Why are There More “Nones” and “Unaffiliateds”?

Sarah McCammon recently published “The Exvangelicals.” McCammon uncovers a lot of elements of the Exvangelical experience. Mostly it is a memoir surrounded by others’ stories. While she cites the many reasons people have left organized Christian religion, it is not an analysis that any one or two reasons are driving the biggest portion of the exodus. She does an admirable job showing how “evangelical” transformed from a way of living Christ’s gospel into a political movement from the 1970s on. The author notes many American cultural movements originating in the early 1990s that may have created the inflection point of a significant increase in the “none” or “unaffiliated” categories of religious survey respondents.

If you had to describe the themes, it would be that the reasons for the decline of people practicing Christian principles and participating in church-led discipleship might be: evangelicals hypocrisy-=decrying President Clinton’s character flaws while overlooking President Trump’s by Dobson, Falwell Jr and other prominent spokespersons—in a naked ploy to affect influence and gain political power; a lack of empathy for people’s experiences in sexual identity and racism; a focus on the militant side of spirituality—a life and death struggle against fleshly vices and supernatural evil manifestations; and a total distrust of academic, scientific and media authorities while establishing an alternative, parallel set of academia and media—tele-evangelists, radio/tv networks and exhortation to “do your own research.” 

Maybe this last was inevitable as we learn more about scriptural interpretations and hermeneutics that have called into question traditional understandings of scripture. But a staunch defense by evangelical leaders of tradition, not scripture, perhaps is a perverse reaction to such purely academic explorations like the Jesus Seminar of the 1980s and 1990s—who would vote on the authenticity of certain verses. A distaste for sexuality has been a carryover from some Greek philosophy that espouses the goodness of the spirit and the badness of the flesh. Similarly, a reliance on our own reason may be un-Christian, while a reliance on God’s guidance is more pure. Thus, trust in earlier forefathers’ understanding of scripture and cultural practices is good while new insights into historical context and linguistics is bad.

As to the first theme of hypocrisy, it doesn’t take much to note that most sermons excoriate sexual immorality but overlook the leaders’ and congregant’s wallowing in greed, envy, divisiveness, quarrelsome and so on. These are, according to the writer of the New Testament epistle Galatians, disqualifications for inheriting the kingdom of God.

For those who want to understand the inside of the living in what might be called a paranoid-schizophrenic body of believers, this book is helpful along with Jon Ward’s memoir and analysis that was recently published.

I appreciate the opportunity to preview this book by the publisher and NetGalley.