Abstract
By the next generation, the number of Americans who identify as Christian will be half the number that it is today. The contemporary movement of persons leaving American evangelical churches has been deemed a modern Exodus. This paper explores the responses to one common cause of the exodus: Exploitative manipulation of faith-adherents’ devotion to please and serve God. Such devotion is measured by compliance and commitment to the leader’s biblical instruction, dogma, and proscriptions. Such exploitation is generated by church leaders, yet perpetuated by the respective religious community. Invoked guilt and shame, ostracism, embarrassment, and humiliation are the onslaught for slack or waywardness. Such abuse induces trauma causing psychological, psychosomatic, spiritual, and relational harm. This paper discusses the vulnerabilities and resilience of those who has left evangelical churches. Through qualitative research based on interviews, it examines the processes of deconstruction through the areas of faith crisis, identity annihilation, and relational detachment. It shows that those who leave exploitive religious settings fall into three categories: nones, transitioners, and pluralists. Those in the category of nones reject organized religion and no longer affiliate with a faith or church system. Transitioners keep the crux of Christian theology and find new, healthy church affiliations. Pluralists often develop a broader spirituality and migrate into a more diversified understanding of religious expression and experience. Each of these groups exemplified heightened empathy towards others as a result of having experienced spiritual trauma. They have transformed trauma into transcendence.
Presenters
Nicol Michelle EppleAssistant Teaching Professor and Yoga Instructor; Counselor-Coach and Holistic Practitioner, English, Kinesiology, The Pennsylvania State University; LOV Leadership Coaching, LLC, Pennsylvania, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—Fragile Meanings: Vulnerability in the Study of Religions and Spirituality
KEYWORDS
Spiritualabuse, SpiritualTrauma, EvangelicalExodus, Exvangelicals, TraumatoTranscendence, SpiritualVulnerabilities, SpiritualResilience
