I think a lot of Christians hear the word "deconstruction" and automatically associate it with other religious buzzwords like "backsliding," "straying," "turning away from faith," and more. What the Christian community often fails to realize is that for many, deconstruction is a deepening of one's beliefs by purposefully weeding out falsehoods. When I began my own journey of deconstruction in my late teens, I felt a measure of guilt because my questions and doubts were treated as unbelief in my religious community. As I continued into my early twenties, I began to feel more assured in my convictions, and was able to hold my ground on the idea that deconstruction was supplementing my faith, not replacing it.
I'm looking forward to reading Part 2 of this post! This edition really resonated with my and my journey – thank you for sharing!
YES! Thank you for naming this! The concept of doubt and struggle is deeply rooted in historic Christian writing and practice. The discomfort we collectively have with people wrestling with their faith is revealing.
I really appreciate this Marissa. As our 3 sons (ages 24-30) figure out what they believe present tense, my husband and I have done much soul searching about the mistakes we made. We were too quick to believe the "experts" often times over-riding our instincts. We've made many apologies to our young men.
These teachings betrayed entire families. It is a very difficult reckoning, though I commend you for doing it. Gives me so much hope to hear from parents who are able to listen and attempt repair. ❤️🩹
Us too! My three boys ages 29-36 have all left the faith but we determined many years ago, relationship with them comes first over demands and “preaching” how they should be living. Thankfully we’ve been successful with relationship and now trusting Holy Spirit to guide each of them toward restoring faith.
I have no problem with deconstructing. As you said, it’s a necessary part of our making the personal choice to follow Christ.
The problem I have is with what is reconstructed after one strips it all bare down to the foundation. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to build His Church. Every person who deconstructs must choose whether to respond to the Spirit of Truth as they reconstruct something from the rubble. God gives beauty for ashes. When one chooses to not rebuild, and instead wallow in ashes, they have made their own choice clear.
I’m praying for the rebuilding of our children’s faith, a move of the Holy Spirit to bring repentance, and the kingdom of God to flourish in our hearts and homes.
I appreciate this! What I find so interesting about Paul's use of this metaphor in 1 Corinthians is that the caution re: reconstructing - or anyone building, really - is, again, for the builders (the teachers and leaders in Christian communities). That's not to say there can't be a personal individual-faith application, but if there is one it is to be discerning and careful not to get wrapped up in the following of pedestaled leaders.
I also love the reminder that *people* are God's sacred dwelling. Not faith, per se, but us together. Anyway, 1 Cor 3 makes me reframe James 3:1's "not many should be teachers" a bit.
Amen. I grew up in this kind of environment (though it was more James Dobson in those days). Christ the Cornerstone has withstood all my "deconstructing" but so much else has proved to be chaff.
All thru scripture most of the railing against wickedness is aimed at religious leaders. But generally leaders weaponize those verses against lay people, generating fear and neediness so they will be more dependant on clergy telling them what to do. As parents, we were the leaders, so we need to take note and repent if necessary.
Okay so I agree with you fundamentally. People follow idols even when they don't realize they're there. The issue is deconstruction is not in the bible. The verses you showed wasn't you deconstructing, it was the flames by God getting rid of the building. We do not deconstruct (we simply die ourselves and are reborn right?) and if that was a verse arguing for deconstruction then it's even more so arguing for construction. People aren't leaving the church for those reasons. People are leaving the church for more mundane reasons but those aren't going to show up in any online discussions.
What you presented is an issue but it's important to view those as someone's faith. We're all sinners and we're going to get something wrong and it'd be wrong because it's part of reality which God made i.e. it's not going to hold up even with the best intentions. If you don't view these people and things in terms of their relationship with God then you're going to offer a negative viewpoint which doesn't really address them. That's really the key issue with "deconstruction", it does not seem to grasp people who it's talking about. It's talking about them in terms of somebody else or some other group and particularly it's talking about their faith. You can have faith to faith discussions. You cannot have a discussion where their faith is discussed negatively solely in terms of their impacts on other people especially solely in a sociological sense. If I follow God's Word and the whole world blows up as a result of it I am not in any sense entertaining people complaining the whole world blew up. I'm open to discussing if my faith is in the right thing based on my faith in God. It is not anyone else who died for me or anyone else living my life. They don't begin to enter into the discussion.
That's deconstruction in a very loose sense of the actual theological position and in a very general sense. In the actual theological position it asks you to not have faith. It reduces faith in terms of your relations with several other groups (which are defined as minor narratives). My faith with God does not need to be looked at from a Palestinian perspective nor an Israeli, nor LGBT nor anything else in vogue. I do not worship them, they did not save me. There are plenty of articles and reports of how toxic and manipulative deconstruction has been for Christians.
