When it comes to evangelicals’ testimonies, what is old eventually becomes new again. Lately, I’ve been noticing a resurgence of a trendy trope that flared, then faded about 10 years ago: the totally-an-ex-atheist testimony. Today, let’s check out these newly-repopularized testimonies, see why they’re so appealing right now, and then, just because we’re feeling helpful, wonder how seriously anybody should take them.
(This post and its audio ‘cast first went live on Patreon on 1/16/2026. They’re both available now!)
SITUATION REPORT: Oh great, it’s the totally-an-ex-atheists again
On January 5, 2026, CBN ran the story of an evangelist who focuses on recruiting teens to evangelicalism. Brian Barcelona isn’t just any teen-focused evangelist, though. He claims to have been an atheist before converting at 16. You heard him right!
However, although the CBN article’s headline puts that ex-atheist claim front and center, the story contains very little information about it. For that, we must go elsewhere.
Well, sort of. Barcelona doesn’t say much more about his conversion in a YouTube video containing his testimony. Though he talks a lot about his utterly dysfunctional family, he says nothing about what might have informed his atheism or what atheism looked like for him. In another video interview, its host bills Barcelona as “a former teenage atheist,” but neither the host nor the interviewee shares any further details about what that means there, either.
From what I can glean, “atheism” just means this guy wasn’t interested in religion growing up. I’ve never seen him say he rejected religion or describe why he rejected it, only that he was a “16-year-old atheist.” His conversion—along with all of his preaching these days—runs along the purely-emotional, manipulative lines that almost all evangelicals experience.
I can see why Barcelona keeps the details of his “atheism” sparse. As more and more people reject religion, more and more people can easily criticize any false claims he’d make about it. And I can also see why evangelical sites still put that claim front and center in every single piece I’ve seen about him. Now more than ever, evangelicals need to convince themselves they can totally defeat this ickie evil worldview.
This past year, atheism has re-emerged as evangelicals’ biggest, most-feared enemy. What is old can always become new again, in the Christ-o-sphere.
The resurgence of an older trend
Sure, they still don’t understand exactly what atheism is. But that doesn’t stop them from highlighting anyone claiming a dark but-suddenly-trendy past in it. In fact, a number of Christian sites have been talking lately about ex-atheists converting to the fold. Entire sites and even books and podcasts highlight their conversion stories, while major Christian news outlets talk about all these supposed atheists suddenly converting. In 2024, one Christian even wrote a blog post titled, “What is happening to all the atheists?” (As Gallup discovered, nothing really. Atheism continues to rise globally.)
I say “re-emerged” up there because this isn’t the first time ex-atheism has been a trendy topic and testimony element. Experienced ex-Christians can likely also remember 5-10 years ago, when suddenly ex-atheism was a hot topic for testimonies. Those days birthed some great laughs as we compared ex-atheist testimonies to those of ex-Satanic Witches (or Wiccan Satanists, whatevs), and fleshed out the Law of Conservation of Worship.
Today, let me take you on a guided tour of testimonies, that earlier trend of ex-atheist testimonies and the resurgence of it now, and what it all means.
The anatomy of Christian testimonies
To evangelicals, a testimony is a short account of their conversion to evangelicalism. Ideally, it includes a bit about their pre-conversion life, then a description of how and why they converted, and finally a bit about post-conversion life. It’s a three-part story, one that evangelical leaders encourage new recruits to craft so they can convert others in turn.
Online, we find plenty of sites offering recent advice about how to craft an effective testimony. In this context, effective means persuasive. These are sales pitches, so they must be persuasive. However, they are also customer reviews in a sense as well, so they must also please other Christians!
That’s a lot of pressure for one Christian to bear, and you can just about hear the desperation when they reach out for help to other Christians—like in a 2022 Reddit post about someone needing to craft a testimony to share at an upcoming youth group meeting. Evangelical colleges also apparently ask for written testimonies, as we see hinted at on Reformation Bible College’s site. Evangelism sites, like the Southern Baptists’ North American Mission Board (NAMB), stress the evangelistic nature of testimonies.
That college site also gives us a peek into the copycat nature of testimonies. As they write: “One of the best ways to prepare for writing a testimony is to read the testimonies of others.” Another blogger writes, “God uses your testimony to shape mine.”
The results, evangelicals think, are effective sales tools for converting others. One evangelical minister, Gary DeLashmutt, wrote on his church’s website:
Sharing how you became a Christian is one of the best ways of witnessing. It is particularly helpful in presenting Jesus Christ to relatives and close friends, usually the most difficult people to whom to witness.
They get this notion from the Bible itself, they think. A few of its stories relate testimonies as a powerful evangelistic tool.
But speaking as someone raised Catholic, I can safely say: NOPE. My testimony did nothing whatsoever to persuade a single person in my family to convert. My zeal only successfully made religion a no-fly zone for my mother’s entire connection. Even my favorite aunt, an actual Catholic nun, won’t talk about religion with me nearly 40 years later. That’s probably for the best, but still.
Sidebar: A scoring system for testimonies
Generally speaking, the more outrageous a testimony is, the less reliably truthful it is. Always remember that if you’re not in that person’s religious tribe, testimonies are sales pitches to you. Treat them accordingly.
