We can—we must—seek treatment for and recovery from our addiction to instant, cheap, convenient innocence, so we can deprogram ourselves from the innocence cult. Which brings me, at long last, to a candid confession: one of the prime reasons I sometimes want to leave Christianity is to achieve innocence. By distancing myself from a discredited religion, I can feel innocent of its wrongs, weaknesses, and failures. Paradoxically, this confession gives me one of the most compelling reasons yet for staying Christian. Staying Christian is a way of leaving the cult of innocence.
