Why do we need to talk about deconstruction?
Why is it a real thing?
If you’ve had an amazing journey of faith, then truly – that is wonderful. But so many in our world have not.
The religious institution of the church has taught them that questions are not acceptable.
“Something horrific happens to you in your life?
Well, suck it up, buttercup. It’s God’s will, and who are we to question God?”
When people encounter that understanding of God, many say, “If life is going to suck anyway, why deal with a God who has zero compassion and empathy? I may as well go on and live it up here and now. Let the chips fall where they may.”
Others feel a need to deconstruct because they’ve tried to make sense of complex concepts in scripture and keep coming up empty-handed.
“How could God tell a man to take his beloved and long-awaited son to the top of a mountain and kill him, sacrificing him to God?”
Or . . .
“How could a God of love wipe out entire groups of people because of their wrongdoing? Where is the grace and redemption in that story?”
Or they are wrestling with pain caused personally to them because of the dogma of a religious institution they were/are part of.
One of the young ladies in the youth group I led 25 years ago began dating a young man of different ethnicity. We were studying Moses and I shared his wife was of a different ethnicity. She, in turn, told her grandmother that, and within two hours my senior pastor had a phone call from the grandmother threatening to leave the church if I didn’t start teaching “gospel truth.”
Or they are burned out on the whole concept of institutionalized religion completely. They know they can be with and in God in all times, spaces, and places, and they see no need for the institutional church. All they/we do is tell them how bad they are and ask for money, right?
So there are lots of reasons.
Our role is to hear, see, and try to understand those reasons and then get back to what we are about anyway.
Love.
Love is embodied and expressed through The Christ.
Whose coming is now . . . and now . . . and now . . .
And when we live as if that is true, all else will fall into place.
The words on paper are easy. The lifestyle it calls for is not.
But it is worth a try.
I hope you’ll join me.
Grace and Peace,
Andrea