. Religion is one of the most dominating factors that drive how Americans think and how Americans live. However, religion is also losing ground to Americans who consider themselves to be nonbelievers, secularists, or humanists. In his book, Exvangelical + Beyond: How American Christianity Went Radical And The Movement That’s Fighting Back (New York: TarcherPerigee, 268pgs., US $28 CAN $37.99), author, podcaster, and exvangelical Blake Chastain, describes the hold that religion has had on American live for centuries, and the fight that many nonbelievers and others are waging to loosen that hold.
Exvangelical is an emotional narrative of the impacts that religion has had on American life since the Colonial Era. Chastain describes the evolution of religion in America as an avenue for community and belonging that has since become an easy way for those in power to stay in power. Chastain believes that religion has evolved into a dangerous form of mind control that has left former believers traumatized and struggling to understand how something so innocuous could wind up being so polarizing. Exvangelical takes the reader from the religious movements known as the first and second great awakenings to the current effort by religious groups to marginalize LGBTQ+ and other minority groups. Chastain suggests that many believers do not condone or endorse hate and prejudice but are afraid to speak out against their perceived religious leaders and congregations.
Exvangelical is a great read. Chastain writes much as if he were having a conversation with someone looking for solace in something other than religion. Exvangelical is an instruction manual for anyone looking to emerge from religion or help someone who may be suffering from religious trauma. Humanists and others can use this little book to help form conversations that can lead others out of religion. Chastain provides much documentation and evidence for how those conversations can happen. Exvangelical deserves a place on the shelf along with Hitchens, Dennett, and Greyling.



Matt


Exvangelical + Beyond
Blake Chastain
Tarcher Perigee (Random House)
penguinrandomhouse.com
ISBN 97880593717073 $28 Hardcover $15.99 Kindle 268pgs.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25/5

You never know where an expose on evangelicals and Christian Nationalism mixed with some biographical writing will end up. But Chastain does an incredible job making exvangelicals feel seen in this book.

Almost immediately I am taken back by the authors writing capabilities. You almost glide through the book with the way Chastain weaves his words together. But a lot of the information is not new. Chastain relies heavily upon the work of others, especially Fitzgerald, Butler, Du Mez, and more who have helped boldly lead the uncovering and amplification of the harm being perpetuated by evangelical circles. But I don’t mean this as an insult AT ALL. Blake does something amazing in condensing so much into neatly packaged, digestible chapters before adding sprinkles of his own insights. And his insights - absolutely brilliant. I only wish there was more.

His mentioning of capitalism, printing and media capture, and constructing metaphors are all alluring. Bringing in unique perspectives on concepts such as hyperobjects and counterpublics is inventive for this field. But all of this desperately needs more elaboration! In other words - this book should have been 200 pages more of brilliant writing.

But in all honesty, and more than anything, this book is weirdly comforting. For someone who reads and has studied this subject (I do not claim to be an expert), one is always skeptical about what a new book in this field will add. But Blake’s book should be noted for its staunch contribution in that it is a critique, an overview, a bit biographical, and most importantly, a resource and validation for exvangelicals (and not just exvangelicals). If I were to recommend any resource to someone looking at deconstruction or to make sense of the journey they have already traversed, this is where I will lead them.

[Ryan Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exvangelical and Beyond

41/2024.

This book aims to chart the emergence of the #exvangelical movement. It’s written by the creator of that hash tag and founder of the podcast by the same name.

The book does a great job of explaining the history of evangelicalism and the various forces that have tried to reform it, leading to the need for people to leave evangelicalism. Blake interweaves his own personal story in a thoughtful way.

The exvangelical movement reflects a rejection of the accumulated baggage of American Evangelicalism, especially around racial, economic and political identities that have replaced or distorted much of the theological focus of the evangelical church in America. It’s a movement I participate in, given my own roots in a midwestern Evangelical at the turn of the century, and subsequent move away from that breed of Christianity. In fact, Blake and I met and became friends while at an Evangelical university, and I was honored to be one of the guests on his podcast as it was starting out.

The book starts with a necessary summation of the cancers that are Evangelicalism from within - distorting the “good news” to support racism, oligarchal capitalism, political alliances with officials diametrically opposed to their religious views, and the like. There are books with deeper dives into each of those areas individually, but this is a helpful and necessary review to solidify the argument against Evangelicalism and propose the alternative.

When turning to the emergence of the Exvangelical movement, Blake explains the fundamentals of media theory to help show how and why it’s grown and taken the shape it has. While there’s optimism at the end of the book, there’s clearly a wake of damage in evangelicalism’s past that must eventually be reckoned with; that work has yet to begin in earnest.

[:) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps it's due to being raised in this, surrounded by it, and knowing firsthand a lot of these topics... but I really felt like it didn't raise anything new to talk or think on. Maybe it could serve as an introduction to followers due to being a very nonjudgmental, brief history lesson but its still not the book I would personally recommend to anyone that wants to know more, or even the bare basics, since it didn't go in depth enough and Blake's reliance on using other writers and scholars that are more insightful.

But more troubling than his lack of academic value, he references these other writers that have made firm stances rather than the more coddling approach he takes despite the subject matter. While I know something like this book can be important for people that are just getting out or the still devoted Evangelicals that have some curiosity on their religion—the gentle, friendly ‘introduction’ to this terrible history is something I'm always going to be fully against and take issue with. You can't just say it's been used to justify racism or eugenics and that be it. If youre going to talk about the influence and real harm evangelicalism has caused, and how those roots and this religion is still causing issues for marginalized groups, you need to fucking say it with your whole chest rather than coddling the reality of this fact or barely brushing into the history without expanding much thought into the victims beyond just referencing their existence. I know it isn't a history lesson (despite the subtitle's slight implications...) and again, I GET how some people will have more use or more interest in than my jaded ass wanting more; but it felt as if the author was writing for a different audience than the people that have actually been discriminated against and negatively effected by this religion in their daily lives beyond just feeling lied to.

[Rach · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at the social, political, economic, and yes, religious, group that is evangelicals, with a dive into the racist history of the movement and how it turned from merely “conservative” to a group that would support someone like Trump, despite the fact that he is the antithesis to what Christ taught in the Bible. If you’re a Christian and wondering why people are leaving the church, or a non-Christian trying to figure out why this group of people act in ways so contradictory to what they claim to believe, or an exvangelical trying to work your way through your religious institutional trauma, I think you’ll find something of interest in here. Blake Chastain has clearly done his research into each topic, from church history to how social media and the internet has changed the way groups connect and expand. His perspective growing up in the church gives him a personal connection to this continually evolving story, as well.

Personally, I have not given up on the Christian church as an institution, because I know there are churches out there still following Christ’s teachings and doing their best to support their communities. But there is a lot of work to be done in dismantling the toxic culture that has taken over it as a whole, and it’s hard to see a pathway forward without leaders who are willing to step up and draw a line in the sand, and push back against the racist, xenophobic, homophobic, classist rhetoric that has taken over.


Like looking through glass: “This is how our inherited worldviews worked. We don’t realize our vision is mediated by anything, even when that something is an impassable barrier.”

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Walking away from evangelicalism means losing not just a certain form of spirituality but also a certain form of ethics. And so again, we must look outside evangelical tradition to make up for our inherited deficiencies, seeking ethics that honestly appraise the world and its systems rather than trying to cram it into the simplistic framework of sin. To do that, these ethics must account for rapid social and technological change.

The steadfast evangelical commitment to never changing is not a virtue but a vice, and one that is costing them and us dearly.”

Chastain offers a well compiled history of evangelicalism through the lens of many of the exvangelical contributors that have come together over the last decade. If you’re looking for a historical exploration and explanation of how things came to be and where things started to fracture, this is it. Chastain lacks aggressive judgement but rather tries to outline the major issues over the years, why they are of concern and how they led to a mass exodus and break from these traditions.

Initially I felt as if he should have narrowed his target audience, but as I read the whole thing my mind changed. The book was surprisingly not what I was expecting, but not in a bad way. It was well-researched, intelligently organized and clear.

[Kendra Wand · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made sooo many things click into place as someone who isn't evangelical, but experienced the trickle down ill effects of their...compulsions of control to put it kindly. Particularly, the history of how evangelicalism attached itself to capitalistic notions and purposefully picked sections of the bible that didn't involve Jesus. If I had a dollar for every time I saw a headline of some white Christian nationalist Fundie or Evangelical preaching pain and suffering and strife for people of color or LGBT people and thought "Well, that's not very Christ-like of them" I would have enough to buy 40 copies of this book. So imagine how hard I gagged when I got to the chapter about how leaders of Evangelicalism purposefully chose to align itself with beliefs that Jesus never cosigned. Like, all of the cognitive dissonance of conservative American nationalist religion has been planned. My god.

I felt my brain expand so much, and this book really reaffirmed the feelings I've had about the dominant religion in the United States. Specifically, the idea that a lot of Fundamentalism is essentially trying to make a world with nothing but straight white people. Like thank you Blake Chastain for helping me confirm that I am not crazy.

[Shayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Chastain’s book is probably the most textbook or cerebral book I’ve listened to so far about Christian deconstruction. Most of what I’ve read so far have been more memoirs. I did really enjoy it and it gave me so much to think about. He does a phenomenal job explaining how the evangelical/fundamental movement came to be what we know of today, how the exvangelical rose out of a response’s to it, and what he thinks the future will be. I really like how he quoted several sources on both sides of the issue (which definitely makes me want to read more.) Generally, it’s really readable, but there were some parts I definitely had to slow down and listen to again because it got pretty theoretical. I also didn’t like his conclusion that the Christian Church at large isn’t reformable, though he does cite some pretty compelling evidence as to why he think that. I’m just not ready to give it all up, personally, so I’m still holding out hope and probably need to read/listen to more things. Overall, great book to listen to if you want to understand evangelical and exvangelical history more.

[Malin Friess · Rating 5 out of 5]

First you have to ask what is evangelicalism?
1- Biblicism: emphasizes authority of the Bible over clergy or Church Tradition
2- Crucicentrism: Jesus death on the cross is the defining and central feature of Christianity
3- Conversionism: You must actively choose Christianity in a transformational moment
4- Activism: emphasizes bringing others into the faith

What is exvangelical? Refers to a person who was once a part of evangelical subculture and has left?

What are the most common reasons people are leaving evangelicalism: no longer wanting to exclude queer people (wanting to affirm LGBTQ+), reckoning with the affects of purity culture (purity rings, like a chewed up piece of gum, or flower who's petals have been lost), distancing from political conservatism (Trumpism).

A hard book to read at times as the author makes an effective attack on evangelical subculture. But not always fair to the Gospel message of Grace, Forgiveness, humility (The sermon on the mount) and the many churches and Christians that are trying to do things differently.

5 stars.

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's OK. It's not bad. It mostly covers ground I've read about in other books, though.

Chastain is the guy who created the hashtag #Exvangelical and then turned it into a podcast. He freely admits it's usage has ground far beyond anything he can take credit for, as it's biggest on social media platforms he doesn't use much (Instagram, TikTok).

The first half covers the history of the evangelical church and how it's blinkered in terms of race, gender, and power dynamics. That said, the same church groups created their own infrastructure that makes being in the community part of their entire identity and social life. But the limitations cause people like Chatain and others to leave. He gives his own story, and the second half of the book . . fell a bit flat. The Exvangalical movement came out more slight than I would've guessed, especially considering the author is the guy who is the forefront of it. I don't think that was his goal, but it's how I received it.

[Oli Grabowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book did a very good job at breaking down the relationship between conservative politics and the evangelical christian church and I think it is an important read for anyone who is in that religious sect. It really exposes the fact that the religion of christianity is more about what the leaders want people in america, and all over the world, to believe and support (for example, capitalism, sexism, white supremacy), rather than trying to be upstanding members of society that have empathy for others and helping those in need. The true mission seems to be upholding the patriarchy, normalizing white supremacy, and not allowing anyone to live freely as their true selves because god (the christian church) wants them to fulfill traditional gender roles (let hateful men make all of the decisions and have women and others submit to them no matter what).

[Dee • booksbrewsbre · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a solid introductory level work on the topics of deconstruction and the impact of evangelicalism on American culture and politics. The book is written in a way that is simultaneously accessible, engaging, and intellectual. Exvangelical + Beyond comes in at only 225 pages of main text and makes for a quick read, but it doesn’t sacrifice important material for the sake of brevity.

Readers who are familiar with the book’s topics may be left wanting something more in depth, but I still enjoyed it and learned some new things. I particularly enjoyed the historical aspects of the book that are sometimes overlooked in similar pieces of media.

Overall, a worthy addition to its realm of books and a good launch pad for further reading. (I added so many books Chastain referenced to my TBR!)

[Cheryl Beseler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blake Chastain is the originator of the Exvangelical podcast so hearing him talk more about his experience in the evangelical world provides background for his endeavor to help those who are deconstructing. Having read many books on leaving evangelicalism since it is personal to me, I found the discussion of the online exvangelical community and the evangelical response to the deconstruction movement an important contribution to the story. Chastain provides a brief history of evangelicalism from its developments in the 1800s. This is a brief history but covers the critical junctures and events that made this movement what it is today. This book was informative and easy to read and expanded the current subject of the experience of being an exevangelical.