Evangelical Expatriate: “Author Barbara Kingsolver writes that rather than buying into the ‘love it or leave it’ approach to the groups with which we affiliate, a more honorable slogan is “love it and get it right, love it and never shut up.” This, I believe, is the function of evangelical expatriates. These expats have renounced their citizenship in evangelical subculture, but not their faith. They have ventured out into the wider world, but they remain interested, and often emotionally invested, in their culture of origin. They have become skeptical of how the church manifests its witness, but also dedicated to calling it back to its truest expressions. “
I don’t know that I’ve actually attempted to call evangelicalism back to its truest expressions let alone been dedicated to it, but I very much identify with the idea of “renounc[ing] their citizenship in evangelical subculture, but not their faith.”
Being an expatriate would certainly explain some of the tensions I feel when trying to participate in the Christian body (and perhaps my proclivities towards the novels of Nabokov.)