About Me

Hello - I’m Blake Chastain, host of the Exvangelical and Powers & Principalities podcasts, and writer of The Post-Evangelical Post newsletter.

My first book, Exvangelical & Beyond: How American Christianity Went Radical and the Movement That’s Fighting Back, was published by Tarcher Perigee in September 2024.

You can purchase it from multiple retailers here, and learn more about the book by clicking here.

I coined the #exvangelical hashtag alongside the launch of the Exvangelical podcast in July 2016. Since then, exvangelical conversations and communities have proliferated online across social networks like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit.

“Exvangelical” functions as both a way to find others who have left white evangelical beliefs and communities behind, as well as a helpful frame for criticizing white evangelical institutions and practices. It is not a wholesale replacement of evangelicalism, but a shared starting point–it acknowledges that we are rooted in similar experiences, and celebrates the new and diverse ways people find to flourish.

For a working definition of “exvangelical,” please read my essay on The Post-Evangelical Post. For more of my story, watch the CBS Religion documentary Deconstructing My Religion on the CBS website. The trailer is embedded below.