Progressive Christian Leader Rachel Held Evans Dies at 37

Rachel Held Evans, noted American Christian blogger, author and speaker, died at 37 on Saturday, May 4 after spending weeks in a medically-induced coma.

ChristianHeadlines had previously reported that Evans had been placed in the coma on Good Friday due to seizures caused by medications used to treat an infection for which Evans had been hospitalized. Since then, Evans’ husband, Dan, had been updating followers on her condition through her blog. In his post of this morning, May 4, Dan Evans wrote: 

Rachel died early Saturday morning, May 4, 2019.

This entire experience is surreal. I keep hoping it’s a nightmare from which I’ll awake. I feel like I’m telling someone else’s story. I cannot express how much the support means to me and our kids. To everyone who has prayed, called, texted, driven, flown, given of themselves physically and financially to help ease this burden: Thank you. We are privileged. Rachel’s presence in this world was a gift to us all and her work will long survive her.

A mother of two, Evans was raised in evangelical Christianity but for years had no longer considered herself a part of evangelicalism, having joined the Episcopalian church and challenging the American Christian right-wing establishment in her Twitter posts and in books like Evolving in Monkey Town, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, and Searching for Sunday. Her final book, Inspired, was…