An exvangelical writer, speaker, and advocate, Chrissy Stroop is (with Lauren O’Neal) coeditor of the essay anthology Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church. Growing up, Stroop was sent to right-wing evangelical Christian schools in Indianapolis, Indiana and Colorado Springs, Colorado, but she went on to earn a Phd in modern Russian history from Stanford University and switch sides in the culture wars. Now an atheist who embraces pluralism, Stroop is a weekly columnist for openDemocracy and a senior correspondent for Religion Dispatches whose work has also appeared in Foreign Policy, DAME, Playboy, The Boston Globe, The Moscow Times, and other outlets. She also writes weekly essays for her Substack, The Bugbear Dispatch, and you can connect with her on BlueSky and Spoutible. These days, Stroop resides in Portland, Oregon, a city that, contrary to right-wing opinion, is not constantly on fire, and where people go to brunch instead of church.
