#faith deconstruction

[theskyliesthelimit]

Sip sip hooray! ☕✨

My eventual exit from Mormonism doesn't start with coffee, but that "dirty bean water" isn't so evil after all!

This iced coffee is sinfully delicious! 🤤 And apparently, one of these bad bois is a one-way ticket to "Mormon hell" (aka not-the-Celestial-kingdom).

Cue eye roll. 🙄

From discovering my sexuality (hint: I'm not straight) to reading the CES letter and finding out the truth about Mormon truth claims, I have found my footing on my path far, far away from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the MotherF**King Mormon Church elsewhere on the Internet 😂).

Here's to a future filled with lots of coffee and true happiness! A future filled with peace, not fear!

Love & Light 💖🌈

[theinneraltar]

Welcome to The Inner Altar

Hello, fellow seekers!

This is The Inner Altar, a space created for those of us yearning to explore the deeper truths of life, faith, and spirituality. Whether you're a recovering fundamentalist, a spiritual wanderer, or simply someone who feels there’s more to the story than what you were told, you’ve found a safe place here.

For years, I lived within the confines of rigid religious dogma—afraid to ask questions, afraid to explore, and afraid to doubt. But something inside me knew there was more. As I began peeling back the layers of fear and tradition, I uncovered a depth and beauty in scripture and spirituality that transformed my life.

Here on The Inner Altar, we’re going to dive deep into the sacred mysteries, reimagine scripture with fresh eyes, and embrace a spirituality that is both grounded and expansive.

---

What to Expect

Unveiling Symbolism in Scripture: What if Genesis 1 isn’t just a history lesson, but a profound reflection on the creative process within us? What if Adam and Eve’s story isn’t about failure, but about awakening?

Mystical Practices: From meditative prayer to journaling prompts, I’ll share tools to deepen your connection to the divine.

Healing from Fundamentalism: Together, we’ll explore how to release fear-based beliefs and find a faith that nurtures and empowers.

Community Reflections: This isn’t a one-way conversation. I’d love to hear your thoughts, your journey, and your questions.

---

Why "The Inner Altar"?

The name comes from the belief that we all carry a sacred space within us—a place where we meet God, wrestle with questions, and find peace. It’s not about what’s external, but what’s within. The journey inward is the journey to transformation.

If you’re here, it means you’re ready to explore. You’re ready to open your heart to the deeper truths and let go of what no longer serves you. You’re ready to step into the mystery, the wonder, and the beauty of the sacred.

---

Let’s Begin the Journey

Thank you for stopping by. Follow along for reflections, resources, and discussions that will inspire you to uncover your own inner altar.

Feel free to introduce yourself in the comments or ask questions—I’d love to connect with you. Together, let’s discover the wisdom, peace, and divine presence waiting just beneath the surface.

In grace and truth,

Michael

[wasmormon]

ExmoDad Was a Mormon, an Ex-Mormon Profile Spotlight

[studyofwitchery]

Leaving Behind Everything

Imagine it.

Knowing the earth is round and seeing its curves and then, in a time where everything is flipped upside down, finding out that flat earthers, what you and everyone you knew used to make fun of, are the real truth. Suddenly you find yourself an outcast, the very thing you once looked down on.

I don't believe the earth is flat, but I did used to believe in god. specifically, of the many ideas of god, the one from the extensive series of books collectively called the bible. I was not what they would call lukewarm either, I regarded it as black and white, scientific truth,

until certain questions poked and prodded my brain and then something devastating: I couldn't answer them. Nor could I find any philosophical or theological answer for these horrible conflicts of belief and truth. I believed in truth first, over any belief, and even when the one "truth" I knew to be certain was THE truth, I accepted the questioning of the possibility it might not be out of principle.

So, as any honorable religious follower of Truth, Facts, Reasoning, and Nothing But the Truth, finding out that the idea of that god did not make logical sense, I become agnostic.

Naturally, it kind of cut me off from everyone and everything I knew. The worst thing was knowing exactly how they viewed me. Fallen, confused, rebelling against the Big Dad in the sky, being a little teenager about it. The real worst happening of that turbulant time however, would have to be the threat of eternal fear and pain by likes of which is too hellish to think about. All because I questioned the reality of a god I used to love above all else.

