We’re ending this year with a lovely conversation with our pals from the Couch Communion Podcast, Sara Kaufmann and Jordyn Manczyk! We also have an episode we did with them over on their podcast where we played Bible and Christmas Jeopardy, so go check that out!

In this episode, we reflect on what happened in the Christian faith/religion and the exvangelical/deconstruction spheres this year. We actually start off by discussing how those two words–exvangelical and deconstruction–are becoming more mainstream, how the stories of exvangelicals are gaining attention from media outlets and more prevalence on social media, and in turn are receiving more backlash from the evangelical establishment (The Gospel Coalition, John Piper, Christianity Today), which in turn creates some lovely clapbacks from exvies. We also discuss some of the worst showings of the rotten fruit of evangelicalism this year–the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6th and its connection with white evangelical movements (theocracy and white supremacy has always been the end goal of white evangelical politics), and the sexual abusers Ravi Zacharias and Josh Duggar. Another thread is April talking about some things she learned while reading through Rachel Held Evans’ blog posts this year (she’s trying to read through every single one and has not finished yet). And, of course, we share the origin stories of our podcasts, since we both launched our podcasts this year at around the same time!

You can find Couch Communion anywhere you listen to podcasts, and on Twitter and Instagram @CouchCommunion.

Did you know that we launched merch? Get your Bible Dyke Energy Tee or mug here: https://reclaiming-the-garden.creator-spring.com/

Resources:

Rachel Held Evans' Blog: https://rachelheldevans.com/archives

Exvangelical Wikipedia Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exvangelical

Letter from the International Board of Directors of Ravi Zacharias Ministries: https://rzim.org/read/rzim-updates/board-statement.html

For more information on Josh Duggar and his court case, we recommend watching YouTuber Fundie Fridays' videos on the subject.

Here's a sampling of articles from this year related to exvangelicals/deconstruction, and no I am not sharing the articles from Christianity Today or The Gospel Coalition, they don't need more clicks:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/us/abraham-piper-tiktok-exvangelical.html

https://www.yahoo.com/now/exvangelicals-breaking-away-spreading-gospel-110037953.html

https://newrepublic.com/article/161772/can-religion-give-ptsd

https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/syndicated/exvangelicals-growing-movement-rejecting-conservative-faiths-rigid-political-ideology/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/akdbee/what-its-like-to-leave-the-evangelical-community-exvangelicals

https://religionnews.com/2021/08/28/evangelicals-youre-still-not-really-listening-to-what-exvangelicals-are-saying/

https://religiondispatches.org/evangelicals-in-moral-panic-over-exvangelicals/

https://www.axios.com/evangelical-exvangelicals-church-religion-christianity-100fc653-ef8f-4966-9653-6395cd30fb97.html

Our social media: @reclaimingthegarden on Insta, @RtGardenPodcast on Twitter, and Reclaiming the Garden on Facebook. Our personal accounts: @thatpunchabletheaternerd, @April_TheWriter (April is on Twitter and Insta). Also, our podcast account follows a bunch of awesome folks + podcasts in the exvangelical/deconstruction world and progressive Christian world, so if you’re looking for more resources, that’s a great place to start!