I found out through John Dickerson's tweet that Rachel Held Evans died on May 4, 2019.

You may not know of @rachelheldevans, you may not believe, or you may believe & disagree with her, but there is a heaving river of testimony & love rolling today that is a marvel. May grace, or it’s pursuit, rush through the doors her light opened & her memory is opening still.

— John Dickerson (@jdickerson) May 5, 2019

I knew she was in the ICU because of a handful of progressive Christians I still follow on Twitter—one of the few remnant indicators of my religious past—mentioned her sudden health issues.

Her husband has been providing health updates on her blog as well. His last post recounts the experience of her death.

I knew a little about Rachel and her work during what I'd call my emergent-slash-liberal Christian phase, just before finally leaving the zoo. But it was reading through all the eulogistic tweets about her death, and people sharing some quotes of hers throughout the years, that her death left me surprisingly emotional.

Like this:

“Want millennials back in the pews? Stop trying to make church ‘cool’. When I left church at age 29, full of doubt and disillusionment, I wasn’t looking for a better-produced Christianity. I was looking for a truer Christianity, a more authentic Christianity.” – Rachel Held Evans

— Lillian Daniel (@lillianfdaniel) May 5, 2019

And this:

“Women have so much to bring to Christianity—so many gifts, so many insights, so many new ways of looking at things, expressing things, enacting things, and questioning things. I am convinced that the gospel will only benefit from more women preaching it.” ~@rachelheldevans

— The On Being Project (@onbeing) May 6, 2019

And this:

"I thought God wanted to use me to show gay people how to be straight. Instead God used gay people to show me how to be Christian." RIP #RachelHeldEvans pic.twitter.com/jkPbLkH5Mo

— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 6, 2019

And also this:

I have come to regard with some suspicion those who claim that the Bible never troubles them. I can only assume this means they haven’t actually read it.
-Rachel Held Evans#BecauseofRHE#PrayForRHE

— Shane Claiborne (@ShaneClaiborne) May 5, 2019

I hope (and, if you believe in God how she did, that you pray) that her vision for Christianity comes true. It would make for a far better one.

Rest in peace, Rachel Held Evans.