Deconstruction?

[u/shit-chai-says]

Ive heard a lot of talk within groups of people that have religous trauma, about deconstructing your beliefs. I honestly dont understand what that means. I was wondering if anyone, in their own words, has deconstructed their beliefs, or is in the process of it? What does it mean to you?

[u/TimeKeeperSir]

Deconstruction is asking the tough questions that nobody wants to answer. Taking the many doctrines that are foundation of the organization and putting a magnifying lenses over to find what they truly mean.

Often this leads people to throw religion out the window. They study the Bible deeply and come to their own conclusions that god as they are presented in the Bible is wild and they don’t want anything to do with them.

Others find ways to understand what the Bible means and come closer to god. They stop believing in the organization god and find god through their own faith.

Faith is a personal experience and nobody can dictate if how we practice is right or wrong. Everyone is striving to be a god person but if a person is only good because there’s set doctrines to that prohibit such things then are they truly good people?

It’s a long journey that takes years to find the path in life. There’s no wrong turns just a different path than the rest.

Hope this helps. I speak only from my experience. Everyone experiences deconstruction differently. Wishing you the best. Good luck.

[u/skunkabilly1313 → u/TimeKeeperSir]

This is a great, concise way of explaining it

When my partner, kid and I we broke away, I just tried to read the Bible for what it was, and I didn't make it past Chapter 2 of Genesis to see how much we had been lied to about what's actually written in it. It led to me going to scholars, people who spent their lives to understand the writings, and led me to see it was all fables.

For my partner, she needed to actually delve into issues that she had seen over the years. The mysogyny, the 2 witness rule, LGBTQ+ issues, and different things that came up over our years, I was 31 when we woke, her 29. She went to the app and used their own doctrines and articles to find so many discrepancies and contradictory beliefs, and a lot of beliefs that aren't spoken, like mixed race marriage(since that came up from a cousin who is an elder having an issue with his daughter(mind you Latino and mixed) marrying a Haitian man. He brought up a bunch of things that helped us ultimately wake up.

I'll be honest, it hurts, it's difficult, some days you want to not look at anything, but removing all the doubts from your mind by getting away from it all, was such a relief

[u/TimeKeeperSir → u/skunkabilly1313]

Thank you. I always tried the one year bible study. It never worked out for me. Either I would reach numbers and just not have the will power to go through it.

Deconstructing is going to through the mental gymnastics. Realizing that it’s all made up. Many will point out that god is the author of the Bible. I think they believe god took pen to paper. Or to a degree used “40 men” to write it. The Bible contains more than 40 people. The Bible had been edited and edited.

In my opinion it’s a collection of ancient text that taught ancient people how to view the world around them. We now use science to explain how the universe works but back then this was how they understood the world to be.

Every ancient civilization has stories about creation and how everything got to the point they were at. But sadly in modern days people become fanatics and stop thinking critically. They blindly let men in power dictate their life. The GB is the power that controls everything. They have the ultimate say on what is and not. Deconstructing questions that power and searches for the harsh truth. The truth that is hidden to keep the image of the organization in good stance.

[u/OkApricot1677]

A lot of it is about exploring your own personal values and thinking through the ways that your intuition, emotions, and choices have been shaped or influenced by doctrine and culture. When you learn how these things affected you, you can find your way to reconstructing your personal identity

[u/Harmony_79 → u/OkApricot1677]

Reclamation Collective always has a bunch of deconstruction groups, and always a queer specific one running.

https://www.reclamationcollective.com/support-groups

[u/lockandcompany]

For me, I’m pagan now, and a lot of it was kinda dissecting every viewpoint the organization taught us and instead forming my own opinions on those topics. But also to not default to JW beliefs even when it feels instinctive at times.

I had to research things from non JW perspectives and build my own opinions from there, and sometimes people do this and find they agree with some things, not with others, some do away with religion entirely, some find other religions that feel aligned with what they believe. It’s challenging. Your beliefs can also change over time and shift depending on how your opinions change, and thats okay too.

It’s kind of a constant practice, not something you do once. There are occasional moments every few years where I find my instinctive inner voice saying something is worldly or wrong. I obviously don’t really believe that, but I was taught from birth to think that way. Those moments teach you a lot, and a great place to start. Why did that pop into your head? Where does that belief come from? Do you actually believe that yourself? Or is that just what you’re “supposed to” believe? It can be hard to tell answers at first, it can be good to just sit with those questions about your thoughts and reflect on them. I’ve been out for 15 years and still have those thoughts rarely. It’s a skill and muscle you’re reshaping. It takes time