I can't find the answers to the questions, and had to make due with the fact there weren't any, and had to make due with the fact there is nothing replying when I scream at the sky.

[hannah-hank-han]

with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength

Pastors are kind of a touchy topic for me, because pretty much every person I have considered my pastor or personal spiritual leader has failed me, some far more spectacular ways than others. Some I put in a nearly impossible position with my family, and that’s not their fault I don’t blame them for that. I do blame their wives when they tell me that maybe the reason I’m going through terrible…

[castingpsalms]

“sin is the absence of love”

i never thought of it this way before, but it makes so much sense. when people do terrible things, there is no love there. love cannot be in the presence of sin.

that’s why sending us all to hell would be a sin, because there is no love there. and God is love, so He can’t sin, so hell is not for us.

that’s why Jesus came and died. to show us what love is — to show us that He is love. it’s not cause we’re all going to hell, it’s because we needed an example of how love is supposed to be.

love is self-sacrificing, love is selfless, love is Jesus.

[artist-issues]

Okay, Just to Keep My Sanity and Remind Everybody that I’m NOT GOING ANYWHERE Because They ARE Christians and HE FINISHES WHAT HE STARTS:

Here are all the evidences that twenty one pilots are probably not attempting to deconstruct the faith or creating a story that’s all about religious guilt -

The Torchbearer character has a lot in common with the one and only true God, the God of the Bible: there’s three of him but one of him. He has tape that stretches in the shape of a cross which connects over his heart. He never leaves Clancy (Tyler) no matter what Clancy’s feelings might be about being alone. He’s undefeated. He does all the rescuing.

7 of the 14 tracks on Blurryface have to do with God directly. These usually paint God in a frightening, but ultimately desperately-needed, only-hope light. Not in a “if only I could get away from You” light. And a desperately-need-You-even-if-I’m-scared light is the kind of light you paint Him in when you actually know what He’s like, not when you’re just parroting religious lines or vibes you’ve grown up with. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” - Hebrews 10:31 goes together with: “and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish—ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.” - John 10:28. You have to know what it feels like, being in that Hand even if you’re—in body—on this World for a little while—to write something like that.

Even the tracks that aren’t directly about God are stuffed with Biblical principals. Not every worldview believes that to be loved truly you need to have someone who’s willing to hurt your feelings to clean out your crap. A lot of worldviews go for “accept me as I am if you love me,” they don’t say, “tear into my heart.” But the Bible does. And twenty one pilots does. For example. “For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

In the DEMA storyline the bad guys are bishops, but bishops is not always a term associated with a real Christian leader. In Jesus’ time Pharisees would’ve been considered “tradition of the elders,” and “elders” is where we got our version of “bishop” that more modern people use today—but Jesus sure didn’t think of Pharisees as the actual leaders of the kingdom of God. He said they were whitewashed tombs. Imposters. They used false religious practice to warp real devotion to God. Artificial. Like the artificial lights in DEMA versus the natural light of the Bandito torches.

The artificial light of DEMA versus the natural light of the Bandito torches! That’s a clue too. God made natural light. Fire. Sun. Both things that the DEMA storyline paints as good (though with that element of “fearful but our only hope.”) In 2 Corinthians 11:14 Satan, the BAD GUY, is described as “disguising himself as an angel of light.” Fake light. Versus verses like this, about God and the sun: “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” There are like over one hundred verses about Him and Light. Also “For our God is a consuming fire.” There’s several about Him being or bringing fire, too. Plus the Sun.

The Sun rises in the East. “The revolution shall arise with the Sun.” And “East is Up.” In the Ancient world, the maps had East at the top of their compasses, instead of North. Just like the DEMA lore’s corrected map. “Their compass lies” but if you turn it so that East is Up, you can see things for what they are, in twenty one pilots lore. Ancient maps, too, had East as up—because what was significant was that the sun rose in the East. Not just the sun. The morning and evening star. And the Bible specifically likens Christ to the Morning and Evening Star—heralding the dawn, the end of night. Christ is also going to come back in the East. East is associated with God, and good. And a Christian knows it.

