As the son of a minister, Jesse Leach spent his formative years heavily immersed in the evangelical Christian world. Today, however, the Killswitch Engage vocalist is actively distancing himself from that label, pointing to the deep-rooted hypocrisy and bigotry often found within organized religion.
In a new interview with The Morning Call, the singer reflected on how his strict upbringing continues to influence his worldview today. While he firmly holds onto the foundational lessons of empathy and compassion, he did not hold back when criticizing the darker, manipulative aspects of church institutions.
“It’s a constant muse. I sit comfortably with the good stuff that was taught to me about love, taking care of the poor and being mindful of your neighbor. Those concepts continue to remind me of my purpose. On the flip side, organized religion can be very ugly behind the facade. I’ve seen the abuse of power, the manipulation, and preachers standing in the pulpit claiming God is love while condemning a Muslim or a gay person. That stays interwoven into my DNA as a form of protest — wanting to correct the wrongs that have been instilled,” Jesse Leach stated.
Expanding on his current spiritual identity, the frontman noted that traveling the globe and experiencing different cultures ultimately stripped away the certainties of his youth.
“I was raised in a very evangelical home, but we’ve all changed quite a bit. I stopped calling myself a Christian. I believe I am a spiritual being. I’ve humbled myself because I think there’s a bit of arrogance in telling somebody you know the absolute truth. The more I’ve traveled, the more my worldview has changed. It’s an acceptance that I don’t have the answers, but I’m going to continue to search until the day I die,” he explained.
This candid discussion arrives just as the metalcore titans hit the road for a massive U.S. trek featuring support from Machine Head, Iron Reagan, and Havok. The band is continuing to ride the momentum of their highly successful ninth studio album, This Consequence, which dropped in February 2025 via Metal Blade Records. The record spawned the Top 10 hit “I Believe” alongside punishing singles like “Forever Aligned“, “Collusion“, and “Aftermath“. The album cycle previously saw the band dominate the summer of 2025 on a co-headlining run with Beartooth, I Prevail, and Parkway Drive.
While Leach‘s latest comments are making waves, his evolving relationship with faith has been a recurring theme over the years. During a 2018 interview with No-Prize From God with Ryan J. Downey, he provided extensive background on his nomadic childhood and early exposure to different belief systems.
“My father has always been a searching, wandering guy, looking for the true meaning of God after he found Jesus in the 1970s. My mother was predominantly the supportive wife and did nursing third shift. She would be sleeping during the day and my brother and I would be left to ourselves, living in Florida, Missouri, inner-city Philadelphia, out on a farm in Wisconsin. We moved around a lot because my dad was constantly in search of something. My parents are great. They did the best they could to raise us but I definitely think that my brother and I and later on my sister were raised with a certain mindset and indoctrination with the Christian faith, which was really good and also I believe a little bit inhibiting [to our] growth as well. [We] met and had access to all kinds of people, but a lot of it was in the context of a religious community,” he recalled at the time.
Detailing specific childhood memories that challenged his worldview, he shared:
“Where we lived in Germantown, this section of Philadelphia in the 1980s, there was an active Black Panther chapter and in our neighborhood, we lived next to a Rastafarian woman. I could see her — she would go outside naked in her backyard and perform rituals. I’m not sure if she was into voodoo or what she was into. But I vividly remember watching her prancing around her backyard, her dreadlocks going everywhere, chanting, from a young age being totally fascinated by that. Of course I was thinking it was ‘evil’ because of my indoctrination, but I was still fascinated. ‘What is this ‘other’ thing going on? This other practice?’ And also being a minority. We were the only white family in the entire area. So we were exposed to a different type of Christianity, more of the Baptist, some Christians call it the ‘happy clappy’ stuff — singing and dancing, the early Pentecostal stuff. Philly was probably my first memories. My memories begin with living in Philadelphia in a pretty bad part of town but also having a pretty tight-knit community there. And Bible studies my parents would host.”
The vocalist fiercely condemned the exclusionary practices of modern religious communities, particularly regarding their systemic homophobia.
“Nowadays whether or not gay people should be married is a hot-button issue. It’s absolutely asinine. When you look at what issues we’re truly facing in this world and what the Christians who are in the spotlight choose to focus on, it’s just so disappointing and something I’ve distanced myself from further and further as I get older, get more educated, travel the world more, and meet more people.
He concluded his thoughts on the matter by pointing out the ultimate contradiction of religious control:
“The human element of organized religion is what destroys, I believe, any semblance of what a God would be. It’s just such a contradiction. I mean we chuckle about all of this stuff, but that’s real stuff. And that stuff is still going on in different ways. They’ve gotten smarter with masking it. And it’s not just Christians. It’s religion in general. Any means that we’re using to control people, there’s automatically fear there. You’ve got to fear something. And I’m just at this point in my life where I just don’t buy it anymore. I don’t think that this supreme being would want us to be this subservient and not liberate us. If God is truly love like a lot of religions claim, all of this segregation, separation and judgment we’re doing is a total antithesis of what love is.”
