It's okay to ask the really hard questions - Phil Drysdale

Today I spoke with Phil Drysdale, who grew up as a pastor's kid and was focused on ministry before he began deconstructing his faith and ultimately started The Deconstruction Network to help others going through the same thing. As we talked through his story, we discussed: • Hearing altar calls as a teenager and repeatedly giving our lives to the Jesus character as a way to prove our faith. • Taking to an extreme the injunction to "give everything to the poor." • Being passionately consumed with the Jesus character and the Bible. • Realizing as Christians that we're part of a huge system that does widespread and lasting harm on a very serious level. • Defending everything the Yahweh character decreed, including eternal conscious torment, because we saw Yahweh as the King and Judge, and believed that everything he did was right. • How people who deconstruct often hold their new stance with more humility and less certainty. • How people who deconstruct lose much of their community quickly when they lose and leave their faith. • Seeing from recent polls that over a million people each year are leaving Christianity in America and understanding that many of them will be facing a lonely road as a result of losing their prior worldview and community. • The huge need for deconstructing people, who are extremely vulnerable at that point, to have a safe place to talk and explore their questions. • The importance of empowering deconstructing people to discover their own autonomy and path, versus trying to just give them our answers. • The dynamic that many who leave their faith often later embrace some kind of spirituality. Many thanks to Phil for sharing his amazing story and for all that he does the community every day! _________________________________________ Connect with Phil: https://www.phildrysdale.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/PhilDrysdale/videos https://thedeconstructionnetwork.com/ https://linktr.ee/phildrysdale _________________________________________ Your support for my channel, Harmonic Atheist, is very appreciated. Monthly https://www.patreon.com/harmonicatheist One time PayPal: https://paypal.me/harmonicatheist Venmo: @harmonicatheist The more support I receive, the sooner I can do this full time! --Tim _________________________________________ Ending music by Eyal Raz, "Friends" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qbqNO6DdAQ _________________________________________