What is The Post-Evangelical Post?

The Post-Evangelical Post is a newsletter about belief, technology, and society—with a focus on white evangelicalism and its influence in American society—by me, Blake Chastain. I also host the podcasts Exvangelical and Powers & Principalities, and write extensively about topics related to deconstruction, faith shifts, identity, and media/technology.

I donate 25% of net revenue to organizations that serve populations harmed by white evangelicalism: those organizations are White Homework and The Religious Exemption Accountability Project (more may be selected in the future, as subscriptions rise).

To learn how to support my work, visit the Support page, or keep scrolling.

Subscribe for free or upgrade to $5/month or $50/year—25% of net proceeds of are donated.

Exvangelical focuses on the stories of people who have left white evangelicalism; Powers & Principalities focuses on the systems & institutions that perpetuate white evangelical influence in politics and society.

The Post-Evangelical Post….posts…fall into these categories:

  • ❌ Exvangelical (podcast show notes)

  • 📱 Shaped By Tools (tech & media commentary)

  • 📚 The Good Books (book reviews)

  • ⚖️ Powers & Principalities (podcast show notes)

  • ✍🏻 Marginalia (link-blogging)

By subscribing to The Post-Evangelical Post, you will stay in-the-loop about developments within evangelicalism, as well as projects from people who have left evangelicalism and have things to say.

By purchasing a paid subscription, you enable me to commit more time and energy to developing the newsletter, the Exvangelical and Powers &Principalities podcasts, and other projects.


What does “exvangelical” mean?

I coined the #exvangelical hashtag on Twitter in 2016 and began podcasting that same year. It regularly receives over 100,000 daily impressions on Twitter, has been used on Instagram over 70,000 times as of January 2022, and reached over 1 billion impressions on TikTok in 2022.

This is how I understand and relate to the term:

Similar to the way we use terms like “ex-husband” or “ex-girlfriend” to acknowledge a prior relationship that has ended, “exvangelical” acknowledges an individual’s prior place within the evangelical movement and culture that they have since left behind.

“Exvangelical” is an easily accessible shorthand to acknowledge our past experience. It nods to our heritage and how it has shaped us, but does not make any assumptions about what we – individually or collectively – believe now. 

I wrote an essay offering a working definition of the term in 2019, which I republished here on Substack:

The Post-Evangelical Post
Exvangelical - A Working Definition
This essay was originally published on March 2, 2019 at exvangelicalpodcast.com and is republished below. Over the past few years, the term “exvangelical” has gained traction on social media, especially through Twitter & Facebook. One early criticism of “exvangelical” as a term was that it was overly negative. Since many of these conversations happened di…
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Where can I listen to the podcast?

You can listen on all the podcasting platforms.


Why upgrade to paid?

My podcasting & writing is supported by you. You can support the newsletter at $5/month or $50/year. I donate 25% of net revenue to organizations that serve populations harmed by white evangelicalism: those organizations are White Homework and The Religious Exemption Accountability Project (more may be selected in the future, as subscriptions rise).

Supporter perks include:

  • ad-free podcast feeds to Exvangelical and Powers & Principalities

  • Discord access (email me for a fresh link—they expire after 7 days)

  • access to subscriber-only posts

  • more to come

As mentioned above, I donate 25% of net revenue. For more information about why I do this, read this post:

The Post-Evangelical Post
The Next Chapter for The Post-Evangelical Post, Exvangelical, and Beyond
The Story So Far Five years ago, I started the Exvangelical podcast in an effort to understand why so many people, myself included, had decided to leave the white evangelical church that formed me, and I used the #exvangelical hashtag in order to promote the podcast. It has since taken on a life of its own, garnering over 100k impressions per day on Twit…
Read more

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Home of the Exvangelical podcast & a newsletter about belief, tech, & society—with a focus on US white evangelicalism.

People

Writer: The Post-Evangelical Post newsletter. Host: Exvangelical and Powers & Principalities podcasts. Founding member of Irreverent Media Group. Coined #exvangelical. For more info, visit https://blakechastain.com