Library
Honest voices. Human stories.
Books, voices, and stories from people who’ve questioned, left, and rebuilt. Take what helps, leave the rest.
Voices worth sitting with
A mix on purpose
These books, articles, and voices come from different traditions and landed in different places. Some are secular, some still hold faith, some are in between. We gathered the range deliberately, because your path is yours to find.
From the library
Article
Why many U.S. adults are “nones” — and why some former nones return to religion
Pew Research Center
How common this is, and what the research says.
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Podcast
Done: The Podcast
Daryl Van Tongeren
The research from the book, in conversation form. How people actually flourish after religion, one interview at a time.
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Voice
Dan McClellan
YouTube / IG · @maklelan
A biblical scholar with a “data over dogma” approach. Not anti-faith, just precise about what the text actually says.
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Voice
Rev Karla
Instagram · @revkarla
A minister who talks about fear as something you were conditioned into, and can be freed from. Warm, faith-adjacent.
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Podcast
The Bible for Normal People
Enns & Byas
Biblical scholars taking the text seriously without taking it literally. For anyone re-examining what they were taught it says.
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Article
The decline of Christianity in the U.S. has slowed — and may have leveled off
Pew Research Center
The wider picture on religious change in America.
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Article
Rebuilding a full life after religion
APA Monitor
What psychology research says about flourishing after leaving.
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Article
New research on how people flourish after being “done” with religion
Religion News Service
On the research behind Done and what it found.
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Article
A psychotherapist makes the case that religious trauma is trauma
Religion News Service
On When Religion Hurts You and naming religious trauma.
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Podcast
Straight White American Jesus
Onishi & Miller
Two scholars, both former evangelical insiders, on how religion and power intertwine in America. Sharp and well-sourced.
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Voice
Promise Backlund
TikTok · @eve_wasframed
A pastor’s kid and worship leader who was headed to ministry school. Honest about unlearning what she was raised in.
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Voice
Genetically Modified Skeptic
YouTube · Drew McCoy
Calm, long-form videos from someone who went from devout to questioning. Even-handed, never shouty.
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Voice
Rhett McLaughlin
YouTube · Ear Biscuits
Talks through wanting the truth more than the answer he needed to be true. Thoughtful, not bitter.
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Voice
Darante’ LaMar
YouTube · @DaranteLaMar
A former pastor questioning hell, obedience, and who gets to belong, and building secular community in their place.
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Voice
Religion for Breakfast
YouTube · Andrew Henry
A religion scholar explaining how belief and ritual actually work, with academic care and zero stake in your conclusion.
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Voice
Britt Hartley
nononsensespirituality.com
On keeping awe, ritual, and meaning after belief. Practical and warm, from the author of No Nonsense Spirituality.
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Voice
J. Crum
Instagram · @jcrummusic
A musician who sets “raised in faith, rebuilt in truth” to music. Short, honest, and easy to sit with.
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Nothing here yet — try clearing a filter or searching something else.
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Books
Books we’d actually hand a friend.
Most are by researchers or therapists. All of them name the grief honestly, and none pretend leaving is simple.
Book
Done: How to Flourish After Leaving Religion
Research-based and quietly hopeful. Names the grief of leaving, then maps how people actually rebuild meaning on the other side.
Book
When Religion Hurts You
From a therapist who specializes in religious trauma. Clear and gentle, and careful not to sell unbelief as the cure.
Book
No Nonsense Spirituality
For the awe, ritual, and meaning you might still want, without requiring belief to get there.
Book
The Black Practice of Disbelief
Black humanism, and a perspective these conversations usually leave out. Thoughtful rather than combative.
Book
Holy Hurt
An embodied, clinician’s guide to religious trauma: what it does to the body, and how healing tends to happen.
Book
Leaving the Fold
The book that named religious trauma syndrome, from the therapist who pioneered recovery work. Practical, step-by-step, and still the standard.
Book
A Thousand Tiny Paper Cuts
On spiritual abuse that accumulates quietly, wound by small wound. For anyone whose hurt is hard to point to but real all the same.
Book
Captive Hearts, Captive Minds
Where the “shelf” idea comes from. A recovery guide for high-control groups, useful if your experience leaned that direction.
No buy links here — look for these at your local library or bookshop.
02
Articles & data
If you want the wider picture.
How common this is, and what the research says.
Pew Research Center
Why many U.S. adults are “nones” — and why some former nones return to religion →
APA Monitor
Rebuilding a full life after religion →
Religion News Service
New research on how people flourish after being “done” with religion →
Religion News Service
A psychotherapist makes the case that religious trauma is trauma →
03
Podcasts
Voices for the commute, the walk, the quiet hour.
Long-form listening, from scholarship to story. Start with any episode that catches you.
Done: The Podcast
Daryl Van Tongeren
The research from the book, in conversation form. How people actually flourish after religion, one interview at a time.
Listen →
Straight White American Jesus
Onishi & Miller
Two scholars, both former evangelical insiders, on how religion and power intertwine in America. Sharp and well-sourced.
Listen →
The Bible for Normal People
Enns & Byas
Biblical scholars taking the text seriously without taking it literally. For anyone re-examining what they were taught it says.
Listen →
05
Voices & creators
People who’ve talked openly about leaving — or rebuilding.
Different backgrounds, different conclusions. Find one whose story rhymes with yours. Each link goes to their own channel. We don’t agree with everything any of them say, and that’s fine — take what’s useful.
Promise Backlund
TikTok · @eve_wasframed
A pastor’s kid and worship leader who was headed to ministry school. Honest about unlearning what she was raised in.
Watch
Genetically Modified Skeptic
YouTube · Drew McCoy
Calm, long-form videos from someone who went from devout to questioning. Even-handed, never shouty.
Watch
Rhett McLaughlin
YouTube · Ear Biscuits
Talks through wanting the truth more than the answer he needed to be true. Thoughtful, not bitter.
Watch
Rev Karla
Instagram · @revkarla
A minister who talks about fear as something you were conditioned into, and can be freed from. Warm, faith-adjacent.
Follow
Dan McClellan
YouTube / IG · @maklelan
A biblical scholar with a “data over dogma” approach. Not anti-faith, just precise about what the text actually says.
Watch
Darante’ LaMar
YouTube · @DaranteLaMar
A former pastor questioning hell, obedience, and who gets to belong, and building secular community in their place.
Watch
Religion for Breakfast
YouTube · Andrew Henry
A religion scholar explaining how belief and ritual actually work, with academic care and zero stake in your conclusion.
Watch
Britt Hartley
nononsensespirituality.com
On keeping awe, ritual, and meaning after belief. Practical and warm, from the author of No Nonsense Spirituality.
Explore
J. Crum
TIKTOK · @jcrummusic
A musician who sets “raised in faith, rebuilt in truth” to music. Short, honest, and easy to sit with.
Watch
06
Where to next
Take what you found and keep going.
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Make sense of questions and doubt
Deconstruction guides, therapist directories, honest answers. Vetted, secular-friendly, trauma-aware.
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02 / 03
Explore life outside the church or religion
What Sundays, holidays, and hard days look like now. Real accounts by people like you, not pamphlets.
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03 / 03
Find community, meaning, and identity
Communities, Discords, meetups. People rebuilding the same things you are. Places and people that have gone through this.
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I need help right now
If you’re in crisis — overwhelmed, unsafe, or thinking about harming yourself — call or text 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (free, confidential, 24/7), or reach the Recovering from Religion helpline: 1-844-368-2848.
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