
The Exvangelicals
Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $14.99
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Sarah McCammon
-
By:
-
Sarah McCammon
About this listen
Long-listed, Audible.com Best of the Year, 2024
This program is read by the author.
"An intimate window into the world of American evangelicalism. Fellow exvangelicals will find McCammon’s story both startlingly familiar and immensely clarifying, while those looking in from the outside can find no better introduction to the subculture that has shaped the hopes and fears of millions of Americans."—Kristin Kobes Du Mez, New York Times bestselling author of Jesus and John Wayne
The first definitive book that names the massive social movement of people leaving the church: the exvangelicals.
Growing up in a deeply evangelical family in the Midwest in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Sarah McCammon was strictly taught to fear God, obey him, and not question the faith. Persistently worried that her gay grandfather would go to hell unless she could reach him, or that her Muslim friend would need to be converted, and that she, too, would go to hell if she did not believe fervently enough, McCammon was a rule-follower and—most of the time—a true believer. But through it all, she was increasingly plagued by fears and deep questions as the belief system she'd been carefully taught clashed with her expanding understanding of the outside world.
After spending her early adult life striving to make sense of an unraveling worldview, by her 30s, she found herself face-to-face with it once again as she covered the Trump campaign for NPR, where she witnessed first-hand the power and influence that evangelical Christian beliefs held on the political right.
Sarah also came to discover that she was not alone: She is among a rising generation of the children of evangelicalism who are growing up and fleeing the fold, who are thinking for themselves and deconstructing what feel like the “alternative facts” of their childhood.
Rigorously reported and deeply personal, The Exvangelicals is the story of the people who make up this generational tipping point, including Sarah herself. Part memoir, part investigative journalism, this is the first definitive book that names and describes the post-evangelical movement: identifying its origins, telling the stories of its members, and examining its vast cultural, social, and political impact.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
©2024 Sarah McCammon (P)2024 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Pure
- Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free
- By: Linda Kay Klein
- Narrated by: Linda Kay Klein
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1990s, a “purity industry” emerged out of the white evangelical Christian culture. Purity rings, purity pledges, and purity balls came with a dangerous message: girls are potential sexual “stumbling blocks” for boys and men, and any expression of a girl’s sexuality could reflect the corruption of her character. This message traumatized many girls - resulting in anxiety, fear, and experiences that mimicked the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder - and trapped them in a cycle of shame.
-
-
I expected a different ending I suppose
- By Military Dad on 12-12-18
By: Linda Kay Klein
-
When Religion Hurts You
- Healing from Religious Trauma and the Impact of High-Control Religion
- By: Laura E. Anderson PhD
- Narrated by: Laura E. Anderson PhD
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Laura Anderson takes an honest look at a side of religion that few like to talk about. Drawing from her own life and therapy practice, she helps listeners understand what religious trauma is and isn't, and how high-control churches can be harmful and abusive, often resulting in trauma. She shows how elements of fundamentalist church life—such as fear of hell, purity culture, corporal punishment, and authoritarian leaders—can cause psychological, relational, physical, and spiritual damage.
-
-
Harmed by Church of Christ beliefs
- By Bryan Wade on 04-14-24
-
The Woman They Wanted
- Shattering the Illusion of the Good Christian Wife
- By: Shannon Harris
- Narrated by: Shannon Harris
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a twenty-three-year-old singer and the soon-to-be wife of youth pastor Joshua Harris, nothing in Shannon Harris's secular upbringing prepared her to enter the world of conservative Christianity. Soon Joshua's bestselling book I Kissed Dating Goodbye helped inspire a national purity movement, and Shannon's identity became "pastor's wife." The Woman They Wanted recounts Shannon's remarkable experience inside Big Church—where she was asked to live within a narrow definition of womanhood for almost two decades—and her journey out of that world and into a more authentic version of herself.
-
-
Her Story is Our Story
- By Amazon Customer on 11-04-23
By: Shannon Harris
-
Rift
- A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy
- By: Cait West
- Narrated by: Cait West
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raised in the Christian patriarchy movement, Cait West was homeschooled and could only wear clothes her father deemed modest. She was five years old the first time she was told her swimsuit was too revealing, to go change. There would be no college in her future, no career. She was a stay-at-home daughter and would move out only when her father allowed her to become a wife. She was trained to serve men, and her life would never be her own.
