Leaving the Church Behind: Applying a Deconversion Perspective to Evangelical Exit Narratives

Abstract

The motivating factors and structural processes of religious exits have been important inquiries in the sociology of religion and are increasingly important to the field of non-religious studies. Based on qualitative research with 20 former post-Boomer Evangelical Christians, this article takes a phenomenological–hermeneutical approach to understanding religious exiting by examining narratives of deconversion. The narrative data presented in this article depict Evangelical exits from a deconversion perspective where exiters emphasize breaking away from the constraints of hegemonic Christianity rather than turning to secularity. The findings suggest that framing the intentional rejection of faith as ‘deconversion’ transforms exit narratives into a necessary cultural repertoire that encourages individuals to challenge religious domination and makes finding acceptance and validation easier in an established community of non-believers. By emphasizing the negative impact of religion, even after non-religious worldviews have been adopted, deconverts come to know who they currently are in the light of who they once were.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Michael Ian Borer, David R. Dickens, Shannon M. Monnat, and the referees of the Journal of Contemporary Religion for providing helpful comments on previous versions of this article.

Notes

1. Broadening the criteria for what counts as conversion by eliminating religious belief as a defining characteristic has generated some epistemological challenges. ‘Personal radical change’ and ‘change in life and worldview’ are nebulous concepts. The notion of ‘change’ is subjective, ambiguous, and difficult to measure systematically. In addition, ‘commitment to a new community’ is overly broad. For instance, adopting a new political affiliation or being initiated into a gang could be described as a radical change that generates a new worldview and requires a personal commitment, but would we describe these processes as conversions?

2. See David Snow and Richard Machalek’s discussion of conversion and adhesion, alteration, consolidation, and regeneration (169–70).

3. Religious exits have also been described by using terms such as ‘defection’, ‘disaffiliation’, and ‘apostasy’. The lack of consensus among scholars about which words appropriately describe religious exits greatly contributes to the ambiguity of using any of these terms.

4. Individuals who move from one religion or denomination to another are technically converts but are primarily referred to as ‘switchers’ in the literature (Cragun and Hammer; Roof).

5. There is no one general experience of conversion. I am presenting the classic Christian conversion perspective here as a stark contrast to deconversion from Evangelical Christianity. This model should not be interpreted as being generalizable across all conversion or deconversion narratives.

6. A conversion perspective is applicable to movement into, between or out of religion. However, it should be noted that there are few, if any, studies on formerly religious people who describe their exits as a conversion to non-belief.

7. As I will show, the inability to reconcile spiritual doubt comes largely from 1) seeking answers from religious family, friends, and/or clergy members and finding them unsatisfying, 2) a lack of having any type of religious experience, and/or 3) increased frustration with the behavior of church members, leading to a generalization that all religious believers act hypocritically and contributing to unwillingness to reconcile doubt with other religions.

8. Although there is a fair amount of ambiguity regarding the actual range of birth years for each generation, according to the Pew Research Center, the years are as follows: Silent Generation, born 1928–1945; Boomer Generation, born 1946–1964; Generation X, born 1965–1980; and Millennial Generation, born 1981–1993. The Pew Research Center does not identify the generational classification for individuals born in 1994 and later.

9. According to James Hunter, an Evangelical is “a Protestant who attests to the inerrancy Scripture and the divinity of Christ and either (1) believes that Jesus Christ is the only hope for salvation or (2) has had a religious experience—that is, a particularly powerful religious insight or awakening that is still important in his everyday life, that involved a conversion to Jesus Christ as his personal savior; or (3) both” (141).

10. See Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life 2012. Available at: http://www.pewforum.org/unaffiliated/nones-on-the-rise.aspx, access date: 15 January 2013.

11. This is the major difference between exiting and deconversion. Exiting does not necessitate deconversion and deconversion does not necessitate exiting. An individual can decide that s/he no longer subscribes to a religious belief while still attending church or, conversely, an individual can stop attending church long before s/he rejects religious belief.

12. The culmination of one’s deconversion experience might be more accurately described as conversion to a specific secular ideology. More research is needed to gain better insight into the ideological transformation processes of deconverts.

13. It is important to note that skepticism does not automatically result in the rejection of religious beliefs. Rather, it encourages individuals to use critical thinking and the scientific method to reconcile inconsistencies in contradictory spheres.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lori L. Fazzino

Lori L. Fazzino is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA. Her research examines the lived experiences of everyday irreligion, with a focus on the way irreligious members of the Las Vegas Atheist community construct their moral selves and collectively construct and re-construct their moral order. CORRESPONDENCE: Department of Sociology, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA.