(RNS) — Growing up in an evangelical home near Kansas City, Sarah McCammon was surrounded by the love of Jesus and the fear of hell.If she messed up and failed to be a good Christian, not only could she face damnation but so could her unsaved relatives — as it was her job to evangelize them by being a faithful witness.
It was a difficult burden to bear.
“My childish disobedience, even my failure to exhibit the ‘joy of Jesus’ that should be clearly radiating from my heart, could cost my relatives their very souls,” McCammon, a national political correspondent for NPR, wrote in her new book, “Exvangelical,” which debuted Tuesday (March 19).
“Carrying that heavy truth, I put on a smile.”
Part memoir, part reporting snapshot of America’s changing religious landscape, “Exvangelical” weaves McCammon’s spiritual journey — from a home-schooler educated on “God and country” textbooks and purity culture to her departure from that childhood faith — with the stories of those who left the same evangelical subculture, often during the Trump era. The book’s title is taken from a well-known social media hashtag adopted by those who no longer feel at home in the evangelical world.
“The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church” by Sarah McCammon. (Courtesy image)
Early in the book, she wrote about how the lessons she learned growing up in the church helped her navigate the 2016 campa …
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It was a difficult burden to bear.
“My childish disobedience, even my failure to exhibit the ‘joy of Jesus’ that should be clearly radiating from my heart, could cost my relatives their very souls,” McCammon, a national political correspondent for NPR, wrote in her new book, “Exvangelical,” which debuted Tuesday (March 19).
“Carrying that heavy truth, I put on a smile.”
Part memoir, part reporting snapshot of America’s changing religious landscape, “Exvangelical” weaves McCammon’s spiritual journey — from a home-schooler educated on “God and country” textbooks and purity culture to her departure from that childhood faith — with the stories of those who left the same evangelical subculture, often during the Trump era. The book’s title is taken from a well-known social media hashtag adopted by those who no longer feel at home in the evangelical world.
“The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church” by Sarah McCammon. (Courtesy image)
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