"While writing The Deconstruction of Christianity with Alisa Childers, we discovered some fundamental beliefs that undergird the deconstruction process. Moreover, these ideas are antithetical to the Christian worldview."
Huh. I'm not sure I follow your reasoning here. I think there are probably a wide variety of reasons people are deconstructing, but I would caution against equating "deconstruction" with "leaving the faith" or even "leaving the church." That's one of my key points - cultivating discernment requires weighing and analyzing whether things align with the life and teaching of Jesus.
I haven't read Childers' book so can't comment on that.
Deconstruction is equated with reducing faith into social impact on chosen minor narratives and I'll be honest, I find it hard to believe you had trouble following the reasoning. If 1 cor 3:10-15 is about deconstruction simply because it says God's fires will get rid of a house on poor foundation then it is even more so an argument for construction because the verses are about building a house on strong foundation. The house burning away is a consequence of a bad building. Jesus in Matthew 7 comments on the foundational aspect as well. The whole sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7 is about building and measuring by faith (in God through Christ), not about deconstruction.
I also find it hard to believe you sincerely don't understand why people don't like deconstruction or are averse to it considering I've given you articles and books by people who go over this and you're just saying you've never read it so you can't comment on it.
If you're a sincere Christian, and I take you to be one, you should really look into how abusive the leaders of deconstruction christianity are. One of them tweeted how Christians shouldn't go to church but should rather troll conservatives online because that's what Jesus would prefer. Does that sound like something that may make deconstruction unappealing to Christians to you?
It sounds like you have a very specific definition of deconstruction in mind. I do not. I am speaking about people who were discipled in churches (often from infancy) where all manner of things were added to the Gospel and presented as Christianity.
Those are things being exposed - whether internally as people think critically about those teachings - or externally, as apocalyptic revealing judgment comes on churches riddled with abuse, moral failure, hypocrisy, etc.
None of that impacts the foundation - Jesus is the foundation -nothing prevails against Him.
However, Jesus also warns against those who put stumbling blocks in front of peoples' faith. Ezekiel 34 speaks of bad shepherds, the result of which sheep are scattered and vulnerable. But God's response to that isn't that they must get back in under some new shepherds. He says: "I myself will shepherd my people."
I also don't see the point of policing other peoples' spiritual formation. The "dark night of the soul," wrestling with doubt, etc. are all throughout church history. So is apostasy. But I don't think apostasy necessarily = deconstruction, though it's often spoken of as such.
I don't know anything about this leader who tweeted, but problematic teachers are non-partisan. He/she should be careful how they build.
You're not exposing them to the light when you use man, or children in your article, as a measure. We are not supposed to use man as a measure.
Mark 19
25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
This says do not tear down.
2 cor 10:7-8
7 You are judging by appearances.[a] If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do. 8 So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it.
Also we are scripturally commanded to judge faith by its fruits. Jesus said it, Paul said it, James said it. Deconstruction has a ton of deconverts. Besides that, they have no qualms with people deconverting. Why would it be confusing that Christians would be averse to deconstruction? It goes entirely against the great commission in 2 cor 5:18-19. There is no way to squeeze deconstruction into Christianity unless Christianity was perfectly fine with not reconciling people to God through Christ. It'd make the whole point of Christianity self contradicting.
I think fragility and defensiveness will not reconcile ppl to Christ. You're not going to shame or "should" ppl into the Kingdom. Is the Holy Spirit incapable of drawing people to Christ? Is Jesus incapable of, if He is lifted up, drawing all people to Himself? Jesus engaged with individuals, and respected their agency to choose to follow Him or not. I don't see how that is different today.
I am unworried, because God's grace and mercy and love for the world is much greater than my own. Though there is much to grieve and be angry about, because I think Christian organizations and leaders have put many stumbling blocks to faith in front of people.
So you're saying it's perfectly fine that an action you are promoting pushes people away from Christ but also that putting stumbling blocks to faith in people's paths is also not okay?
I don't know what "action I'm promoting" you are talking about. Do I think people should wrestle with their faith? Yes? This is a biblical concept as well. Do I think people should cultivate discernment? Yes, absolutely. Do I think people should set aside anything that doesn't align with the way and teaching of Jesus? 100%
If they say they don't like it but it just happens that's like saying you don't like people dying in nuclear warfare while you drop nukes on cities. Christianity is doing a lot of heavy lifting in deconstruction if deconstruction is having any positive effects on people.
