I’m “deconstructing”. Why even put this out there like that? Well normally, this isn’t something I would care to share in this fashion, but because I’ve been a ministry leader and many of you reading this have “followed” me in some way because of my theological convictions and beliefs, I figured this was something you should know about.
What Do I Mean By Deconstruction?
Deconstruction is a word that gets frequent use these days, and it typically describes people stepping away from certain strands of Christianity and sometimes the faith altogether due to theological, cultural, or traditional disagreements. There can be several different reasons that a person deconstructs their faith or things within their belief system and there can be several different outcomes from that deconstruction. The process that I’ve been in has been a work of tearing down and even stepping away from some theological beliefs concerning my faith, but this process has mainly been a work of clarifying my beliefs.
What Am I Deconstructing?
As a kid, I wanted to be a paleontologist. I was already. a huge Jurassic Park fan and I was fascinated by old things buried in the dirt, particularly dinosaur fossils. To me they weren’t just bones, but stories - the stories of gargantuan, mythical-looking bird-lizards who ruled the earth millions of years ago and somehow ended up sprawled out in the rock and sediment waiting to be uncovered. Three decades and several Jurassic Park sequels later, I’m not as interested in dinosaurs as I once was, but I’ve spent much of my life giving my attention to another ancient artifact: the Bible. And in a similar way that I was drawn to Alan Grant’s unearthing velociraptor bones, I’ve been drawn to the Bible for its content and its stories.
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