[4] Many exvangelicals attribute their departure to experiences of anti-LGBTQ beliefs and practices, misogyny, and racism in evangelicalism, to skepticism toward the Church's moral and social teachings, to a personal crisis of faith, and/or to sexual abuse in a religious setting.
The hashtag #exvangelical was coined by Blake Chastain in 2016 to make "a safe space for people to find solidarity with others who have gone through similar experiences".
[1] While Twitter was originally the site with the most activity involving the hashtag #exvangelical, the term also soon gained widespread exposure on Instagram and, in the 2020s, TikTok.
[5] Exvangelicals would be considered part of the larger movement away from churches and the decline of religious participation in the United States that has been documented by The Pew Research Center,[6] and PRRI.
Specific incidents cited by exvangelicals for leaving include the Nashville Statement and evangelical support for Trump, which they perceived as hypocritical.
Klein began to question purity culture when a youth pastor in her church was convicted of sexual enticement of a twelve-year-old girl.
[16] The following year, Harris announced that he was no longer a Christian, describing his experience as a "deconstruction" of his faith and apologizing for his previous teachings against LGBTQ+ people.
[18] Others who have left evangelical settings report varieties of spiritual abuse in the form of shaming and gaslighting behavior to create group cohesion and enforce internal power structures.
Exvangelicals often reject the literal interpretation of the Bible, seeing it as overly rigid and inconsistent with understandings of biblical criticism, history, science, and morality.
[22] When a Gallup poll showed that fewer than half of Americans belonged to any church in March 2021,[23] some commentators acknowledged criticisms raised by the exvangelical perspective.