So much of the DEMA lore is about escaping something old and routine because it’s evil and twisted and finding the Good, Beautiful, True. And now it’s even about “Destroy Them So We Don’t Become Them.” The idea is that the bad guys have distorted the truth, but there is still truth out there. The bad guys are doing things the wrong way, but that doesn’t mean there is no right way. Clancy even writes “true freedom, real hope.” And every scrap of the above hints seem to be pointing at the right way having something to do with Christianity.

Trench might have been where Tyler was imagining a world with no God, but also, on a meta level, Trench is the part in the story where the character has been imprisoned by wrong thinking and is just now trying to escape—but it begins and ends with him getting locked up in the wrong thinking. So if Trench begins and ends with wrong thinking, and Trench is about a world with no God, it stands to reason he won’t stay there.

Tyler started this whole mask thing with Christianity. Clear: “I wish I had two faces to prove which theory works / Yelling on the street corner or cleverly masking your words.” That whole song is about how to share the Gospel, the fact that you’re an imposter but your Father determines your identity anyway, and how to make that make sense to outsiders so they can be saved, too. Take that concept, that “I’ll use masks, I’ll communicate who I really am by starting with a mask” and superimpose it over their whole career.

The skeleton keys. Josh likes aliens and Tyler likes dead imagery, but it’s never just that. They always have more than one reason for something. The Bible calls Christians “dead to sin,” the old self is “dead,” the spirit is “alive.” And the Bible calls Christians “strangers and aliens” in this present world, and when it says “world” it means an idealogical and spiritual system that is in rebellion to God. Christians live in that but they’re not apart of that. Aliens and skeletons.

Tyler Joseph wrote Dead Come Alive. I know he had Travis Whitaker’s help. But I don’t believe you can write something like that and not have been shown who God is.

They both made professions of faith. He who began a good work in them will be faithful to complete it. And if they don’t endure, if they drop the faith, it’s not a sign that He doesn’t hang on. It’s a sign that they were never in His hand. Like the seeds that get excited about the kingdom of God for a period of time, but ultimately excitement isn’t relationship, and they’re carried away by the next exciting ideology or circumstance the World throws at them.

Thanks for coming to my list

[hcneymooners]

hello, hello.

i've been debating making this post, but i’ve been thinking a lot about how my work often references God, religion, faith in general, and all the things in between. as someone raised in both the south and caribbean culture, i thought maybe this could be helpful for others trying to navigate queerness and religion—especially the mess and clarity that come with deconstruction.

note: this isn’t meant to tell anyone how to feel about faith or how to navigate their own path—this is just what’s been true for me. if it helps even one person feel a little less alone or a little more seen, then that’s enough. read with grace, take what you need, and leave the rest behind.

for a long time, i aimed to be good. good at school. good to people even when it meant letting them take advantage of me. i convinced myself that as long as i was pure, i would be okay. that it was that simple, and that somehow, i’d figured it out before anyone else. but i didn’t account for anger. or desire. or being a lesbian. what did lana say in that one song? “we had a deal and i fucked it up when / i made the decision to become someone.” so here's a little of my survival guide. for context, i was raised roman catholic.

first comes the work of reshaping the imagery. i released the God of my childhood and awakened the God of my womanhood. i began to replace “him” with “her,” then “Him” with “Her.” i already know some might see that as blasphemous, but it made praying easier which was something i wasn’t ready to lose. the universe is God to me. the universe is love, and so is God, and so i trust Her. She is Him, and He is Her. the universe, to me, can also be a woman who has big eyes and a dark face and makes me feel like i might be staring into myself. it’s easier to come back to God when i picture it differently. when i strip the man to the bone and rebuild into the woman i see, it’s so much easier to pray. she feels like my mother.