I think a lot of Christians hear the word "deconstruction" and automatically associate it with other religious buzzwords like "backsliding," "straying," "turning away from faith," and more. What the Christian community often fails to realize is that for many, deconstruction is a deepening of one's beliefs by purposefully weeding out falsehoods. When I began my own journey of deconstruction in my late teens, I felt a measure of guilt because my questions and doubts were treated as unbelief in my religious community. As I continued into my early twenties, I began to feel more assured in my convictions, and was able to hold my ground on the idea that deconstruction was supplementing my faith, not replacing it.
I'm looking forward to reading Part 2 of this post! This edition really resonated with my and my journey – thank you for sharing!
YES! Thank you for naming this! The concept of doubt and struggle is deeply rooted in historic Christian writing and practice. The discomfort we collectively have with people wrestling with their faith is revealing.
I love this. Thank you!
I really appreciate this Marissa. As our 3 sons (ages 24-30) figure out what they believe present tense, my husband and I have done much soul searching about the mistakes we made. We were too quick to believe the "experts" often times over-riding our instincts. We've made many apologies to our young men.
These teachings betrayed entire families. It is a very difficult reckoning, though I commend you for doing it. Gives me so much hope to hear from parents who are able to listen and attempt repair. ❤️🩹
Thanks for the encouragement. It has been a hard road.
Same for us.
Us too! My three boys ages 29-36 have all left the faith but we determined many years ago, relationship with them comes first over demands and “preaching” how they should be living. Thankfully we’ve been successful with relationship and now trusting Holy Spirit to guide each of them toward restoring faith.
So heartening to hear stories like this that lean into trusting the Lord and loving our nearest neighbors.
I have no problem with deconstructing. As you said, it’s a necessary part of our making the personal choice to follow Christ.
The problem I have is with what is reconstructed after one strips it all bare down to the foundation. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to build His Church. Every person who deconstructs must choose whether to respond to the Spirit of Truth as they reconstruct something from the rubble. God gives beauty for ashes. When one chooses to not rebuild, and instead wallow in ashes, they have made their own choice clear.
I’m praying for the rebuilding of our children’s faith, a move of the Holy Spirit to bring repentance, and the kingdom of God to flourish in our hearts and homes.
I appreciate this! What I find so interesting about Paul's use of this metaphor in 1 Corinthians is that the caution re: reconstructing - or anyone building, really - is, again, for the builders (the teachers and leaders in Christian communities). That's not to say there can't be a personal individual-faith application, but if there is one it is to be discerning and careful not to get wrapped up in the following of pedestaled leaders.
I also love the reminder that *people* are God's sacred dwelling. Not faith, per se, but us together. Anyway, 1 Cor 3 makes me reframe James 3:1's "not many should be teachers" a bit.
Amen. I grew up in this kind of environment (though it was more James Dobson in those days). Christ the Cornerstone has withstood all my "deconstructing" but so much else has proved to be chaff.
🔥
Love this Marissa! You make a very salient case. Thank you for your leadership.
Thank you for reading!
All thru scripture most of the railing against wickedness is aimed at religious leaders. But generally leaders weaponize those verses against lay people, generating fear and neediness so they will be more dependant on clergy telling them what to do. As parents, we were the leaders, so we need to take note and repent if necessary.
YES.
Okay so I agree with you fundamentally. People follow idols even when they don't realize they're there. The issue is deconstruction is not in the bible. The verses you showed wasn't you deconstructing, it was the flames by God getting rid of the building. We do not deconstruct (we simply die ourselves and are reborn right?) and if that was a verse arguing for deconstruction then it's even more so arguing for construction. People aren't leaving the church for those reasons. People are leaving the church for more mundane reasons but those aren't going to show up in any online discussions.
What you presented is an issue but it's important to view those as someone's faith. We're all sinners and we're going to get something wrong and it'd be wrong because it's part of reality which God made i.e. it's not going to hold up even with the best intentions. If you don't view these people and things in terms of their relationship with God then you're going to offer a negative viewpoint which doesn't really address them. That's really the key issue with "deconstruction", it does not seem to grasp people who it's talking about. It's talking about them in terms of somebody else or some other group and particularly it's talking about their faith. You can have faith to faith discussions. You cannot have a discussion where their faith is discussed negatively solely in terms of their impacts on other people especially solely in a sociological sense. If I follow God's Word and the whole world blows up as a result of it I am not in any sense entertaining people complaining the whole world blew up. I'm open to discussing if my faith is in the right thing based on my faith in God. It is not anyone else who died for me or anyone else living my life. They don't begin to enter into the discussion.
That's deconstruction in a very loose sense of the actual theological position and in a very general sense. In the actual theological position it asks you to not have faith. It reduces faith in terms of your relations with several other groups (which are defined as minor narratives). My faith with God does not need to be looked at from a Palestinian perspective nor an Israeli, nor LGBT nor anything else in vogue. I do not worship them, they did not save me. There are plenty of articles and reports of how toxic and manipulative deconstruction has been for Christians.
