Deconstructing Does Not Always Lead Back to Church
After my writings and videos about Beth Moore, many comments arrived insisting I should “stop already,” warning me about karma, scripture, judgment, and what they called a “reprobate mind.” But what became clear very quickly is that many people still believe deconstructing should eventually lead people back to church, back under Christian authority, or back into protecting the very systems many of us are trying to untangle ourselves from.
In this video, I explain why this space exists, who it was created for, and why deconstructing often begins to diverge in very different directions. Some people remain within Christianity and rework their beliefs. Others eventually question the framework itself: the theology, the power structures, the selective empathy, and the ways Christian patriarchy shapes culture, politics, and identity.
I also revisit my concerns about Beth Moore being upheld as a model for deconstructing while still holding theological and political positions that continue harming marginalized groups, especially around abortion access and bodily autonomy.
Most importantly, this conversation is for those who have stepped outside the church entirely and are trying to understand who they are without the compass Christianity once gave them.
The real work begins when we stop asking how to make the system more comfortable and begin asking why it feels so necessary to defend it in the first place.
From my writing:
I Don’t Exist for Your Comfort
Resources:
10-year-old rape victim forced to travel from Ohio to Indiana for abortion
Bible teacher Beth Moore, splitting with Lifeway, says, ‘I am no longer a Southern Baptist’
Texas hospital that discharged woman with doomed pregnancy broke the law, inquiry finds
I've never thought of deconstructing as returning. I've tried returning numerous times and it's never worked. I think I'm done. I'm not sure what it is about the christian community that seems to reject that people have different opinions and commitments about faith. I get it, I mean when I was in the church, I couldn't believe people would turn away from the church -- I thought they were crazy, and wouldn't be saved, and their children would turn out to be horrible, and their marriages would fall apart. LOL. Now I see how awful I was. Now I just let people live their lives and it's between them and God for whatever that means.
This is the part people inside the system often cannot tolerate: some exits are not detours. They are departures.
Deconstruction does not owe the church a round trip ticket. Sometimes the healing begins when a person stops asking how to make the cage kinder and finally notices the door was open.