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.June 2022 Updates to the Reading List
I added nine more books to the Reading List page today. Check that page for full details.
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Book Review: “How God Sees Women”
“How God Sees Women” is a stunningly solid exegetical analysis of the topic of complementarianism – the idea that God designated men as the authority and rulers in the kingdom, and that women are not authorized to lead or teach, specifically in the church, but (some believe) also in any public sphere.
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Law and Order and Unintended Consequences
A few weeks ago, a supermarket in Buffalo NY was the scene of a mass shooting. A few days later, another horrific shooting incident occurred in a primary school in Uvalde TX. Ever since the spate of police shootings and brutality erupted into the news in 2019 and 2020, I’ve been reexamining my position on gun rights and laws, and these recent incidents prompted me to spend some time considering the situation. Since it’s timely, I thought it was worth addressing school defense here on my blog.
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Relics
Faith isn’t just carrying around someone else’s bucket of old dusty relics; faith is doing the hard work of examining each one carefully to see which are worth keeping.
Who’s Actually Grooming?
For Pride Month, I was wrong about LGBTQ grooming. I’m not proud of my particular Christian heritage: it’s been revealed as unloving. But I am deeply proud of my Savior who challenged His culture in how He loved the unlovely, the outcast, the sinner, and the oppressed.
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To Be A Christian in Babylon
Taking Native American land and life to secure European refugees the ability to worship God freely is deeply enshrined in the Christian Nationalism view of American history. But that seems to run counter to the nature and actions of God described throughout the Bible.
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Further Up and Further In
Perhaps the biggest surprise for me in this season of my life is that faith itself is not static. We’re being called to go “further up and further in” – as God reveals more to us, our understanding of faith and doctrine must be free to expand and grow.
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Things I Have Learned This Year
I am finding that many things I was taught were dangerously one-sided and served to uncritically reinforce the views I was given. But when I add additional history to my understanding, I am forced to pull back from many conclusions and doctrines and political understandings.
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All-Inclusive
I highly recommend this video from Pastor Zach Lambert at Restore Austin church, discussing being an all-inclusive church.
On a Donkey, Not a War Horse
Do we think like the Jews of Jesus’ day, hoping that our King would ride into Jerusalem on a war horse instead of a humble donkey? Consider the story of Jesus’ celebrated entry into Jerusalem. 11 And as they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples,
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