Women are running away from church to escape MAGA

Women in the U.S. have been slightly more religious than men for untold decades. And many are recognized as the driving force for organized religion and getting kids and spouses to church on religious days.

But that’s changing, says author Sarah Stankorb, as the church fails to evolve with the times and becomes a MAGA stronghold.

“I knew that women are almost always more religious than men,” the Wyoming, Ohio-based author told Religion News Service. “We tend to inherit religion from our mothers, and when women start to leave in numbers similar to men, you’re usually on your way to secularization.”

The gender gap for church abandonment no longer exists for millennials, said Stankorb the author of "Damned If She Does: Why Women Quit Church and What It Means for the Future of Religion." And for Gen Z, it has flipped entirely with more women leaving than men, which was unheard of for years. But now it’s not even just millennials and the Gen Zers who have flipped the tables. The rate of leaving has continued to increase, not at the same level, but with boomers and on back, she said, making it “a multigenerational story.”

Speakers at the conservative Turning Point USA’s Women’s Summit in June repeatedly blame feminism as reason for women’s exit from religion, but Stankorb said women are experiencing more equality in other parts of their lives and the church is not keeping up.

“For some women, it’s homophobia. For some, sexism is to blame. Misogyny is to blame, racism, abuse,” Stankorb said. “Due to the internet and our access to information, when they confront a prejudice or an abuse that’s happening in their church, they no longer have the ability to think it’s just in their church. So many stories of abuse have been well-documented. There’s a pattern here, and it’s systemic.”

“Also, the version of faith that has so successfully branded itself as American Christianity is very authoritarian,” she added. “There’s one right way of doing things. When the face of Christianity is aligned with abuse, with Christian nationalism and a thirst for power, then that does become a big problem.”

And then there is the controversial figure of serial philanderer and liar President Donald Trump, who has somehow become the figurehead of a religion that speaks against all of these things.

“Christian nationalism teaches that there is just one kind of truth, and any other form of truth is dangerous. It says you have to follow certain leaders,” said Stankorb. “And when you look at political leaders with whom they are aligned, you see one in particular who is very fond of telling lies, or you see cover-ups of abuse. You see people who claim to have a hold on truth operating in falsehood, and that makes it untenable to be part of … For many of the people I interviewed, and I’d say for me too, a form of reality that allows for the abuse of other human beings based on gender, race, sexual orientation, where they were born in the world, if that is a reflection of God, no thanks.”

So where does a woman abandoning MAGA’s church turn when they leave? A surprising number of women told Stankorb that they have joined certain organizations like all-women’s gyms, which meet on Sunday morning to exercise and speak spirituality.

“The music’s better, and no one asks them to volunteer,” said Stankorb.

However, their new refugee status sometimes comes with problems, she said.

“Women in higher control church communities often don’t have a friend group outside of church. The whole family, their homeschool co-op, goes to this church. They give all of that up if they leave. Sometimes divorce is a part of this complicated picture. I’ve interviewed women who left the church and were in the middle of a divorce, and then in the custody battle, folks in the church sided with the husband because he’s still a man of God and she’s a heretic. So, there are some major risks here,” she said.

Still, “for others, it is wonderfully liberating,” she added