Deconstruction – Postchristianity

Multiculturalism and Sexual Assault Decimated My Conservative, Southern Christianity

My upbringing was idyllic, insular, homogenous, evangelical, Southern, and Christian.

School and church were the same place 6 days a week, 99.9% white, upper middle class, and the messaging was clear and consistent: Follow the script; We are disgusting, sinful, nothing; The ONLY good in us is because of God, and without Jesus we are horrible and condemned to hell. A real wham to the ole self esteem that one.

I babysat and wrote letters to raise support and pay my way on white savior mission trips. I had a purity ring and virginity pledge, I protested out on the street for the pro-life movement and cheerfully participated in fundraisers for the cause. I honestly enjoyed it all.

A New Faith: After Christianity

I thought I needed Christianity in order to be moral, in fact it was the other way around: my innate morality drew me to Christianity. Now, post-christianity, what do I do with it?

When I left my faith I didn’t immediately start raping and murdering and punching babies in the face… as I suspected I would when I was an Evangelical.

Sure, I started drinking more (well, anything is greater than zero), but significant parts of my Christian life remained: My priority of human connection/community, the belief that it’s a moral obligation to look after the poor and the alien… I still raise above all kindness, thankfulness, self-sacrifice…

Hence the term: Deconstruction. It means taking apart your faith, discarding the parts that don’t work, and repositioning the ones that still do.