A handy scoring system:
PRE-CONVERSION: Add 1 point if the testimony involves having nothing or everything.
Add another if the teller of the tale was sad because “something was missing.”
If the tale-bearer mentions “a praying grandma” or the like as a factor in conversion, add 2 points.
For elements of violence, substance abuse, criminal activity, award 1-3 points each depending on severity. Add 3 points more if it involves crimes that were never reported to authorities post-conversion. Also, add a point for mentions of sociopathic behavior. (Apologist/evangelist Josh McDowell, for example, famously wrote that he “once believed people were there to be used.”)
Add 5 points for mentions of demons, angels, visions, and/or spiritual warfare.
THE MOMENT OF CONVERSION: If it’s miraculous in some way, add 1-3 points depending on exactly how miraculous. If it’s just extreme euphoria, feelings of love, etc., that’s just one point. But if their blindness was cured, full 3 points.
POST-CONVERSION: Since all of these testimonies involve good vibes after conversion, no points unless the person credits the conversion with healing their marriage, fixing their kids, a sexual orientation change, magic healings of any kind, or a career switch to ministry or tradwifery. Then, award 1-3 according to how far these changes go.
ALWAYS SUSPICIOUS: If the person bearing the testimony is an evangelist professionally, add 5 points.
DARK HORSE COMES IN CLUTCH: If the testimony isn’t exciting or dramatic at all and it’s told by a basic Christian, deduct 3 points.
If the story scored 5+ points, do not trust it to be accurate.
(Bonus: I’m not the only person who’s noticed these common tropes!)
The tribalistic nature of testimonies
Of course, Christian testimonies aren’t just sales pitches. They’re also a way to signal in-group affiliation and get attention from other Christians. A really wild testimony has always gotten a lot of attention. Someone with one of those gets invited to share it on Sunday morning, or can even use it to leverage their way into a ministry position.
Testimonies also reinforce tribalistic beliefs about the group’s enemies. Right now, with atheism rising globally and Christianity in cultural decline in America, evangelicals in particular are feeling sore about atheists. Nothing soothes that soreness like an ex-atheist testimony! Such stories tell them that their tribe is so great that even their worst enemies keep converting to it.
When we check out the most popular tropes in testimonies, then, we get a look at just who and what evangelicals consider their biggest enemies. Thirty years ago, the most popular testimonies involved pasts in Satanic Wicca (or Wiccan Satanism, whatevs). Mike Warnke, Doreen Irvine, Lauren Stratford, John Todd (also here), and more offered hugely dramatic stories of their totally real pasts as spellcasting druids, witches, and Satanic High Priests—or as child victims of the same.
Not only do tribalistic evangelicals love these stories, but they also don’t love basic tales of lifelong belief and possibly heightened fervor. One evangelical describes “testimony envy” as “a faith story that would make people cheer—one that is dramatic.” Yeah, I’ve sure been there! When I was Christian, I didn’t have a big dramatic testimony either.
Sure, he insists that “ordinary testimonies” are valuable as well. But I doubt the tribe will adopt that view. Evangelicals can see who gets all the attention and extra opportunities. It’s never the pew-warmer with the boring testimony. There’s always that jockeying for power, or else being ignored.
Christians are getting desperate as their religion continues to decline in cultural power
Years ago, I likened the trendy testimony fads to that secretary in Ghostbusters getting the squad’s first real assignment, then slamming her hand hand down on the alert bell and shouting, “WE GOT ONE!”
In light of Christianity’s ongoing cultural decline, that comparison seems more apt than ever. This sudden intense focus on atheism in testimonies smacks of desperation more than anything else—like a desperate form of denial. See, we can’t be done for good, we can’t be down and out! Even atheists, who dislike and distrust us the most, want to convert!
But none of it will matter. Just as people did last time, they’ll begin to notice that to evangelicals, anything less than total fervor counts as atheism. They’ll notice that the atheism these converts describe doesn’t sound like their atheism or that of any atheists they actually know. Worse, they’ll notice that these totes-for-realsies atheists converted for reasons that sound remarkably, well, Christian. None offer persuasive evidence or compelling claims; rather, it’s all the same emotional manipulation that evangelists always pull.
Despite evangelicals’ firm beliefs to the contrary, testimonies aren’t actually great evangelism tools—at least, not in any environment where affiliation is purely voluntary and optional. Christianity didn’t become a major world religion through evangelism of normies and one-by-one conversions. It became one through missionaries converting a local ruler, who then forced his subjects to convert en masse. Coercive temporal power has always been far more effective than the wheedling and manipulation of evangelism.
Now that American evangelicals lack that power, they’re leaning harder than ever on individual sales techniques. Testimonies, as evangelistic tools, run very hard on emotional appeals and very short on evidence, so they’re simply not effective against people who are increasingly aware of emotional sales tactics.
Still, it’s interesting to look at this rash of “ex-atheists” cropping up to get a feel for who and what evangelicals think merits their best evangelistic manipulation efforts. It’s even more interesting to note the cyclical nature of this attention.
NEXT UP: We’ll check out “practical atheism,” which evangelical and Catholic leaders alike think is the real thing. See you soon! <3
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2 Comments
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