HARMONIC ATHEIST - Keith Giles: Deconstructing Bad Theology in the Church

Today I spoke with Keith Giles, an author, blogger, podcaster, and teacher who focuses on the dynamics of deconstruction.

We talked through his story growing up Southern Baptist and eventually becoming a pastor, when he started to analyze his beliefs and reassess his worldview. We touched on various topics, such as:

• God's wrath, penal substitution, eternal conscious torment, universal salvation, and the nature of the Gospel.
• The history of canonicity, including the colorful and shaky history of how the canon came to be, and how there are various canons, even today.
• The fact that many church fathers included books in the canon that many of us have never read or heard of, such as: the Didache, the Shepherd of Hermes, the Book of Baruch, Jubilees, the Letter of Jeremiah, and Enoch. They also did not include all the books that were later added to the canon.
• How to overcome the fear of asking hard questions and analyzing the faith we were taught as children.
• Dealing with ostracization and loss of community when Christian family and friends realize you are deconstructing.
• Respecting others who don't agree with where we "land" during our deconstruction, i.e., people who remain in theism in some way vs. those who see no evidence for any gods.
• The toxicity that can occur in certain theological constructs, and how to deal with loved ones who are still proponents of teachings we are strongly opposed to.
• The pagan parallels and source stories that were used to create the Jesus character, such as Dionysius, Homer's epics, Pythagoras, the Zodiac (in the Gospel of Mark), Josephus, Plutarch, etc.
• Realizing that each of us is probably not done changing our perspectives and worldview, even if we've already changed a lot, and how that realization helps us to be more patient and gracious with others.

Many thanks to Keith for the great questions he's always bringing to the table, the graciousness he shows to people who disagree with him, and his compassion for people who are deconstructing and reclaiming their identities as they reshape their worldviews and heal from religious trauma.


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Keith's website:
http://www.KeithGiles.com

Keith's blog:
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keithgi...

Keith's Youtube channel:
   / kgilesify  

The Heretic Happy Hour Podcast:
https://heretichappyhour.podbean.com/
https://heretichappyhour.com/

Pacifist Fight Club
www.PacifistFightClub.com

Keith's books on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Keith-Giles/e/...

Or through his blog:
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keithgi...

Read about his newest book, Before You Lose Your Mind:
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keithgi...

and read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09...


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Your support for my channel, Harmonic Atheist, is very appreciated. The more support I receive, the sooner I can do this full time!
--Tim

  / harmonicatheist