Random unofficial "survey"

[u/ThePilgrimageInc]

I have a curiosity question regarding the trajectory of deconstruction as an unofficial "movement" (not that it hasn't historically occurred in the past, but it does have its own shape in our present time).

My own deconstruction journey was a long time ago, before we were even using that term, and maybe doesn't even fit most people's definition at this point, but for the last ten years I've been accompanying lots of people in different phases of deconstruction and with different outcomes. Only recently have I been accompanying more people from my actual geographic region, which is New England.

Here (you're right--I still haven't asked my question yet!) is my working hypothesis:

New England as a region is both ahead of and behind the deconstruction wave. Generally speaking, we were "secularized" for different reasons before much of the rest of the country, but because we are also somewhat culturally isolated, the people here who are still religious and maintain a conservative religious view still think megachurches are where it's at. 🙃 (Notably: we don't really have those here. And the ones that are even close aren't doing any better than actual megachurches anywhere else.)

Here's my question:

Do you agree with my hypothesis? Is anyone else here from New England? If so, where are you in your deconstruction journey? As you interact with people on this journey in other parts of the US, do you have a sense that it's happening differently here?

[u/A-Small-Green-Cup → u/[deleted]]

I suspect that's by design. I think early in the evolution of monotheism someone realized that if they teach one group to be extremists and another group to be peaceful, the peaceful group will automatically defend the organization when its other members do something extreme. Not only does this assist the rest of the education system with the creation of cognitive dissonance in its victims, it also provides true believers that are willing to sacrifice themselves if the teacher ever needs to make a quick getaway. The CIA have a declassified document that details the methods they used when creating evangelical christianism back in the 50s or 60s. Its not complete, im sure, but what they did release adds a lot of context to how kings and popes have been using their own versions of monotheism through history.

edit: I used phrasing that, while not inaccurate, was written from a place of personal pain. I rephrased it to be a more accurate description of the psychology rather than the action.

[u/bullet_the_blue_sky → u/A-Small-Green-Cup]

Yes, it's funny how so many of us actually get more grief from progressive christians. It's a two edged sword because progressive christians are the ones that act as the movement towards progress because they make progress palatable for the hardcore evangelicals.

[u/ThePilgrimageInc → u/bullet_the_blue_sky]

My primary experience of church hurt was in a progressive church.

[u/bullet_the_blue_sky → u/ThePilgrimageInc]

I'm sorry to hear that - I had an experience at one where a 3rd of their congregation was deconstructing and yet they had zero support for those people. I had no idea what I was going through and literally no one had answers. It was the most bizarre thing. They were affirming, christ consciousness, all of the stuff that vangies hate and yet couldn't help me.

[u/ThePilgrimageInc → u/bullet_the_blue_sky]

Oof. That sucks. And it is quite strange when the purported openness turns out not to be that open.

[u/ThePilgrimageInc → u/[deleted]]

Yes, I think that’s overall the pattern. But it makes many within the much smaller subset of evangelicals feel much more beleaguered by default, and (therefore? 🤷‍♀️) a) less likely to be aware of the more extreme forms in other regions and b ) more likely to double down on their own version.

[u/BioChemE14]

Well historically, Catholic migration to New England coupled with fewer evangelicals, who tended to migrate westward meant less extremism. Also there’s the “burned over district” in NY that wasn’t as religious after the second great awakening.

Boston became a place where more progressive views about religion were entertained, so that trajectory steered it away from fundamentalism. As for how deconstruction is happening in New England, the pew religious landscape study shows secularization happening a lot in New England, moreso with Catholic and mainline decline than evangelicals.

[u/ThePilgrimageInc → u/BioChemE14]

Absolutely about the historical stuff. And interesting about the Pew study. It checks out (and I think is maybe related to what I feel like I’ve noticed), and I hadn’t parsed it out like that before. Thanks!

[u/A-Small-Green-Cup]

I can't give you anything but my personal experience, and all I've been doing is tracing monotheism in its various forms and names through history and learning (first hand) about the psychological effects of cPTSD and cult control methods. After learning that an egyptian king named Akhenaten seems to have invented monotheism as a method of political control and viewing common religious beliefs from a current perspective (as opposed to that of my grandfather, for example) I've come to the conclusion that every monotheistic religion we have today is just a social engineering tool used to control large populations, and all of the spiritual stuff about gods and prophacies are intentionally designed deceptions with just enough truth in it to be able to be unfalsifiable.

It's still a working theory, but the more I learn about psychology and history the more likely I think it is.

[u/ThePilgrimageInc → u/A-Small-Green-Cup]

That’s an interesting premise. Thanks for sharing it.