I have been following your work over the last 10+ years. I absolutely loved the class you did with Tripp Fuller and Brian McLaren. So inspiring! But this article on reforming evangelicalism just blew me away… I’ve had feet of clay… and been silent in a church that is stuck. I’m so glad to have a chance to be connected with people like you that are out and free!
I have been working to find my way after 30+ years as a pastor’s wife. I grew up in a home where I was instructed in the “right “ way to think and feel. It made for an easy transfer of power from my family to the church. The church took over the role of dictating my thoughts and feelings. Since my husband retired last summer I have finally begun to think and feel for myself. I also read David Brooks article on Sunday. I found it a fascinating read if not a short one. Thanks for giving my journey voice. I look forward to continued growth and am proud to be apart of the “motley vagabond crew on the road to who-knows-where.”
Thank you so much for this article--I hope you pursue a response/addendum to it in the Times and keep the conversation going! I do think it's important this information is put out there as so many laypersons or non-church attenders don't even realize this has been happening in the evangelical church. Or they don't even know there is a difference between who are called/labeled Christians vs Evangelicals. Order-Disorder-Reorder (R.Rohr) Are, or is it possible for, Jesus followers to be on a path toward no-denominational unity and with "all people" on the earth? I left a mainline Methodist church over all gender exclusivity. Are denominational divisions tribal, divisive, even necessary?
The most painful experience of my young life was being outed (well in advance of my own comfort with my identity), and then booted out - it was painful because I was ALL. IN. In the years since, I've found the Episcopal Church and an entirely new kind of faith. I've learned to give thanks every day for the explosion of my old relationship to a fundamentalist church, because out of fear, I was well on my way to a life of rigidity and judgment of others.
Thank you Diana, Instead of getting kicked out, I went so far as to formally renounce my ordination. I keep my connection to the living stream of lineage, but I got out the same way I got in. I wrote a statement of confession about why I can not be vowed to a form and theology that breaks the body and disparages the ensoulment of all beings. I am a dancing theologian. The organic created order is divine. I wish to follow it and found a way to live into that while teaching in a seminary and beyond. Grace is the golden key. The Physicality of Grace is my hallelujah. Thank you for your testament and path!
Diana, this piece really resonated as it parallels my own experience, though in a mainline denomination (one named for the great reformer Luther) that has become more and more evangelical, even fundamentalist, in recent decades. I’m also a church historian, and I offered my scholarship in the hope of encouraging conversation in the church body I grew up in — I’m a preacher’s kid. My work was read, however, by many clergy as heretical ridicule of the church.
I will spare the unfortunate details of my ordeal here, but as I recognize abuse when I see it, I eventually left for a more progressive, inclusive affiliation. I’m a firm believer in Jesus’ advice to shake the dust off.
I've been falling out of love with my PCUSA church for a while now. I wonder if part of my problem isn't the labels and language we use. At this stage in my life, I want to always be moving toward the Christ with only my slowness getting in my way. Thank you for your insights; they are very helpful in my journey.
The worst thing about the Brooks essay is his assumption that evangelicalism IS American Christianity in toto. The rest of us don't count--I guess we don't produce enough drama and angst. Renewal has already happened outside of the locked down far right-wing churches, and he doesn't acknowledge that.
Thank you, Diana, for your story. It could go as a case study into a sociology textbook on social controls--the initial encouragement, followed by shunning and the Non-person treatment. I think the extreme lengths the evangelical leaders are going to now is a sign they are losing out and they know it. But it couldn't be more painful, the demonization of one's opponents. What times we are in.
As an outsider to evangelicalism I've been interested in the pushback from progressive Christians but as your essay points out reforming a patriarchal structure without confronting that structure will be impossible.
On the other side of the equation I see an effort to remake Christ as a warrior for white nationalism, a wartime consigliere if you will. These are the factions of evangelicalism that seek to preserve a sort of revanchist masculinity, a working class masculinity that valorizes the role of a breadwinner even as that sort of economic arrangement is all but obsolete.
I have been following your work over the last 10+ years. I absolutely loved the class you did with Tripp Fuller and Brian McLaren. So inspiring! But this article on reforming evangelicalism just blew me away… I’ve had feet of clay… and been silent in a church that is stuck. I’m so glad to have a chance to be connected with people like you that are out and free!
