All Consuming Fire
“For ridding oneself of faith is like boiling seawater to retrieve the salt — something is gained but something is lost.” ― Zadie Smith, White Teeth

I remember when my partner first introduced her closest friend as “Post-Christian.” While probably not the most salient identity marker for most Americans, it immediately told me much about Brenton. I hadn’t played with the term before, but after a pause I reached out to shake his hand, echoing that I was probably post-Christian as well.

Both of our partners were still Christian. Jaded, disobedient, exhausted, but capable of passing an evangelical litmus test. Trinity? Check. Atoning death? Check. Bible authority? Check. But we resided somewhere else.

Rewind five years and I had been in the beginning stages of ordination. I’m not sure what happened in the years between. None of my loved ones died. No clergy abused me. No atheist out-debated me. But something shifted in the dark.

When I first came across Peter Rollins’ “omega course,” a literal or hypothetical course that helps believers exit Christianity, I found the idea thought-provoking. But these days it feels more pressing. I find myself longing for such a shepherding community.

Exiting evangelical life isn’t straightforward.
['Tucker Fitzgerald']
['Evangelicals', 'Atheism', 'Christianity', 'Doubt']