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Rachel Held Evans, progressive Christian author who challenged evangelicals, dies at 37
Washington Post ^ | May 4 ,2019 | Sarah Pulliam Bailey

Posted on 05/04/2019 6:15:26 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege

Rachel Held Evans, a best-selling Christian author who was unafraid to wade into fierce theological battles over issues such as the role of women, science, LGBT issues and politics on her blog and social media, died Saturday, after spending weeks in the hospital for an infection. She was 37.

Her husband Dan, who has been writing health updates, wrote on her blog on Saturday that she had been weaned from an induced coma, but swelling in her brain was not survivable.

The hashtag #PrayforRHE became a trending topic on Twitter for Evans, who had two young children, ages 3 and almost 1. Her friends set up a GoFundMe account to cover medical expenses.

Evans drew a large following in the evangelical community in both progressive and conservative circles. She criticized widespread evangelical support for President Trump, encouraged women in church leadership and questioned a literal reading of the Bible, among other issues.

Her books — including “A Year of Biblical Womanhood,” “Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again” and “Searching for Sunday” — pushed theological boundaries for many conservative evangelicals, but they gave voice to many progressive evangelicals who had become frustrated with their churches. In 2012, she was named one of Christianity Today magazine’s “50 Women to Watch.”

Ms. Evans was born June 8, 1981, in Birmingham, Ala., and moved to Dayton, Tenn., when she was a teenager.

Dayton has long been famous for the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, a case about teaching evolution in schools that caused many fundamentalist Christians to feel alienated from the American mainstream. She began to question her college’s teachings that shunned evolution when she published her first book on it in 2010 called “Evolving in Monkeytown..."


(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: celebratesin; chatforum; christianity; evangelicalism; evans; fake; fakechristian; gaynewsrooms; godgap; heresy; heretic; homosexualagenda; phony; pinkjournalism; rachelheldevans; religiousleft; sodomandgomorrah
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A stunning loss. God rest her soul and be with her family and with anyone struggling to make sense of their faith in this age of confusion.

Here was Pastor Russell Moore's quote offering to the New York Times:

Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said that he was her theological opposite in almost every way, but that she always treated him with kindness and with humor.

“I was on the other side of her Twitter indignation many times, but I respected her because she was never a phony,” Mr. Moore said. “Even in her dissent, she made all of us think, and helped those of us who are theological conservatives to be better because of the way she would challenge us.”

1 posted on 05/04/2019 6:15:26 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
If she was of the opinion that homosexuality is cool then she was surely no Christian...despite any claims she might have made.
2 posted on 05/04/2019 6:21:13 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Bill Barr:The Bill Belichick of Attorneys General)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
Here was Pastor Russell Moore's quote offering to the New York Times:

Russell Moore is an open-borders traitor who heads the George Soros funded group, Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT). He regularly acts as a beard for radical La Raza groups, by falsely quoting scripture to support illegal alien amnesty. No wonder he was a fan of this NeverTrumper, God rest her soul. He also supports "progressives" like AOC on wealth re-distribution, couching it in the Gospel. He is truly repulsive.

3 posted on 05/04/2019 6:25:56 PM PDT by montag813
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

She knows the truth now.


4 posted on 05/04/2019 6:26:00 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: 17th Miss Regt

“She knows the truth now.”

Yeah. I’m pretty sure it sucks to be her now.


5 posted on 05/04/2019 6:27:58 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam
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Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: CondoleezzaProtege

May God Rest her soul, it is not my place to judge her, that is the in God’s wheel house. She seemed to have an honest soul. I pray God is forgiving of my sins!


7 posted on 05/04/2019 6:30:09 PM PDT by carcraft (Pray for our Country)
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To: 17th Miss Regt

Just wonderin’ — was she an anti-vaxxer by any chance? Oh, the irony, were it so.


8 posted on 05/04/2019 6:30:10 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change with out notice.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
Evans drew a large following in the evangelical community in both progressive and conservative circles. She criticized widespread evangelical support for President Trump, encouraged women in church leadership and questioned a literal reading of the Bible, among other issues.

Sounds more *progressive* than conservative to me.

Besides, just who would she suggest we support for president?

A baby killer? Or someone who endorses and supports them?

9 posted on 05/04/2019 6:30:15 PM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: grey_whiskers

Well she was a George Soros funded socialist, which means she was for every vaccine under every circumstance.

Socialists obey their masters.


10 posted on 05/04/2019 6:33:29 PM PDT by MrEdd (Caveat Emptor)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

This should scare any Christian, the contemplation of what happens to those who fall away from the Christian faith. Joining the Episcopal religion would not help her, like joining any other cult that denies God’s Word and His authority.


11 posted on 05/04/2019 6:35:36 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: MayflowerMadam

Yes.


12 posted on 05/04/2019 6:36:31 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Never heard of her


13 posted on 05/04/2019 6:37:13 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

No loss. She seems to confuse politics with religion


14 posted on 05/04/2019 6:38:29 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: grey_whiskers

Getting a bacterial infection has nothing to do with being vaccinated to hopefully prevent a specific viral disease.


15 posted on 05/04/2019 6:38:35 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: MrEdd

Episcopal church member. Worked with Obama. Fake Christian. Otherwise known as a false prophet.


16 posted on 05/04/2019 6:40:06 PM PDT by HighSierra5
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To: Nifster
Never heard of her

Likewise.

But I still pray that there's "a Christian ending to her life, painless, blameless, and a good defense before the judgement seat of Christ."

17 posted on 05/04/2019 6:43:07 PM PDT by lightman (Byzantine Troparia: The "praise choruses" of antiquity.)
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To: Nifster

If she was the one I think, she was absolutely obsessed with LGBT to the point she almost worshipped that group. She would write endlessly about how wonderful it was to see a lesbian couple carrying a baby while receiving communion.

It’s very tragic that a 37 year old mother of two children died, but damn, that woman sure led a lot of people down the wrong path.


18 posted on 05/04/2019 6:44:06 PM PDT by MNDude (Liberty, Guns, Bible, Trump, and Q)
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To: HighSierra5; MrEdd
Episcopal church member.

I know of a formerly Evangelical church member who ended up there. I think it was a combination of a desire for social climbing plus some guilt over past sexual behavior. The Episcopal church, to my knowledge, does not have any moral guidelines for sexual behavior. Anything goes.

19 posted on 05/04/2019 6:47:40 PM PDT by thecodont
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To: metmom

Her Wikipedia page says she defended herself as pro life person who voted for Hillary. Go figure.


20 posted on 05/04/2019 6:49:31 PM PDT by DLfromthedesert
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