-
-
Compelling narrative and beautifully written
- By Maria Hauskins on 05-05-24
By: Cait West
-
Exvangelical and Beyond
- How American Christianity Went Radical and the Movement That's Fighting Back
- By: Blake Chastain
- Narrated by: Blake Chastain
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the rise of Trumpism, the American evangelical movement has more political influence than ever—yet at the same time, people are leaving Christianity in record numbers. Why are so many people walking away from the right-wing religion they were raised in, and what are they doing to overcome the past? Writer and podcaster Blake Chastain is uniquely positioned to understand this phenomenon. Raised evangelical, he went to a Christian college intending to become a pastor—until he found himself unable to reconcile his faith with the prejudice and even abuse he saw being done in God’s name.
-
-
Great look at White Evangelicalism
- By Matt Gambill on 04-27-25
By: Blake Chastain
-
You Are Your Own
- A Reckoning with the Religious Trauma of Evangelical Christianity
- By: Jamie Lee Finch
- Narrated by: Jamie Lee Finch
- Length: 3 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rooted in her experiences growing up in an evangelical Christian family, Jamie Lee Finch’s You Are Your Own offers an overview of evangelicalism and the painful confusion and anxiety experienced under its demands. Finch explores the mechanisms of trauma and how fundamentalist denominations match the patterns connected with PTSD. She elaborates on the doubt, guilt, fear, and grief that haunt those leaving the evangelical faith and offers an approach to help them recover healthy self-worth and resilience.
-
-
great content.
- By Corey Moore on 11-19-19
By: Jamie Lee Finch
-
Pure
- Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free
- By: Linda Kay Klein
- Narrated by: Linda Kay Klein
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1990s, a “purity industry” emerged out of the white evangelical Christian culture. Purity rings, purity pledges, and purity balls came with a dangerous message: girls are potential sexual “stumbling blocks” for boys and men, and any expression of a girl’s sexuality could reflect the corruption of her character. This message traumatized many girls - resulting in anxiety, fear, and experiences that mimicked the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder - and trapped them in a cycle of shame.
-
-
I expected a different ending I suppose
- By Military Dad on 12-12-18
By: Linda Kay Klein
-
When Religion Hurts You
- Healing from Religious Trauma and the Impact of High-Control Religion
- By: Laura E. Anderson PhD
- Narrated by: Laura E. Anderson PhD
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Laura Anderson takes an honest look at a side of religion that few like to talk about. Drawing from her own life and therapy practice, she helps listeners understand what religious trauma is and isn't, and how high-control churches can be harmful and abusive, often resulting in trauma. She shows how elements of fundamentalist church life—such as fear of hell, purity culture, corporal punishment, and authoritarian leaders—can cause psychological, relational, physical, and spiritual damage.
-
-
Harmed by Church of Christ beliefs
- By Bryan Wade on 04-14-24
-
The Woman They Wanted
- Shattering the Illusion of the Good Christian Wife
- By: Shannon Harris
- Narrated by: Shannon Harris
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a twenty-three-year-old singer and the soon-to-be wife of youth pastor Joshua Harris, nothing in Shannon Harris's secular upbringing prepared her to enter the world of conservative Christianity. Soon Joshua's bestselling book I Kissed Dating Goodbye helped inspire a national purity movement, and Shannon's identity became "pastor's wife." The Woman They Wanted recounts Shannon's remarkable experience inside Big Church—where she was asked to live within a narrow definition of womanhood for almost two decades—and her journey out of that world and into a more authentic version of herself.
-
-
Her Story is Our Story
- By Amazon Customer on 11-04-23
By: Shannon Harris
-
Rift
- A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy
- By: Cait West
- Narrated by: Cait West
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raised in the Christian patriarchy movement, Cait West was homeschooled and could only wear clothes her father deemed modest. She was five years old the first time she was told her swimsuit was too revealing, to go change. There would be no college in her future, no career. She was a stay-at-home daughter and would move out only when her father allowed her to become a wife. She was trained to serve men, and her life would never be her own.
