S01E10 - Unweaving the Tapestry: The Emplotment of “Exvangelical” Narratives of Religious Change

This deep-dive podcast explores the "Exvangelical" movement through the lens of Bethany Gull's research, focusing on how former white evangelical Christians in the U.S. utilize specific culturally available narratives to reconstruct their identities after leaving their faith. The discussion unpacks three primary narrative "threads": emergence/redemption, which focuses on "coming out" and making amends for past evangelical beliefs; trauma/survival, which frames evangelical doctrines as harmful and highlights the resilience of survivors; and ride-the-current, which depicts the exit as a natural, rational evolution driven by personal temperament or external evidence. Listeners will gain insight into how these "good stories" function within digital communities on platforms like Twitter and Facebook to help exiters turn their private, internal struggles into shared, socially understandable experiences that facilitate collective action and support. The episode highlights that religious disaffiliation is an inherently social process where language and community expectations shape the very way individuals understand their own life stories.Full citation: Gull, Bethany. 2025. Unweaving the Tapestry: The Emplotment of “Exvangelical” Narratives of Religious Change. Sociology of Religion, p.sraf013.