"offline or online, i am still connected." i think that’s how i feel about faith; i’m still connected to believing in something. it’s just that what i believe has changed and expanded. it doesn’t harm me. it helps me return to myself and shows me the way home. it’s easier to pray to Mary when i’m scared on a plane, to tell her that i know i’ll make it through because she wouldn’t place me in something i could not get through.

an altar can be anywhere. i used to feel guilty about not having a bible verse in my bio or the bible app on my phone. but i don’t need those things to make my prayer real. you don’t either. your love will pour out and stain the feet of the God before you, and They will wipe your mouth. They will understand that it’s prayer.

physicality. this was important to me when i was unpacking the feeling of being wrong or impure. if the universe condensed into one person, i’d ask her to lie down with me. we’d be pressed knee to knee and leg to leg. i’d think of her hips on top of mine, wide and inviting like the moon. i guess we are naked if i take a step back, but it’s not at all sexual. it’s just the understanding that she is holding me. babying me. and i’ve always wanted someone to. i will feel her touch me, and i’ll try to say thank you, because gratitude has been engraved in me. my mouth will move and nothing will come out, but she'll hear me.

the talking can be constant if you need it to be. i’m always speaking to God, about God, my understanding of it. it’s not organized. i haven’t constructed anything bigger than myself. restructuring kind of feels like waking up tangled in a spider’s web and standing carefully, your feet sticky as you navigate the threads. i took care not to break some of them but snapped others, creating space for new weaving. God becomes synonymous with the world, and you will find faith everywhere.

others may judge, but stick to what works for you.

another realization: it never really leaves you, and that’s fine. it’s also fine if you want to hold on.

sometimes faith blends. i work with water and have my crystals, listen to protection frequencies, and still buy my virgin Mary candle in all of its pink and radiant glory to light in the bathroom. i pray every time i board a plane, after a nightmare, or whenever a wave of unease hits. each time, it’s a Hail Mary.

also: resources. my God, find people who interpret with grace. below are some of my favorite blogs.

has content about faith: @ginwhitlock, @boykeats, @ohholydyke, ethel cain when she was active and i'm being so serious. has content that has made me see the world differently & renew faith in myself: @podencos @watermotif @cocainejuul @kristina100000 @eatpussypraylove @chloeinletters @anxeious

most importantly, i’m taking your hand until you can hold your own. i’m looking at you, because i really mean this: there is nothing wrong with you. you were nine. or thirteen. or fifteen. or twenty-one. or twenty-three. or. i’m saying it because i’d have given anything to hear that back then.

it would’ve been Heaven to me.

if you want to reach out, my inbox and messages are always open.

love you.

allyson. x

[themonkey2025]

if one more person tries to claim that the oh hellos are no longer christian i am going to lose my shit

[sunshineacres]

They Replaced God with a Minimalist Logo

By Ivy Lynn

When I was a child, I went to Church a lot.

I always saw God.

He was in the noisy drums ,

And He was in the soft piano accompaniment.

He was in the verses I didn’t want to memorize,

And He was in the eyes of the kind old woman who would give me candy for trying.

He was in all the vollenteer’s well-loved instruments on stage,

And He was in the words of the Sunday sermon, asking us to care for each other.

But more literally,

I found him in the art installation over the church’s doors.

One made by a member of the church,

Crafted to look as if God had burst forth from the walls,

And fought against all the wrong in the world.

Emerging from the limestone walls;

With Jagged rocks,

Twisted thorns.

Bent Nails,

And a large cross,

Standing triumphantly at the very top.

Each Sunday, I would be mesmerized.

It felt like looking at God.

When I became an adult,

I went back to that church, hoping to find the God I knew.

But He was gone.

I couldn’t find him in the earplugs they gave out,

Ignoring people’s pleas for quieter music.

I couldn’t find him in the leaders saying my trauma

was because I didn’t read my bible enough.

I couldn’t find him in the $35,000 LED screens,

behind the pastor urging for more “generosity” from the congregation.

But more litterally,

I couldn’t find him, when I looked above the church doors

and saw hanging from the metal ceiling,

a large,

minimalist,

machine-made,

metal logo.

Residing where God used to be.

[booknerdashleelee]

The Guilt of being a Former Bigot

I hate who I used to be. I grew up in an extremely conservative small southern town and I am just now realizing how toxic it's all been. I'm taking steps to get away from it all and move but I am so disgusted at the people in my life and who I used to be.

I used to do the thing where I went up to people who looked sad to try to make them happy because "JeSuS lOvEs YoU!" The level of cringe I experience looking back on it all.

I want to be an advocate but I don't know how. I'm trying to spread the word about R. I. Polsgrove and their whole donation thing, I'm distancing myself from toxic friends and family, trying to figure out who I am, reading and supporting LGBTQ authors.

