Today has been a somewhat somber and sobering day. I awoke to the news, as did many of us, that popular blogger, author, and social mediaite, Rachel Held Evans had succumbed to the brain seizures she had been struggling with over the last few weeks (you can read about that here). Rachel made her name as she became the face of the progressive Christian movement over the last decade or so. She has written a few books, which gained her initial following, and then things blew up from there. Her appeal, to her many followers, was her openness as she struggled with doubt, and a variety of social issues that many so called post-evangelicals struggle with. She moved from a conservative evangelical background, which she grew up in and was groomed in through her Christian college education, to a mainline Episcopalian context. She became a champion for feminists, in the church context, and took an inclusive position on homosexuals in the church. Contra conservative evangelicalism, she advocated for female pastors; and as a result, encouraged many women to become pastors over the last many years—this is well attested by the tweet storm currently underway in Rachel’s name (#BecauseOfRHE). As a progressive, she moved away from what many would consider catholic orthodoxy in regard to traditional or classical readings of Scripture and even God. One of her last tweets said this “Like, how freaked out are they going to be when (if all this is true), they enter the full presence of God at resurrection and are suddenly hit with the reality that God’s not a dude? (4/11/19: 2:34pm)” She was heavily influenced by Pete Enns in regard to her approach to Scripture, which I’ve blogged at length about here.

So, RHE was a controversialist, and was a polarizing figure for many. Because of a few posts I wrote with reference to RHE (one I linked to above) back in 2014 I ended up having some public and private correspondence with her. I was being critical of some of her views; particularly her approach to Scripture, God, and the mode she operated from (as attested here). I also wrote an initial post that caused much consternation among her followers, which in turn produced some very heated exchange; Rachel herself showed up. I apologized to her in regard to my form (although not my material critique), and in private she was gracious towards me. This was back five years ago, and Rachel has progressed even further since then; per some of the social issues I noted previously. I had kept following Rachel over the years, particularly on Twitter; but only as a lurker.

When I heard, just a few weeks ago now that she was in a medically induced coma as a result of continuous brain seizures she was experiencing, caused by a reaction to some antibiotics she had taken for the flu and UTI, I was concerned. I consider Rachel my sister in Christ, even though her positions, in my view, had taken her far afield from where she started her life as a Christian—in an orthodox evangelical context. Many of her followers have claimed that without Rachel’s voice they never would have “come back” or “come to” Christianity at all; that she had constructed a version of Christianity that they felt they could live with. Rachel became a leader for many many people out there, particularly those in the millennial generation; but many from my own generationX and even some among the babyboomers. Her honesty about her doubts and frustrations with the evangelical sub-culture resonated and resonate with many people who had grown up in that context; and then her voice also had appeal to people who had an outsider’s perception of the church that they felt they never could penetrate themselves. Rachel served as the catalyst for many of these people.

It is a terribly sad day. Death is ‘the last enemy’ that Christ has yet to put under his feet in consummate actuality. When someone dies, when anyone dies it is a time of grievance; when that someone is as well known as Rachel it has a shock-impact. Her death came quickly, and seemingly out of nowhere. As of just a few weeks ago, she was a vibrant full of energy young 37-year-old woman, mother of two little children, and wife to a guy named, Dan (who need our prayers). What her death reminds us of is what the Bible never tires of reminding us, ‘that our life is but a vapor.’ I was reminded of this when I was diagnosed with a rare incurable/terminal cancer known as DSRCT back in late 2009; by God’s grace I’ve survived thus far. But each day is the day of salvation; we never know how much longer we have on this earth. This is why we ought to be the wise servant, and moment by moment, be storing up for the day of redemption; for each one of us, in Christ, that day could be realized even in the next second. We must entrust Rachel into the ever-loving and eternal arms of the Father, the Shepherd, and Comforter of our souls. ‘He is faithful,’ and His hands so big that no person can pluck us from thence. We know that nothing can separate us from the love of God that we have in Christ Jesus (cf. Rom 8). As the Church, as the body of Christ, we commit Rachel’s body and soul into the ever-faithful hands of the living God in the risen Christ. May his happy face shine brightly upon Rachel, and may she experience the eternal bliss and weight of God’s glory that all those participatio Christi have been received into with open arms. Kyrie eleison