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.On the Reality of Demons
Are there such things as demons? Are the principalities and powers mentioned in the Bible real, individual, entities with independent awareness and volition?
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Incarnating the Divine
“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” is our privilege to bring into existence. We can incarnate the Divine to those around us, instead of waiting for Jesus to come back someday in the future.
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Life from Death
Life and death are impossible to separate. And inevitably, life itself springs from death. It doesn’t ease the pain of loss, but we can take comfort in the rebirth inherent in the process of life.
Weaponizing the Human Soul
The MAGA propaganda machine is powerful and dangerous. More than anything I’ve seen in my lifetime, I’ve watched it successfully weaponize the human soul, taking the worst primal human emotions and using them to wound and even kill our neighbors and fellow citizens and the most vulnerable among us.
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The Eternal Fate of John MacArthur
I believe two things that may seem contradictory: John MacArthur is in hell today. And he will also spend eternity in heaven.
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On Dangerous Ground
How dangerous a thing it is to claim a mantle of being God’s chosen people living on God’s promised land, and not scrupulously following God’s laws! The land itself will spew them out.
And yet, that’s exactly what a massive number of American evangelical Christians are doing – even as they celebrate the horrible injustices being carried out by their government, violating the single most emphasized commandment in the Bible.
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Reaffirming in 2025
In 2022, I realized that as an anti-gay conservative, I had been incredibly wrong about gay and queer people and their acceptability to God. So I publicly and clearly repented. This Pride Month, I’d like to spend a few minutes retelling and expanding on some of my history that led to that decision.
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Why Is It So Hard to Address Homelessness?
I’ve been getting involved in addressing homelessness in my town, and sat in on a meeting about renovating a house into a women’s shelter. I was struck by how *stupidly* hard it is to help people get affordable or even emergency housing. It seems like all the wheels of regulation are jammed against any real progress. Why is it so hard? What can we do about it, if anything?
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A Shallow Veneer of Equality
While I mourn many things that are being lost in the last few months here in America, one that grieves me the most has been the absolute shredding of many markers of equality in our culture. As I watch what is happening, it’s now clear to me that this equality was a lot less solid than I had thought.
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Grieving America
If you’re like me, you’re feeling very unhappy and unsettled by what’s happening in our country right now. The changes are overwhelming, the flood of negative news is unrelenting, and there’s a sense of loss as I watch what’s happening. In some real sense, it requires grieving, as I realize that things are changing rapidly and those changes might be permanent. So the real question in my mind is this: How do I respond? How can I process these changes, and will we ever get back to normal? I suggest that the five stages of grief offer a model for how to proceed.