Several months ago, an Evangelical zealot named Nate posted the following on Twitter. Nate is a homeschooling Calvinist:
My first response is to say “sigh.” (Please see Why I Use the Word “Sigh”) Another day, another stupid response to deconstruction from a clueless Evangelical. Such zealots make no effort to understand why Evangelical Christians deconstruct and, at times, as I did, deconvert. People who actually go through the process are rarely, if ever, interviewed. Instead, the Nates of the world put words in the mouths of former Evangelicals. Evidently, God gives them some sort of supernatural power that allows them to peer into the minds of ex-Evangelicals and discern the “real” reasons they walked away from Evangelicalism. Imagine if I made a list of reasons people become Christians without ever talking to people of faith and then posted it on social media for all to see. Why, Evangelicals would lose their collective shit.
Nate believes that those going through the deconstruction process are emotional narcissists, with secret desires to sin, who have problems with the Bible. Rather than engage us honestly, Nate chooses, instead, to attack our character.
Do I have a problem with the Bible? Yep, lots of problems. Why not focus on that instead of claiming people like me are emotionally unhinged, secretly want to fuck their neighbors, and are selfish and in love with themselves? Why not honest interaction instead of character assassination?
Memo to Nate: when you personally attack those you oppose, that’s a sure sign that you have no rational evidence for your arguments. Is it any wonder, then, after dealing with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Nates over the years, I am inclined these days to just say “fuck off”? When someone makes no attempt to engage me thoughtfully, respectfully, and honestly, I’m not inclined to give them the time of day.
Do better Evangelicals, do better.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Bruce, it’s too bad that almost none of these types will ever honestly engage. But if they did, they might be swayed into a life of sin…cerely living and caring about others different from them.
We simply don’t own such concepts as “GOD”, “ANGELS”, “ARCHANGELS”. In other words, evangelicals are calling us out. We have EVERY right to compete in this FREE ENTERPRISE competitive world. They may have come up with the original names, but they do not own the concepts. It’s like naming the stars. That does not mean they own the concept.
I personally don’t give a rat’s ass if those names are thousands of years old. Science has taken over those names and redefined what those stars really are. The same can be true, if we grow a backbone, and take the other identities such as “GOD”, “ANGELS”, “ARCHANGELS” away from them and redefine their true meaning.
So what if they were first used in mythology ?!? Are we that frightened ? Do you not think that evangelicals are even more frightened that these once religious concepts will be stolen and redefined by science ? You bet they’re scared shitless !! And why wouldn’t they be ?? Science is now stepping all over their realm.
Forget about attacking religion. Waste of precious time. Why not just compete against the buggers. We’re not out to destroy people (potential customers), we’re out to redefine and own the existing concepts. Make them more real in a scientific sense. More palatable. More humanist. We’re all in this together. So we might as well compete together. Put the hatred into the garbage can where it belongs.
Only people that were once in that evangelical realm reserve that right to stand up against them so directly.
Evangelicals think that their Bible has all the answers and that their Holy Spirit interprets it all correctly for them. Thus exvangelicals think they have all the answers in their own “hearts” (and maybe from their pastor, but he could be mistaken too). Why would they ask questions of actual people going through deconstruction?
The mainstream media is frustrating here in that when they do stories about people leaving religion, they almost always interview only religious leaders, not the people who left. They are extraordinarily deferential to religious privilege! That makes it easy for Christians–evangelicals mostly, but other Christians too at times–to make up and believe their own stories about those who deconstruct their religion. If you want a good example of Christian privilege at work in MSM, look at how CNN and others downplayed the religious dimension of the Capitol insurrection. Many rioters prayed before they went in, carried Bibles, and there was a banner saying JESUS IS MY SAVIOR, TRUMP IS MY PRESIDENT. These images were not widely discussed at the time.
People like Nate have no clue how to process thoughts about deconstruction as well as grasping what it means to be gay. I doubt he has the ability to listen to someone going over either deconstruction or being gay.
This is why we’re seeing an increase in library censorship of anything gay and bills like the “don’t say gay” one. The right wing accuses us of being snowflakes in issues, when they are the ones wanting to use the power of government to keep from dealing with reality.
Aylogogo–Just after insurrection, I touched upon the Christian Nationalist aspect of it in one of my posts. And, like you, I am amazed that none of the mainstream media–and, therefore, most of the public–has ignored or been unaware of that integral part of the attempt to overturn the election.
I am an atheist. But it’s not religious belief per se that worries me. Instead, I’m alarmed that xenophobes of all kinds can cloak themselves in the trappings of a comic-book version of faith (Christianity, usually) so they can say they are acting in the cause of something greater than themselves. Also, I think they exploit the fact that most of the mainstream media–and most of the people who run our schools, corporations and other institutions–are afraid of the “optics” of seeming to oppose “religious freedom,” which can mean anything someone wants it to mean.
Deny indoctrination
Embrace reality
Cultural diversity
Open to feelings
Necessary self care
Suspicious of authoritarianism
Tests scripture against reality and finds it lacking
Reject legalism
Understands science
Care for others
Truth is relative, facts are not
Fixed now(hopefully)
“Suspicious of Paul” cracked me the hell up. It’s not that we’re critical of Paul, or that we are questioning Paul, but that we are “suspicious” of him. What’s that Paul guy up to? Is it possible he’s actually Old Man Jenkins in disguise??