The Bad Christian to Bad Activist Pipeline

Religious Trauma and Political Burnout are more connected than you think

From “Righteous Obedience” to Moral Perfectionism

If you were raised evangelical, you probably got the message that your worth was measured by how much you sacrificed, how pure your intentions were, and how committed you were to “saving” others. You didn’t just believe the message—you were supposed to embody it. Constantly. Tirelessly.

I’ve seen this happen countless times (including to myself). Someone starts to deconstruct and that energy around saving souls finds a new home in activism. Exvangelicals make good political organizers. Amazing canvassers. Top notch phonebankers. But….

They often bring that same exhausting framework with them. The language changes—from “saving souls” to “changing systems”—but the pressure? The pressure’s still there. And it’s just as relentless. The external language has changed but the internal language has “save” written all over it.

That’s the pipeline. From religious obedience to activist perfectionism. From purity culture to political moralism. From shame-based spirituality to shame-based advocacy.

Welcome to the Bad Christian to Bad Activist Pipeline.

Why Exvangelicals Are Especially Prone to Political Burnout

Here’s what I see again and again with my clients (and let’s be real—myself, too):
They deeply care about the world.
They want to do it right.
And they can’t figure out why they feel like garbage all the time even though they’re trying so hard.

When you’ve been raised in a high-control religious environment, your nervous system is already wired for urgency. For performative goodness. For the looming threat of “not doing enough.” And that maps perfectly onto a political landscape that’s filled with moral panics, constant (understandably) bad news, and pressure to take action at all times.

This doesn’t mean you’re broken. It means your brain was trained for a game that never let you rest.

The Savior Complex Rebranded

Here’s the kicker: you might not even realize you’re doing it.

You left behind the “witnessing” and the church events and the altar calls. But now, maybe you can’t stand to leave someone thinking the wrong way (not just your conservative uncle with the bad takes, but like, everyone). You’re trying to show up perfectly in every space. You feel like if you make one mistake, you’ve failed the movement—or worse, you’ve failed as a person. This may all be under the surface and you may have never put words to it before.

Sound familiar?

• “If I don’t speak up, I’m complicit.”

• “If I mess this up, I’m no better than the people I’m trying to resist.”

• “If I rest, I’m letting people down.”

That’s not activism. That’s martyrdom.
And martyrdom is a tool of control you were handed a long time ago. You may have been raised to believe that Jesus’s death was the most important thing about him. You may have believed that he alone saved the world and now you alone must do the same.

You Can’t Save the World (And You’re Not Supposed To)

I know. That sounds harsh (maybe even a tad blasphemous).

But I promise, this is the part where things get more free—not less meaningful.

You were never meant to carry the weight of the entire world on your shoulders. That was a lie that served your church. And now it’s a lie that can make even the most well-meaning activism feel hollow, isolating, and unsustainable. It tires you out before you get the chance to see anything change and it makes you expect said change on a global heaven sized scale.

The truth? Collective action is sacred—but only if you get to show up as a whole person. Not a broken-down servant of “the cause.” Not a cog in a machine.

You are not Jesus. You are not Alice Paul.

The suffragette Alice Paul is famous for many things, and one of those things is an interview she did about the vote for women. Her interviewer came from that conversation and said “There is no Alice Paul. There is only suffrage.” It’s not lost on me that many of the decisions she made also held up white supremacy, and when you become a savior, a martyr, you also become myopic. You lose relationships and identity. You miss the big picture for what feels like the immediate crisis.

So what does it mean to unlearn all this?
To step off the pipeline and into something new?

In my therapy work with exvangelicals and politically burnt out folks, this often includes:

→ Naming the internalized rules you never consented to
(Perfectionism, urgency, constant self-surveillance)

→ Making space for nuance and imperfection
(You’re allowed to grow. You’re allowed to mess up.)

→ Reclaiming your nervous system
(You can’t organize effectively from a state of panic)

→ Rebuilding your spirituality on your terms
(If you’re witchy, queer, neurodivergent, or all of the above—there’s room for you here)

→ Learning how to be in community again
(Without feeling like everyone is secretly evaluating your goodness…hello low cost support group anyone?)

Want Support To End the Internal battle?

This is what I do—because I’ve lived it, too. I’ve gone from one cult to another. I’ve become Alice Paul. I’ve killed myself in the pursuit of christlike perfection.

Know that you’re very much not in this by yourself. And I want to help.

Through 1:1 therapy and my Political Anxiety Support Group, I help exvangelicals and other neurodivergent, burnt out humans get out of survival mode and into a grounded, meaningful relationship with activism, spirituality, and themselves.

You don’t have to “heal” before you join community. You just have to show up. We’ll work with what’s there.

Interested in support?
DM me “therapy” or “group,” or visit queerofcupscounseling.com to learn more.