Coming out- of Evangelicalism, from 26th April

Terence and Maggie Cooper talked about their own experiences of evangelicalism. First they looked at the characteristics of what they as children and young people were introduced to. These included taking the Bible literally as the inspired word of God with no opportunity for exploring other ways of thinking about it. Secondly by using their own early experiences they tried to address the question of what makes people stay in the evangelical tradition. What might be people’s deepest needs and in what ways does an evangelical church purport to meet those needs? They looked at a little of Freud’s views on religion and attempted to generate some discussion. Maggie indicated that she was a decade into her journey away from evangelicalism; she no longer attended a church and has needed time to rethink her views about God, the church and the Bible. Terence had begun his move rather more recently and was still in membership of a local church.