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The Same Old Lies
Thoughts from someone who left a Christian cult only to see the fundamentalist ideology continue to expand. I dodged through the crowds at Cedar Point hoping to lose the teenage boy following me, but he was persistent and eventually caught up. I’d gotten a cartilage piercing a few weeks earlier at the end of summer camp, and now an old friend was literally chasing me down. When he found me, I got a long lecture about the dangers of worldliness. I was twenty-one years old; he was four or five years younger. If I had to pick one moment when I knew I was done, this is it. I was…
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The God Who Is Here With Us
An Unexpected Discovery Last weekend my family went camping at Silver Lake State Park. Sunday was a windy, cooler day so we took advantage of the weather and hiked a mile and a half across the sand dunes to Lake Michigan. Sweatshirts went on, off, and on again as we hiked. We finally made it—panting and sweating—to the beach. The wind was whipping and the waves were huge. There was no one else in sight. It felt like we were the only people left on the planet. We watched the water crashing at our feet and wandered along the edge of the sand. In the distance I spotted something strange.…
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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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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…
