“There’s a temptation to think that if we could just provide enough evidence, people would believe. . . But this assumes that everyone is on an earnest truth quest, and it’s not that simple. In reality, the heart behind people’s seeking will play an important role in whether or not they discover truth. . . God has provided enough evidence for those who seek truth but has left enough concealed for those who don’t want to submit to truth.” (The Deconstruction of Christianity, 2023, page 188)
” . . . a biblical definition of faith, which is active trust informed by evidence, not blind belief in spite of evidence.” (The Deconstruction of Christianity, page 181)
Deconstruction Tailored Especially for Christians
How many parents of college graduates do you know in the last ten to fifteen years who have said they sent their son or daughter to a prestigious university as a moral Christian or Jewish young person, only to graduate as a socialist atheist? We all expand our horizons significantly in college, yet today there seems to be an outright attack on faith in the academy, the media, the business world, and the public square. It is ugly . . . and outrageous.
At a minimum, students learn to bury any recognition of objective truth in favor of broad acceptance of virtually any personal, subjective truth, if only to avoid controversy or violence when mean peers or others attack. Abandoned almost immediately is any idea of a search for truth that was taught since ancient times as a lifelong quest and, in many respects, one of the primary purposes and joys of life.
Tolerance is the highest virtue today—except tolerance for those who do find truth in their lives in God or religion.
Many have recognized the war against Christianity in the West for a long time. Mary Eberstadt, one of our original Praxis Circle Contributors, wrote a book in 2016 entitled It’s Dangerous to Believe: Religious Freedom and Its Enemies that describes this war and how “dangerous” today can even mean “life-threatening.”
Thoughtful American Christians understand that since the 1960s, America has transitioned from it’s earlier history as a predominately Christian, if not Protestant, nation in the 19th century and then a more broadly Christian humanist country in the 20th century through the 1950s.
But a terrific, recent book by Alisa Childers and Tim Barrett, entitled The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond (2024) says there is something entirely new going on that all Christians need to be aware of and be on the look out for. The Deconstruction of Christianity addresses a new phase of the War Against Christianity that began after Mary’s book was published. Alisa and Tim call it just plain “deconstruction.” It is the product of the iPhone age that began to exert its influence and pick up speed after 2012; a concern of another PC Contributor Jonathan Haidt introduced earlier this year.
Praxis Circle is extremely plugged into the threats traditional Western values face due to militant atheism coming from postmodernism, neo-marxism, and identitarianism (or “wokeness”). We’ve written and interviewed about this countless times. But the recent, severe escalation of “deconstruction” targeting and threatening Christianity itself and its sources had not come home to roost in quite the same, effective way until The Deconstruction showed up in Amazon’s brown package on our doorstep.
What you have here in The Deconstruction is a relatively short, highly readable paperback (258 pages in large print) with a forward by Carl Trueman and endorsements from a Who’s Who of leading Christian evangelical academics (including PC favorites on the subject of truth, Nancy Pearcey and Gregory Koukl) that lays out the deconstruction problem and offers academic-to-practical approaches and defensive-to-offensive solutions as clearly as humanly possible.
And let’s face “it,” the only way to get to the truth is to have “it” front of mind, seek it, find it, and defend it against error.
What Christians everywhere face today is an entire internet and media culture backed by millions designed to target thoughtful Christians—indeed, all religious believers or seekers who want to explore their faith or its possibility—and there lead them away from any belief in God or the supernatural, often using hashtags via TikTok, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
In effect, the internet now preys on Christians in an attempt to kill any belief in Christ or the Bible. Praxis Circle first encountered this phenomenon directly in 2023 in our interview with PC Contributor Abigail Shrier on transgenders preying upon young girls over the internet (Irreversible Damage) and a therapeutic culture growing increasingly hostile to religion (Bad Therapy). In The Deconstruction we encounter the same phenomenon with militant atheists and agnostics sport fishing vulnerable persons who are often experiencing some life trauma or even just normal doubt to lead them away, just as Satan did in the beginning (Genesis 3).
Bad Satan.
An Overview: The Deconstruction
As Alisa and Tim highlight, there is nothing whatsoever new here, either in argument or intensity, about the deconstruction movement Christianity faces except its size and use of technology. While life has changed radically since ancient times, the threats Christianity faces have not.
Again, what is different is the nearly unlimited, unsupervised access the internet and technology give to predators; the vast, global array of deconstructionists we face in large numbers; and the quality of communication possible delivered in such short periods of time. The internet offers a megaphone amplifying attacks beyond anything possible in the past. The #Deconstuction hashtag can take an unknown, anonymous atheist to millions of views in just seconds if their content is entertaining or meaningful enough.
What the hostile world outside the internet in other types of media or in the classroom does to compliment digital attacks is radically increase the doubt toward religion that defenseless content consumers might have without anyone friendly nearby (particularly parents or pastors) to provide a truthful, balancing, and mature perspective.
