I’m seeing a lot of this word and this process being mentioned in the Interwebs lately. And a lot of it seems to be a combination of nonsense and fearmongering and charges that “deconstruction” leads to disbelief and falling away.
Well, let’s talk about that.
“Deconstruction” is usually mentioned in connection with wyte Evangelicalism. There are also people who are using this term who are not in wyte Evangelicalism, of course, but for the large majority of the time, the term is used to describe people in the peculiar American expression of Christianity called “Evangelicalism,” which is tightly bound to wyte Americans.
Some people who are in the system of wyte Evangelical Christianity (WEC) are finding that it is too closely bound to Americanism or to consumerism or to capitalism or to wyte nationalism. Some find that it is too tightly connected to revanchist gender requirements or certain gender roles and expressions. Some find that it is too deeply intertwined with maleness as the dominant role and the feminine as the subservient role. Some find it too extraordinarily connected to wyteness and dominance. And there are other issues, of course.
So, some of these people who are chafing at the narrow boundaries of WEC are asking themselves a few questions:
WHY am I doing this?
WHAT does WEC do for me?
WHERE will I end up if I follow WEC?
HOW will staying in WEC affect my love for my neighbor?
WHO is affected by, and even damaged by, my loyalty to WEC?
WHEN will I make the decision to be true to myself and choose a better, more loving, more authentic way of living that might—or might not!—include fidelity to the Christian traditions and loyalty to the person of Jesus of Nazareth?
For the vast, vast majority of people, “deconstruction” is a good thing. It is a very empty life to simply do what others tell you to do, no matter how much they “should” be trusted and respected. (Why do you think some guy born and raised in Southern California in the 60s, 70s, and 80s has a grasp on all that matters in the history of all religions, for example?)
For many people who’ve aligned themselves with the Christian faith by means of WEC, “deconstruction” means the analysis of all that is WEC and the rejection of all that is not in alignment with what we think we know about Jesus and the kin-dom that he is establishing. It means the abandonment of rites, rituals, rules, and regulations that don’t appear to be useful for anything other than tribal allegiance to the WEC empire. It means the re-evaluation of what they’ve been taught and told, and a re-alignment of belief and behavior to more closely match the person of Jesus as reflected in the stories collected in the New Testament gospels.
And in many cases, deconstruction leads to a more solid faith. Perhaps not a “faith” that is recognized in the model of WEC. (Indeed, it is very likely it will not look like WEC, which is a heavily branded religious extension of the wyte American empire.)
But the thing is, it is not usually a “loss of faith.” It is a plowing and digging, a sowing and a planting, a rest and a watering, and even—maybe—a harvest and a reaping. It can result in something far different and, in my opinion, far better than, WEC.
People who are in the process of deconstruction (it’s a long, long process!) are usually doing so because they want a better, more robust, and more useful faith that can handle the challenges of sexual orientation, migration, economics, race-equity and fairness, the place of women as equals, and so on. WEC doesn’t have convincing, life-affirming answers for these challenges, and so the choices are either silence and discontent within the WEC world, or deconstruction and then reconstruction of something to replace the unsatisfactory and limited answers of the WEC world.
You can’t make someone stop deconstructing by threatening them. You can’t make them “come back” to WEC. They might stay loosely connected to WEC if they find a way to make your WEC world somehow fit within the wider world they are rebuilding within themselves—but they won’t be trusted and will be rejected at some point. Shame and threats and guilt won’t get them to return. (Those techniques do keep the very afraid within the WEC world, so those techniques do serve a purpose.)
You can, if you want, rethink what it is you are doing by the establishment of WEC. You will never get back those whom you lost, but you just might be able to reorient your movement to reinvigorate your churches and your systems to live a more authentic life that better represents the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth.
But “deconstruction” isn’t a threat to WEC. The threat to WEC are the people who are living within it who then awaken to understand what it is. You in the WEC are responsible for the creation of those you find to be your biggest threats.