Cynthia Armistead

“This is the one thing that brings the most meaning and satisfaction to existence,” Grandpa wrote. “I think we are here to help our fellow man,” he said. “To do this we must be accepting first of ourselves and our imperfections, and then, of other people and their differences. To overcome our intolerance and fear of others, and to appreciate and even emulate their good qualities, gives us a feeling for the fullness of”
― Sarah McCammon, The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church

“Ask THEM the question—the people, the human beings who were treated as litter by evangelical leaders and institutions on a crusade for religious, social, and political power, a quest that wrecked their souls and their sanity. Spend three days with those wounded, joyful thrivers, those who were kicked out, fled, crawled out, or backed slowly out the rear door. Those who are hanging around the edges for dear life, those deconstructing and reconstructing their lives, those who are still haunted by nightmares of heresy trials, purity culture, and rapture fears. Go ask them if there’s any good in evangelicalism.”
― Sarah McCammon, The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church

“It’s a slightly different form—and probably a healthier form, I can acknowledge that—of ‘just go talk to the pastor,’” Peck said. “If that’s helpful and useful and is consistent with what the person needs, that can be a really amazing resource. But when that’s a way of not addressing health concerns, or not getting the depression treatment that you need, it can be counterproductive.”
― Sarah McCammon, The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church

“They act like the people who deconstruct aren’t the ones who were first in line for every single church thing ever, who’d pored over every theology book, and who really wanted to follow Jesus—the kids who came to youth group every single time,” Petrini said. “They act like it’s a bunch of people who were really gullible, or who were never believers in the first place, instead of people who were in church leadership, people who went to seminary, people who were raised in this and who had very similar experiences to them.”
― Sarah McCammon, The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church