(RNS) — In January 2024, Pew Research published a study showing 28% of U.S. adults are now religiously unaffiliated, making the “nones” (as they’re nicknamed) the largest religious cohort in the country, outnumbering Catholics and evangelical Protestants. Yet when it comes to the groups trying to resist Christian nationalism, you’d be hard-pressed to find adequate representation of this demographic. This is an unfortunate oversight, and one faith-based and secular advocacy groups alike should seek to correct.
For nearly a decade, on my podcast “Exvangelical,” I have spoken to people who have left the evangelical church. While some discovered new forms of faith-based community and beliefs in more liberal Christian denominations, Buddhism and so on, many found religious spaces untenable altogether and migrated toward a wholly secular worldview.
Progressive Christians are fortunate to find representation and participation in politics through campaigns such as Christians Against Christian Nationalism and the Faith & Democracy Tour. But these initiatives tend to spend as much time trying to reform conservative Christianity and reaffirming liberal faith as they do trying to repudiate far-right agendas. Secular exvangelicals with zero interest in trying to rescue Christianity get left out of the conversation.
This is a problem because Christian nationalist groups are tightly organized, well-funded and well-represented in both the media and the government. Opposing such forces will require more than vying for reform in faith communities — it will require a strong coalition of both religious and secular people.
Those who have exited religion completely form a key part of this coalition. Whether they’ve left evangelicalism, Catholicism or other faith traditions, they have a deep well of knowledge and personal experience to offer the movement. Many were directly harmed by Christian nationalism, and so intimately understand the threat it poses. They’ve experienced firsthand the decades of partisan politicization of reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, the staunch opposition to gender equality and the resistance to reckoning with racism and endless abuse scandals. Just because they’re no longer fighting for a better Christianity doesn’t mean they aren’t a crucial part of the fight for a better country.
In fact, exvangelicals and other formerly religious embody one of the traits that’s essential to defeating Christian nationalism: the ability to change one’s mind. They prove that you don’t have to keep identifying with a toxic set of beliefs once you understand the harm it causes. And while shifting to a benevolent form of faith is valid, it’s equally valid to opt out of religion altogether. People who have done so (increasingly women more than men) still have as much at stake as anyone else and still belong in the political conversation.
Chrissy Stroop, co-founder of the feminist media collective The Flytrap, says, “As a queer exvangelical atheist who advocates for pluralism, I often feel left out by those who have the largest platforms to talk about American secularization and the roles of religion in our society. Too many liberal and progressive Christians give lip service to pluralism without checking their Christian privilege and continue to treat secular Americans like second-class citizens. For us to work well together, respect must be mutual and reciprocal, which would require giving secular Americans a meaningful seat at the table.”
Stroop argues that instead of emphasizing shared belief, interfaith coalitions must emphasize shared values such as democracy, social justice and pluralism.
Andrew L. Seidel at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, whose membership is roughly split between religious and nonreligious members, agrees: “I would rather have a drink and a chat, maybe split some guacamole, with a group of Christians who value anti-racism and social justice than [with] a group of anti-equality atheists (there aren’t many of those, but they exist and they are loud). But here’s the capper: shared values matter far more when we as a nation face an existential threat like white Christian nationalism.”
Tori Douglass, creator of the anti-racist education initiative White Homework, was raised evangelical and now identifies as atheist but sees opportunity in forging alliances between “nones” and religious groups. They told me over email that “as an antiracism educator, about half of the groups I work with are faith-based. These groups have already done a great deal of work around community-building, which is great! I love working with faith-based groups because they bring the same sense of urgency to the work that I do. They understand the threat that Christian nationalism poses to our fragile democracy in a way that secular groups don’t always see.”
Douglass also recognizes the importance of joining together on the basis of values rather than beliefs. “A meaningful approach for faith-based and secular groups to collaborate with religious nones in opposing Christian nationalism would center on shared values rather than religious identity or beliefs. Recognizing our common interest in pluralism and the value of democracy, regardless of belief in a higher power. By focusing on values like democracy, human rights, and social justice, we can find common ground and stop Christian nationalism in its tracks.”
With the final day of voting concluding Tuesday (Nov. 5), the stakes are high regardless of its outcome, and a failure to build an inclusive enough coalition could have grave consequences. Seidel puts the situation in stark terms: “Our country is on fire. Our democracy isn’t slipping away, it’s being stolen. The republic is being strangled. Those of us who share values like equality and justice and truth and fairness must come together to stop the arsonist, the thief, the murderer. And that means coming together and fighting Christian nationalism.”
By inviting exvangelicals and “nones” to participate fully in advocacy, faith-based and secular groups gain allies. This is all the more important in a world where people require the freedom to shift in and out of religious groups and beliefs as they see fit — a freedom that is under threat by Christian nationalists who seek to privilege their own way of life above all others.
(Blake Chastain is author of the book “Exvangelical & Beyond: How American Christianity Went Radical and the Movement That’s Fighting Back” and host of the “Exvangelical” podcast. The views expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)