If you grew up or came of age in conservative Christianity, you’ve heard those expressions, and you might have even uttered them. It’s a language affectionately known in America as “Christianese,” and now that you’re deconstructing and your faith journey has brought you to a place of distrust and disgust with American-brand Christianity, you find yourself repelled by such sentiments. It signals a faith that you not only don’t hold any longer, but a faith and public discourse from which you desire the furthest possible distance. It creates an unwanted feeling within you as those questions and expressions don’t really get to the heart of what you’re experiencing: religious emptiness and longing for something that is more genuine to your unfolding view of the human journey. This podcast season will take the words of evangelicalism that make exvangelicals cringe. We’ll unpack their use, their speakers’ intent, and their harm, then try to rebuild a new linguistic framework for how we can talk about this nebulous thing called faith.
