This past week I was honored to have a conversation with Lisa Gungor on Justin Brierley's Unbelievable Podcast. Here is the synopsis from the Unbelievable website:
‘Deconstruction’ has become a buzz word for many people questioning Christian faith. But what happens when we try to reconstruct? Lisa Gungor and Alisa Childers have both had successful careers in the Christian music industry but both went through profound seasons of doubt and deconstruction. The process of ‘reconstruction’ took them to very different conclusions. They discuss their journeys with Justin and each other. *CORRECTION* In my conversation with Lisa, I misspoke and stated that I started studying apologetics in 2008/2009, but this is incorrect. 2008/2009 was when we began attending the church that became progressive. But it wasn't until around 2010/2011, following my crisis of faith that I began seriously studying. Sorry for the confusion! Download the episode here
20 Comments
CG
9/8/2019 08:56:14 pm
It sounds like one woman has walked away and knows it and one woman who could have walked away and realized that it would have been an error.
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Hmmmm... which one is which?
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R.C.
5/26/2020 04:14:02 pm
It sounds to me like one woman believes contradictory things and has become comfortable with doing so.
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HS
7/30/2021 10:15:11 pm
It sounds like one woman insists on having certitude before she believes anything, and yet insists there is no way to be certain. That gives her permission to believe whatever appeals to her, and also leaves her views impenetrable to criticism, because she accepts no accountability for having coherence and non-contradiction in her beliefs.
Nate
9/10/2019 09:23:56 pm
I’m a long time Unbelievable listener and I thought you (Alisa) were a wonderful guest and you represented true Christianity very well with humility and grace. The Gospel is so simple and very clearly explained in the Bible. For people to leave out what Christ did for them and still think they have somehow earned or inherited eternal life amazes me. As you pointed out so eloquently on the show “No one comes to the Father but through Jesus”. I wonder sometimes how many people out there are calling themselves Christians while completely dismissing our primary differentiator from other faiths (Jesus death, burial and resurrection)? Keep up the great work Alisa. I almost wrecked my car when Lisa said “Who is Paul?”
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Josh
9/10/2019 11:26:17 pm
actually, "who is paul?" is quite a legitimate question, when serious and respected scholars such as John Dominic Crossan and others acknowledge, with compelling evidence, there were multiple authors who have been lumped under the general authorship designation of "Paul"
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CG
9/11/2019 07:19:51 am
Crossan is a heretic, he denies Jesus Christ as God, and lumps him down along with all the other Biblical characters as just mere human beings doing this or that. Such men in the end do nothing more than make the attempt to elevate themselves by "knowledge and understanding" to be greater than God. 9/12/2019 12:50:09 am
In this comment I am responding to both your comment above and your comment below. 9/12/2019 01:01:15 am
I also should have said in response to your comment below, that the vast majority of alleged instances of contradiction between the three categories of Paul, such as the one you provided, are just lame, plain and simple. The stylistic differences are real and cannot simply be brushed aside, although as stated, there are solid explanations for them from a conservative perspective. But so many of the alleged contradictions offered by Crossan and Ehrman are just gross stretches and demonstrate that liberal scholars are not the completely objective free thinkers they and their followers so often assert them as being.
josh
9/12/2019 11:32:43 am
alright, compared to those of "CG," this is the a type of comments that have some meat, and are worth respondig to. Thank you for getting into all that, Dan Jensen.
CG
9/11/2019 07:14:15 am
It's a good question. When people denigrate Paul, they are missing the heart of Christianity. There is a reason why Paul is so very important to the Christian faith, and most Christians will go and prioritize the words of Jesus Christ and consider Paul to be nothing but a sideshow. If you throw out Paul and the epistles he wrote, then you might as well be in a cult.
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josh
9/11/2019 06:55:55 pm
In this instance, and I know this is hard for you to understand, Crossan's Christological views are not relevant, the question is why, among other things, sometimes "Paul" says that Christians may not own slaves, and in other instances he instructs Christians on how to treat them. 9/11/2019 06:34:15 pm
I have been following you on Twitter because of your thoughtful posts, and this interview was a beautiful example of giving reasons for the hope within you with gentleness and respect. I couldn't help but notice the clarity and confidence with which you spoke compared to the muddled and hesitant way Lisa Gungor spoke. I do hope that she can work her way through the fog and find some clarity. I really don't want to be harsh, as we should show mercy to those who doubt, and we need to let people know that there is room for (honest) doubt in the church.
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Alison Marie Smith
9/18/2019 12:23:40 pm
Thank you so much for doing this interview! I love the Unbelievable podcast; it is a huge encouragement to me. I seem to be surrounded by people who have walked away from their faith. Several of these dear friends went to Christian universities but became disillusioned after they graduated. Most painfully, my husband walked away from his faith about 7 years ago. All of them would probably say they are agnostic. It’s easy to feel isolated and fall into feeling like my faith is on shaky ground. Your interview helped shore up my faith. Thank you for saying yes to God’s call for your life- you are a huge blessing.
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9/20/2019 08:26:37 pm
Alisa: Great job on the Unbelievable show. Your observation that "progressive Christianity" does not attract converts, aside from more conservative Christianity, was spot on. More than anything, "progressive Christianity" suffers from a muddled understanding of truth. In this respect, agnosticism or atheism is a lot more consistent position.
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josh
9/20/2019 10:25:06 pm
Progressive Chrisianity absoutely attracts converts. Though it may be a feel-good thing for Evangelicals to claim, Alisa didn't provide any evidence to this statistical claim, because, frankly, there is none from which to draw.
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Alisa Childers
9/20/2019 10:31:10 pm
Hi Josh, I should have been more precise with my wording. In my experience, with all the progressive books, blogs, and podcasts I've studied, I haven't found any converts from other worldviews. That doesn't mean there aren't any. I'm always pursuing truth, so I would be totally open to being proven wrong on this. Any statistics you can provide showing this to not be the case would be helpful...
josh
9/20/2019 10:59:00 pm
Hi Alisa,
Alisa Childers
9/21/2019 08:21:14 am
Thanks Josh. Well Boyd didn't start out progressive, so he would be an example of someone starting out evangelical and sliding into a more progressive understanding. I'm not familiar with the other two, but I would have to investigate their views on the gospel, the cross, and the Bible to determine whether or not they were a part of the progressive movement. With that said, I didn't mean to argue that there are literally zero people who have ever converted to a progressive form of Christianity from another worldview. If I worded it like that, I shouldn't have (one of the downsides of being on other people's podcasts is that I can't correct myself if I misspeak). The point I am trying to make and have made elsewhere is that you *generally* don't see that happening.
Joseph Covert
1/13/2020 09:22:32 am
Thank you Alisa.
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