This week’s show is a Deconversion Anonymous episode.
My guest this week is Sarah. Sarah says she may have one of the “longest deconstruction stories. She grew up in a fundamentalist Baptist church in an area where there were not that many Baptist churches. So she felt different from an early age. She was constantly attempting to live in the “will of God” but struggled to determine what that was. She knew from an early age that she was a doubter which equates to “backslider.”
After listening to deconstruction stories for the last several years, I think I have the longest deconstruction story ever. I suspect there could be longer ones than me, but I have yet to hear one. My deconstruction started in the 1980’s when I was a teenager, and it was very lonely.
Sarah was never comfortable with the limited roles allowed for women in the Church. Fortunately her mother encouraged her to do and become whatever she wanted. Sarah was smart and interested in science. Studying science and biology did not fit the Young Earth Creationism she was taught at church.
Sarah and her husband were the one couple who were egalitarian while the young married couples group were all complementarian. Sarah was vocal about her thoughts on complemntarianism.
Sarah spent a long time outside the United States. When she returned to the United States she was shocked by the Christian Nationalism she heard from the pulpit.
On the days I still believe …
Rachel Held Evans
Rachael Held Evens, Mike McHargue and David Hayward helped Sarah through her deconstruction. Today post-deconstruction she is interested in finding her “deconstructing friends” in real life.
Interact
Deconversion
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/
Deconversion Anonymous
https://gracefulatheist.com/category/podcast/deconversion-anonymous/
Secular Grace
https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/
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Attribution
“Waves” track written and produced by Makaih Beats
gracefulatheist.com 
listening to this story now.
Sarah, I’m looking for new friends too.
We seem to have alot in common-would enjoy a chat. I so could use someone to talk to about this. My deconstruction has been slow, too.
I am on FB.
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