Welcome to altChristian

Hello, friends. Welcome to altChristian.

If you, like so many others, have found yourself questioning American Evangelical Christianity’s hard turn into extreme right-wing rhetoric, racism, lionizing wealth, discouraging education, and spreading intolerance over the last… forever, you’re in the right place.

If you’ve found yourself dismayed by the attitudes of your congregation, community, or church leadership, you’re in the right place.

If you feel as though a spiritual communion that once brought you joy and belonging now feels like a hostile environment, you’re in the right place.

If you’ve suspected, even for a moment, that people are twisting the message not to further the teachings of Christ but to extend their own influence, you are in the right place. 

If you are of a non-Christian faith, secular, agnostic, or an atheist who’s looking to better understand how on earth this happened and what on earth people are thinking, you are in the right place.

If you are alarmed by the rise of secular and atheistic culture that embraces the tenants of the alt-right and furthers harm and misinformation rather than compassion and knowledge, you’re in the right place.

If you are simply looking for reassurance that you’re not alone in your fear, you’re in the right place.

There is another way.

Let me do an introduction of who I am and what the launch mission of this newsletter is about.

Who Are You?

My name is Stephanie and I write under the name S.E. Sinkhorn. I am a secular atheist, born and raised, who spent some time as a young adult exploring religion and Christianity because I sought spiritual connection with other people and something greater. I found some lifelong friends. I also found an alarming amount of intolerance and bigotry that inspired me to leave and never come back.

My interest in faith and Christ was always rooted in community and caring for my fellow people. That’s what drew me in. The constant messaging of shame, fearmongering, intolerance, and spite drove me back out again. 

I had the luxury of being raised without religion. I didn’t fear leaving or what it might mean. Everything good in me was born of my family, friends, community, and myself. It continued to exist without a church to guide it. Even so, I appreciate the deep connection people have to their faith and understand that most of us are simply trying to find answers in a complicated world, and doing so alongside other people is spiritually nourishing.

I am a white cisgender woman. I am queer. I am a mother. I am a writer, a marketer, an artist, and an organizer.

What is altChristian? 

The elevator pitch for altChristian is: “A newsletter exploring atheism, theism, and the ways we can find common ground to work together for a world where people take care of one another.”

The longer explanation requires many more words, so bear with me. 

My original concept for this newsletter was something I called “Empathetic Atheism” – an exploration of predominantly white US and UK-based atheism and its infuriating insistence on maintaining the same tired misogyny, racism, ableism, and queerphobia bundled up in “intellectualism” and “anti-faith” sentiments.

I will still be exploring those themes, but I wanted to expand the concept to be more inclusive of people of faith who might be questioning or seeking alternatives to the rhetoric they receive from their place of worship. Although I write from an atheist’s perspective, I am an atheist who lives my values, and I understand human faith, religion, and culture are vast and varied. People come to faith, agnosticism, or atheism for any number of reasons. I am not an authority on the unknowable. 

This is a space where I hope to build an honest and supportive multifaith (and secular) community to help us better understand one another, and in doing so understand that we are all working toward the same goal: a better life, a better world, and a better culture for all. Once we have that, we can act to make it happen. And yes, I mean personally and politically.

Perhaps this sounds exceptionally twee and over-optimistic to you. That’s okay. I’m all about that glass-half-full life. It’s who I am. And if this isn’t a space for you, that’s okay, too.

What can I expect to find here?

Essays, interviews, and discussions about atheism, theism, agnosticism, and culture with a focus on how those concepts have been warped to further a Christian Nationalist agenda in America, as well as what we can do about it.

There will be some deep dives into modern atheism, Christianity, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and more. I will be making connections between the rise of the alt-right and its abuse of Christian ideology to further oppressive goals. There will be space for conversations with people of faith who feel unsafe in their own communities or practicing their non-Christian faith in this supposed “Land of the Free.”

You will find explorations of history, philosophy, and global culture. We will challenge elements of modern atheism that refuse to divorce themselves from Christian/Puritanical roots. We will learn to understand that religion, even Christianity, is not a monolith, and that faith is a valuable and sometimes life-saving piece of human existence. We will delve into the “culture wars” and the rapid spread of popular “trad” content that encourages a rigid Christian Nationalist ideal.

I will write this newsletter from an intersectional lens that understands that gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, indigenous status, and country of origin have an important impact on how a person experiences faith. You can expect essays that go into the irrefutable harm white American and Euro-centric Christianity has caused alongside why people find value in it. 

You can expect another way.

Thank you for joining me. I hope we build something great together. Until next time.