The Post-Evangelical Post

Share this post
Post-election retrospectives, #ILeftBecause, and a new look for Exvangelical
www.postevangelicalpost.com

Post-election retrospectives, #ILeftBecause, and a new look for Exvangelical

Lots of links today.

Blake Chastain
Nov 19, 2020
4
1
Share this post
Post-election retrospectives, #ILeftBecause, and a new look for Exvangelical
www.postevangelicalpost.com

Hello, new subscribers! Several people have signed up in the last couple of weeks. I bid thee welcome to The Post-Evangelical Post.

I’m still working on the next entry in the “How Should We Then Live (with Evangelical Christian Nationalists)? series - part 1 is here - but in the meantime, a lot has happened.

Trump Still Hasn’t Conceded

The GOP continues to throw its weight behind President Trump’s misinformation campaign alleging widespread voter fraud. The various legal challenges are too many to mention here, but of note is Lindsey Graham’s effort to influence the Secretary of State of Georgia, urging him to throw away ballots.

There was a brief moment where Robert Jeffress signaled that Trump should concede...

Twitter avatar for @JasonIsCreatingJason Boyd Rejects Fascism @JasonIsCreating
@C_Stroop @brchastain did you guys see this yet? This caught me off guard. I sense a split coming....
Prominent Trump backer, evangelical minister Jeffress admits Biden has wonEvangelical pastor Robert Jeffress has become one of the few high-profile supporters of President Trump to admit in public that the election was won by Joe...news.yahoo.com

November 12th 2020

5 Likes

…but it didn’t last long.

Twitter avatar for @robertjeffressDr. Robert Jeffress @robertjeffress
Don’t believe some false media reports that I have “broken” with our great President @realDonaldTrump. I support him completely. We do NOT have a “president-elect” until electoral college votes December 14. I will discuss on “@LouDobbs Tonight" Friday.

November 11th 2020

6,664 Retweets18,961 Likes

Trump’s failure to reckon with failure, and the GOP enabling of his reckless, spiteful, behavior is eroding democratic norms by the day. Transition of power is central to a functioning democracy, and this coup attempt is petty and, like all things the McConnell-led Republican party does, corrosive.

#ILeftBecause Stories on Twitter

Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option who routinely opts out of said option, opined on his blog and his own substack about people leaving the evangelical church because of Trump:

Over at my Substack newsletter this weekend, I wrote about a man who came to a speech I gave, and in the Q&A session said that even though he and his wife raised their three children in the Evangelical church, two of them have left it in adulthood, and the third — age 32, married, with kids — is barely hanging on. The reason? Trump. The Trump years crystallized their anger at what they consider to be the church’s hypocrisy.

After saying that obviously I don’t know his children and what motivated them, I suggested to the man that Trump might be an excuse, and that they wanted to leave the church anyway. I said that I don’t blame them at all for being alienated from a church that is essentially MAGA At Prayer, but the idea that white conservative American Evangelicalism represents the fullness of Christianity is simply bizarre — so strange that I find it hard to accept that MAGA is why they have left the faith.

This is tiresome to post-evangelical ears, and dismissive of the lived experience of so many people who left evangelicalism, either for a different form of faith or for no faith at all.

To that end, Chrissy Stroop started the hashtag #ILeftBecause on Twitter in order to highlight the valid reasons why people leave their faith communities:

Twitter avatar for @C_StroopChrissy is Antifa and You Can Too @C_Stroop
Hey all, why don’t you share your stories of why you left evangelicalism or any form of conservative Christianity with Rod Dreher, since he’s suddenly interested in the topic. Maybe we could hashtag it #ILeftBecause?

The American Conservative @amconmag

@C_Stroop The fellow who wrote the letter was giving his reasoning. Something as complicated as losing your faith will have a lot of reasons in different cases/individuals

November 17th 2020

161 Retweets525 Likes

Exploring the nuance behind why people leave white evangelicalism in particular is the driving force behind why I’ve been publishing the Exvangelical podcast for the past four years. These glib dismissals of people who have undergone a(n often) personally and socially devastating loss of faith and community serve no purpose other than to reify the borders of white evangelicalism itself. It is far too simplistic to write off people who leave as ‘lukewarm believers;’ they were true believers, but they cannot reconcile the ethic of their community with the calling of their conscience, and they cannot reform a community that does not want to be reformed.

