Below is an excerpt from our brand new ebook, Faith Deconstruction 101. At the end of the excerpt, click the button to download the full PDF and keep reading. And as always, we’d love to know what you think! Simply comment your thoughts below. Do you remember your first “doubt” or “big question” about life, faith, or the world? Do you remember how you responded to it? Did you keep it to yourself? Did you bring it up to a parent, pastor, friend, or trusted relative? Did you try to search for answers elsewhere, like a book or the Internet? Looking back, how do you feel about the experience of ha ..read more

Dr. David Gushee joined the show to discuss why he deconstructed evangelicalism. Listen Here! Two years ago this month, Melanie Mudge and I sat down to dream about what The Sophia Society could become. We had a choice, ditch Christianity altogether or work to uncover the heart of faith. We chose the latter. We longed to create a safe, sacred space where former evangelicals could process their trauma, find community, shed fundamentalism, and find new spiritual pathways.  Since then, we launched Holy Heretics Podcast, created this Liminal Spaces publication, established a warehouse of art ..read more

Historians tell us there were two triumphal entries into Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday. Jesus, riding a dutiful donkey, entered Jerusalem from the east. Pilate burst into the city in high military fashion from the west, riding a war-horse flanked by a column of cavalry. Jesus enters Jerusalem as a subversive prophet death-bent on liberation. Pilate parades through town in a show of force, reminding everyone not only who is in charge, but what happens to those foolish enough to resist the status quo.  Two kings. Two kingdoms. Two radically different visions for the world.  ..read more

If there was a poet laureate of the deconstruction community, it would be Mary Oliver. Born in a small town in Ohio, Oliver published her first book of poetry in 1963 and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. But her life was anything but easy, it seems true beauty is almost always birthed in pain. Her father was abusive and her mother neglectful, so she found safety and solace in nature. According to Ruth Franklin, “It was in childhood…that Oliver discovered both her belief in God and her skepticism about organized religion.” Nature became her church, and it proved a wonderful ..read more

It may not feel like fall where you live, but the first signs of autumn have arrived here on Colorado’s Front Range. The kids are back in school, the aspen are about to turn, and the first snow fell last night on the top of Pikes Peak. Winter is coming. As one season flows into the next, Nature bears witness to the universal cycle of birth, growth, flourishing, dying, and rising. Each season has a wisdom to share, and fall reminds us death is not only inevitable, it’s necessary. We do well to pay attention, realizing that our own lives (both spiritually and physically) will spiral through this ..read more

If you’re going through a time when you’re unsure of what you believe, welcome! You’re in good company here. This is a community of people from all faith backgrounds who are questioning their beliefs and perhaps even exploring new ones. You should know up front that it’s okay—really—that you have questions, doubts, and frustrations. No matter how it feels, you’re not somehow grieving God with your questions. Deconstruction is a word that means many things to many people (check out our post on deconstruction for more on this), and in some circles it’s becoming a cardinal sin. But in essence, de ..read more

I’ve recently had the opportunity to work with several local recovery communities here in Colorado Springs, and something astonishing happened. In Dharma Recovery meditations, AA meetings, Smart Recovery classes, and a host of group therapy sessions I listened to recovering addicts use the same language and share the same stories of abuse that I’ve heard from the “exvangelical” community. I realized there is a direct link between the recovery community and the deconstruction community. And that link is trauma.   Trauma is any harmful event or series of circumstances that leave a lasting i ..read more

What if what they call profane is really holiness in disguise? Listen here to learn more about seeing Jesus enfleshed as queer and trans. One of the ironies of faith deconstruction is doing exactly what our evangelical parents and pastors told us to do—take the Bible seriously! And when you take the Bible seriously, you begin to notice all the red letters, all the words of Jesus that evangelical Christians conveniently ignore. For instance, when Jesus states "Whatever you have done to the least of these, you have done unto me,” he is providing the most direct identification of the Godhead wit ..read more

After launching His public ministry, calling His first disciples, healing the sick, driving out demons, and running afoul of the religious leaders, Jesus goes home. But instead of receiving a hero’s welcome, his family thinks he’s nuts:  Then Jesus went home, and once again a crowd gathered, so that He and His disciples could not even eat. When His family heard about this, they went out to take custody of Him, saying, “He is out of His mind. And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and, “By the prince of the demons He drives out demons ..read more

I recently sat down with Brian McLaren to discuss what might be one of the most important questions each of us will need to ask ourselves at some point in the deconstruction journey. Do I stay Christian or walk away from this faith movement altogether? His answers surprised me, especially coming from a pastor and Christian author. For many of us, there are far more reasons to leave Christianity than to stay. Especially here in America where white evangelical Christians have launched an all-out attack on democracy and individual rights in their pursuit of a “Christian nation.” The wall separati ..read more