-
-
Compelling narrative and beautifully written
- By Maria Hauskins on 05-05-24
By: Cait West
-
Exvangelical and Beyond
- How American Christianity Went Radical and the Movement That's Fighting Back
- By: Blake Chastain
- Narrated by: Blake Chastain
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the rise of Trumpism, the American evangelical movement has more political influence than ever—yet at the same time, people are leaving Christianity in record numbers. Why are so many people walking away from the right-wing religion they were raised in, and what are they doing to overcome the past? Writer and podcaster Blake Chastain is uniquely positioned to understand this phenomenon. Raised evangelical, he went to a Christian college intending to become a pastor—until he found himself unable to reconcile his faith with the prejudice and even abuse he saw being done in God’s name.
-
-
Great look at White Evangelicalism
- By Matt Gambill on 04-27-25
By: Blake Chastain
-
You Are Your Own
- A Reckoning with the Religious Trauma of Evangelical Christianity
- By: Jamie Lee Finch
- Narrated by: Jamie Lee Finch
- Length: 3 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rooted in her experiences growing up in an evangelical Christian family, Jamie Lee Finch’s You Are Your Own offers an overview of evangelicalism and the painful confusion and anxiety experienced under its demands. Finch explores the mechanisms of trauma and how fundamentalist denominations match the patterns connected with PTSD. She elaborates on the doubt, guilt, fear, and grief that haunt those leaving the evangelical faith and offers an approach to help them recover healthy self-worth and resilience.
-
-
great content.
- By Corey Moore on 11-19-19
By: Jamie Lee Finch
-
Testimony
- Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation
- By: Jon Ward
- Narrated by: Jon Ward
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jon Ward's life is divided in half: two decades inside the evangelical Christian bubble and two decades outside of it. In Testimony, Ward tells the engaging story of his upbringing in, and eventual break from, an influential evangelical church in the 1980s and 1990s. Ward sheds light on the evangelical movement's troubling political and cultural dimensions, tracing the ways in which the Jesus People movement was seduced by materialism and other factors to become politically captive rather than prophetic.
-
-
True Unbiased Journalism
- By S. Schneider on 06-03-23
By: Jon Ward
-
The Violent Take It by Force
- The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy
- By: Matthew D. Taylor
- Narrated by: Asa Siegel
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the last decade, the Religious Right has evolved. Some of the more extreme beliefs of American evangelicalism have begun to take hold in the mainstream. Scholar Matthew D. Taylor pulls back the curtain on a little-known movement of evangelical Christians who see themselves waging spiritual battles on a massive scale.
-
-
Comprehensively Researched
- By Chuck Anderson on 09-25-24
-
How to End Christian Nationalism
- By: Amanda Tyler
- Narrated by: Suzie Althens
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Christian nationalism is a powerful and pervasive ideology, and it is becoming normalized. From Amanda Tyler, lead organizer of the Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign, comes How to End Christian Nationalism, your vital companion for countering this dangerous ideology. Tyler draws on her experiences, conversations with pastors and laypeople, research, Scripture, her Baptist convictions, and her work as a constitutional law expert to help us confront Christian nationalist fervor.
-
-
A call to action
- By Arthur Kuehl on 11-16-24
By: Amanda Tyler
-
American Idolatry
- How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church
- By: Andrew L. Whitehead
- Narrated by: Andrew L. Whitehead
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Power. Fear. Violence. These three idols of Christian nationalism are corrupting American Christianity. Andrew Whitehead is a leading scholar on Christian nationalism in America and speaks widely on its effects within Christian communities. In this book, he shares his journey and reveals how Christian nationalism threatens the spiritual lives of American Christians and the church.
-
-
An “edge of inside” follow up to Jesus and John Wayne
- By Brette on 09-14-23
-
The Flag and the Cross
- White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy
- By: Samuel L. Perry, Philip S. Gorski, Jemar Tisby - foreword
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 4 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most Americans were shocked by the violence they witnessed at the nation's Capital on January 6th, 2021. And many were bewildered by the images displayed by the insurrectionists: a wooden cross and wooden gallows; "Jesus saves" and "Don't Tread on Me;" Christian flags and Confederate Flags; even a prayer in Jesus's name after storming the Senate chamber. Where some saw a confusing jumble, Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry saw a familiar ideology: white Christian nationalism.
-
-
could use an accompanying pdf
- By A W on 08-08-22
By: Samuel L. Perry, and others
-
Ghosted
- An American Story
- By: Nancy French
- Narrated by: Nancy French
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A compelling, thought-provoking memoir about Nancy French's journey from her family's mountain roots to success as a ghostwriter, only to be rejected by her party, church, and community. Ghosted by New York Times bestselling author Nancy French is for all who were alienated by those closest to them and left spiritually and politically homeless.
