A cofounder of The Flytrap, Chrissy Stroop is also (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 was previously a weekly columnist for openDemocracy. She is a senior correspondent for Religion Dispatches, and her work has also appeared in Foreign Policy, DAME, Playboy, The Boston Globe, The Moscow Times, and other outlets. She writes weekly essays for her Substack, The Bugbear Dispatch, and you can connect with her on BlueSky and Threads. These days, Stroop resides near Portland, Oregon, a city that, contrary to right-wing opinion, is not constantly on fire, and where people go to brunch instead of church.
