Running on Faith (And Coffee)
I know I wasn't the only one who grew up in White evangelicalism who was taught to love the art of apologetics. Oh we spent so much time pouring over books, attending conferences, watching debates, and learning our scripts to argue the faithless and heretics into the truth. We knew exactly how to trap someone … Continue reading Apologetics: For Them or For Us?
Anyone else familiar with this acronym? For those not in the know, it represented what was supposed to be the hierarchy of needs within certain corners of evangelicalism as it was taught to children. It went:JesusOthersYourself Can we please talk about how toxic and damaging this is? What this teaches children is that, in the … Continue reading J.O.Y.
Conspiracy theories are insidious and powerful. They often come from the people we trust the most: our friends, our families, our spiritual leaders, even our government leaders. These are the people with whom we tend to have our guards down because we trust them inherently. We believe that they would never - could never - … Continue reading Conspiracy Theories: Conclusion Vs Fact
My upbringing in evangelicalism instilled me with a lot of shame for my identity. While I was told that the greatest thing in the world was to find my identity in Jesus, I was also taught that I would be hated because I found my identity in Jesus. I don't actually remember a time in … Continue reading Evangelicalism: Martyr Complex And Shame
I grew up being told that homosexuality is wrong, because the Bible is clear. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the OT doesn't forbid same-sex relationships between women. Or that the "homosexuality" referred to in the NT wasn't at all what we mean when we talk about homosexuality today. All my life, I was … Continue reading The Bible Isn’t Clear
a poem about the love of my life; the man my Christian culture told me to avoid.
I’ve been doing a lot of musing lately about what my “normal” was growing up. My whole life, I’ve assumed that what was normal for me was healthy and good. I didn’t know any different, and I was constantly hearing that if others lived in any other way then they were the ones doing life … Continue reading Questioning Our Normal
I had always been taught that the Bible was to be taken literally. Adam & Eve really existed. The Flood really happened. The Exodus was historical fact. I didn't know how to understand the gospel without understanding the Bible as literal. In fact, the gospel I grew up with was so tightly wound up in … Continue reading How To Read The Bible
Shari A Smith 