As we head toward a world that is increasingly dominated by technology, we should expect a rise in people who are atheists. Science, technology, and the “rational” material world will seem far more logical and promising to many than the superstitious realm of religion. However, we should also expect to see a counter-action of people turning toward belief in aliens, the supernatural, magic, and the occult. As I’ve been monitoring these trends, I’ve been shocked to see that many of the most effective new atheists, pagans, and Satanists are products of the Evangelical church. They grew up in Christian homes, went to Christian Sunday school and youth groups; they believed everything they were taught about the Bible–usually until their early ‘20s–and they know the Evangelical culture inside and out. They know every canned response to any theological question they ask; they know “Bible-speak” and use the verbal cliches and are familiar with every manipulative slogan or passive-aggressive theological statement the church can throw at people. They’ve heard it all, their questions were not taken seriously, they were wounded in the church, and they are ready to expose the hypocrisy of many Christian communities through atheism, paganism or Satanism.
The first track of this new resistance that I followed was a new wave of anti-Christian apologists. I wrote about them previously on my blog at getyourworldon.com. These are ordinary people who are arguing against Evangelical Christian interpretations of the Bible and doing an excellent job of exposing textual issues, contradictions, and texts with blatant misogyny, sexism, racism, slavery, and infanticide. They went from doing a deep dive on issues around Noah’s ark and Genesis to a deeper dive on issues of morally questionable divine commands. As former Evangelicals, they are familiar with all the defensive arguments Evangelicals will make and are ready to dismantle any cliche answer. Furthermore, quite often they understand the Bible’s history and nature as an Ancient Near Eastern Scripture far more than most Evangelical pastors. Debates between these former Evangelicals and current Evangelicals usually end up in a bloodbath, with the Evangelical getting more incoherent and contradictory by the second. These former Evangelicals are far more effective than the Richard Dawkins’ or Sam Harris’ of the world because they come from within the Evangelical culture.
The second track I’ve followed is the rapidly increasing interest in paganism, witchcraft, UFOs and alternative spiritualities. Unsettled times often bring a rise in spiritualism as well as apocalyptic cults and sects. People look for simple answers to increasingly complex situations. The world is currently at a pivot point where it will go from extreme complexity to hyper-complexity (fueled heavily by artificial intelligence becoming totally mainstream and accessible). Today, there is a dramatic rise in those who consider themselves to be witches, Wiccans, heathens, or nature worshippers. More and more people are getting involved in full moon rituals, taking pilgrimages to geologic marvels such as the rocks and mountains around Sedona, Arizona, and establishing alternative worshipping communities. Even more fascinating is the increasing number of Black Americans leaving the Evangelical church to practice traditional African tribal religions. These are indigenous African religious practices that have a lot more in common with pre-Christian religions and include spells and potions. Most do not view it as evil but aim to do good and find it more pragmatic and authentic than “White” religion. Traditionally, Black Americans have been very loyal to the Christian church. In the 1960s, during the Civil Rights era in the United States, many moved toward Islam as a way of dealing with the silence and passivity of the White Anglo-Church. While there were Christians on the frontlines of the battle for racial equality, there was a very substantial number arguing against it Biblically. Today, a similar thing is happening in the post-George Floyd era: a rediscovery of African indigenous traditions totally disconnected from the colonial, racist history of many Christian denominations. This is leading to a split in the generations with many under-40 Black American Christians wanting to distance themselves from White Christian institutions and denominations, go in a completely different spiritual direction, or embrace atheism. The speed at which this is happening has surprised even me, despite the fact I’ve been predicting this exodus away from the church for quite a while. Once again, it’s remarkable how many of the leading figures in the rising pagan revival come from deeply, committed, Evangelical homes.
The third track I’ve followed is the origin of the modern Satanic Temple in America. Part of my childhood took place in San Francisco, which at the time was known as the place that actually had a Church of Satan headed by Anton LaVey, the author of the Satanic bible. LaVey himself grew up in a Midwestern Baptist church and was influenced as much by Ayn Rand as occult literature and history. Much like many modern-day Satanists, the “Satanism” practiced is almost a form of performance art against Christian overreach into government. The American Christian’s refusal to accept the Constitution’s insistence on the separation of church and state fuels many Satanists to get involved in a movement trying to point out the hypocrisy of Evangelical Christians and stop the march toward theocracy. In some cases, they are much more motivated to prevent the Ten Commandments being welcomed in schools than they are interested in practicing the dark arts. They know, as we all know, that American Christians would never tolerate the Koran being taught in schools, or Muslim prayer meetings, or taking over the Capitol building in the name of Allah. The modern Satanic Temple spends a lot of its time trying to force American Christians to see their own double standard, because they are the children and grandchildren of Evangelicals. Why can Evangelicals put statues of God in their state capitols, but other religions cannot? Why can Christians use the language and rituals of “blood” and “flesh,” but others cannot? Why can they claim authority over the bodies and decisions of non-Christians but won’t tolerate wearing masks or Covid regulations closing their churches? And that is at the root of the involvement of so many former Evangelicals in Satanism, the occult, and atheism. One Satanist suggested he felt bad about the failure of their march in Boston demanding equal rights and it made him want to quit. But then he thought about how the Archdiocese of Boston enabled the evil abuse and molestation of Bostonians for decades and realized that his Satanic temple was a way to fight the evil. Ironic, isn’t it? It’s certainly tragic on multiple levels.
