Confessions of an ExVangelical

Deconstructing "Othering" and an "Us vs Them" Mentality

My graduate degree is in Holocaust studies and my area of research focused on the genesis of genocide. Scholars have spent the better part of the last 50 years trying to explain how Nazi Germany so routinely and systematically murdered six million Jews. Intellectually speaking, how do we make sense of man’s inhumanity toward man? Spiritually speaking, why did so many ordinary people act as either complicit bystanders or Hitler’s willing executioners? It’s enough to make you question the entire human project. As Holocaust historian Daniel Goldhagen asserts, “The historical record, from ancient times to the present, amply testifies to the ease with which people can extinguish the lives of others, and even take joy in their deaths.”

While mass violence, torture, human cruelty, and rights violations are ubiquitous to human history, the Holocaust was and is a unique phenomenon. The extermination of the Jews had no political or economic justification. It was not a means to any end; it was an end in itself. But why, and what can we learn from it?

For starters, antisemitism has been a permanent feature of both the western world and Christendom since the first century. Christians have often defined themselves partly by differentiating themselves from Jews. Our Gospel stories even paint the Jews as Christ killers, and millions of Christians continue to see their religion as superseding Judaism. Under-scoring a great deal of evangelistic efforts is a pervasive motivation to convert Jews to Christianity, thus eliminating them from the face of the earth. 

We also know antisemitism was a latent, ubiquitous force in Germany dating back to the nineteenth century. However, when Hitler came to power, antisemitism coalesced into a legalized outpouring of hatred. Jews came to be identified with anything abnormal, aberrant, or awry in German society. By 1935 Nazi Germany passed The Nuremberg laws, a comprehensive set of policies identifying Jews as a separate and subhuman group. Within months, Jews were stripped of their citizenship, deprived of their property, and forbidden legally from mixing in public and in private with Germans. Due largely to an elaborate propaganda campaign implemented by Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, the Nazis utilized the press, radio, cinema, and public educational institutions to incite hatred and foster a climate of indifference toward Jews. Nazi films portrayed Jews as "subhuman" creatures infiltrating Aryan society. For example, The Eternal Jew , directed by Fritz Hippler, portrayed Jews as wandering cultural parasites, consumed by sex and money. “One of the key elements that make up a totalitarian state is indoctrination of an entire society,” writes The Institute for National Remembrance. 

After the war, American forces discovered a large diary dictated by Goebbels in which he listed the principles of the Nazi propaganda machine.

1. Avoid abstract ideas—appeal to emotions.

2. Constantly repeat just a few ideas. Use stereotyped phrases.

3. Give only one side of the argument.

4. Continuously criticize your opponents.

5. Pick out one “special enemy” for vilification.

In short, lie big enough and often enough that your words become almost impossible to refute. As every student of this time period knows, the Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers, it started with words. Words like “vermin,” “rats,” “less than human,” “pigs,” and “cockroaches.” Genocide is a slow process of desensitization and dehumanization. Depraved words created a world where Jews were discriminated, denied, debased, deported, and eventually destroyed. Though the Holocaust is unique to human history, demonizing the “other” is not.

Political and religious conservatives are experts in the psychology of othering. Former President Donald Trump took a page out of Goebbels book when he most recently called his political opponents “vermin.” It’s not the first time Trump has purposefully aligned himself with neo-Nazi terminology, nor will it be the last. A 1990 Vanity Fair article stated Trump owned a copy of Hitler’s speeches, and read them often. More disturbing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accused of using similar language. He continues to describe Hamas in less than human terms, informing his followers of his commitment to “completely eliminating this evil from the world.” He then added: “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.” This not so veiled reference is a dog-whistle for genocide, conjuring up Samuel’s command to King Saul:

“‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”

Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, the head of the Yisrael Beytenu party, accused Netanyahu of employing the “exact methods” of Joseph Goebbels. ”These are Netanyahu’s methods, exactly like those of Goebbels and Stalin, to make the most severe, absurd accusation and repeat it a million times until people get used to the absurdity.”

As we enter a new year, why is this on my mind? Why the brief history lesson?

While I realize it is always a bit dangerous to make direct corollaries to such incendiary language and actions, I believe those of us in the deconstruction community have much to learn and repent from in this age of othering. Writer Stephen Menendian describes othering as “a set of dynamics, processes, and structures that engender marginality and persistent inequality across any of the full range of human differences based on group identities.” I do it all the time. I fall victim to the spiritual version of a zero sum, “us vs them” mentality when I write and speak about the evangelical community. I often use similar propaganda tactics to incite my readers against conservative evangelicals. It’s easy to paint them with a broad brush, to label all religious fundamentalists as misogynists, bigots, racists, and MAGA trolls. I’m also not alone.

Think about it this way—how often do you see content creators in the deconstruction space implementing a form of propaganda when discussing evangelicals? We need to be honest about the fact an entire cottage industry of social media personalities is making a decent living off othering evangelicals. Just open up your Instagram account to see for yourself. My feed is filled with countless reels, stitches, and posts ridiculing religious fundamentalists. It’s not an algorithm I’m particularly proud of. Some of them are funny, many of them are true, but is this constant degradation of our former religious community healthy? Hell, we even call ourselves “exvangelicals,” a negative identity formation rooted in “us vs them” thinking. We know one another by who we are against. That can’t be good.

I understand there are significant spiritual, personal, and theological differences between the deconstruction community and the evangelical community, but categorizing white evangelicals as spiritually and personally inferior will eventually spawn reverse persecution from our out-group toward their in-group.

I say all of this as the chief of sinners, as someone who has spent the better part of the last four years crucifying white evangelicals for their theological lies, spiritual abuse, and power politics. I understand the impulse to other a group of people who continue to cause harm. Greater still, most of us were kicked to the curb by our former community, and lashing out is often a normal response to being victimized. But eventually, if you want to heal and grow, this crazy-making cycle must stop.

You may never find yourself in communion with your evangelical friends and family. There will always be real and important differences between who you have become and who they continue to be. You might even need to establish a protective distance for your sake and sanity. But in the process, resist the urge to compare, compete, and crucify your former community.

In this new year, as you work to reset how you see yourself and others in a polarizing world, focus on your values. If you left the evangelical community because you are empathetic, compassionate, inclusive, and intellectually honest, how might you employ those character traits to overcome othering? It takes discipline to master an “us vs them” mentality. Model appropriate inclusion, foster healthy dialogue, and refuse to play the dualistic game.

Finding a new identity and new belonging is a good thing, especially on your spiritual journey. It needn’t involve setting yourself apart from others in a confrontational way. If you choose to associate with a group identity like the “exvangelical” or deconstruction community, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We all need somewhere to belong. But in the process, be mindful of your allegiance and remain cautious to how that newfound identity starts to negatively influence how you view individuals who are divergent. The hardest group to love is the group you left behind.

Everyone is connected on some spiritual and cosmic level. Finding those tiny places of intersection can go a long way toward your personal healing as you recover from polarized thinking.

Gary Alan Taylor

Photo by DAVIDCOHEN