Rachel Held Evans on How Evangelicals Won a Culture War and Lost a Generation

Rachel Held Evans explains to CNN readers why millennials are leaving the churches in droves, and telling pollsters that their reason for walking away is the rank, cruel homophobia presented by many Christians as the gospel message--think World Vision: 

But most of all, the situation [i.e., with World Vision] put into stark, unsettling relief just how misaligned evangelical priorities have become. 

When Christians declare that they would rather withhold aid from people who need it than serve alongside gays and lesbians helping to provide that aid, something is wrong. 

There is a disproportionate focus on homosexuality that consistently dehumanizes, stigmatizes and marginalizes gay and lesbian people and, at least in this case, prioritizes the culture war against them over and against the important work of caring for the poor. 

Evangelicals insist that they are simply fighting to preserve "biblical marriage," but if this were actually about "biblical marriage," then we would also be discussing the charity’s policy around divorce. 

But we’re not.

The photo of Rachel Held Evans is from her Twitter page.