Welcome to r/Deconstruction! Please read our introduction and updated set of rules before posting or commenting.
What is Deconstruction?
When we use the buzzword "deconstruction" in the context of religion, we are usually referring to "faith deconstruction" which is the process of seriously reevaluating a foundational religious belief with no particular belief as an end goal.
Faith deconstruction as a process is a phenomenon that is present in any and all belief systems, but this subreddit is primarily dedicated to deconstruction in relation to christocentric belief systems such as protestantism, catholicism, evangelicalism, latter day saints, jehovah's witness, etc. That being said, if you are deconstructing another religious tradition, you are still very welcome here.
While the term “deconstruction” can also refer to the postmodernist philosophy of the same name that predates faith deconstruction as a popular buzzword, faith deconstruction is its own thing. While some people try to draw connections between the two ideas, faith deconstruction is only loosely inspired by the original philosophy’s emphasis on questioning. The buzzword “faith deconstruction” is a rather unfortunate pick, as not only does it make it easy to confuse it with the postmodernist philosophy, it also only tells half the story. Maybe a better term for “faith deconstruction” would be “reevaluation of core beliefs”. Regardless, when we refer to faith deconstruction, we are referring to participating in this four-part process:
- Identifying a core belief and its implications (in the context of this subreddit, usually some belief that pertains to a christocentric worldview).
- Dissecting the belief and identifying the reasons why you believe it to be true.
- Determining if those reasons for believing it are good reasons.
- Deciding to either reinforce (if what you found strengthened your belief), reform (if what you found made you rethink aspects of your belief), or reject (if what you found made you scrap the belief altogether).
For those of you who resonate with word pictures better, faith deconstruction is like taking apart a machine to see if it is either working fine, needs repaired/altered, or needs tossed out altogether.
What makes faith deconstruction so taxing is that most of our core beliefs typically rely on other beliefs to function, which means that the deconstruction process has to be repeated multiple times with multiple beliefs. We often unintentionally begin questioning what appears to be an insignificant idea, which then leads to a years-long domino effect of having to evaluate other beliefs.
Whether we like it or not, deconstruction is a personal attempt at truth, not a guarantee that someone will end up believing all the “right” things. It is entirely possible that someone deconstructs a previously held core belief and ends up believing something even more “incorrect”. In situations where we see someone deconstruct some beliefs but still end up with what we consider to be incorrect beliefs, we can respect their deconstruction and encourage them to continue thinking critically. In situations where we see someone using faulty logic to come to conclusions, we can gently challenge them. But that being said, the goal of deconstruction is not to “fix” other people’s beliefs but to evaluate our own and work on ourselves. The core concept of this subreddit is to be encouraged by the fact that other people around the world are putting in the work to deconstruct just like us and to encourage them in return. Because even though not everyone has the same experiences, educational background, critical thinking skills, or resources, deconstruction is hard for everyone in their own way.
Subreddit Etiquette
Because everyone's journey is different, we welcome ALL of those who are deconstructing and are here earnestly. That includes theists, deists, christians, atheists, agnostics, former pastors/priests, current pastors/priests, spiritualists, the unsure, and others.
Because we welcome all sorts of people, we understand you will not all agree on everything. That's ok. But we do expect you to treat others with respect and understanding. It's ok to talk about your beliefs and answer questions, but it is not okay to preach at others. We do not assume someone's intentions by what they believe. For example, we do not assume because a person is religious that they are here to proselytize, that they're stupid or that they're a bad person. We also do not assume that because someone has deconstructed into atheism (or anything else) that they're lost little lambs who simply "haven't heard the right truth" yet or are closeted christians.
A message to the currently religious:
- A lot of people have faced abuse in their past due to religion, and we understand that it is a painful subject. We ask that the religious people here be mindful of that.
A message to the currently nonreligious:
- Please be respectful of the religious beliefs of the members of this subreddit. Keep in mind that both faith and deconstruction are deeply personal and often run deeper than just “cold hard facts” and truth tables.
