Perspectives, Jinger Vuolo, and Deconstruction
I'm starting to think we are asking the wrong questions...
I always know when something has come out about the Duggar family because suddenly some of my old blog posts and podcasts start being found again. Sure enough, Jinger Duggar Vuolo has written a book titled, “Becoming Free Indeed” telling her story of walking away from the legalism she experienced while being raised in a family who followed Bill Gothard’s cultic teachings.
Jinger and I were part of the same cult, I’m just a good ten plus years older than her. She was starting to show up as a child in TV specials about the time I was exiting the culture and mindset. I’ll be honest, seeing the Duggars parading their family around on television back in the early 2000s drove me crazy. Because while they were pretending to be wholesome, happy, and practically perfect, I was pretty sure that I knew what went on behind the scenes.
Because I’d lived it.
I’d seen my friends live it in their large families. I knew the reasons behind the specific standards. I was all too familiar with the anxiety, paranoia, and fear that came with believing in a god who followed strict formulas has he doled out punishment or blessings.
I’m glad that Jinger has pulled away from Gothard’s teachings. I feel for her. I know how hard it can be to leave family and friends who think you are now a rebellious heathen. But I think what has struck me the most about the whole thing (and I’ll talk more about this in my podcast tonight) is the responses I’ve seen online.
For instance, I came across a Facebook post where people were criticizing her for not leaving more. They were frustrated that she was still a Christian at all, and offended that in her book she promotes a Real Jesus (sound familiar?) and claims to have found truth. I’ve seen similar sentiment in comments on articles and YouTube interviews.
Do these people who are zealously insistent that their way is the only right way not see who they are? That they are just the other side of the religious coin? This black and white thinking unfortunately colors the deconstruction argument these days.
On one side people condemn all deconstruction as evil and heretical. Ironically, Jinger says she is disentangling her faith not deconstructing because she doesn’t want to identify with that group. I get these feelings too; just give it a few more years and a few more disillusioning Christianese moments and she might change her mind. Yet on the other side of deconstruction you have people just as staunchly believing that everyone who deconstructs must end up in the exact same same progressive mind space as them. Otherwise you haven’t truly deconstructed.
And in the middle of this controversy in my head, I’m doing a study called Jesus & Women by Kristi McLelland. It’s blowing my mind and making me wonder if we are just wrong all around. I’m starting to think that much of the modern sides of American Christianity is just the Pharisees and Sadducees bickering with each other and all of us are missing Jesus.
Ah, Jesus—God who chose to dwell within the body of a Middle Eastern man two thousand years ago. In a Middle Eastern culture. After years of God specifically connecting with, speaking to, and leading a Middle Eastern nation.
And yet we—twenty-first century Western Christians—seem to think that we can casually read a translation of an ancient text and then come up with an interpretation based on a literal understanding of our English words. Even worse, we seem to think that we can either declare our interpretation as ultimate truth or choose to reject the whole of Christianity based on that interpretation. I’m honestly pretty horrified at our arrogance.
So here I am three weeks into this Bible study and increasingly sure we are all just plain wrong. Because we aren’t even reading the Bible right to start with.
We approach the Bible with our Western perspective seeing it as something to be picked apart and studied. We look for details in a search for knowledge. We want to know how things happened and are quick to point out laws, rules, and principles. Ultimately we want to know what Scripture teaches me about me. And we are often hesitant to believe things that we don’t totally understand.
According to Kristi McLelland, the Middle Eastern perspective is completely different. The Scriptures were written by Middle Easterners for an audience that was Middle Eastern. This audience comes to the Word looking to be fed. They see story and narrative. They ponder the reasons why God would do these things while seeking to know what the Bible teaches them about God. Middle Eastern believers choose to take God at His word and believe Him before they fully understand.
You guys, what are we missing? What are we rejecting in our ignorance because we don’t even know? More specifically who are we missing and rejecting?
The first story in my study was about Jesus and the woman in Matthew 9 who had bled for twelve years. I wrote about it on Instagram. Mind Blown! As I continue to read and hear throughout this study, I am reminded of my trip to Israel back in 2015 where I felt like such an outsider—such a Gentile. It humbled me and made me ready to listen and learn.
I want to approach Scripture with this same humble, open heart. I will continue to reject the man-made traditions and religious extras of the Christianese bubble world. But before I throw away anything historical or orthodox, I’m coming right back here to this place of humility and I am seeking to read with a different perspective. I’ve already learned SO many things. I’ll probably keep throwing tidbits up on Instagram so follow along there for more thoughts.
I’m still all for deconstruction of our screwed up version of Christianity. But deconstruction doesn’t mean you can’t reconstruct a vibrant faith centered around the Real Jesus of the Real Bible. :-)
Great post, Christy. Sounds like a really cool study you're doing. Sounds like you may also love the work of Cynthia Bourgeault, specifically "The Wisdom Jesus" to gain further perspectives on who Jesus may have actually been. As Richard Rohr writes in The Universal Christ "...instead of saying that God came into the world through Jesus, maybe it would be better to say that Jesus came out of an already Christ-soaked world." Hope you have an awesome week ahead!!