The Deconstruction of Christianity Quotes

“Deconstruction is not about getting your theology right. It’s not about trying to make your views match reality. It’s about tearing down doctrines that are morally wrong to you to make them match your own internal conscience, moral compass, true authentic self, or whatever else it’s being called these days. Yet the goal for all Christians should be to align our beliefs with the Word of God, despite our own personal feelings or beliefs on the topic.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“According to the Word of God, it's not loving to affirm or celebrate something that is sinful, harmful or untrue.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“However, if you remove the deity of Jesus, his miracles, and his resurrection from the narrative, you may have a “sublime” Jesus who taught great ethics but not a divine Jesus who can save you.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“It’s evident that many Christians have adapted their beliefs about God to accommodate popular beliefs in culture rather than to match what God said about himself. Think about how fashionable these ideas are in the media. Nearly every cultural message we binge on Netflix is telling us that we are perfect just as we are and that we should live our truth.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“spells out what this looks like in the life of a Christian in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. He explains what love is and what it isn’t. Love is patient and kind. It doesn’t envy or boast. It isn’t irritable or resentful. Then things get interesting. The passage goes on to explain that love “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth” (verse 6). According to the Word of God, it’s not loving to affirm or celebrate something that is sinful, harmful, or untrue. This is the opposite of our culture’s definition of love, which is more along the lines of accepting, affirming, and celebrating whatever someone deems as “their truth.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“As technology advances, the world shrinks. Because of the internet and social media, we have access to more people from more cultures than ever before—many of us now know sincere Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and people of other religious traditions. This creates a wonderful opportunity to get to know people outside of our immediate cultural context and to share the gospel far and wide. But living in a pluralistic society (different religions coexisting in the same space) means we are being exposed to more opinions, ideas, religious philosophies, and values than ever before. This can influence Christians to adopt a type of religious pluralism (the belief that all religions are equally valid). Sincerity, not truth, becomes the new criterion for salvation.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“We are all prone to imagine a god that is more like our culture (or ourselves) than who God truly is.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“As Spurgeon said I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages. May the waves that are battering you, not sink your faith, but bring you closer to Jesus.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“Further, this comparison between the church and abusers would apply only if original sin actually did teach that humans are worthless. It doesn’t. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Christianity teaches that every human has been made in the image and likeness of God, and this gives every person inherent dignity, value, and worth (Genesis 5:1-2). We are not worthless. We are image bearers. But that image is distorted by sin.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“Deconstruction is not about getting your theology right. It’s not about trying to make your views match reality. It’s about tearing down doctrines that are morally wrong to you to make them match your own internal conscience”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“Every act of deconstruction contains three basic components: (1) a process of deconstruction, (2) a belief being deconstructed, and (3) a person deconstructing. In other words, every act of deconstruction has a how, a what, and a who.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“Like Adam and Eve, when we ignore or reject God’s Word, we cut ourselves off from the primary source of truth about what God is like.[3] As a result, we open ourselves up to deconstructing beliefs about God. In particular, we begin taking our cues about God not from his Word, but from other sources, like cultural norms and personal preferences.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“As we’ll see in the next chapter, deconstruction isn’t concerned with rethinking just any beliefs. Its primary concern is leaving behind what’s characterized as “evangelical” beliefs.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“When we use the word deconstruction, here’s what we mean: Faith deconstruction is a postmodern process of rethinking your faith without regarding Scripture as a standard.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“Deconstruction doesn’t usually imply a deconversion to atheism, but it’s certainly a deconversion of its own kind—from a worldview rooted in the authority of the Bible to a worldview rooted in the authority of the self.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“Many in the deconstruction spaces don’t think an experience can be rightly called deconstruction if the one claiming to have deconstructed remains a historical Christian or holds to biblical authority. And frankly, we agree.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“the further we got into our research, the clearer it became that we wouldn’t find many people in the deconstruction explosion who still believed in Scripture as their absolute authority. It seemed the only people who were using the word that way were Christian pastors and apologists who were trying to keep people in the faith. For the majority of people from the broader culture in the deconstruction movement, the Bible is seen as a tool of oppression to be rejected, not a standard of truth to be affirmed.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“Many Christians misunderstand spiritual warfare as referring only to power encounters with demonic spirits. Of course, there is some of that. But the fundamental nature of spiritual warfare is not power encounters; it’s truth encounters.[6] It’s a battle of ideas.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“First, she must not lose sight of the fact that the current problem with apostasy is not fundamentally different from the problem in the past. Demas rejected the faith for the same reason the TikTok apostate does: He loved the world more than he loved Christ.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“This loss of meaning points to one key affinity between postmodern American deconstruction and the current penchant for apostasy: Both see external authority as a problem of manipulative power structures and their demolition as liberating.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“Of course God does love all people regardless of our sin struggles”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“We can trust him even when there are situations that seem overwhelming or when we have been harmed by those who claim to be representatives of Christ.”
― Alisa Childers , The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“In many ways, we feel like we are writing with both tears in our eyes and a sword in our hand”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond

“It is really tragic that Christians can quote The Office but can't quote the Covenants, or that they know more about Marvel's Iron Man than they do about the Bible's God-man.”
― Alisa Childers, The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond