Is there a uniquely Canadian way of describing how Christians in this country are deconstructing their faith?
Yes, say Angela Bick and Peter Schuurman, co-authors of the new book Blessed are the Undone: Testimonies of the Quiet Deconstruction of Faith in Canada (2024, New Leaf Network). And it is canoeing.
In the book, the two interviewed 28 Canadians, most of them former evangelicals, who went through the process of examining long-held beliefs and seeking new ways to understand God—a process that led all of them to quietly leave the faith of their childhoods for new forms of spirituality, or for no religion at all.
As Bick and Schuurman listened to their stories, they heard them talk in ways that reminded them of being in a canoe — feelings of “capsizing, going underwater, running aground, being adrift and portaging to a new lake or another kind of spirituality or faith community,” said Bick.
It was sort of like quietly paddling away on a calm lake, prompting them to leave their churches “politely, almost apologetically, in what we call a ‘Quiet Deconstruction,’” said Schuurman, drawing a comparison to Quebec’s Quiet revolution.
Why did they deconstruct? They gave seven main reasons, with the top two being the impact of right-wing evangelicalism in the U.S. and the way some churches treat LGBTQ+ people.
Read more about deconstruction and canoeing in my Free Press column.
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