Things I Think..
1. Writing this column becomes harder and harder every week…because I’m not sure you should care about most things I think…we all need a few voices in our lives that give us clarity and hope…and a way to shut off all the others…
2. I have observed that many people yowling about narcissism on social media are actually narcissists who have found a choice outlet to express themselves…
3. When I get worried about aberrant trends and theologies, it will help to remember that Gary North died and most people didn’t have a clue as to who he was or the impact he had…
4. Deconstruction happens when you meet the real Jesus and forcefully reject all the lies you’ve been told about Him…it’s the healthiest thing happening in the church…
5. The key to “deconstructing” properly with a glorious outcome is to understand that your problem is with those who claim Jesus, not Jesus Himself…
6. I’m torn between wanting to follow Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and hoping for the worst death possible for Putin…
7. Living for Jesus demands that we die to anything that distracts us from Him…it’s part of the sharing the sufferings of Jesus…
8. For those scoff at my contention that what is needful is for the church to demonstrate the love of Christ without political or cultural baggage…Joel Sterling Brown and the universal church supporting him and others in Ukraine have made more of an impact on the kingdom in a month than most megachurch pastors will make in a lifetime…
9. I despise labeling some things “Christian” and others “secular”…most things can speak of God to me…and God can speak through it all to me…
10. Thank you all for your prayers…I’m getting better…
#6 – I feel you
I am glad you are getting better Micheal, and I would like to say that your voice is one that gives me hope because many of the things on your mind either mirror, confirm, or codify what goes on in my mind from time to time. You’re thoughts make me feel like I am not crazy and condemned, but that there is a brotherhood out there for me.
Joel,
I can’t imagine what that would feel like from your side…I think I would not struggle at all and repent later…
Dan,
Thanks as always…you’ve been a blessing to this community and we’re grateful for you.
#6 – A daily struggle for me. I do not have the capacity to care in the least bit for him or his salvation. I don’t like that I feel this way. But when I look at the horrors he has created I find that all the compassion and caring that I have is only for the victims, none for the perpetrator. May God stop him cold.
#6 God has taken care of other people like Putin in quite drastic ways. I don’t think Putin’s afterlife will be very fun, either, but I’m not in charge of that.
My prayer for Putin (& some others) is that they suffer strokes, but are left with enough brain cells to receive redemption.
For my family and Michael I pray they receive grace and mercy – strength of mind and body plus wisdom and discernment that begins with a healthy respect/fear of our Creator
Putin is a reprobate, as is his enabler Kirill…they have no hope of salvation because they believe they already have attained it…
As always, Michael, you put the dot on the I in the lies and cross t in the Truth!
Your words reflect my feelings also… Specially #9…
Beside the sadness and unbelief of what’s happening in this century… my mind and heart turns to The Word, it is described so well all we see and feel, and you covered it well!
Stay healthy, stay strong!
#8 Huge AMENNNN!!!
#1: I don’t know if I should care either, but I find myself nodding in agreement quite a bit.
#10: Glad you’re on the mend. Still praying.
Feeing 4 & 5
#9 really speaks to me. I have felt for years that the so called division between “secular” and “Christian” is a man-made one, and that we can indeed find, often in the most unexpected places,something of God throughout His world.
Michael, the reason I want to disable, not slay Putin is because the Lord says He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (hell?)!
Still I suspect you are right about Pewtin……
#4 – Yes. I find that I know very little about God/Jesus now. The things of which I was so certain have mostly fallen away. But what I do know and believe, in their simplicity, is enough. More than enough.
#9 – There is no longer any division for me. Suffering can do that to you.
You learn to see God where you haven’t seen God before (or didn’t believe God would occupy *that* or *there*).
This song, by a man who grew up in India with his missionary parents, speaks to me on this point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evRTFR_5N6o
Often, the choice is deconstruction or completely walking away. I’ll take deconstruction.
Thought 8
The highlights of my day are seeing the update videos. I was in therapy today, and discussed this with her. The biggest leap of deconstruction is watching that real ministry take place.
Reuben
I had dinner last night with a family including the Ukrainian grandma that was gotten out by Joel and his team. A nice Holy Week blessing.
Re: #8: could not agree with you more! Too often Christians are so busy infighting about politics and social issues that we are too busy fighting a war against each other and instead neglecting the spiritual war that we are in all day every day.
By the way, can someone give a good explanation of proper deconstruction, in the simplest statement possible? From my understanding (in the simplest of nutshells), it’s taking what you believe/have been told and then rejecting those things that are not in accordance with proper theology. Am I off here?
Dread, that is awesome!
BTW, I received a book today called “The Evangelical Universalist” by Gregory MacDonald. Thanks Michael!
