James Finn
1 min readNov 21, 2023

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All I can say is, good luck with that. The Evangelical world is breathtakingly and intentionally insular. Evangelicals are strongly discouraged from participating in non-Evangelical culture, what they call non-Christian culture.

Books, films, and music not produced by Evangelical artists who are "right with God" are highly suspect. Outside of religious reading, Evangelical students are encouraged to read only from an old fashioned canon of the supposed Great Western writers. And even then they're cautioned to beware their "worldly" influence.

I see the movement actually becoming more insular rather than less as leaders dig their heels in. We can easily see that impulse in book-banning moves around the country, almost all of which are led by Evangelical Christians. They started out purging books by and/or about queer and Black people, but now they've moved on to much more mainstream stuff, like fantasy novels and thoughtful YA fiction like "A Fault in Our Stars."

I don't suppose encouraging Evangelicals to read is going to bear fruit anytime soon. When I was growing up Evangelical, we took pride in separating ourselves from the world and not reading "worldly" books. That insular sentiment is deeply baked into the religion.

I think leaving the religion is really the only sensible choice for people who value diversity and acceptance of difference.

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James Finn
James Finn

Written by James Finn

James Finn is an LGBTQ columnist, a former Air Force intelligence analyst, an alumnus of Act Up NY, and an agented but unpublished novelist.

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