This book is really autobiography with a few cameo roles. Nevertheless, McCammon’s history is captivating and well told ... McCammon is especially effective at juxtaposing the condemnations of Bill Clinton’s philandering with full-throated defenses of Donald Trump’s sexual predations ... If historical accuracy and context are missing from these textbooks, however, those qualities are also lacking in McCammon’s narrative, although her missteps are not nearly so egregious.
[McCammon] capably describes the fear and shame that trammeled her for years ... But the question of class goes unexamined in The Exvangelicals ... Communal trauma, not ideology or power, remains McCammon’s principal subject. This is a mistake. The pain experienced by exvangelicals is actually more potent if the perpetrators are fully understood.
A much-needed look at evangelicalism from a perspective that’s both investigative and personal. It offers intriguing, compelling insight with expert reporting.
McCammon renders exvangelicals’ search for life after evangelicalism with sensitivity, showing the difficult balance of gaining self-acceptance and a broader understanding of the world while often losing the comfort of families and worship ... A welcome addition to the story of faith in 21th-century America.
This fascinating and enlightening aspect of the consequences of a fundamentalist upbringing is only now beginning to be thoroughly explored, and McCammon’s poignant book serves as a launchpad to learn more.