Fascinating column.
Thank you for speaking these words of my truth. I am happy to be a part of "the motley vagabond crew on the road to who-knows-where".
I have been working to find my way after 30+ years as a pastor’s wife. I grew up in a home where I was instructed in the “right “ way to think and feel. It made for an easy transfer of power from my family to the church. The church took over the role of dictating my thoughts and feelings. Since my husband retired last summer I have finally begun to think and feel for myself. I also read David Brooks article on Sunday. I found it a fascinating read if not a short one. Thanks for giving my journey voice. I look forward to continued growth and am proud to be apart of the “motley vagabond crew on the road to who-knows-where.”
Thank you so much for this article--I hope you pursue a response/addendum to it in the Times and keep the conversation going! I do think it's important this information is put out there as so many laypersons or non-church attenders don't even realize this has been happening in the evangelical church. Or they don't even know there is a difference between who are called/labeled Christians vs Evangelicals. Order-Disorder-Reorder (R.Rohr) Are, or is it possible for, Jesus followers to be on a path toward no-denominational unity and with "all people" on the earth? I left a mainline Methodist church over all gender exclusivity. Are denominational divisions tribal, divisive, even necessary?
Thanks for the response to Brooks. Thanks for your story. My line: Some thing don't get healed this side of the second coming. (true and humorous)
Whew. Thank you.
The most painful experience of my young life was being outed (well in advance of my own comfort with my identity), and then booted out - it was painful because I was ALL. IN. In the years since, I've found the Episcopal Church and an entirely new kind of faith. I've learned to give thanks every day for the explosion of my old relationship to a fundamentalist church, because out of fear, I was well on my way to a life of rigidity and judgment of others.
Nicely done!--Thank you!
Thank you Diana, Instead of getting kicked out, I went so far as to formally renounce my ordination. I keep my connection to the living stream of lineage, but I got out the same way I got in. I wrote a statement of confession about why I can not be vowed to a form and theology that breaks the body and disparages the ensoulment of all beings. I am a dancing theologian. The organic created order is divine. I wish to follow it and found a way to live into that while teaching in a seminary and beyond. Grace is the golden key. The Physicality of Grace is my hallelujah. Thank you for your testament and path!
Thanks for making me feel better about being free. Can you now follow this up with how you went from free to thriving?
Diana, this piece really resonated as it parallels my own experience, though in a mainline denomination (one named for the great reformer Luther) that has become more and more evangelical, even fundamentalist, in recent decades. I’m also a church historian, and I offered my scholarship in the hope of encouraging conversation in the church body I grew up in — I’m a preacher’s kid. My work was read, however, by many clergy as heretical ridicule of the church.
I will spare the unfortunate details of my ordeal here, but as I recognize abuse when I see it, I eventually left for a more progressive, inclusive affiliation. I’m a firm believer in Jesus’ advice to shake the dust off.
Ecclesia reforma, sed semper reformanda. We applaud the first part, shun the second.
I've been falling out of love with my PCUSA church for a while now. I wonder if part of my problem isn't the labels and language we use. At this stage in my life, I want to always be moving toward the Christ with only my slowness getting in my way. Thank you for your insights; they are very helpful in my journey.
The worst thing about the Brooks essay is his assumption that evangelicalism IS American Christianity in toto. The rest of us don't count--I guess we don't produce enough drama and angst. Renewal has already happened outside of the locked down far right-wing churches, and he doesn't acknowledge that.
Thank you, Diana, for your story. It could go as a case study into a sociology textbook on social controls--the initial encouragement, followed by shunning and the Non-person treatment. I think the extreme lengths the evangelical leaders are going to now is a sign they are losing out and they know it. But it couldn't be more painful, the demonization of one's opponents. What times we are in.
As an outsider to evangelicalism I've been interested in the pushback from progressive Christians but as your essay points out reforming a patriarchal structure without confronting that structure will be impossible.
On the other side of the equation I see an effort to remake Christ as a warrior for white nationalism, a wartime consigliere if you will. These are the factions of evangelicalism that seek to preserve a sort of revanchist masculinity, a working class masculinity that valorizes the role of a breadwinner even as that sort of economic arrangement is all but obsolete.