Benjamin Cremer <-- Author’s Facebook link
I was told recently, yet again, that those who are “deconstructing Christians” are simply those who want to believe what they want rather than commit to Jesus and the holy scriptures.
They went on to say that those who are “deconstructing” choose not to be part of a Christian community and therefore they don’t want to be held accountable by other believers in their faith.
They said, “it’s just a religion of relativism. They just want to chase after what feels good to them rather than what’s actually true.”
Unfortunately, working in the church for as long as I have, I’ve heard this narrative far too often.
It is not only incredibly wrong, but deeply hurtful and condescending.
I was called to be a pastor around 7 years old. I have made the study of scripture and church history and pastoral ministry my life’s work ever since.
During my theological studies, I found that I was having “faith crisis” after “faith crisis.” It felt like every semester I would read a part of the Bible I never read before or learn something about what the early church believed that completely shook my world. It was so conflicting to the faith of my childhood. The faith of my church growing up. The faith of my entire life up to that point.
I then realized that this breaking down what I believed and deepening my understanding of the world and my theology wasn’t a crisis of faith, but was actually the work of faith itself!
Faith seeks understanding. Certainty doesn’t. Certainty believes it already has all the answers. Certainty believes it already has everything figured out.
Certainty feels nice and safe because it gives you clear control over your world and those around you, but it isn’t the work of faith.
Faith is the evidence of things unseen, undiscovered, uncharted, and unfathomable. Faith begins with knowing that there is so much you already don’t know and bravely moving forward acknowledging the doubts that are present and willingly asking the hard questions along the way. Never being too sure you have everything figured out, but intentionally pursuing understanding in humility.
Needless to say, I found this work of deconstructing and reconstructing my faith to be just a natural part of following Jesus. Tough questions and conflicting beliefs became a welcome companion to my life rather than a threat. I carried that with me into pastoral ministry.
What I discovered in local church ministry though shook me in a different way. I discovered that asking the hard questions and leaving no stone unturned when it came to the life of faith was more often seen as a threat than a gift. Certainty was more of the goal.
I saw those who asked questions be met with suspicion rather than delight. I saw those who doubted questioned about their faith rather than seen as those who were striving to go deeper.
Then as people kept learning more and more about theology and church history as I did and as major political and social events brought bigger questions into the conversation, this suspicion turned hostile and the questioning of people’s beliefs turned to doubling down and gatekeeping.
So much so that I watched individual after individual leave the church after being demonized and ridiculed for daring to question the status quo of Christianity as it currently is. For daring to express doubt, disagreement, and pain over blatant political idolatry within the church and a lack of holding preferred politicians and parties accountable to the same gospel they claimed to believe in.
You see, people are not questioning Jesus. People are questioning how his message is being interpreted and applied by the broader church in the United States today because of what is happening within American Christianity today.
Yet instead of listening to these faithful question askers and status quo challengers, I saw too many within the church choose suspicion and hostility instead. I saw too many wanting to protect the institution of the church as it is today rather than be willing to grow deeper and stronger.
This is why so many don’t have a faith community today. Some left while others were pushed out for simply asking questions and challenging the status quo because of the blatant hypocrisy on national display. It isn’t because they don’t love Jesus. It’s because their love for Jesus and his teachings drove them to question the way things currently are that is causing so much harm in the name of “Christianity.” Yet instead of joining them in that call, many in their faith communities doubled down on dogma and doctrine instead. So they were left to follow Jesus away from their church.
To just paint this picture with broad strokes and say those who are “deconstructing” are simply those who want to believe what they want rather than commit to Jesus and the holy scriptures is just a refusal to accept the reality of what is happening in our world today. It really is just a refusal to see what is wrong in our institutions of faith that is causing hurt and pain rather than the fruit of salvation.
It is to love the current status quo more than you love your neighbor as yourself.
The appropriate response to those who are “deconstructing” is “the church hurt you and I’m sorry.” The appropriate response is “I want to listen and understand if you are willing to share.” The appropriate response is choosing to love people rather than resorting to fear and suspicion.
The irony of all this gatekeeping and doubling down in order to “protect” the institution of the church is that it forgets that people are the church. When you drive all the people away because you fear their questions and their challenges, you just don’t have the church anymore. You are actually destroying what you claim to be protecting.
When the church becomes an unsafe place for questions, doubts, and challenges, it becomes an unsafe place for people.
May we be the church, especially towards those who the institutions have pushed away, rather than see them as a threat to our faith.
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