Spot on!

For your consideration.... two posts with which I concur for the simple reason that they accord with my current theological opinions.

Jim Rigby

ON LOSING ONE’S FAITH

Losing faith in the religion we were taught as children is not a failure, but a sign of courage and growth.

We would consider it pathetic if an adult felt the need to fit into the same clothes they wore as children. It is even sadder to limit our adult minds to the beliefs given us before we developed the capacity for reason.

Someone is not “lost” just because they have outgrown the rules and beliefs they were given in nursery school. The ideas of a mature worldview cannot fit in the categories of understanding we had when we were younger. Just as some animals grow by shedding their skin and shells, so do humans grow by “losing faith” in earlier world views and discovering new understandings. As Jesus said, new wine must go into new wineskins. Sometimes, in order not to lose faith in life, we must lose faith in any religion that does not allow us to honestly think and feel.

A religion that will not permit us to outgrow earlier understandings is already embalmed. A religion that limits itself to the teachings of the dead already has pennies over its eyes.

The main thing I want to say to people who feel they have lost their faith, is “thank you for your honesty and courage.” Do not lose faith in life and love and something beautiful will be born out of this time of confusion. There are some treasures we can only find by getting lost. There are some values we can only hold onto by breaking the rules. There are some profound truths we can only hear after we have lost faith in the simplistic teachings of our youth.

“Faith” is not holding onto the beliefs someone else taught us when we were children. “Faith” is simply the trust to go through the sense of confusion and doubt that honest thinking sometimes demands. Ultimately, faith is not belief in religion, but trust in life. “Faith” is the trust to let go of old beliefs until we eventually discover a larger and more illuminating framework for living.

Stuart Delony

“I’m not here to defend doctrines or claim certainty. That boat’s sailed. These days, I live in the tension—between belief and doubt, silence and signal. But even from that space, the way of Jesus still haunts me. Not the theology. Not the miracles. Just the audacity of loving enemies and elevating the broken as if they weren’t disposable. That stays with me. Saints—at least the ones polished up by modern faith—are exhausting. They smile too much. They sell certainty like it’s clearance-priced salvation. And if you spend enough time with them, you realize that sainthood is often just repression in a choir robe. Give me a skeptic. Someone who doubts clean answers and still shows up. Someone who doesn’t need a theology to justify their compassion. Someone who knows the world’s broken but hasn’t hardened into apathy. That’s the kind of person I’d rather walk with. Or drink with. Or follow through the dark. These days, I’m not looking for a belief system. I’m looking for a way to live. Something that smells like honesty. Something that honors doubt without drowning in it. Something that still dares to love, even without the cosmic reward points. Call it post-evangelical. Call it spiritual agnosticism. Call it “still figuring it out.” I don’t care. Just don’t try to sell me certainty. Because at this point, I’ll take a worn-out skeptic over a polished saint any day.”