Rachel wrote:
“I have friends who struggled for years to disentangle themselves from abusive, authoritarian churches where they were publicly shamed for asking questions and thinking for themselves. I know of others who were kicked out for getting divorced or for being gay. These are important stories to tell, but they are not mine. I left a church of kind, generous people because I couldn’t pretend to believe things I didn’t believe anymore, because no matter how hard I tried, I could never be the stick-figured woman in the Vote Yes On One sign, standing guard in front of the doors.”[i]
And such religious dissonance isn’t limited to American evangelical women, with modern work lives and internet access. On the other side of the globe, in Iran, a similar dissonance is felt by many Muslim women. In 2022, an Iranian woman was jailed for wearing her headscarf askew and then was beaten to death by her jailers. Iranian women took to the streets in brave protest, demanding justice, and the lifting of oppressive rules on women.[ii]
A thoughtful, rational reflection undergirds these choices of “No.” Relying on observation, intuition, and education that burst the supposed bubble of their religion, these women are saying, “No!”
But, one can also say, “no” to a secular life. We’re now seeing surprising affirmations of religious life from once-adamant atheists: Paul Kingsnorth, Tom Holland, Jordan Peterson, Terry Eagleton, even Richard Dawkins, famous for his book, “The God Delusion.”[iii]
Elizabeth Oldfield documents that shift in a recent article:
“Whereas the New Atheists rejected religion because the Bible didn’t read like a science textbook, those now feeling the pull of the church are driven by ‘the meaning crisis’ . . . Beset by existential angst, they hunger for a story in which to orient themselves. Take Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist and cultural commentator. . .He, and those under his influence, praise Christianity for its imaginative resources—its myth and ritual, its moral clarity.”[iv]
Your religious journey of rational discernment, in short, may begin with a No.
But how do you get to Yes?
How Not To Say “Yes”
The premise of Eight Trails is that religious stories, doctrines, and rituals work like maps. These maps’ purpose has always been to orient believers about how to live -- how to “hike” the uncertain trails of life.
The validity of a religion, then, is how well its maps help its believers live. What kind of life is engendered by these maps?
That’s how we’ll get to “yes” – that’s how we’ll choose a religious tradition and its local community.
(To be continued September 8, Conclusion: Episode 39)
To Eight Trails readers: Does this post suggest a moment you’ve experienced and, perhaps, a photo you took? Share your reflections and photos with me by clicking “reply” to this email post. I would be delighted to include them in new posts — of course, crediting you!
[i] Rachel Held Evans, Searching for Sunday (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2015), 164f.
[ii] https://apnews.com/article/iran-protests-morality-police-explainer-b53475eda867a4158ac5032fe1b3e62e
[iii] https://catholicherald.co.uk/im-a-cultural-christian-declares-richard-dawkins-the-worlds-most-famous-atheist/
[iv] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/november/surprising-rebirth-belief-god-justin-brierley.html