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A trendy, new hashtag tempts Christians to look wise--- "woke" in the world's eyes. There are 293,026 posts on Instagram utilizing the hashtag #deconstruction.
The vast majority are from people who've deconverted from Christianity, become progressive Christians, and now embrace same-sex marriage and relationships, abortion, and other behaviors and beliefs that are condemned by God's Word. They rejected core historic doctrines of the faith, or are on a mission to crush the white Christian patriarchy.
They often identify as the "Christian Left."
Every biblical Christian must be informed because the "deconstruction" movement ultimately leads to destruction.
A closer look
Be informed, not misled.
Deconstruction: Conforming to the world under the guise of seeking an "authentic" faith.
The deconstruction movement recruits from the ranks of Christian celebrities, musicians, and young, impressionable evangelicals. "Deconstruction is not sound. Deconstruction will ultimately lead to destruction itself," said Dr. Owen Strachan, Senior Fellow with Family Research Center's Center for Biblical Worldview.
Strachan explains that "deconstruction" in its so-called "Christian" context refers to the process of "challenging what you have been taught" with the goal of establishing an "authentic faith."
He says, "Despite the innocuous-sounding definition, deconstruction gives you license to doubt the Christian faith, to doubt the Word of God, and to turn your back on your parents' generation... and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ more broadly,."
He continues, "It often ends up being ... an onramp to Leftism" and "takes its cues from the LGBTQ Revolution." Deconstruction has 20th Century roots in philosophers like Foucault and Derrida, founders of queer theory and post-modernism, respectively.
Denny Burk is a professor of biblical studies at Boyce College, the undergraduate school of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.
He says, "If you think deconstruction is just another name for reformation or revival, you don't know what deconstruction is. Reformation dispenses with the bad but holds the good. Deconstruction tries to destroy both the good and the bad. Don't deconstruct."
Burk notes that according to the book, American Heritage, "Deconstruction is a philosophical movement and theory of literary criticism that questions traditional assumptions about a certainty, identity, and truth; asserts that words can only refer to other words, and attempts to demonstrate how statements about any text subvert their own meanings."
He says he's well aware that some Christians are using the term "deconstruct" in a well-meaning way, but "deconstruction" typically refers to a mode of interrogation that attacks everything, not just the bad."
Dr. Strachan says the leftist "Christian" movement "recruits heavily from the ranks of Christian celebrity musicians, and the young evangelicals."
Alisa Childers is a Christian singer and songwriter, and writes an apologetics blog for "doubting Christians and honest skeptics."
In her desire for a more "authentic faith," she was ensnared in this deception.
She warns, "There are 293,026 posts on Instagram utilizing the hashtag #deconstruction." That was earlier this year. The number has increased over the past few months.
"The vast majority," she says, "are from people who've deconverted from Christianity, become progressive Christians, embraced same-sex marriage and relationships, rejected core historic doctrines of the faith, or are on a mission to crush the white Christian patriarchy."
She says:
There are conferences you can attend, one for which I personally paid good money (for research purposes) to be taught how to break free from toxic religion, reject Christian dogma, and learn to embrace what basically added up to warmed-over Buddhism. Phil Drysdale, a deconstructed Christian and deconstruction researcher, asked people on Instagram to name the accounts that have helped them through their deconstructions. A quick scroll reveals that the leaders and guides the vast majority are looking to are accounts and people like Lisa Gungor, Audrey Assad, God is Grey, Jesus Unfollower, Your Favorite Heretics, Jo Luehmann, The Naked Pastor, and a plethora of others dedicated to providing a space for Christians to examine, reinterpret, and even abandon their beliefs. None of these accounts encourage Christians to look to Scripture as the authority for truth.
She has written a book that chronicles her own deconstruction journey.
She defines deconstruction this way:
In the context of faith, deconstruction is the process of systematically dissecting and often rejecting the beliefs you grew up with. Sometimes the Christian will deconstruct all the way into atheism. Some remain there, but others experience a reconstruction. But the type of faith they end up embracing almost never resembles the Christianity they formerly knew.
She notes that "deconstruction" rarely retains any vestiges of actual Christianity.
"Over the past year or so," she says "it has become common for Christian leaders to refer to deconstruction as something potentially positive. I get it. When I first heard that take, I thought, Hmmm. That could work. Just deconstruct the false beliefs and line up what you believe with Scripture. I was operating from the foundational belief that objective truth exists and can be known. But as I continued to study the movement, this understanding of deconstruction became untenable---that’s because the way the word is most often used in the deconstruction movement has little to do with objective truth, and everything to do with tearing down whatever doctrine someone believes is morally wrong. Take, for example, Melissa Stewart, a former Christian now agnostic/atheist with a TikTok following of more than 200,000.
Takeaway
None of this means that Christianity prohibits honest questions, doubts, and fears. The difference is what we do with them.
Deconstruction encourages you to become the arbiter of what is true. It denies the authority of God and his Word and promotes "self" to the godlike task of creating your own personal religion.
Dr. Strachan says,
"By the grace of God, a few genuine Christians have survived their attempts at deconstruction — and have returned to the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). But far more have made shipwreck of their faith (1 Timothy 1:19). They are seeds sown on rocky ground, which has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away (Matthew 13:21).
He says, "Christians don't need to embrace 'deconstruction' to grow in godliness. We have the perfectly true Word of God, interpreted by the infallible Spirit of God, who has sealed us in Jesus Christ. These weapons of our warfare are invincible if we will only make use of them. The market [price] for truth has never been higher. Prominent deconstructions notwithstanding, falling away is not inevitable. The cause of Jesus Christ is going to win."
Strachan said, "Pastors and parents should work to faithfully instruct the children in their care. All Christians should take courage and stand."
Do not be deceived.
Be Informed. Be Faithful. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful.