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When Someone You Love Deconstructs Their Faith
This post is outside of my normal audience. Typically I’m writing to people who are deconstructing, rethinking faith, or trying to reconstruct their faith after religious trauma and spiritual abuse. Today I am writing to the people who love them and are concerned for them. Hello there! Because those of you who will hopefully find this post are probably unfamiliar with me and my story, let me give a quick background. I spent the 90s in a Christian cult with my family. It was a conscious decision my parents made because they truly thought they were doing the best thing. Although they were always a bit skeptical and tried to…
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Shaking Up Tradition and Religion
I have a new theme song! Have you ever had a song resonate so deeply that it feels like the theme of your life? This one has been out since 2021, but I just heard it for the first time at the writers conference I was attending last weekend. Yes, writers conference! We will get to that. Also, hello there! It’s been a while. 🙂 “Shake up the ground of all my tradition. Breakdown the walls of all my religion. Your way is better. Your way is better.” Joshua Neil Farro / Rebekah Erin White / Lucas Salles Cortazio / Evelyn Braun Heideriqui This bridge is the heart of everything…
- 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…
- \'rant\ : to talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner, And Then I Met Jesus, Exposing Legalism
Yeah, That’s Not Okay
I listened to the podcast episode in frustration yet not in disbelief because I’ve experienced the bitter pain of church hurt myself. An author I’ve read and resonated with–even though sometimes we’ve disagreed–shared how her family was asked to leave the church they had finally settled in because of her writings. Is this author on the progressive side of things? Yup. Does she have a fair share of questions and doubts? Absolutely. Had she been deeply wounded by religious Christians before this latest experience? Oh, yes. These are all the more reasons she had hoped to find a place of safety and grace as she rebuilt her fractured faith. Unfortunately…
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A Dry and Thirsty Land
I was reminded of one of my first blog posts this morning as I once again prayed for rain. The shriveled clumps of grass clung weakly to the dirt. Brown and brittle, they crunched under my feet. It hadn’t rained in weeks. Everything was dry and dusty. Just walking around kicked up so much dirt that a light tan film constantly covered my feet and legs. My favorite summer camp was quickly turning into a desert. We were desperate for some rain! It has been incredibly dry here in Michigan for the past few weeks. The grass is yellow with the exception of some weeds and I have to water…