While browsing Tiktok, I came across a video by a young man who claimed that the whole “deconstruction” movement and the “cancellation” of preachers was a “sign.” He elaborated and said that God was moving in a “mighty way” and “pruning the church to create a righteous bride.”
All I could do was shake my head. They just don't get it. They don't want to get it. If they did, they wouldn't be looking the other way. They would acknowledge that there is hurt and trouble within the Christian church. They would acknowledge trauma, they would acknowledge abuse. They wouldn't try to explain away the mass genocide that was done in the name of God.
God is pruning the branches of his church? As if those of us that are deconstructing are not worthy of him? As if we are the problem? It's almost enough to make you want to scream.
Don't wave us off as “heretics.” Don’t turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to us. There are people in your own community who have been hurt by the church. So many say “that's not God, you weren't hurt by God you were hurt by the church.” But here's the thing. The church is the body of Christ right? The pastor is the shepherd right? If that's the case, and a pastor or the people of that church hurt me, why would I not recognize that as God? At least at first? When I see abuse happen, when I see people talk about their trauma, the toxicity of some Churches, the only conclusion that some people can come to is that God is okay with it. The church turns a blind eye to abuse, and yet somehow we are the bad ones?
There is no way that I can say it nicely. There is a reason people are leaving the church and it's not because we hate Jesus. The problem was never Jesus. The problem was never the man who said to turn the other cheek, who said that if you love your friend you should also love your enemy. Who said that if you abused a child, you should tie a millstone around your neck and drown.
Church, the problem is you. It has been you for a long, long time. Yet many of you want to look the other way and pretend the problem does not exist. As if the ones that are deconstructing are the ones who are wrong. We are wayward sheep that have gone astray. No. Many of us are still Christians. Although some of us may not be.
Instead of demonizing us, listen to us. Instead of arguing with us, reason with us. Instead of damning us to hell, invite us to the table. Don't call us liars, don't call us scoffers. We are not any of those things. We are hurt, some of us are traumatized, some of us have been cut off from our own families. All in the name of your God and in the name of your church.
It is my hope that one day, the church will recognize the wrongdoing that it has been apart of. My hope Is that Christians will listen to us when we talk about the issues we have with the church. Because at the end of the day, we are all just human beings on the same planet, with the same needs, hurt, once, and misunderstandings. If we can see ourselves as humans first, the healing will truly begin.
