Kids, you’ve declared your own “no” over the years, having observed the meanness, dishonesty, and fearful conformity of some churches that we’ve known.
So, let’s look at some people, like yourself, whose own rational discernment begins with rejection – of a faith tradition, or a single church, or a religious lifestyle. Finally, we’ll note that there are secularists – some quite famous – who now say “no” to life without religion.
As I write this conclusion, religion is in the news. For the first time since the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) began sponsoring regular surveys, it now documents young women leaving churches in numbers that outstrip men’s leaving.
This has never happened before! Men have, statistically, been much more inclined to leave a church, while women have stayed.
What’s going on?
The AEI study concluded: For most young women who leave it’s not about any one issue. . .Rather it was a steady accumulation of negative experiences and dissonant teachings that made it difficult or impossible to stay. Much of this dissonance stems from growing up in a culture that has become more diverse and accepting of people with distinctive lifestyles and identities.[i]
These women are making a rational choice to reject the worldview of their churches. Their sense of dissonance arises from their modern life with its facts and values. And notice this: these women aren’t living in some religious bubble. They live in a world where their church’s worldview and their public life intersect at crucial junctures.
We can see that rational, religious discernment in the life of Rachel Held Evans. Rachel was a beloved, influential voice for many American Evangelicals who were uneasy in their churches.[ii] Her book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, chronicled her attempt to live for one year, following the Bible’s dictates literally.[iii] It exposed – often hilariously – that demands to live “biblically” can be hollow rhetoric. Rather, a real biblical faith requires going past literalism with a thoughtful, figurative grasp of scripture.
This experience sowed seeds of further dissonance with Rachel’s evangelical world. Her break from her longtime church finally came when its leaders explicitly called the congregation to “Vote Yes On One,” a state ballot initiative to limit legal marriage to heterosexual couples.
Rachel wrote:
“I have friends who struggled for years to disentangle themselves from abusive, authoritarian churches where they were publicly shamed for asking questions and thinking for themselves. I know of others who were kicked out for getting divorced or for being gay. . . “
(To be continued September 1, Conclusion: Episode 38)
To Eight Trails readers: Does this post suggest a moment you’ve experienced and, perhaps, a photo you took? Share your reflections and photos with me by clicking “reply” to this email post. I would be delighted to include them in new posts — of course, crediting you!
[i] https://www.americansurveycenter.org/newsletter/young-women-are-leaving-church-in-unprecedented-numbers/
[ii] Held Evans suffered an untimely death at 37, apparently from encephalitis. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/05/06/questions-surround-death-popular-christian-writer/