People Are Leaving MAGA Run Churches, and Discovering Authentic Christianity

Alter Net: Women Are Running Away From Church to Escape MAGA 

"The version of faith that has so successfully branded itself as American Christianity is very authoritarian.  There's one right way of doing things.  When the face of Christianity is aligned with abuse, with Christian nationalism, and a thirst for power, then that does become a big problem."  Sarah Stankorb, author of Damned if She Does:  Why Women Quit the Church and What it Means for the Future of Religion.  

The trend that author Sarah Stankorb references in her book [see links above] is a new thing for American Evangelicalism.  In spite of the fact that they are frequently denied leadership roles in churches, as pastors or in any kind of clerical capacity, because of faulty interpretations of a couple of sentences found in the works of the Apostle Paul, most of the membership and a significant amount of the volunteer work done in churches involves women.  But Stankorb notes a trend that has been occurring as a result of the influence of MAGA politics among conservative Evangelicals.  Women are leaving these churches in large numbers.  

Frankly, the truth is that large numbers of members of Evangelical churches are finding their way out the door, in a rapidly increasing exodus, most of them people whose understanding of the Christian gospel runs deeper than the average pew sitter, and who are unable to reconcile the stark philosophical and moral differences between authentic Christianity defined by accurately interpreting the New Testament, and the pseudo-Christian cult beliefs which are used solely to justify the licentiousness of MAGA.  

"Christian nationalism teaches that there is just one kind of truth, and any other form is dangerous," says Stankorb.  "It says you have to follow certain leaders.  And when you look at the political leaders with whom they are aligned, you see one in particular who is very fond of telling lies, or you see cover-ups of abuse.  You see people who claim to have a hold on truth operating in falsehood."  

That, she says, makes it untenable to be part of the church that accepts this.  Trump has become the figurehead of a religion even though he is a serial philanderer, adulterer and pathological liar, all things that the Christian gospel defines as licentiousness.  

The early Christian apostle Jude warned about pseudo-Christian influences intruding into the Christian church, sometime during the first century.  It's a very short epistle, but his identification of intruders and the licentiousness they bring is a very accurate description of exactly what is happening now, with the MAGA cult and its white, Christian nationalism taking over many conservative Evangelical congregations and denominations.  

For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Lord and Master Jesus Christ.  Jude, v. 4  

It's almost as if Jude could look ahead into the future and see what would be happening in American Evangelicalism when he wrote that two thousand years ago.  Although the literalist, authoritarian fundamentalism of most conservative Evangelicals is not consistent with the gospel that Jesus preached and taught, and the appalling arrogance that they exhibit in claiming their own correctness has led to a perception of holiness in conduct, who'd have ever thought they would openly embrace unrepentant, and even defiant, adulterers, pathological liars and rapists because of their politics?  

And the significance of women leaving the church in such large numbers has some historical implications that do not bode well for its future.  With more women than men among the church membership of both the Millennials and Gen Z, Evangelicalism is facing a decline not only in the membership and attendance and the financial shortages that come with that, but also in its ability to maintain its own structure, because women do 80% of the work in Evangelical churches and institutions.

The MAGA Effect on Evangelicalism Has Caused Significant Membership Loss

What Stankorb is documenting with regard to women has been a common experience for American Evangelicalism since 2016, and even before that.  The blending of conservative, right wing politics with the strange quirks of fundamentalist and Pentecostal/Charismatic Evangelical practice has driven a significant percentage of church membership out the back door.   And, in fact, it has caused some entire churches to distance themselves from the heresy and pseudo-Christian cult that this mixture has produced. 

The largest Evangelical denomination in the United States, the Southern Baptist Convention, has reported staggering membership and attendance losses since it peaked at 16.2 million in 2006.  Over 90% of the losses have come since 2016, the beginning of Trump's first term.  Membership has fallen from 16 million to just under 13 million, a loss of more than 3 million in a decade, while attendance has fallen from 6 million to 4 million.  

The manner in which this denomination tracks its membership indicates that there are entire churches that are disaffiliating, in addition to members leaving churches that have become overtly political.  Churches that are affiliated with the denomination file what is called an "annual church profile," ACP, each year that includes their membership and attendance, along with making a contribution to the denomination's budget.  The number of churches which have stopped sending in an ACP, and which no longer contribute financially to the denomination since 2016 is somewhere around 8,000.  It takes five years for a church to drop off the statistical record kept by the denomination after it stops receiving contributions, so the membership and attendance loss is likely larger than what is currently reported.

Other denominations, including the largest Pentecostal denomination, the Assemblies of God, keep cumulative membership records, but both they and the Southern Baptists report a much larger membership than weekly attendance.  The number of people showing up on any given Sunday to an Assembly of God church in the US is down almost 12% since 2016, more than half of this in the last five years.  And in fact, there are no longer any Evangelical denominations now reporting any kind of attendance or membership increase.  The fact is, people are leaving, and that supports Sarah Stankorb's research that when women leave in larger numbers than men, it makes a difference. 

Overall, the attendance and membership in churches and groups that identify as "Evangelical" in the US is down almost 18% since 2015, according to census bureau reports and their own membership statistics. And that can be directly attributed to the fact that MAGA has taken control of most of them, and the Christians are leaving the non-Christian MAGA cultists behind. They aren't necessarily leaving Christianity, they are leaving the pseudo-Christian MAGA influenced cult.  And there is a growing recognition and awareness of churches and church leaders who are standing up to this apostasy, along with endorsing candidates politically opposed to Trump and MAGA Republicans.

Christian Nationalism bears no resemblance to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It exhibits none of its values or principles, it distorts, misinterprets or ignores its theology and doctrine, and the churches that follow it have become political action committees instead of genuine "ecclesia."  And the declines in membership, which are growing larger with each passing year, 2025 being the largest single membership loss ever experienced by American Evangelicals, will lead to their eventual extinction.