Deconstructing? Start Here.
Photo by Todd McLellan
Dismantling our faith is a natural and necessary step for spiritual maturity and growth, one we all undergo at some point and some level. It occurs when we begin to question assumed givens or reject ideals and beliefs we once held as unquestionable. The process can be unsettling and liberating. For those of us asking hard questions, mired in the instability and uncertainty of deconstruction, I want to offer some helpful direction, perhaps some stability to help you find your way back into the community of faith or help you determine if you're out.
But regardless of your struggle or your belief, know that Jesus' love and disposition towards you does not change or waver based on your actions, behavior, or belief. Nor does His fondness of you. It is as confident and fixed as the Himalayas. So as you doubt, as you wrestle, do your best to remember that you are deeply, securely, and ferociously loved.
There are two broad categories under which deconstruction is happening in contemporary Church right now, the deconstruction of the traditional Christian faith and the deconstruction of evangelical culture. These are two very different paths that can often be confused with one another. Or maybe to say it another way, rejecting certain conservative Christian cultural mores is not the same as rejecting the risen Christ.
One of evangelical culture's unhelpful (albeit unintentional) consequences was its conflating and confusing practice and belief. The culture wars, consumed with the idea of protecting the next generation from "the culture," created a culture of its own. This new culture, said to be founded on the Christian faith, had little to do with the pillars of Christian orthodoxy. That is, this pseudo-Christian culture looked and sounded Christian but was not founded on those distinct beliefs that were uniquely and necessarily Christian. Rather than rooting itself in the person and nature of Jesus, it rooted itself in a narrow and very particular reading of SOME parts of the scriptures. The voice of the traditional Church that had been speaking and interpreting for thousands of years was dismissed or drowned out by the new and self-proclaimed authoritative interpretations of the Bible.
The result was a culture machine that proclaimed Christ and even tried to live for Christ but neglected the essentials of the Christian faith. In some sense, the culture itself became the very thing it hated, an empty religion without a soul. Prooftexts formed a thin version of the Christian faith, gutted of all that made it robust and beautiful. Or, as Jesus says, a whitewashed tomb. Something that looks life-giving on the outside but only contains death and decay.
To be clear, this is not true of every person involved in evangelicalism, far from it. I would consider myself an evangelical, raised by evangelicals, brought to faith by evangelicals, discipled and trained by evangelicals. I have dear friends who are deeply evangelical, and their faith is vibrant and beautiful.
But rejecting evangelicalism, or evangelical culture, while a very real deconstruction of one's personal faith, is not a rejection of the Christian faith. Discarding purity culture is not the same as denying the resurrection of Jesus. A dismissal of patriarchy, homophobia, racial inequality, and the Evangelical Church's complicity in them is different from a dismissal of the person of Jesus. Yet many who deconstruct evangelicalism do not realize this because the voices within the broader, global Church have been silenced. The result is a very narrow, monolithic understanding of what it means to be a Christian.
Understanding this distinction can help us find our way forward. Are you deconstructing the Christian faith and its tenets, or are you deconstructing evangelical culture? The fact that there is little to no overlap between these two proves the point. Rejecting one is not denying the other. One can easily pass as staunchly evangelical these days without affirming all or even any of the Christian essentials (see Jan. 6th). And likewise, there are a bounty of robust, beautiful, and life-giving expressions of the Christian faith that do not resemble evangelicalism in any way, shape, or form. While deconstruction of any kind can leave you feeling alone and awash in disorienting currents of change, you are not alone. At least you don't have to be. At Redemption we are ok with scary, hard questions and even ask ourselves these same types of questions. And we want to help you know where you stand or don't.
What are the essential Christian beliefs? Let's keep it basic. God, the Creator of all things good and beautiful, has most clearly revealed Godself in Jesus, the incarnate son of God. The cosmos and its people were meant to be good, beautiful, and characterized by flourishing but have become something else. Jesus entered into the marred cosmos, lived, died, and was raised from death for its wholistic redemption and restoration. This work of restoration has begun in God's people, called the Church, who are indwelt and empowered by the Spirit of God to be people who love God and love neighbor. Jesus will one day return to redeem the cosmos fully, raising all that was once dead and reestablishing beauty and goodness in full. This is essentially a basic variation of the Apostles' Creed with a few tweaks.
So in this, we see the uniquely Christian tenets of faith, a trinitarian God, redeeming a broken cosmos filled with broken people through a work of redemption founded on and carried out by the life, death, and resurrection of the incarnate Son of God, through the Spirit-filled people of God, with the hope of a full restoration by God. These elements, trinitarianism, incarnation, brokenness and restoration, the centrality of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the Spirit-filled community, God doing for us what we cant do for ourselves, and hope of resurrection, are the essentials. These core beliefs, not one's sexual preference, adherence to gender hierarchies, political affiliations, morality, or special knowledge, are essentially Christian. The others are not.
To be sure, embodying these beliefs will have drastic real-world ramifications shaping our ethics (both sexual and otherwise), what and how we know, how we see the world and our place in it, and our work to make it a beautiful flourishing place. But what evangelical culture did was flip this on its head so that evangelical ethic overshadowed the essentials, consuming them. Picking on my own tradition for a moment, how many teenagers who grew up in the southern baptist Church can tell what the Church believes about the Trinity? The incarnation? The resurrection? Now, what about the church's stance on homosexuality? Women's place in ministry? Speaking in tongues? This answer sheds so much light on the issue because we teach our children what is most important to us. But we should note that this so-called evangelical ethic was hijacked from the start and reflects a very narrow perspective of life and faith that could never be applied to the universal Church in all places and all times. If this is the case, it is not an essential.
Are we rejecting the things that the Church has believed in all places at all times, or are we rejecting a particular cultural expression of the faith that morphed into something that attempts to stand in its place? Knowing the difference can help you find healing, answers, and a mystical connection with the person of Jesus. Clarifying this will not give you all the answers you need, but it can help clarify your starting point. Be patient, be gentle with yourself, and remember you are deeply and divinely loved.
If you want to talk, we are here. We would love to hear from you, help you wrestle with your questions, pray with you, and help you find peace.