"While writing The Deconstruction of Christianity with Alisa Childers, we discovered some fundamental beliefs that undergird the deconstruction process. Moreover, these ideas are antithetical to the Christian worldview."
https://www.str.org/w/why-i-changed-my-mind-about-deconstruction
Huh. I'm not sure I follow your reasoning here. I think there are probably a wide variety of reasons people are deconstructing, but I would caution against equating "deconstruction" with "leaving the faith" or even "leaving the church." That's one of my key points - cultivating discernment requires weighing and analyzing whether things align with the life and teaching of Jesus.
I haven't read Childers' book so can't comment on that.
Deconstruction is equated with reducing faith into social impact on chosen minor narratives and I'll be honest, I find it hard to believe you had trouble following the reasoning. If 1 cor 3:10-15 is about deconstruction simply because it says God's fires will get rid of a house on poor foundation then it is even more so an argument for construction because the verses are about building a house on strong foundation. The house burning away is a consequence of a bad building. Jesus in Matthew 7 comments on the foundational aspect as well. The whole sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7 is about building and measuring by faith (in God through Christ), not about deconstruction.
I also find it hard to believe you sincerely don't understand why people don't like deconstruction or are averse to it considering I've given you articles and books by people who go over this and you're just saying you've never read it so you can't comment on it.
If you're a sincere Christian, and I take you to be one, you should really look into how abusive the leaders of deconstruction christianity are. One of them tweeted how Christians shouldn't go to church but should rather troll conservatives online because that's what Jesus would prefer. Does that sound like something that may make deconstruction unappealing to Christians to you?
It sounds like you have a very specific definition of deconstruction in mind. I do not. I am speaking about people who were discipled in churches (often from infancy) where all manner of things were added to the Gospel and presented as Christianity.
Those are things being exposed - whether internally as people think critically about those teachings - or externally, as apocalyptic revealing judgment comes on churches riddled with abuse, moral failure, hypocrisy, etc.
None of that impacts the foundation - Jesus is the foundation -nothing prevails against Him.
However, Jesus also warns against those who put stumbling blocks in front of peoples' faith. Ezekiel 34 speaks of bad shepherds, the result of which sheep are scattered and vulnerable. But God's response to that isn't that they must get back in under some new shepherds. He says: "I myself will shepherd my people."
I also don't see the point of policing other peoples' spiritual formation. The "dark night of the soul," wrestling with doubt, etc. are all throughout church history. So is apostasy. But I don't think apostasy necessarily = deconstruction, though it's often spoken of as such.
I don't know anything about this leader who tweeted, but problematic teachers are non-partisan. He/she should be careful how they build.
You're not exposing them to the light when you use man, or children in your article, as a measure. We are not supposed to use man as a measure.
Mark 19
25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
This says do not tear down.
2 cor 10:7-8
7 You are judging by appearances.[a] If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do. 8 So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it.
Also we are scripturally commanded to judge faith by its fruits. Jesus said it, Paul said it, James said it. Deconstruction has a ton of deconverts. Besides that, they have no qualms with people deconverting. Why would it be confusing that Christians would be averse to deconstruction? It goes entirely against the great commission in 2 cor 5:18-19. There is no way to squeeze deconstruction into Christianity unless Christianity was perfectly fine with not reconciling people to God through Christ. It'd make the whole point of Christianity self contradicting.
I think fragility and defensiveness will not reconcile ppl to Christ. You're not going to shame or "should" ppl into the Kingdom. Is the Holy Spirit incapable of drawing people to Christ? Is Jesus incapable of, if He is lifted up, drawing all people to Himself? Jesus engaged with individuals, and respected their agency to choose to follow Him or not. I don't see how that is different today.
I am unworried, because God's grace and mercy and love for the world is much greater than my own. Though there is much to grieve and be angry about, because I think Christian organizations and leaders have put many stumbling blocks to faith in front of people.
So you're saying it's perfectly fine that an action you are promoting pushes people away from Christ but also that putting stumbling blocks to faith in people's paths is also not okay?
I don't know what "action I'm promoting" you are talking about. Do I think people should wrestle with their faith? Yes? This is a biblical concept as well. Do I think people should cultivate discernment? Yes, absolutely. Do I think people should set aside anything that doesn't align with the way and teaching of Jesus? 100%
If they say they don't like it but it just happens that's like saying you don't like people dying in nuclear warfare while you drop nukes on cities. Christianity is doing a lot of heavy lifting in deconstruction if deconstruction is having any positive effects on people.
A
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