A message to former and current pastors, priests, and elders:
- Please keep in mind that the title of “pastor” or “priest” alone can be retraumatizing for some individuals. Please be gracious to other users who may have an initial negative reaction to your presence. Just saying that you are “one of the good ones” is often not enough, so be prepared to prove your integrity by both your words and actions.
A message to those who have never gone through deconstruction:
Whether you are religious and just interested in the mindset of those deconstructing or non-religious and just seeing what all the buzz is about, we are happy to have you! Please be respectful of our members, their privacy, and our boundaries.
This subreddit exists primarily to provide a safe space for people who are deconstructing to share what they are going through and support each other. If you have never experienced deconstruction or are not a professional who works with those who do, we kindly ask that you engage through comments rather than posts when possible. This helps keep the feed focused on the experiences of those actively deconstructing. Your interest and respectful participation are very much appreciated!
Subreddit Rules
Follow the basic reddit rules
- You know the rules, and so do I.
Follow our subreddit etiquette
- Please respect our etiquette guidelines noted in the previous section.
No graphic violent or sexual content
- This is not an 18+ community. To keep this subreddit safe for all ages, sexually explicit images and descriptions, as well as depictions and descriptions of violence, are not allowed.
- Posts that mention sexual abuse of any kind must have the “Trauma Warning” flair or they will be removed.
- Posts that talk about deconstructing ideas related to sex must have the “NSFW” flair or they will be removed.
No disrespectful or insensitive posts/comments
- No racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise hurtful or insensitive posts or comments.
- Please refrain from overgeneralizing when talking about religion/spirituality. Saying something like “christians are homophobic” is overgeneralizing when it might be more appropriate to say “evangelical fundamentalists tend to be homophobic”.
No trolling or preaching
- In this subreddit, we define preaching as being heavy-handed or forceful with your beliefs. This applies to both religious and non-religious beliefs. Religious proselytizing is strictly prohibited and will result in a permanent ban. Similarly, harassing a religious user will also result in a permanent ban.
No self-Promotion or fundraising (without permission)
- Please refrain from self-promoting without permission, whether it be blogs, videos, podcasts, etc. If you have something to say, write up a post.
- Trying to sneakily self-promote your content (for example, linking your content and acting like you are not the creator) will result in a one-time warning followed by a permanent ban in the case of a second offense. We try not to jump to conclusions, so we check the post and comment history of people suspected of self-promotion before we take action. If a user has a history of spamming links to one creator in multiple subs, it is usually fairly obvious to us that they are self-promoting.
- The only users in this subreddit who are allowed to self-promote are those with the “Approved Content Creator” flair. If you would like to get this flair, you must reach out via modmail for more info. This flair is assigned based on moderator discretion and takes many factors into account, including the original content itself and the history of the user’s interaction within this subreddit. The “Approved Content Creator” flair can be revoked at any time and does NOT give a user a free pass to post whatever they want. Users with this flair still need to check in with the mods prior to each self-promotional post. Approved Content Creators can only post one self-promotional post per month.
Follow link etiquette
- Please refrain from posting links with no context. If you post a link to an article, please type a short explanation of its relevance along with a summary of the content.
- Please do not use any URL shorteners. The link should consist of the fully visible URL to make it easier for moderators to check for malicious links.
- Twitter (X) links are completely banned in this subreddit.
No spam, low-quality/low-effort content, or cross-posts
- Please refrain from posting just images or just links without context. This subreddit is primarily meant for discussions.
- Memes are allowed as long as they are tagged with the "Meme" post flair and provided with some written context.
- Cross-posts are not allowed unless providing commentary on the post that is being cross-posted.
- Posts must surpass a 50-word minimum in order to be posted. This must be substantive, so no obvious filler words. If you are having trouble reaching 50 words, that should be a sign to you that your post should probably be a comment instead.
- To prevent spamming, we have implemented an 8-hour posting cooldown for all users.