Steven, Im no expert in the matter, but for me, the deconstruction started happening about 9 years ago. I completely collapsed after leaving the church and renouncing my faith after 12 years as a pastor. Calvin’s Institutes was a major catalyst, but the slow progression for me was mostly looking back at all the horrible teaching, beating the sheep, being beaten by the sheep, realizing I was in a very dogmatic cult of sorts. I spiraled into Anti-Theism, which is not to be mistaken with Atheism. Atheists simply say there is no god. Anti-Theists say god and religion are destructive, and should be fought out from society and culture. There vast aspects of Anti-Theism that I still hold dear and will defend, but as Michael said, for me, at this moment of trying to reconstruct things,
“Deconstruction happens when you meet the real Jesus and forcefully reject all the lies you’ve been told about Him…it’s the healthiest thing happening in the church…”
I feel that happening to me. I don’t want to be associated with Christianity, I just want a god I can understand, a god that I have never met before, but the window is slowly opening.
I have been to the place of rejecting all of it.
Steven, I don’t think there is a definition or any standard method of deconstruction. Its just a name people have given to a process they have observed. It would have to be different for each individual, I would think, depending upon the type of religious environment the individual was raised in. For me, it was seeing how much of my religious landscape was tangled up with right-wing political crap. It was so entangled, it was hard to tell what was crap and what wasn’t. I had to tear it all down to find out what was real. I’m still in the tear-down process, but have stabilized from the free-fall that began it all.
Generally, the individual would have no idea where the deconstruction would end. It may end with better theology, or it may end with no theology at all. It is just finding yourself in a religious environment that no longer fits, and deciding that you have to get out.
Perfect, Josh
Politics and the overwhelming link to the church was a major process for me as well. It took years, but I wound up completely off the American political landscape, (although it’s used a lot in outright lies and total lack of knowledge) and joined a party that few even know exists in America.
Christianity, and this is just IMHO, should probably drop the political dogma entirely. I understand there are issues that Christians feel strongly must be supported, but this is country that can not see itself through its own arrogance, what it does, how it is transforming our global affairs, what we have done to other nations, what we don’t do, economics, clear down to how we live. We don’t realize we are an evil nation, hell bent on driving everyone into the dirt, profiting off of human suffering, forcing people to make massive life or death decisions based on what economic class they are in… it’s insane to me. Again, all IMHO
My two cents on deconstruction…
https://www.phoenixpreacher.com/deconstructing/
The BEST book on deconstruction with the aim of reconstruction is “After Doubt.” I had to read it for a class and it actually helped me process through some thing, and definitely helped equip me to walk with others through deconstruction, not around it.
Long time no see, Corby. I hope things are well!
I don’t think for most “deconstructing” people that there is a big mystery about what caused it.
It was the cognitive dissonance between who the church declared themselves to be and who they really were.
When someone tells you they love you and you find out they lied…you assume they lied about other things as well.
Add to this the fact that in American evangelicalism who you hate is as important to the tribe as who you love.
I do not offer those in the process a book or “warnings”…I offer them my time and my heart and settle in for a long ride.
Deconstruction, as already has been said here, is very broad and different in experience from one person to the next. It is not something that can be neatly defined or categorized step-by-step.
It also have become one of the enemies du jour of some evangelicals who constantly need something to fight and hate with little effort to understand the complexities of the issue or care about the people who are actually deconstructing.
“It also have become one of the enemies du jour of some evangelicals who constantly need something to fight and hate with little effort to understand the complexities of the issue or care about the people who are actually deconstructing.”
Amen
Reuben,
I’m sleep deprived and cranky as a snake…but you hit the sweet spot.
Too many of these people would not know Jesus if He appeared in front of them…so they sell their version of “God” for profit.
You will find Him helping you dig out of the rubble…
Thanks for the replies, everyone. Duane, I’ve skimmed the article you linked to but will re-read it later when I am able to devote more time.
From what I can tell, I may have been in this process for a few years now…and maybe, just maybe, it explains why I feel further and further away (so to speak) from people’s views in our brick-and-mortar church. Not because I’m doing something wrong, but perhaps because I’m doing something “right.”
The scary part for me is not knowing if I am doing something right or wrong. I just knew I couldn’t keep doing the same thing.
I have had some deconstruction and subsequent reconstruction of my faith. It has become a siren’s call, and something that I have to be careful with. I’m not always confident that I’ll end up in the right place, but also looking back that same concern was the catalyst that formed my own deconstruction to begin with.
I think the tension and uneasiness stems from the more I know about God, the less I really know about Him.
Not sure if any have read “The Critical Journey”? The journey of faith is described as more of a circle with 6 zones instead of maybe what reformers might see as a staircase going upwards. The circular model helped me see that the Christian life is not linear and there are many different seasons. In this book the concept of The Wall is discussed. I would believe deconstruction happens in this phase.
Deconstruction = Gods will vs. Man’s will
Freedom = Grace to submit to Gods will
Sheesh,
This yea, as an experiment, we posted a Facebook ad for our Easter service. Never again. All it does is attract atheists and fundamentalists who feel the need to comment or message us that “we’re doing Easter wrong.” I had to ban one woman who kept posting comments about us celebrating a pagan holiday. What a headache!
Oh yeah, and Ben Courson is a piece of narcissistic work.