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By Challenging Evangelicals, She Changed Them

This week, “The Daily” is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened since the stories first ran. Today, we return to the story of Rachel Held Evans and speak to her husband, Daniel, as he heads into his first holiday season since her death. In her absence, the community she created still engages with her work online. “It tells me there’s a lot of pain in the world,” Mr. Evans said. “I find hope that there are people not yet born who may still read her words.” Guests: Elizabeth Dias, who covers religion for The Times and Daniel Evans, Rachel Held Evans’s husband. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.  Background reading:Rachel Held Evans, the best-selling author who challenged conservative Christianity and gave voice to a generation of wandering evangelicals wrestling with their faith, passed away in May after experiencing excessive brain swelling.
Duration
31m
Broadcast on
24 Dec 2019
Audio Format
other

This week, “The Daily” is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened since the stories first ran. Today, we return to the story of Rachel Held Evans and speak to her husband, Daniel, as he heads into his first holiday season since her death.

In her absence, the community she created still engages with her work online. “It tells me there’s a lot of pain in the world,” Mr. Evans said. “I find hope that there are people not yet born who may still read her words.” Guests: Elizabeth Dias, who covers religion for The Times and Daniel Evans, Rachel Held Evans’s husband. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

  • Rachel Held Evans, the best-selling author who challenged conservative Christianity and gave voice to a generation of wandering evangelicals wrestling with their faith, passed away in May after experiencing excessive brain swelling.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

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It's Monday, June 3rd. It's always interesting to me as the religion reporter for the New York Times, which spiritual figures break out into the mainstream. And I think the last time I wrote in obituary was for Billy Graham. And the word redemption means to buy back. Why do you need to be bought back? Because the Bible says you're the slave of sin. He was this giant of evangelical culture. He died at 99 and defined generations of evangelical culture. You must make a choice tonight. Are you going to continue down the broad road that leads to destruction? Or will you change and go the narrow road that leads to eternal life? This is the choice that only you can make. [Music] Asking one question about your faith will undoubtedly lead to another. Rachel Held Evans was a 37-year-old writer. Changing your mind about one idea means you will likely scrutinize others. Who didn't always even seem totally sure that she was a Christian. And allowing yourself to have doubts about Christianity or about your present version of Christianity puts your sense of safety, security, certainty at risk. And yet it is absolutely 100 percent worth it. She almost single-handedly brought together an entirely new kind of community that is defining Christianity for the next generation. Because living in faith, tried, tested, hard-won faith is so much better than living in fear.
So, my name is Rosella I Day White. My name is William Stell. I am Julie Rogers. I live in Washington, D.C. with my wife and our two cats. When I first encountered Rachel and her work, I had just gone through a divorce. I was still in conversion therapy trying to become straight. She gave me permission to trust that the spirit inside of me that was leading me to come out of gay was the same spirit inside of me that was trying to follow God as I understood God at that point. Rachel's become meaningful, I think, to so many because at some point she began to realize, wait, what I've been told, what I've been told to believe, what I've been told to think, isn't all there is. And in fact, sometimes what we've been told to think, told to believe, has been hurting people.
So, how did we get here? When does the world meet? Rachel Held Evans. I started having questions about my faith. When I was in college, I was going to a Christian college. During that time, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. We got involved in Iraq and I sort of became more aware of world events and how the circumstances of one's birth affect their entire life. And so, I started having questions about what that meant when so many people in the world either never had any exposure to Christianity or that exposure has been limited. I think the book that really started to put her on the map was a year of biblical womenhood. She committed to spend one whole year living exactly as if she followed all of the rules for women in the Bible. There's a famous passage in the Bible, Proverbs 31, it's this long description of all of these things that make a wonderful woman. One of those verses is her husband is respected at the city gate. So, she made this sign Dan is her husband and she made

Transcription truncated.

This week, “The Daily” is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened since the stories first ran. Today, we return to the story of Rachel Held Evans and speak to her husband, Daniel, as he heads into his first holiday season since her death. In her absence, the community she created still engages with her work online. “It tells me there’s a lot of pain in the world,” Mr. Evans said. “I find hope that there are people not yet born who may still read her words.” Guests: Elizabeth Dias, who covers religion for The Times and Daniel Evans, Rachel Held Evans’s husband. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.  Background reading:Rachel Held Evans, the best-selling author who challenged conservative Christianity and gave voice to a generation of wandering evangelicals wrestling with their faith, passed away in May after experiencing excessive brain swelling.