Exposing Legalism
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Shiny Happy People and the Church
This was originally published in my Substack Newsletter – Rethinking Faith I finished Shiny Happy People last week with my husband. It was a glimpse into my life for him and a difficult reminder for me. Some of the episodes were harder to watch than others. Unexpected emotions, pieces of memories, and a looming sense of dread welled up in ways I didn’t expect. I had to stop and explain, process, and breathe. (Episode 160 of my podcast was my response) As hard as it was to watch, it was also validating. I’ve been saying to people for years that I think Gothard has had more influence on Evangelical Christianity than we…
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Perspectives, Jinger Duggar Vuolo, and Faith Deconstruction
The Duggar Family and Me I always know when something has come out about the Duggar family because suddenly some of my old blog posts and podcasts start being found again. Sure enough, Jinger Duggar Vuolo has written a book titled, “Becoming Free Indeed” telling her story of walking away from the legalism she experienced while being raised in a family who followed Bill Gothard’s cultic teachings. Jinger and I were part of the same cult; I’m just a good ten plus years older than her. She was starting to show up as a child in TV specials about the time I was exiting the culture and mindset. I’ll be…
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Worshiping the Baals and Missing the Living God
I found The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast thanks to someone I follow on Instagram. Produced by Christianity Today and hosted by Mike Cosper, the podcast describes the story of the Seattle based megachurch and it’s pastor Mark Driscoll. But even more than that, it digs into the background of Mars Hill and the Christian culture of the last 40-50 years which produced the disaster that followed. They’ve only released the first two episodes, but I’m already hooked. This feels like I’m getting the missing half of the conversation that started with Kristin Kobes Du Mez’ book Jesus and John Wayne. But unlike Du Mez who seemed to…
- An Impostor Jesus, And Then I Met Jesus, Exposing Legalism, God Ponderings, Looking for the Real God, My Story
Defining Deconstruction
There was an incredible Lego set but over the years people added pieces to it and took some away Most of them had good intentions They were trying to make it look better or more creative maybe more fun and even more defined But after a while you couldn’t tell what it used to look like It was just a pile of Lego blocks stuck together 🪴 I took the blocks apart and found the original instructions which were kind of crumpled and hard to read Then I separated the pieces choosing the ones that belonged to the oirginal set I did my best to follow the directions even though…
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Reconstructing in the Middle Way
Why do I focus so much on deconstructing and then reconstructing our faith within historical orthodoxy? Why don’t I fit into a side? Why do I choose to muddle through life in this messy and awkward middle way? I’ve wondered these things a lot lately. My more progressive friends are always encouraging me to join them and I’ve definitely faced condemnation from religious conservatives. I don’t seem to fit anywhere and I know that many of you feel that too. I’ve been reading a book that is opening my mind to a bunch of junk that’s been going on within evangelical Christianity for years (you will hear about it eventually…