-
-
I Had No Idea This Book Would Be This Good
- By Brian A. on 05-06-24
By: Nancy French
-
Star-Spangled Jesus
- Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding a True Faith
- By: April Ajoy
- Narrated by: April Ajoy
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Social media influencer and podcast host April Ajoy wouldn’t have called herself a Christian Nationalist when she performed her original song “America Say Jesus” on the Jim Bakker show, or when she participated in Jesus Marches across America, or when she posted cringe-worthy videos on YouTube to campaign for Mitt Romney. April just considered herself a good Christian: faithful, Republican, and determined to make America a Christian nation once again.
-
-
Kinda helped me out
- By carl zayas on 01-19-25
By: April Ajoy
-
Legacy
- A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine
- By: Uché Blackstock MD
- Narrated by: Uché Blackstock MD
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, it never occurred to Uché Blackstock and her twin sister, Oni, that they would be anything but physicians. In the 1980s, their mother headed an organization of Black women physicians, and for years the girls watched these fiercely intelligent women in white coats tend to their patients and neighbors, host community health fairs, cure ills, and save lives.
-
-
I Feel Validated!
- By Lisa M Walker on 07-13-24
-
A Well-Trained Wife
- My Escape from Christian Patriarchy
- By: Tia Levings
- Narrated by: Tia Levings
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Recruited into the fundamentalist Quiverfull movement as a young wife, Tia Levings learned that being a good Christian meant following a list of additional life principles—a series of secret, special rules to obey. Being a godly and submissive wife in Christian Patriarchy included strict discipline, isolation, and an alternative lifestyle that appeared wholesome to outsiders. Women were to be silent, “keepers of the home.” A Well-Trained Wife is an unforgettable memoir about a woman's race to save herself and her family and details the ways that extreme views can manifest in a marriage.
-
-
A review from a chronic non-reviewer
- By T. L. P. on 08-11-24
By: Tia Levings
-
Still Christian
- Following Jesus Out of American Evangelicalism
- By: David P. Gushee
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this provocative tell-all, David Gushee gives an insider's look at the frictions and schisms of evangelical Christianity, based on his experiences that began with becoming a born-again Southern Baptist in 1978 to being kicked out of evangelicalism in 2014 for his stance on LGBT inclusion in the church. But Gushee's religious pilgrimage proves even broader than that, as he leads his listener through his childhood experiences in Roman Catholicism, his difficult days at the liberal Union Seminary in New York, his encounters with the Christian Right, and more. In telling his story, Gushee speaks to the cultural divisions of a generation.
-
-
Excellent
- By Oma of 8 on 06-26-19
By: David P. Gushee
-
Taking America Back for God
- Christian Nationalism in the United States
- By: Andrew L. Whitehead, Samuel L. Perry
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Taking America Back for God points to the phenomenon of "Christian nationalism," the belief that the United States is - and should be - a Christian nation. At its heart, Christian nationalism demands that we must preserve a particular kind of social order, an order in which everyone - Christians and non-Christians, native-born and immigrants, whites and minorities, men and women - recognizes their "proper" place in society.
-
-
Nuanced understanding of Christian Nationalism
- By Adam Shields on 07-12-20
By: Andrew L. Whitehead, and others
-
The Joy of Connections
- 100 Ways to Beat Loneliness and Live a Happier and More Meaningful Life
- By: Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, Allison Gilbert - contributor, Pierre Lehu - contributor
- Narrated by: Tovah Feldshuh, Allison Gilbert, Pierre Lehu
- Length: 3 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Surgeon General Vivek Murthy sounded the alarm that loneliness “represents an urgent public health concern”—exacerbated by social media overuse, the residual effects of the pandemic, and the lack of meaningful relationships—trusted therapist Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer knew that her unique perspective and expertise could help. Long beloved for breaking stigmas around sexual problems, Dr. Ruth made it her mission to help individuals break free from the bonds of hopelessness and isolation.