I feel like I should be trying harder with my former friends and community but I'm so scared. I keep thinking if I could just say the right things they'll get it. They'll see how awful they have been. But is that actually realistic? I have no idea.

I feel so lost.

[feralboo-the-weirdo]

Shouted, "I believe!"

Applause

Congrats

Thoughts and prayers

"We have the truth!"

Prayer

Initiation

We're your family.

War in Gaza

War in Ukraine

Terrible leaders everywhere

God isn't helping.

"Is God real?"

Silence

Rebukes

Shut up.

"I don't like how we do this."

Shut up

Prophet knows the way

Listen

Homophobia

Transphobia

Racisim

Ableisim

Hatred of anything thats not the same

"Why is God not doing anything? Isn't he supposed to be love?"

Silence

Avoidence turned exuses

Because he helps those who help themselves

"Why can't we talk to outsiders?"

Exuses

Danger

Because they don't get it

"This is a cult."

Anger

Denial

Shut up

The outsiders listen to concerns

The exmembers get it

They aren't as divided by hatred

I have a seat at their table

Whispered, "I don't believe anymore, and you won't listen."

Condolences

Silence

Try again

"Why don't my thoughts matter anymore?"

Anger

Avoidance

We don't talk to outsiders

"What happened to the family? Help me-"

Nothing

Nothing

Get back in the box we put you in

"Your love was unconditional--"

Nothing

Nothing

That's if you're on the right side. Shut up.

Talks about exmembers

Talks about how evil they are

Talks about how you shouldn't take council from them

Talks about how the should love them but make them come back.

Come back

We love you

Stay in the boat

Don't do this to yourself

"Why am I not enough as I am?"

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Why are you ignoring us?

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

What have we done to you?

Nothing

What did we do to deserve this?

Nothing

"I came to you with the equivelent of fatal wound and you told me I was overreacting."

It wasn't that bad

"I wanted to die. I told you how badly it was affecting me,"

irrelivant

"I asked for your help."

No, you asked to vilify your doubts

"You hurt me."

You hurt yourself.

"You hurt other people."

They hurt each other, we did nothing.

"You hurt yourself."

Shut up.

"Why do you think I don't talk to you?"

Overreacting. Stop victimizing youself. It's not about you

"Why do you think I left? it wasn't over me."

Selfish. Lazy learner.

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

"Stop slandering me."

Stop slandering us.

"My doubts had merit. I was telling the truth."

So were we.

"Nothing I say will matter to you, will it?"

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

"That's what I thought."

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Weren't they such a horrible member?

[wasmormon]

Cameron Was a Mormon, an Ex-Mormon Profile Spotlight

[lesbiansloveeddiediaz]

no one at my conservative religious school knows i'm reading buck and eddie fanfics instead of paying attention to chapel

[prove-it-or-lose-it]

Nevermind my atheism, we've got a verified psychic over here who knows exactly what I think and how I feel about precisely everything!

Obvious snark aside, that's a really long drawn out way to say "I don't have any evidence and it makes me uncomfortable that you've chosen not to lower your standards and accept claims that cannot be verified, so instead I'd like to attack your character in an attempt to reassure myself in my unfounded beliefs."

And today I learned, thanks to this Christian's compassion and steadfast dedication to helping all people understand the Truth, that other religions exist. Why I should accept the claims of Christianity over any of those others is apparently privileged information that this utter saint is not at liberty to express to a wicked heathen such as myself.

Edit: just for the sake of being as charitably honest as possible, here's the link to the full discussion I had with this person. On reflection, I see many instances where they've decided I was saying a lot of things that I don't think I ever even implied, but I leave it to any potential readers to decide for themselves. I think I did the link right so you can see the whole reblog chain? I don't know man, tumblr is weird and I'm old. I'm open to any questions or other feedback on this unproductive "conversation."

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

Love when people read half of a sentence and then are like I KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS!!!!

No.

No you don't.

Read the rest of the freaking sentence first.

Read the sentence before and after first.

Read the paragraph first.

Read the entire passage first.

Then, please, by all means, tell me your interpretation of that sentence.