Twitter avatar for @brchastainBlake Chastain @brchastain
@d_l_mayfield grief is a constant companion for people who have tried to reform white evangelicalism, and it spikes during national election years, when evangelicalism makes its true values known. it does not want to be reformed. you aren't alone.

November 4th 2020

48 Retweets286 Likes

I highly recommend perusing the stories that are being collected under the #ILeftBecause hashtag.

Share

A New Logo

Last week I unveiled the new logo for Exvangelical on Twitter & Instagram. Here it is:

I absolutely love this design by Jenna Luecke. I gave her a simple prompt: a design that illustrates something dying away so that new growth can begin. This is the result, and I think it is a powerful symbol of the process of both ‘deconstruction’ and the ways we grow after leaving our faith of origin. As I wrote on Instagram:

This image, of all manner of flowers and plants growing from a Bible, expresses the various ways that those of us who’ve left white evangelicalism have found our own distinct ways to flourish. We may all have been rooted in similar experiences, but find our own expression of new growth. And that diversity is beautiful. Jenna captured that.

Follow me on Instagram, if that’s your thing:

exvangelicalpod
A post shared by Exvangelical Podcast (@exvangelicalpod)

The Latest on Powers & Principalities

Over on Powers & Principalities, I’m wrapping up the first season with a series of post-election retrospectives. The first episode, featuring Bradley Onishi from Straight White American Jesus, was posted last week. Another discussion with Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family and the Netflix documentary series of the same name, is live today.

Support My Work: Share, Subscribe

Thanks for reading, everyone. If you enjoy this work and it’s within your means, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to this newsletter. Other methods of support are available at this site.

I’ve written a bit about the economics of being an independent creator on Substack and elsewhere over on Twitter recently in a couple of threads, embedded below. It’s not a straightforward path, and I appreciate any and all support I receive.

If it’s not within your means, I fully understand - sharing and reviewing my work (and the work of any other creator you follow) is also very helpful.

Twitter avatar for @brchastainBlake Chastain @brchastain
This report provides some data to what has been an observable trend of 'anti-woke' celebrity journos moving to Substack and quickly becoming top-earners. Notable figure in this piece: Andrew Sullivan makes $500k from Substack (he launched his newsletter in July).

Dr. Steven W. Thrasher @thrasherxy

Reading every word of @cliomiso's @CJR longread on Substack, but this line from Substack's founding press release stands out. It's quite an analogy considering that Substack is supposed to help struggling writers & how Lyft and Uber worked out for workers https://t.co/70qx4I2cgl https://t.co/RC9dyxV7eE

November 17th 2020

2 Likes
Twitter avatar for @brchastainBlake Chastain @brchastain
Who are some examples of people you follow who have grown something like Substack or Patreons into sustainable, full-time work and have always been indie creators (read: not previously employed by a company with a big platform)?

November 13th 2020

8 Likes

1
Share this post
Post-election retrospectives, #ILeftBecause, and a new look for Exvangelical
www.postevangelicalpost.com
1 Comment

Create your profile

0 subscriptions will be displayed on your profile (edit)

Skip for now

Only paid subscribers can comment on this post

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in

Check your email

For your security, we need to re-authenticate you.

Click the link we sent to , or click here to sign in.

Dan
Writes What the Fuck is This Nov 19, 2020

Great logo! And great Twitter thread stories. Matt Taibbi is doing well on Twitter. I'm sure Glen Greenwald is now too. They may count as "anti-woke" lefties to some. It's a valid position, and I strongly sympathize. Other people trying for a third way in politics or just civility and inquiry are the sort I follow on Substack and elsewhere, but I don't know if they are making a living that way yet, or if they fully want to. Pitfalls lie that way as well.

Expand full comment
ReplyGive giftCollapse
TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2022 Blake Chastain
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Publish on Substack Get the app
Substack is the home for great writing