Obituary: Rachel Held Evans

Evans was a dominating yet cheerful presence of the progressive Christian world. In the online sphere, she openly grappled with Christian evangelicalism and then became one of its most vocal critics, revolutionizing how difficult issues like gay rights, sexuality, and theology are discussed in Christian communities.

The Atlantic called Evans a “hero to Christian misfits,” but her husband saw her more as a mother to those who felt abandoned by mainstream Christianity, sharing her experiences without reservation or fear.

“She put others before herself,” Dan Evans told Slate. “She shared her platform. She always remembered how others had helped her. She enjoyed seeing other people in contexts where they thrived.”

Though she was controversial in Christian circles, and occasionally butted heads with some of the biggest names in Christian writing, Evans seemed to see her role as an evangelical for evangelicals: someone openly and desperately struggling with her faith in a way that inspired others to question their own. Her writing, which includes four bestselling books about religion, focused on reforming refugees from American churches into a church of their own.

Evans was, initially, an evangelical herself, but left her church in 2014 after “wearing out my voice in calling for an end to evangelicalism’s culture wars.” She created something of her own church online, holding court among progressive Christians and holding fast against her critics. Eventually, she founded a conference called “Evolving Faith,” which describes itself as a home for “wanderers, wonderers and spiritual refugees to help you discover. … You are not alone.”

Often the best way to understand someone’s legacy is to see what their longtime rivals and frequent sparring partners say in the wake of their passing. For Evans, even those she fiercely opposed knew her as little more than that “happy warrior” who treated those who disagreed with her with the same respect she demanded for the refugees she brought into her fold.

Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, one of Evans’ frequent targets, told the New York Times that “he was her theological opposite in almost every way, but that she had always treated him with kindness and humor.”

“I was on the other side of her Twitter indignation many times, but I respected her because she was never a phony,” 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.”

Her work will have a long-term effect on the activists and scholars she leaves behind, including those on the conservative side of the argument, who have often acknowledged that her observations gave them greater insight into their own positions and their own journeys, because they and Evans were often headed in the same direction.

“When I left church at age 29, full of doubt and disillusionment,” Evans once told the Washington Post, “I wasn’t looking for a better-produced Christianity. I was looking for a truer Christianity, a more authentic Christianity.”

In her final post on her own website, RachelHeldEvans.com, she seemed to give all people of faith a road map on how to handle her own untimely death, in a reflection on the meaning of Lent, a Christian time of sacrifice, remembrance, and meditation on the fleeting nature of humanity.

“Whether you are a Christian or an atheist or an agnostic or a so-called ‘none,’” Evans wrote, “you know this truth deep in your bones: ‘Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return.’”

“Death is a part of life,” she concluded. “My prayer for you this season is that you make time to celebrate that reality, and to grieve that reality, and that you will know you are not alone.”

Emily Zanotti is the senior editor of the Daily Wire.