-
-
Dr Ruth’s Goodbye message to the lonely
- By JustMe on 11-17-24
By: Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, and others
Critic reviews
"With sensitivity and candor, Sarah McCammon offers readers an intimate window into the world of American evangelicalism. Fellow exvangelicals will find McCammon’s story both startlingly familiar and immensely clarifying, while those looking in from the outside can find no better introduction to the subculture that has shaped the hopes and fears of millions of Americans. Filled with humor, insight, and hard-earned wisdom, The Exvangelicals is a gift to all who find themselves on a spiritual journey."—Kristin Kobes Du Mez, New York Times bestselling author of Jesus and John Wayne
"No one else could have written The Exvangelicals but Sarah McCammon. The way she seamlessly weaves together her own journalistic expertise and deeply personal experience of leaving evangelicalism to explore this moment in American history is stunning. Immediately after reading this book, I found myself already excited for her next one."—Nadia Bolz-Weber, New York Times bestselling author of Accidental Saints
"The Exvangelicals is a sensitive, informed exploration of what is often most personal and perplexing to us—our faith. McCammon takes the scramble of thoughts, feelings, and fears that characterize this era of religious re-examination and makes them legible. This isn't just a book about what evangelicalism has become, it is also about the ways people are trying to find what comes next."—Jemar Tisby, PhD, New York Times bestselling author of The Color of Compromise and How to Fight Racism
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Exvangelical and Beyond
- How American Christianity Went Radical and the Movement That's Fighting Back
- By: Blake Chastain
- Narrated by: Blake Chastain
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the rise of Trumpism, the American evangelical movement has more political influence than ever—yet at the same time, people are leaving Christianity in record numbers. Why are so many people walking away from the right-wing religion they were raised in, and what are they doing to overcome the past? Writer and podcaster Blake Chastain is uniquely positioned to understand this phenomenon. Raised evangelical, he went to a Christian college intending to become a pastor—until he found himself unable to reconcile his faith with the prejudice and even abuse he saw being done in God’s name.
-
-
Great look at White Evangelicalism
- By Matt Gambill on 04-27-25
By: Blake Chastain
-
Pure
- Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free
- By: Linda Kay Klein
- Narrated by: Linda Kay Klein
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1990s, a “purity industry” emerged out of the white evangelical Christian culture. Purity rings, purity pledges, and purity balls came with a dangerous message: girls are potential sexual “stumbling blocks” for boys and men, and any expression of a girl’s sexuality could reflect the corruption of her character. This message traumatized many girls - resulting in anxiety, fear, and experiences that mimicked the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder - and trapped them in a cycle of shame.
-
-
I expected a different ending I suppose
- By Military Dad on 12-12-18
By: Linda Kay Klein
-
When Religion Hurts You
- Healing from Religious Trauma and the Impact of High-Control Religion
- By: Laura E. Anderson PhD
- Narrated by: Laura E. Anderson PhD
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Laura Anderson takes an honest look at a side of religion that few like to talk about. Drawing from her own life and therapy practice, she helps listeners understand what religious trauma is and isn't, and how high-control churches can be harmful and abusive, often resulting in trauma. She shows how elements of fundamentalist church life—such as fear of hell, purity culture, corporal punishment, and authoritarian leaders—can cause psychological, relational, physical, and spiritual damage.
-
-
Harmed by Church of Christ beliefs
- By Bryan Wade on 04-14-24
-
Rift
- A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy
- By: Cait West
- Narrated by: Cait West
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raised in the Christian patriarchy movement, Cait West was homeschooled and could only wear clothes her father deemed modest. She was five years old the first time she was told her swimsuit was too revealing, to go change. There would be no college in her future, no career. She was a stay-at-home daughter and would move out only when her father allowed her to become a wife. She was trained to serve men, and her life would never be her own.
-
-
Compelling narrative and beautifully written
- By Maria Hauskins on 05-05-24
By: Cait West
-
The Woman They Wanted
- Shattering the Illusion of the Good Christian Wife
- By: Shannon Harris
- Narrated by: Shannon Harris
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a twenty-three-year-old singer and the soon-to-be wife of youth pastor Joshua Harris, nothing in Shannon Harris's secular upbringing prepared her to enter the world of conservative Christianity. Soon Joshua's bestselling book I Kissed Dating Goodbye helped inspire a national purity movement, and Shannon's identity became "pastor's wife." The Woman They Wanted recounts Shannon's remarkable experience inside Big Church—where she was asked to live within a narrow definition of womanhood for almost two decades—and her journey out of that world and into a more authentic version of herself.
