This exvangelical deconstruction of Santa Claus comes courtesy of Baptist Accountabilty co-founder Megan South Benninger (read her story here). This fascinating exploration reminds me of the "deconstruction" essays I wrote for grad school in which I searched for the historical roots of Dracula and Frankenstein. Really fascinating stuff, to find the kernel of truth in …
Read Part 3 — “Qualm of Conscience” here. It is a chilly night in Auke Bay, Alaska – December of 2007. Chance and I are staying toasty by the electric fire stove, the shadows of which dance all about this wide space around us filled with rows of books, exotic plants I'm responsible for watering, …
It is 1994, and I am thirteen years old. My family is living in Mill Valley, California, where my father is attending Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. It's an island of conservative evangelicalism surrounded by a sea of sin. San Francisco is just across the bridge, and we are very careful when we venture out …
"The Global Center for Religious Research (GCRR) has established the world's first and most comprehensive psychiatric research group to study the causes, manifestations, and treatment options for those suffering from religious trauma (RT). GCRR has built a team of approximately 30 licensed psychiatrists, therapists, sociologists, university professors, religion scholars, and Ph.D. candidates from around the …
Continue reading Exvangelical Meditation: Global Center for Religious Research
It may have been the Church that taught me the necessity of accepting Jesus as my Personal Lord and Savior, but it was a movie that introduced me to Him. I started really paying attention to movies the same time that I learned to read. Before, they were just background noise – like how words …
One of the questions I often get asked when in dialogue with evangelicals who have found out that I've left the faith is, what do I now use as a standard for truth in my life now that I no longer believe in the Bible? This question usually comes from a very sincere place that …
Continue reading Exvangelical Meditation: My Internal Compass
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” —Sinclair Lewis A Christian Fascist country disguised as freedom and democracy has always been the Moral Majority's plan, and their greatest asset is that the public believes that evangelicals are such buffoons that we don't need to take them …
Continue reading Dispatches: “In a Christian Nation State” – A Plea from Texas
Just for purposes of complete transparency, there are a few irrefutable facts that really aren't up for debate in my exvangelical essays. We can move forward with the confidence that they are so obvious that they are assumed. Here are a few examples: The Earth is round, Nazis are bad, vaccinations save lives, and the …
Since starting this blog, I've always maintained that when it comes to paths forward for Christianity to survive its long history of genocide, white supremacy, and empire building, I simply don't have a horse in this race. If religion is the act of picking a metaphor that best enables you to walk into life's mysteries, …
Continue reading Exvangelical Meditation: The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled?
I've found many wonderful anthems for my deconstruction – from artists who were once part of the evangelical crowd and now have the courage to ask questions publicly (Kevin Max, Derek Webb), to artists who clearly grew up in the Church as seek to find meaning in its symbolism while breaking free of its confines …
Continue reading Exvangelical Meditation: “Plowshare Prayer”
Surviving the Spirit 