Thursday, October 27, 6:00 pm EST
Susan Carson (Roots & Branches network)
will host a livestream fundraising event:
"Healing From and Through Our Deconstruction"
An evening with Dr. Bradley Jersak, Felicia Murrell and Wm. Paul Young"
CLICK HERE for Registration details
In preparation for this event, Susan Carson raised the following questions on deconstruction and the healing journey. Author, editor, and foodie extraordinaire, Felicia Murrell, responded beautifully, a great teaser for what we're in for:
SUSAN: When we talk about deconstruction, what do we mean?
Felicia: I would say deconstruction means releasing our grip, attachment from ideas, beliefs and theories we once thought to be true; unknowing the things we’ve erected and built, dismantling all of our conceptual constructs. My teacher, Mirabai Starr would say, it’s “when the religious scaffolding crumbles and we are plunged into radical unknowing.”
My mind conjures images of Samson bracing the two middle pillars on which the house rested and bending with all his might, upending the house and all therein.[1] But for me, as it relates to deconstruction, the two middle pillars would be my pillars of arrogance and certainty upon which all my tenets of faith and belief and interpretations rested. For sure the image loses some of its relatability at the end because of the destruction, but I imagine for some, deconstruction may actually feel like a sort of catastrophic death.
SUSAN: In what ways have you experienced or observed deconstruction as destructive?
Felicia: I think when we are as fundamental and certain about deconstruction as we are about religion, that can be destructive. Rene Girard spoke often about scapegoating, and when we find ourselves trapped in the need to blame our pain or our lived experience on someone, deconstruction can turn vengeful and destructive. But if we don’t understand this process as a path to infinite Love, we will lose ourselves in the terror and chaos of our unraveling which can be very harmful.
Also, if we enter deconstruction believing the lie that we can control others, that it’s our job to fix, rescue or save people from themselves or, if we have a faulty god concept and view god as a punisher… all of those destructive beliefs follow us on the path. And instead of yielding to mystery and trusting Divine Love in the liminal space of disorder, we want to punish the church, rescue people from the church, control what they believe… All of those things are destructive.
SUSAN: In what ways might deconstruction be helpful and even necessary?
Felicia: If we allow it, deconstruction can be an invitation to die to all that is false within you, including narratives, constructs, interpretations, god concepts, etc. And deconstruction is also an invitation to journey with Spirit into mystery. St. John of the Cross said, “the way the soul walks to God is through human unknowing.”[2]My teacher Jim Finley talks about leaving the boundaries of mediated presence into unmediated presence…where we pass into the love that has from the beginning been passing into us. This is not a journey we embark upon with our intellect. All the ways we have practiced the presence, all the things we think we know have to die. It has to. St. John of the Cross tells us, “God heals the soul by killing her.”[3]
SUSAN: What have we missed in our Western Evangelical experience and/or theology that has created a need for deconstruction?
Felicia: Even if the Western evangelical experience was doing everything right, we would still need the process of deconstruction. Joseph Campbell spoke of the hero’s journey, I think our ontological (or perhaps apocalyptic) journey is one of coming home to Love where the veil is lifted so that we see the truth of our being and of our oneness with the Divine.
That said, we do have a serve to the point of burnout, do do do mindset that is rooted in usury, consumption and saviorism. Deconstruction strips away all attachments, obliterates all mental constructs about what God is supposed to mean - it leaves us with a void (nothing else to do, nowhere else to be) AND a threshold. If we are lucky, we can trust this work of Love enough to posture ourselves in a place of receptivity where we learn that our only task is simply to be. To surrender. To yield. To sink into the liminal space of deconstruction and allow Love to have its perfect work. But most of us don’t even see the possibility of deconstruction as a work of Love.
SUSAN: How could we reframe this as a helpful practice, part of our faith journey, the work of Love?
Felicia: Trust the work of Love. To quote Saint John of the Cross, “Oh, spiritual soul! When you see that your desires are darkened, your inclinations dried up, and your faculties incapacitated, do not be disturbed. Consider it grace. God is freeing you from yourself…Never before could you labor as effectively as you can now when you put down your burden and let God take your hand and guide you through the darkness as though you were blind, leading you to a place you do not know.”[4]
SUSAN: What voices, theology, practices can help us heal from the traumas and emerge renewed in our communion with God and with one another?
Felicia:
Voices/Books
Howard Thurman
Barbara Brown Taylor
Father Thomas Keating
Out of Embers: Faith After the Great Deconstruction, Bradley Jersak
Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Kavanaugh and Rodriguez
Voices From the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices, Lara Medina and Martha Gonzales
Valarie Kaur, See No Stranger www.valariekaur.com
The Wisdom of Your Body, Hillary McBride
Race & Rhyme: Rereading the New Testament, Love Lazarus Sechrest
Practices
Centering Prayer, www.contemplativeoutreach.org
Somatic Body Practices
CLICK HERE for Event Registration
Footnotes
[2] Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, trans., The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1991, “The Ascent of Mount Carmel”, Book 1, Chapter 4
[3] Mirabai Starr, Saint John of the Cross: Luminous Darkness (Albuquerque, New Mexico: CAC Publishing, 2022)
[4] Starr, Dark Night, 148-149
Here's what the evening looks like:
LIVE Interactive VIP Event: 6:00-7:00 pm EST. Your chance to join with a limited number of guests in a live conversation via zoom with Paul and Bradley. Bring your questions. Nothing is off limits!
FREE Livestream from the R&B website: 7:30 pm EST. I'll be talking with Bradley and Felicia about Bradley’s new book Out of the Embers: Faith After the Great Deconstruction.
Then Bradley will lead us in a healing practice
Reserve your VIP pass to join the live conversation beginning at 6:00 EST. Passes are $75 per guest. Plus you'll receive four free raffle tickets with your pass.
Purchase your virtual raffle tickets entering you for chances to win one of our prizes listed below. You’ll receive one raffle ticket with each $10 you give.
VIP passes
Copies of books from Bradley, Felicia, Paul and Susan (US only)
Free Rooted Prayer Experiences--in person or by zoom
Help sponsor the evening. All sponsors receive VIP passes based on their sponsorship level. Sponsors names will be listed on the livestream page.
Silver: $250
Gold: $500
Platinum: $1,000
Angel: $5,000
Comments