In the book’s beginning, Alisa and Tim take much time and effort to define deconstruction in this context, to explain the scope and dangers of the problem, and to be fair to deconstruction as an often normal, important, and building experience. Alisa herself as a star Christian musician and singer (former ZOEgirl member from 1999 to 2006) almost lost her faith due to growing doubt. Alisa remains a popular speaker and author with an extremely successful podcast, and Tim is a popular speaker and apologist for Stand to Reason (STR). They really worked hard to co-author the book, and it shows.
There is no question the deconstruction movement grew out of postmodernism, and the result for those deconstructed is often to land in “progressive Christianity” or outside orthodoxy. We don’t have the space here to explore that distinction, but we should note that those who are “deconstructing” do not always lose their faith by any stretch—and many like Alisa even strengthen it. So, never lose hope for those you love and keep being evangelical the right way, if that’s your worldview, to fit the person.
The authors frequently highlight that the first question for someone undergoing deconstruction should be “What type of deconstruction are you referring to?” or “What is your definition of deconstruction?” There are many forms.
That said, Alisa and Tim explain that when they use the word, this is their definition: “Faith deconstruction is a postmodern process of rethinking your faith without regarding Scripture as a standard” (page 26). That’s their baseline definition from which they explain variances. (We love definitions and authors who insist on them because they are being honest and helpful when it comes to worldview conversation.)
Such deconstruction, however, is always an attack on authority that moves the person in transition from a reliance on the objective truth of the God of the Bible to the subjective truth of whatever ideology the individual wants to adopt. Most “deconstructors” are usually “secular evangelicals” of their own non-Christian worldview who will not be satisfied until the deconstructing person is convinced of either agnosticism or atheism. As we know, in America such naturalist worldviews often devolve into a power game governed by woke culture. At heart is the Creator God Narrative (CGN) versus the Man God Narrative (MGN) we have emphasized so many times before.
In essence, deconstruction involves the war of incompatible worldviews centering on the issue of truth, and the authors recognize it as such throughout the book. Indeed, their Chapter 6, entitled “Upper Story,” provides an exceptional overview (only 18 pages) of the philosophical and theological issue of truth along trails blazed by Christian worldview greats Francis Schaeffer and Nancy Pearcey. That chapter is an excellent supplement to our recently published e-book entitled What is Truth?, available here.
I won’t list now the many ways deconstructors attack Christianity because they’re too numerous as we turn to end, but the buzz words toxicity, lies, patriarchy, moral monster, misogyny, cannibalism, child sacrifice, hocus pocus, paranormal woohoo, and power play will get you a long way down the road.
Every Christian has doubts, and every hurdle has been encountered numerous times before and cleared over the last two thousand years. Alisa and Tim call the process we all must embrace to strengthen faith “reformation,” and they walk us through how to handle doubt, now involving the formal word deconstruction and the “help” deconstructors gladly offer.
Summary: Rise Up
As suggested, Alisa and Tim offer thoughtful and mature approaches to interacting with and caring for those experiencing deconstruction, regardless of age or circumstance. Again, there is no reason to panic because questioning and doubt are common around most issues of truth: Human beings in a world of Grace are never beyond God’s reach, particularly with the help of caring and loving family members or friends.
Still, one wonders whether we should declare passive evangelical strategies like “faithful presence” formally dead due to a lack of playing offense and the intensity of the attack Christians face in the 2020s. Evangelicals see increasingly they need much more training and knowledge in philosophy to complement the Bible, often involving worldview thinking.
Take Alisa and Tim’s advice: remain present, stay calm, be open to questions, assess the situation continuously, set boundaries for both sides, and pray. All of these approaches together are highly recommended. Much is at stake, and we’re all in God’s hands. No need for despair. Christianity is experiencing an awakening nationwide and possibly throughout the West and the world.
Alisa and Tim end The Deconstruction by placing the reader on that night with Jesus after he’s been arrested: “and they [Jesus’ closest friends] all left him and fled” (Mark 14:50). The authors ask, “Did Jesus start deconstructing his beliefs?”
We know what happened. Jesus questioned God’s will, yes, but never faltered once the Way was clear. We know the truth.
There is nothing new today that Christ can’t handle. Yet again, as in every age before us, we should take heart with joy and confidence.
Alisa and Tim finish with a prayer especially written for those experiencing deconstruction, and those twelve sentences alone are more than worth the book’s price. If interested, pick up and read, and your own faith will be strengthened, along with those you love who need it most.
“Over time, the answers we find shape our beliefs about the world – our worldview.” (The Deconstruction of Christianity, page 205)
“People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.” (The Deconstruction of Christianity, page 218, quoting Blaise Pascal. This is another excellent way of describing what we’ve referred to in prior Praxis Circle posts as The Shane Principle.)
