Welcome to Crucible of Thought! I'm Brandon, and I was a member of conservative evangelical congregations for 45 years. This blog is about things that I've learned since 2020, as I've been undergoing a process of "deprogramming," "deconstruction," "reconstruction"... pick whatever term you want, but basically a process carefully examining many different aspects of my social, political, and religious beliefs to see what really actually aligns with the Bible and specifically the teachings of Jesus, more than what aligns with the host of dogmatic statements I inherited in years of church training. I'm not trying to persuade anyone: I'm sharing my process, in the hopes that it inspires and enlightens others. I welcome you to join me as we move forward in our faith together.

Finding Common Ground With My Atheist Friend: New Podcast Episode

Here’s a conversation with my friend Diego Mera. We talk a bit about our relationship and how we became friends, but one the reason I thought this would be an interesting conversation is that I consider myself a follower of Jesus and therefore a Christian, while Diego considers himself an atheist. And despite that significant difference, we’ve found a great value in our mutual relationship. I’d never actually spent much time talking with Diego about his religious history, and this seemed like a perfect topic. By the time we’re done, I think you’ll see that we agree on a lot more than we disagree on, and even our points of disagreement are not points of dispute, but instead points of mutual growth.

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Studies on The Best Ways to Reduce Abortion

How might our society effectively reduce abortions? The rhetoric is superheated – but both sides use lots of propaganda. This paper moves beyond my previous paper considering the morality of abortion, toward the more politically-complex process of understanding what might be the best way to address reducing abortion in our complex, pluralistic, and religiously-diverse society.

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Check out the Crucible of Thought YouTube channel

Recently I’ve been recording some interviews and conversations with some interesting people, and posting them on the Crucible of Thought Spotify podcast and YouTube channel. You can find the YouTube playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9Ul79w-MZ073ad6ljhsnOW0zl25umKXx Check out my latest conversation with Rick Pidcock, who I’ve followed for some time on various social media platforms, and in particular

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How a Very Straight White Conservative Evangelical Christian Man Became Affirming

How on earth did I, a conservative evangelical straight man, ever become affirming? There were many reasons and steps in my journey and process; although it felt like an avalanche or landslide at times, it was worth it. So I wanted to share my story to give you hope that it’s really okay to tell God that yes, you’re willing to change and repent if God asks you to.

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The Calculus of Faith

Working out our faith shares some similarities with an esoteric and advanced form of calculus called “transforms.” Sometimes to solve a problem, you have to do the hard work in a completely different reference frame, and then transform the result back into our day-to-day frame.

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