“And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.“
As I walked into the classroom and took my seat among a hundred or so seminary students, I could hear a man singing. He was singing an old hymn like this one. At the time, I did not know the man singing the song, but I did know that when I was in his classroom, I felt like I was with Jesus.
The class was Contemporary Evangelism, and the man was Dr. Roy Fish. I only spent one semester in his class, but his impact on me was profound. On one occasion, I remember being so moved by one of his lectures that I became emotionally overwhelmed and had to excuse myself from the room. His love for people was palpable and compelled him to share Jesus.
What was so compelling about a man like Dr. Fish? Was it that he was a great speaker? Was it that he was influential? Or successful? I believe it was his character.
People today are desperate to encounter real, genuine love and acceptance. We all live in a world marked by crisis, abuse, fear, inner turmoil, loss, and disappointment. What happens to people exposed to these difficulties for a prolonged period? They become disillusioned. If this person is a Christian, they may even begin to question God.
In their book The Deconstruction of Christianity, Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett discover that it is most often suffering or a crisis that ultimately leads a person to deconstruct their faith.1 Some examples are the death of a child or loved one, sexual abuse at the hands of a spiritual leader, physical suffering, or prolonged emotional and spiritual abuse, to name a few. I want us to take a quick look at faith deconstruction to understand it better and ultimately to begin contributing to its remedy.
What is faith deconstruction?
An accurate and authoritative definition of faith deconstruction does not exist. Those who identify with faith deconstruction tend to vary in their opinion of what it means to “deconstruct.” Childers and Barnett suggest that there is a spectrum under the overarching umbrella of faith deconstruction, and there is a significant amount of variation from one end of the spectrum to the other.
In his book After Doubt, AJ Swoboda defines faith deconstruction as the “process of dismantling one’s accepted beliefs.” This definition encompasses the broadness of the deconstruction spectrum. On one end is the total rejection of scripture and traditional Christian beliefs taught by the church, accompanied by the active desire to de-convert others. On the other end is simply rethinking your beliefs, engaging doubts, and asking hard questions.
Why do people deconstruct faith?
People who deconstruct are alike in a few ways, regardless of where they stand on the deconstruction spectrum. First, they seem to share some form of disillusionment due to the church or its pastors. Many who once were dedicated, passionate supporters of the church were met with unhealthy, toxic, or ungodly behavior within the church. They witnessed a pastor teach about love from the pulpit yet abuse the power they were given to act harshly, manipulate a staff, or participate in an extramarital affair. They’ve seen churches teach servant leadership yet loyally support political candidates characterized by arrogance and egotism. They’ve watched a church that taught about giving to the poor spend too much of its money to benefit itself.
Second, they seem to share hurt at the hands of God. They have been taught that God is all-knowing and all-powerful, yet they endure the tragic death of an innocent child or the unbearable pain of a chronic disease. They delve into complex questions to which the scriptures don’t specifically speak, leaving them with more questions. They have been taught that God listens when we pray and responds, yet after many years of begging God for something, they hear no answer.
How can we respond to faith deconstruction?
I believe people who deconstruct are ultimately asking the question, “Who is God, really?” Is he the person the church has told me he is? How do I reconcile the awful things that happened to me with a God who is described as loving, personal, attentive, and benevolent? I believe some of them are saying, “If God is like the Christians I have come across, then I don’t want to belong to him.”
My purpose here is not to determine if faith deconstruction is good or bad. It is to acknowledge that it is happening and offer ideas on how to remedy it. So, what can Jesus’ followers do? I believe there are three ways Christians can respond.
One of the most important things we can do is own up to our failures. Perfection is unattainable, so we must prepare ourselves to admit when something we have done hurts someone else. When we take responsibility for our part in the hurt, we validate the other person and agree it wasn’t right. We communicate, “I may represent Jesus, but what I did to you did not.”
The second thing we can do is place a high value on character over charisma. To have good character, a person is tested by life’s difficulties and develops patience, wisdom, and long-suffering. A person of good character is gentle, content, and self-controlled. Often, it takes many years to mature in this way. We can check ourselves and see if we value our character over impressing people with our words, wealth, or status. Externally, we can train our eyes to see people’s character rather than be dazzled by their words or the wealth and influence they may have.
The final thing we can do is admit we don’t have all the answers. This is counterintuitive. Many Jesus followers feel that they have an obligation to have an answer to all of life’s questions. In some ways, this is part of what leaves de-constructioners so disillusioned. We tend to make blanket statements derived from scripture, assuming it will be sufficient for their needs. We say a prayer or two and send a person on their way. Instead, we should sit with a troubled person and confess that we don’t know why God would allow this to happen. We should acknowledge that it is awful and cry with them, believing we can pave the way for God to do what only he can.
Dr. Fish was a tangible example of how human godliness can perpetuate belief and trust in God. Conversely, it is the very tangible examples of human ungodliness that seem to perpetuate the faith deconstruction movement. I want to be a Roy Fish. After all, what good is it to share the gospel with someone if, in the end, they walk away?
- Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett, The Deconstruction of Christianity, (Tyndale House Publishers, 2024). ↩︎
