Rachel Grace (Held) Evans (1981 - 2019)

Born 8 Jun 1981 in Birmingham, Jefferson, Alabama, United States

Died 4 May 2019 at age 37 in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, United States

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Biography

Rachel (Held) Evans is Notable.

Rachel Held Evans was a popular Christian blogger, author and speaker.

Rachel was born in 1981 in Alabama but her family moved to Tennessee after she was born. She grew up with a conservative Evangelical Christian outlook. As a teenager she was quoted in Christianity Today praising her school’s federally funded abstinence program.

She attended Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee, named for William Jennings Bryan, who had prosecuted the Scopes “monkey trial” in Dayton in 1925. She graduated with a Bachelors in English Literature.

Rachel began to question much of what she had been taught about Christianity.

In 2004 she began writing for The Herald-News. In in 2007, Rachel won an award for "Best Personal Humor Column" from the Tennessee Press Association.

Rachel’s first book “Evolving in Monkey Town”, published in 2010 used the Scopes Monkey Trial to chronicle her own journey of doubt and faith.

Her second book, Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband Master, was released in October 2012. She spent a year attempting to live a biblically literal lifestyle. It was on the New York Times E-Book Best Seller List.

In 2014 Rachel publicly left Evangelicalism, exhausted by “wearing out my voice in calling for an end to evangelicalism’s culture wars” ^[1] and joined the Episcopalian Church.

As well as a bestselling author Rachel was a popular speaker at mainline and progressive Christian gatherings. She was a public advocate for full inclusion of LGBTQ people in the church, spoke out against systems of racism and used her platform to amplify voices of people of color.

The Washington Post once called her “the most polarizing woman in evangelicalism.” ^[2] She drew sharp criticism from many conservative religious leaders.

Rachel also drew a devoted following from younger Evangelicals. She was especially popular with people who had rejected the rigid religious traditions of their upbringing because she offered a way to hold faith and doubt together.

In April 2019 Rachel contracted an infection and during treatment developed seizures. Tests for the cause of the seizures were inconclusive. She was put in a medically induced coma to prevent the seizures. A few days after being weaned off of the coma-inducing medications her brain began to swell and she passed away early on the morning of May 4, 2019.

Books

1. Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions. Zondervan, 2010
2. A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband 'Master'. Thomas Nelson, 2012
3. Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions. Zondervan, 2014
4. Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church. Thomas Nelson, 2015
5. Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again. Thomas Nelson, 2018

Sources

1. ↑ Rachel Held Evans defends exit from evangelicalism, calls Christians to celebrate sacraments, Religion News, March 3, 2015
2. ↑ How Rachel Held Evans became the most polarizing woman in evangelicalism

See also:

• Wikipedia: Rachel Held Evans
• Rachel Held Evans
• Ruth Graham, Rachel Held Evans, the Hugely Popular Christian Writer Who Challenged the Evangelical Establishment, Is Dead at 37

[Slate]

• Rachel Held Evans, Christian Writer Who Questioned Evangelical Beliefs, Dies At 37 NPR