Many of these former Evangelicals were told by their churches to not ask questions about the Bible. They saw Christians preach love and yet embrace racism, sexism, and seek privilege and political power. They saw manufactured emotional events and sometimes felt forced to participate and shamed if they did not experience some “spiritual” moment. They may have been told to get rid of their intellectual tendencies, or sexual tendencies, or non-Christian influences. While some were exposed to physical, emotional, or sexual abuse in the church, others just grew tired of sermons of damnation and being a part of a group that is constantly identifying itself against “the other.” Sadly, they have found a more accepting community in Satanism, the occult, or in atheistic groups than they have in the church.
My own feeling is that Evangelical Christianity’s blatant pursuit of a position of privilege (a classic case of overreach) is the leading reason (but not the only reason) for the backlash from formerly-Christian people. The United States was intentionally founded to break the connection between religion and government which had been such a catastrophic failure in Europe. That move by the Founding Fathers actually created a more vibrant, entrepreneurial religion that ended up culturally dominating the United States. Approximately 93% of Congress identifies as Christian, yet Evangelicals have portrayed themselves as a hated, oppressed minority that needs more power and representation in order to practice their Christian faith (ever heard of the Apostles, you guys?). That is absurd, of course. Anyone who has actually spent time working with persecuted Christians around the world, as I have, finds this laughable and embarrassing. In comparison to any other Christian society on Earth, American Christians have the most freedoms, resources, and acceptance of anyone. Consequently, Evangelical Christianity’s pursuit of a Christian theocracy (an officially Christian government) has created an enormous backlash from people who clearly see this for what it is: a desire for an even more privileged position in society; something Jesus did NOT preach about.
A second key reason why many Evangelicals are leaving the church and choosing extreme options is, ironically, because “Bible-believing Christians” know very little about Scripture. While the church has done a somewhat decent job of memorizing out-of-context Bible passages and using the Bible as a weapon in arguments, it has done a terrible job of teaching its people the nuances, complexities, artistry, and sophistication of these ancient Near Eastern texts. Consequently, it doesn’t take too much study for any lapsed Christian or atheist to surpass the average “Bible-believing Christian” in understanding the complexities of the text as Scripture. Many of these hostile anti-Bible ex-Christians are actually more fascinated by the Scriptures than ever before because they see that the church never bothered to teach them how to read the Scriptures in the way that Jesus and the people in Jesus’ time would have read the Scriptures. It’s an ironic shame. The poor behavior and anti-intellectualism of the church actually drives searching people out and into Scripture (minus the faith community). Bible-believing pride combined with Biblical illiteracy by those very same people is leading the children and grandchildren of Evangelicals to head for the door at record speed. And the fact that so many churches have become places of toxicity, intolerance, and hostility to any kind of dialogue is exhausting pastors, many of whom are rapidly heading for the door (or counting the days to retirement). The church is no longer safe for many pastors, let alone parishioners. Seminaries will continue to see attendance drop.
In my 2010 book Mosaic: A Journey Across the Church of God, I traveled the world and chronicled the numerous pressures quickly weakening Christian denominations and organized religion in general. Thirteen years later, this demise is more accelerated and obvious than ever. In my 2014 book, In God We Trust: A Challenge to American Evangelicals, I warned that if American Christians used the church to pursue political power, they would see a massive decline in Christian belief in the country. That is what is happening. Churches that “succeed” will increasingly be preaching to the choir. They will continue to grow because already committed Christians are just switching churches–probably to the one with the best childcare and family programs. Retaining youth and twenty- to thirty-somethings will be increasingly difficult. Churches that actually grow with people discovering or re-discovering the beautiful tenets of Christianity, will have to be wildly out-of-the-box and practicing a radical reformation (the kind that occurs in Christianity every 500 years). I certainly don’t expect this process to go smoothly, and I fully expect a rapidly expanding civil war within the Evangelical church in particular, and an overall weakening. Much can be done to begin to rectify the situation. But we are in this situation because the church is very slow to admit mistakes, acknowledge when things are not working, and take responsibility for many of the losses of people it has incurred. While the Christian church was designed for flexibility, many Christians are inflexible. The disillusioned masses leaving the church are right about one thing: So long as the church is not a safe space, there’s not much room to find a way forward. The American Evangelical church must stop thinking it is “standing up for truth,” when in reality it is on a quest to position itself and its people as the most privileged, protected, and unquestioned power in the United States.
Patrick Nachtigall received his Master’s Degree in Religion from Yale University and is the author of six books dealing with religion and globalization including, “In God We Trust: A Challenge to Evangelicals” and “No Religion Required, a Memoir of Faith, Doubt, Chocolate Milk, and Untimely Death.” He lives in Italy.