Remembering Rachel Held Evans, prophet
Why the Christian writer mattered to so many
When Christian author Rachel Held Evans died unexpectedly last week from brain swelling, it set off a wave of lament online: #becauseofRHE trended globally on Twitter as people retold stories of how her work had impacted their lives. A GoFundMe campaign launched to help cover her family’s medical expenses set a goal of $70,000; it has raised more than $200,000.
The widespread outpouring of grief is a testament to the reach of her words, but it also raises questions about why Evans’ passing has struck such a nerve. At a mere 37 years old, her entire career began only in the early 2000s. But the reason that a writer as young as Evans mattered to so many is that, religiously speaking, she was not just a writer. Evans was a prophet with a pen. In the most formative moments of both Jewish and Christian history, prophets play critical roles in birthing faith’s future. They often emerge in the midst of oppressive situations, when religious leaders have been co-opted by earthly rulers and politicians. In such times, prophets appear from within the religious community to critique it and call it into a new reality.
Evans was raised as an evangelical Christian in the South. She sprouted from the soil of the blogosphere in 2008, when the tectonic plates of traditional Christianity in America were shifting. Yet it was her 2010 memoir, “Faith Unraveled,” that gained her a broad hearing among Christians. The book recounted her struggles with the fundamentalism of her childhood and charted out her adult quest to make peace with doubt, science and other religious boogeymen.
I’ve referred to Evans as a writer who sat by the church door. For those just beginning to explore Christianity, her work greeted you with a reminder that not every Christian resembles the caricatures so often encountered in the news media and entertainment. If you were a believer who was ready to call it quits and walk away from it all, her work beckoned you to stay and reimagine the faith alongside her.
‘The future’s in the margins’
Her ire was often aimed at the religious aristocracy and political powerbrokers whom she perceived to be agents of injustice and marginalization. Evans spoke out against Christians who ignored the rise of white supremacy, decried pastors who propped up Donald Trump after he was revealed to be a sex abuser, and championed the full inclusion of LGBTQ Christians in the life of the church.
“The folks you’re shutting out of the church today will be leading it tomorrow. That’s how the Spirit works,” Evans once declared on Twitter. “The future’s in the margins.”
One of the notable characteristics of prophets is their desire to dramatize the truth rather than just preach it. To illustrate God’s coming judgment, Isaiah wandered naked for three years. Ezekiel ate a scroll to remind people that God’s word is inside our bodies rather than just on the page.
It’s not that surprising then that in 2011, Evans took a vow to obey all the Bible’s instructions for women literally for 12 months: She made her clothes, covered her head, and camped in her front yard while menstruating.
Her New York Times best-selling book, “A Year of Biblical Womanhood,” exposed the weaknesses and inconsistencies of conservative Christian views and sparked a wide conversation about how to read the Bible’s teachings on gender.
Turning toward Episcopalianism
Evans eventually left evangelicalism and became an Episcopalian. From her new perch in mainline Protestantism where she wrote, Evans was far from perfect, and she’d be the first to tell you that. In her infamous social media spats, her passion sometimes seemed to get the best of her. On more than one occasion, she was forced to issue an apology online for something she said or the way she spoke it.
I knew her first as a colleague, and I admired the way her words sparked like struck flint off pages and screens. To spiritual seekers wandering in the dark cave of doubt, Evans wrote as a torchbearer to be trusted. To Christian leaders intoxicated by power and complicit in injustice, she was an arsonist to be feared. She and I did not always agree, and we had a disagreement or two online. Yet we guarded our friendship first, and I never questioned her love for the faith we shared.
In a time of resurgent bigotry and hatred during which many Christians seem content to side with the oppressors over the oppressed, we need Rachel Held Evans more than ever. But she is gone, never to return. The prophet has penned her final words. For more than a decade, she spoke truth to power, never seeking to establish a legacy or to ensure that she’d be remembered.
Maybe that’s why she is so impossible to forget.