-
-
Her Story is Our Story
- By Amazon Customer on 11-04-23
By: Shannon Harris
-
Star-Spangled Jesus
- Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding a True Faith
- By: April Ajoy
- Narrated by: April Ajoy
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Social media influencer and podcast host April Ajoy wouldn’t have called herself a Christian Nationalist when she performed her original song “America Say Jesus” on the Jim Bakker show, or when she participated in Jesus Marches across America, or when she posted cringe-worthy videos on YouTube to campaign for Mitt Romney. April just considered herself a good Christian: faithful, Republican, and determined to make America a Christian nation once again.
-
-
Kinda helped me out
- By carl zayas on 01-19-25
By: April Ajoy
-
Exvangelical and Beyond
- How American Christianity Went Radical and the Movement That's Fighting Back
- By: Blake Chastain
- Narrated by: Blake Chastain
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the rise of Trumpism, the American evangelical movement has more political influence than ever—yet at the same time, people are leaving Christianity in record numbers. Why are so many people walking away from the right-wing religion they were raised in, and what are they doing to overcome the past? Writer and podcaster Blake Chastain is uniquely positioned to understand this phenomenon. Raised evangelical, he went to a Christian college intending to become a pastor—until he found himself unable to reconcile his faith with the prejudice and even abuse he saw being done in God’s name.
-
-
Great look at White Evangelicalism
- By Matt Gambill on 04-27-25
By: Blake Chastain
-
Pure
- Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free
- By: Linda Kay Klein
- Narrated by: Linda Kay Klein
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1990s, a “purity industry” emerged out of the white evangelical Christian culture. Purity rings, purity pledges, and purity balls came with a dangerous message: girls are potential sexual “stumbling blocks” for boys and men, and any expression of a girl’s sexuality could reflect the corruption of her character. This message traumatized many girls - resulting in anxiety, fear, and experiences that mimicked the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder - and trapped them in a cycle of shame.
-
-
I expected a different ending I suppose
- By Military Dad on 12-12-18
By: Linda Kay Klein
-
When Religion Hurts You
- Healing from Religious Trauma and the Impact of High-Control Religion
- By: Laura E. Anderson PhD
- Narrated by: Laura E. Anderson PhD
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Laura Anderson takes an honest look at a side of religion that few like to talk about. Drawing from her own life and therapy practice, she helps listeners understand what religious trauma is and isn't, and how high-control churches can be harmful and abusive, often resulting in trauma. She shows how elements of fundamentalist church life—such as fear of hell, purity culture, corporal punishment, and authoritarian leaders—can cause psychological, relational, physical, and spiritual damage.
-
-
Harmed by Church of Christ beliefs
- By Bryan Wade on 04-14-24
-
Rift
- A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy
- By: Cait West
- Narrated by: Cait West
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raised in the Christian patriarchy movement, Cait West was homeschooled and could only wear clothes her father deemed modest. She was five years old the first time she was told her swimsuit was too revealing, to go change. There would be no college in her future, no career. She was a stay-at-home daughter and would move out only when her father allowed her to become a wife. She was trained to serve men, and her life would never be her own.
-
-
Compelling narrative and beautifully written
- By Maria Hauskins on 05-05-24
By: Cait West
-
The Woman They Wanted
- Shattering the Illusion of the Good Christian Wife
- By: Shannon Harris
- Narrated by: Shannon Harris
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a twenty-three-year-old singer and the soon-to-be wife of youth pastor Joshua Harris, nothing in Shannon Harris's secular upbringing prepared her to enter the world of conservative Christianity. Soon Joshua's bestselling book I Kissed Dating Goodbye helped inspire a national purity movement, and Shannon's identity became "pastor's wife." The Woman They Wanted recounts Shannon's remarkable experience inside Big Church—where she was asked to live within a narrow definition of womanhood for almost two decades—and her journey out of that world and into a more authentic version of herself.
-
-
Her Story is Our Story
- By Amazon Customer on 11-04-23
By: Shannon Harris
-
Star-Spangled Jesus
- Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding a True Faith
- By: April Ajoy
- Narrated by: April Ajoy
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Social media influencer and podcast host April Ajoy wouldn’t have called herself a Christian Nationalist when she performed her original song “America Say Jesus” on the Jim Bakker show, or when she participated in Jesus Marches across America, or when she posted cringe-worthy videos on YouTube to campaign for Mitt Romney. April just considered herself a good Christian: faithful, Republican, and determined to make America a Christian nation once again.
