Christian Deconstruction: Leaving Bad Theology and Christian Nationalism Without Leaving Jesus with Jon Kinder

Does questioning your theology mean you're losing your faith, or could it mean you're finally taking faith seriously?

Craig sits down with Jon Kinder of The Geeky Preacher to talk about Christian deconstruction, church hurt, political allegiance, Christian nationalism, pacifism, hell, the rapture, and what happens when inherited beliefs stop looking like Jesus.

Jon's deconstruction began in two places: politics and a hospital bed.

Growing up in rural Christian culture, Republican politics and Christianity seemed almost inseparable. Then books like Greg Boyd's The Myth of a Christian Nation challenged Jon to judge political power by the teachings of Christ rather than by party loyalty.

A few years later, Jon was hospitalized with stage-three lymphoma. While lying in bed, he heard a television preacher claim that sick people were sick because they did not have enough faith. 

That hit differently when Jon was the person with cancer.

Instead of abandoning Christianity, he began taking his theology apart one question at a time.

His picture of deconstruction is not a wrecking ball. It is a home renovation:

Christ stays as the foundation. The rooms get examined.

Craig and Jon explore:

• Christian deconstruction without abandoning Jesus
• Dungeons & Dragons, horror movies, and the Satanic Panic
• Universal restoration and the fear of hell
• Christian pacifism and alternatives to violence
• Greg Boyd, Brian Zahnd, and Christian anarchism
• The Pledge of Allegiance and loyalty to the state
• Why honest questions threaten some church cultures
• Progressive revelation and reading Scripture through Jesus
• Finding Christ outside a brick-and-mortar church
• The Ship of Theseus as a picture of changing faith
• The Geeky Preacher and finding God in movies, games, anime, and culture

One line may sum up the whole conversation:

“If anything is true, it's gonna survive scrutiny, it's gonna survive questions.”

Maybe deconstruction is not about destroying faith.

Maybe it is about finding out what was actually built on Jesus.

🤝Connect with Jon Kinder / The Geeky Preacher🤝

• Linktree: The Geeky Preacher
• Substack
• No King But Christ Network

📖 Full Show Notes: https://thebadroman.com/show-notes/episode-167

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