Continuing her series on Reconstructing Faith, Christy digs into the necessity of beginning with a reconstructed view of God. The god of Christy’s cult days was harsh and demanding. This god was quick to bless good behavior and punish anyone who stepped out of line. Formulaic views of god happen across denominations and in various Christian groups. Christy’s background is in fundamental conservative Christianity, but she’s met people from charismatic churches—specifically ones connected with the New Apostolic Reformation—who have experienced equally demanding and formulaic gods even if the behaviors they expect look a little different.

Who is God? This is the first question we need to try to answer on our faith reconstruction journey. Where do we turn for ideas? If God is real, then we don’t get to decide who He is. We just get to discover Him. Over the years Christy has turned to Scripture, nature, Jesus, people, and the Holy Spirit to discover aspects of God. She is continually amazed and overwhelmed by what she finds. The real God is only bigger and better than we have ever dreamed.

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Christy is back with the Religious Rebels Podcast and an episode introducing a new series on faith reconstruction. We've deconstructed our faith. We've taken apart the pieces. But now we have decided that we want to rebuild our faith centered around the person of Jesus Christ. What does that look like? What questions do we need to ask? What answers do we need to look for?

Although Christy came to faith deconstruction and reconstruction from a place of religious legalism in a fundamental, conservative setting, she also knows that other people are coming out of charismatic settings connected to the New Apostolic Reformation. Despite the different looks, these false versions of Christianity are still filled with rigid expectations and formulaic faith.

Christy introduces this series with the reminder that she is not giving a formula to follow, but is simply talking about important aspects of faith and telling about her own faith reconstruction. Everyone's journey is different. If God is real and He wants to be found, He will reveal Himself to us.

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As someone who grew up in a fundamental Christian cult (Gothard's IBLP of Shiny Happy People), Christy understands the fear and mindset behind Christian Nationalism firsthand. As a teen, she believed that if we could control other people's morality by law, that they would be happier and closer to God. She was taught that America was created as a Christian nation and that it was important to God that it stay that way.

People with similar views are part of the Christian Nationalist movement that we see currently. But that's not all. Christy suggests that a Christian dominionist view supported by the Seven Mountain Mandate popular in NAR churches is colliding with the fundamentalist view to fuel the rapid rise in ideology that we are seeing today.

Christy shares strong doubts about whether either view is accurate or biblical. She points to the example of Jesus who declared that His kingdom was not of this world.

Related Links:

Four Views of the End Times

Examining the Seven Mountain Mandate

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Christy tackles the topic of spiritual abuse and unhealthy church cultures, specifically speaking out the use of NDAs, quick restoration processes, and coverups in churches and Christian organizations. She asks questions and encourages her listeners to ask questions as well.

* What are we protecting?

* Who are we protecting?

* What are we hiding?

* What needs to be brought into the light?

* Is it worth the mess and chaos to tell the truth?

There is a horrible epidemic of unhealth within our American evangelical churches. Christy wonders why. She talks about our pretend bubble world that we often create, the happy endings we long for, and the lengths we are willing to go to keep those fantasies alive.

Christy references the story of Jesus flipping tables in the temple and wonders if he was upset about creating a place of dishonesty and consumerism within the space that was for anyone to seek God. It reminds her of what we are dealing with today in our churches.

Finally Christy encourages her listeners to tell the uncomfortable truth, ask the hard questions, and follow Jesus above anything else.

Favorite Books on Spiritual Abuse:

Bully Pulpit

The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse

When Narcissism Comes to Church

Celebrities for Jesus

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Christy continues to talk about emotions, this time following up on a recent Substack essay. She expands on her original thoughts and encourages her listeners to keep thinking. For the past three hundred years, emotions have been an important part of the evangelical experience. However, because they are so important, they are often manipulated as we have seen from the past two episodes of Religious Rebels.

Christy also begins a conversation about "good" and "bad" emotions. Within evangelical experiences the comfortable emotions are usually considered to be good, while uncomfortable emotions are often called sin.

Explaining that emotions should be considered a neutral response from our bodies, Christy talks about spiritual bypassing, a too simplistic definition of sin, and the good news of the grace filled gospel of Jesus.

Related Links:

Christy’s Substack Essay

"The Evangelical Imagination" by Karen Swallow Prior (still on sale!)

Christy’s Links:

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Christy continues her conversation about spiritual and emotional manipulation that can look like revival. She discusses more concerns with the Unite Us movement on college campuses featuring Jennie Allen and Jonathan Pokluda. Christy reminds her listeners that she is not trying to condemn anyone, but that she also recognizes anyone can be deceived and affected by power.

Referencing the Jesus People movement of the 1970s and also Bill Gothard's original Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts, Christy ponders how young people are often filled with passion and ready to follow Jesus and yet how they are often targeted, used, and led astray.

Wrapping up the episode, Christy reminds her listeners of the good news of the gospel. It's not about sin management or having a list of rules to follow to be good. Jesus came to heal and restore broken hearts. We don't have to get it together by ourselves, we just have to allow Him to help us. When Jesus begins to transform us from the inside out, we no longer want to do the things we used to do. We find our needs met in Him instead of trying to meet them in unhealthy ways. As Tim Keller often said, "We are more broken than we will ever know, and yet more loved than we can ever imagine."

Related Links:

K-Love Article explaining what went on at the University of Tennessee

Blog Post by Elizabeth Meeshim Hogsten on Spiritual Abuse

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Inspired by some concerns she has with Jennie Allen and the Unite Us movement going around college campuses, Christy beings a two part series exploring the difference between an actual movement of God and spiritual manipulation. Christy digs into the latest Unite Us event in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee. She looks into the events that unfolded at the Thompson Bowling Arena last week and compares them with similar events that she heard about from someone online at a difference conference.

Music can create emotion. Professional Christian bands know how to play songs and chords in ways that will give us a "moment." We can manipulate people with guilt and shame, and coerce them with forced vulnerability. But are the results truly from the Holy Spirit or are they simply a consequence of our carefully planned actions?

Related Links:

K-Love Article explaining what went on at the University of Tennessee,

Forced Vulnerability Article talking about how forced vulnerability can lead to resentment.

Greatest Showman Song (This is 100% worth watching just to be amazed AND it makes my point.)

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In this episode, Christy explores the origins of Gnostic Christianity and the gnostic gospels. She ponders how the view that the spirit is good but the body is bad has affected our evangelical experience. Although most evangelical Christians would never say that they get their sin management ideas from the Gnostics, Christy questions whether this is the case after all.

Why are we so obsessed with control? Why do some people stifle their emotions and desires instead of leaning into and exploring them? Is there a better way to live? Can we find a balance of grace and truth and live a holistic life?

Article on Gnosticism mentioned in the podcast.

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