Sometimes I think about the constellation of events that had to happen to allow me to leave evangelicalism. It was a lot. For 30 years it was the air I breathed. I never would have had the courage to walk away if my husband had not gone first. 1/6

Even then, it was incredibly painful, and isolating, and scary. I didn’t know if I was losing myself or saving myself, losing my marriage or saving it, leading my kids to the light or darkness. As so many have said before me, it’s been (and continues to be) a long undoing. 2/6

I still have more to go. But I am finally beginning to feel like my legs don’t shake so violently with every new step I take in the direction that my gut/heart/soul lead me. 3/6

If you are making that journey please be gentle with yourself. You are doing such hard work under the weight of years of indoctrination. You are brave. Some ideas stick to us like leeches. And for each one we pull off, we find another hiding underneath our clothes. 4/6

But every day I feel like I can breathe a little deeper. I feel a little more like myself. I find the little girl who had to leave wonder behind to think about hell and sin and a God who would create people to condemn them. 5/6

If you are making this journey, there is a “great cloud of witnesses” who have made the same one. It is painful beyond belief, but worth every step. 6/6