-
-
Kinda helped me out
- By carl zayas on 01-19-25
By: April Ajoy
-
You Are Your Own
- A Reckoning with the Religious Trauma of Evangelical Christianity
- By: Jamie Lee Finch
- Narrated by: Jamie Lee Finch
- Length: 3 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rooted in her experiences growing up in an evangelical Christian family, Jamie Lee Finch’s You Are Your Own offers an overview of evangelicalism and the painful confusion and anxiety experienced under its demands. Finch explores the mechanisms of trauma and how fundamentalist denominations match the patterns connected with PTSD. She elaborates on the doubt, guilt, fear, and grief that haunt those leaving the evangelical faith and offers an approach to help them recover healthy self-worth and resilience.
-
-
great content.
- By Corey Moore on 11-19-19
By: Jamie Lee Finch
-
Baptistland
- A Memoir of Abuse, Betrayal, and Transformation
- By: Christa Brown
- Narrated by: Soren McKay
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Christa Brown first spoke out about the sexual abuse she endured in her Texas childhood church, she never imagined it would expose the ethical chasm at the core of the Southern Baptist Convention: male religious leaders so focused on institutional protection that they sacrifice the safety of children. A book about speaking out and speaking up, Baptistland weaves together Christa’s revealing story of hope amid Southern patriarchy and religious fundamentalism.
-
-
It was very boring.
- By Randall Sink on 07-24-24
By: Christa Brown
-
Disobedient Women
- How a Small Group of Faithful Women Exposed Abuse, Brought Down Powerful Pastors, and Ignited an Evangelical Reckoning
- By: Sarah Stankorb
- Narrated by: Suehyla Young
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this national bestseller, journalist Sarah Stankorb outlines how access to the internet—its networks, freedom of expression, and resources for deeply researching and reporting on powerful church figures—allowed women to begin dismantling the false authority of evangelical communities that had long demanded their submission.
-
-
To many generalizations without balance
- By Lisa N. on 05-28-24
By: Sarah Stankorb
-
Testimony
- Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation
- By: Jon Ward
- Narrated by: Jon Ward
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jon Ward's life is divided in half: two decades inside the evangelical Christian bubble and two decades outside of it. In Testimony, Ward tells the engaging story of his upbringing in, and eventual break from, an influential evangelical church in the 1980s and 1990s. Ward sheds light on the evangelical movement's troubling political and cultural dimensions, tracing the ways in which the Jesus People movement was seduced by materialism and other factors to become politically captive rather than prophetic.
-
-
True Unbiased Journalism
- By S. Schneider on 06-03-23
By: Jon Ward
-
Kingdom of Rage
- The Rise of Christian Extremism and the Path Back to Peace
- By: Elizabeth Neumann
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Elizabeth Neumann began her anti-terrorism career as part of President George W. Bush’s Homeland Security Counsel in the wake of the September 11 attacks, she expected to spend her life protecting her country from the threat of global terrorism. But as her career evolved, she began to perceive that the greatest threat to American security came not from religious fundamentalists in Afghanistan or Iraq but from white nationalists and radicalized religious fundamentalists within the very institution that was closest to her heart—the American evangelical church.
-
-
Insightful
- By Anonymous User on 05-04-24
-
Faith Unraveled
- How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions
- By: Rachel Held Evans, Sarah Bessey
- Narrated by: Rachel Held Evans
- Length: 4 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From New York Times best-selling author Rachel Held Evans: a must-listen for anyone on the journey of doubt, deconstruction, and ultimately faith reborn. Eighty years after the Scopes Monkey Trial made a spectacle of Christian fundamentalism and brought national attention to her hometown, Rachel Held Evans faced a trial of her own when she began to have doubts about her faith. Rachel recounts growing up in a culture obsessed with apologetics, struggling as her own faith unraveled one unexpected question at a time.
