The term ‘exvangelical’ has been making the rounds in the Christian media sphere. The basic meaning, more or less, is a person who is no longer an evangelical. It is often used with terms like ‘deconstructing faith’, or finding one’s true self. A recent Rise and Fall of Mars Hill bonus episode included an interview with one of the most famous exvangelicals—Josh Harris.
While I would not encourage this, a quick perusal of this segment of post-Christians and their writings is very revealing. The vast majority have left the church, and left the Gospel, because of sins that happened in their respective churches.
And, to be fair, the Christian church in America has not been a shining beacon of righteousness. Evangelical leaders like Mark Driscoll, James MacDonald, Tullian Tchividjian, and others have left chaos in their wakes, for various reasons.
The flaw, though, with leaving Christ because of sinful Christians can perhaps be helped by pointing out the logical fallacy of rejecting something because of one representative of that thing.
An example should help to illustrate this point.
Say you meet a person in the grocery store from Arizona. Initially he seems nice enough, but as you walk out the door of the store, he robs you, and takes your car. Obviously he is a bad man…a very bad man from Arizona.
However, it would be foolish to then decide that everyone from Arizona is a bad person, or to say that all people from Arizona are thieves and liars. Even more foolish would be to conclude that Arizona itself is a bad place that makes bad people, and therefore good people should never travel there.
Sadly, this is precisely what exvangelicals are arguing for. There are many evil people who profess Christianity. But they don’t represent all of Christianity, nor does it make any sense to reject the claims of Christianity because some professing Christians are bad. In fact, quite to the contrary, there are many good and Godly Christians, just as there are many nice people form Arizona.
People with spiritual authority can cause tremendous hurt, and those who have suffered from these circumstances deserve our care and support. Nevertheless, we need to help them understand that their rejection of Christ is irrational. This won’t save them, but it may perhaps help them to reconsider what they have abandoned.
