**CW/TW: mention of sexual assault and trauma (although we don’t go into detail)

Purity culture: a beyond-outdated system that reduces us to objects and promotes misogyny, abuse, victim blaming, homophobia, creepy/distorted gender roles, and a plethora of other unpleasantries.

On today’s episode, Carolyn and Lena discuss what it was like to be steeped in this bizarre Evangelical construct throughout childhood and young adulthood. We chat about the difficulty of undoing these systems that still cause residual harm to this day.

We're back with the lovely Lena for part 2 of our conversation. Today, we're talking exit strategy. Each Exvangelical has a unique style of noping out of their former belief system, whether it involves a whole parade and fireworks, or quietly sneaking out the back door. Lena shares about her own slow and steady deconstruction process, and discusses the evolution of her beliefs.

We discuss inconsistencies within the Bible, and how these often become the first loose threads that eventually lead to unravelling our entire belief system. We also chat about how family dynamics change post-exit, as well as the importance of boundaries and protecting our newly found autonomy. The art of the perfect altar call also makes an appearance in today's conversation (hint: if you're still sitting in your pew, you're doing it all wrong).

*Content/trigger warning: talk of religious trauma, hypothetical end-times-type violence (yup! more rapture talk!), and slightly salty language.

Fellow Exvangelical Lena shares her story of growing up in a tight-knit missionary family. We discuss the dynamic of being heavily indoctrinated as a child, while also being enthusiastically encouraged to pass along this indoctrination to others in the mission field.

Lena shares about her journey out of this belief system, and the sense of hope and happiness that she's found beyond the confines of the Evangelical church. We also hear some wild stories about grown women tossing glitter around in church, childhood martyr complexes, and the experience of being labeled a "stumbling block" for men due to illicit "toe cleavage". 

Piles of clothes, Nicholas Cage, Kirk Cameron, cringeworthy and traumatic “theology” presented as fact - yep, we’re talking about the rapture! Today, Carolyn and Lynn get into the questionable history behind this disturbingly popular Evangelical theory, and discuss how the idea of the rapture affected us as children (and how it still does, even today). We uncover rapture propaganda going back to the 1940’s, and Lynn discusses how this idea of a rapture is actually at odds with early church history. Lynn also speaks about the Orthodox Christian view of the end times, and how it differs from the typical “rapturist” view.

Oh, and we spend a little bit of time on the Nicholas Cage “Left Behind” “film”, because of course we do.

Links:

Excerpt from today's intro (as well as episode art) taken from the short film The Rapture (1941) (public domain)

30+ Movies About the Biblical Rapture* by Chrissy Stockton

*Editor's note: the movies mentioned in this article are actually not all from different production companies, as was stated in the podcast. However, there are several different production companies involved, which is indeed cringeworthy.

The Rapture: An Orthodox Understanding (Infographic) by Nicole M. Roccas

Trailer for Left Behind (2014)

The cousins discuss their own experiences of growing up neurodivergent in Evangelical spaces, as well as coping with their neurodivergence on the other side of Evangelicalism. They also get into certain aspects of theology that laid the foundation for all kinds of mental and emotional trauma (spoiler alert: it's the rapture!).

Mental health resources:

USA: Suicide prevention hotline: 1-800-273-8255  

https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

Canada: Canada Suicide Prevention Service:  1.833.456.4566 or text 45645

Around the world: https://tumblr.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/231885028-Counseling-and-prevention-resources

Other resources can be found here: https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/suicide-resource-guide#Crisis-hotlines

Neurodiversity vs. neurodivergence:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRhniUbsmOh/?utm_medium=copy_link

Other resources:

Lord of Spirits podcast (an Orthodox Christian perspective):

https://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/lordofspirits

The cousins brave Mercury retrograde to discuss their lives after leaving Evangelicalism, and the freedom to be found in their current beliefs (or lack thereof). Lynn shares how meaningful the Eastern Orthodox tradition has become for her, as well as how edgy it felt to study theology at a school taught by Catholics. Carolyn takes a tumble into all things woo-woo with tarot cards, crystals, and agnosticism. She's not really sure what the crystals do, but they're pretty, so that's nice. 

The gals also delve into trauma and why sometimes it's hard to admit that it has found its way into their lives.

We'd love to hear from you! If you've got a question, comment, or would like to suggest a topic for us to discuss, please send us an email at: [email protected]

"Exvangelical" cousins Lynn and Carolyn discuss the things that bring them together, as well as some shared anxieties from their past Evangelical lives.

We'd love to hear from you! If you've got a question, comment, or would like to suggest a topic for us to discuss, please send us an email at: [email protected]