-
-
Recharging my faith
- By nitasue11 on 09-07-20
By: Rachel Held Evans, and others
-
A Well-Trained Wife
- My Escape from Christian Patriarchy
- By: Tia Levings
- Narrated by: Tia Levings
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Recruited into the fundamentalist Quiverfull movement as a young wife, Tia Levings learned that being a good Christian meant following a list of additional life principles—a series of secret, special rules to obey. Being a godly and submissive wife in Christian Patriarchy included strict discipline, isolation, and an alternative lifestyle that appeared wholesome to outsiders. Women were to be silent, “keepers of the home.” A Well-Trained Wife is an unforgettable memoir about a woman's race to save herself and her family and details the ways that extreme views can manifest in a marriage.
-
-
A review from a chronic non-reviewer
- By T. L. P. on 08-11-24
By: Tia Levings
-
Letters from Guantánamo
- By: Mansoor Adayfi, Antonio Aiello
- Narrated by: Mansoor Adayfi, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Elias Khalil, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In weeks after the September 11 attacks, 18-year-old Mansoor Adayfi was kidnapped by Afghan militia and sold to US forces for bounty money. After months of interrogations, he was sent to the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as one of its first prisoners. Like the nearly 800 other men imprisoned at Guantanamo, Adayfi didn’t know why he was imprisoned or for how long. He had never seen a skyscraper and couldn’t imagine what the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center looked like, much less how they were destroyed.
-
-
An important reminder
- By Dave Heilman on 05-25-24
By: Mansoor Adayfi, and others
-
The Power Worshippers
- Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism
- By: Katherine Stewart
- Narrated by: Tosca Hopkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For too long the Religious Right has masqueraded as a social movement preoccupied with a number of cultural issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. In her deeply reported investigation, Katherine Stewart reveals a disturbing truth: this is a political movement that seeks to gain power and to impose its vision on all of society. America’s religious nationalists aren’t just fighting a culture war, they are waging a political war on the norms and institutions of American democracy.
-
-
The Audible editors were AWOL on this one
- By Frank Hightower on 05-24-20
-
American Idolatry
- How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church
- By: Andrew L. Whitehead
- Narrated by: Andrew L. Whitehead
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Power. Fear. Violence. These three idols of Christian nationalism are corrupting American Christianity. Andrew Whitehead is a leading scholar on Christian nationalism in America and speaks widely on its effects within Christian communities. In this book, he shares his journey and reveals how Christian nationalism threatens the spiritual lives of American Christians and the church.
-
-
An “edge of inside” follow up to Jesus and John Wayne
- By Brette on 09-14-23
-
Unholy
- Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump
- By: Sarah Posner
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this taut inquiry, Posner digs deep into the radical history of the religious right to reveal how issues of race and xenophobia have always been at the movement’s core, and how religion often cloaked anxieties about perceived threats to a white, Christian America. Fueled by an antidemocratic impulse, and united by this narrative of reverse victimization, the religious right and the alt-right support a common agenda.
-
-
How We Got Here
- By D. Sooley on 06-16-20
By: Sarah Posner
-
Searching for Sunday
- Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church
- By: Rachel Held Evans
- Narrated by: Rachel Held Evans
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Like millions of her millennial peers, Rachel Held Evans didn't want to go to church anymore. The hypocrisy, the politics, the gargantuan building budgets, the scandals - church culture seemed so far removed from Jesus. Yet despite her cynicism and misgivings, something kept drawing her back. And so she set out on a journey to understand the Church and to find her place in it.
-
-
Don't bother
- By Andi Andrzjewski on 12-05-16
Excellent
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting and helpful
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The story of an amazing journey!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The author speaks from personal experience as the child of an evangelical family, and addresses the serious social consequences of a country whose religion has gotten mixed up with its politics.
A measured, articulate and gripping account.
must read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is the best book from a first-hand narrative (my opinion) with history and valuable insights. I just wish I could have met her fascinating grandfather and discussed philosophy.
I know many, many who have struggled from religious toxic patterns and would benefit by reading to the end. Almost cried tbrough Chapter 13. Take breaks, if you must, to process. The last chapter was as valuable as the first.
Honest, Helpful, Hopeful
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Freedom of choice! Praise God!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I can’t recommend this book enough!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Multiple Reasons
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Accepting that’s there is good and bad in all of us and that there is good and bad in most circumstances has lead to a story where many of us can find ourselves.
Black and white are relative and shades of grey are where we live our lives. We need to experience the world for ourselves and develop a broader viewpoint and this book fully embraces that ideology.
Coming together through shared experience
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very vulnerable
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.