#faith deconstruction

[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.

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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.

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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.

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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]

Cameron 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.

[fratresdei]

Happy Easter to all the veritable punks going through faith deconstruction today.

[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.

[finalgirlgretchen]

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.

[lesbiansloveeddiediaz]

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

[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.

[wasmormon]

Jacob Was a Mormon, an Ex-Mormon Profile Spotlight

[deservedgrace]

I don't think that framing "Marginalized™️ Atheism/Deconstruction" and "Cishet White Male Atheism/Deconstruction" as inherently ~separate and distinct~ is super effective (and disclaimer I'm specifically speaking about my experience with christianity, atheism, and ex christian atheists/deconstructors), but also... okay so I was raised in a cult, and cults are oppressive for all its members. Nobody gets out unscathed, everyone experiences the abuse tactics, everybody is a victim. But within the cult there is a hierarchy, and cishet white men are at the top. So while the cult is oppressive to everyone, and everyone is harmed in some way, it is also uniquely oppressive to queer folks, to BIPOC, to disabled folks, to women, etc etc. And the thing that happens to some of those cishet white men is they leave an oppressive cult, where they are considered the "default", and they go into the ~real world~, where they are also considered the "default", and even in atheist/deconstruction spaces, their bodies and experiences are often the leading voices.

The men that leave go from an oppressive patriarchal culture to a far less oppressive (to them) patriarchal society. The white people that leave go from an oppressive racist culture to a far less oppressive (to them) racist society. The people that leave go from an oppressive culture that does not value marginalized voices to a different, less oppressive culture that also does not value marginalized voices. And if you personally do not experience [xyz] oppression, it can be difficult to even realize there are things surrounding that you have to deconstruct unless you listen to the voices of the oppressed. But some cishet white men go from being considered the "default" in an oppressive culture, to being considered the "default" in a less oppressive culture (to them). Their experience of "overcoming systemic oppression" comes from leaving the church, and it can be really easy to fall into the trap that the church, specifically, is the sole oppressor and enemy of everyone.

Of course this doesn't happen in every single case and it's also not exclusive to cishet white men. But those blind spots are why I think it's important for everyone to listen to a variety of voices when they're deconstructing, especially if those voices are talking about oppression you wouldn't have experienced firsthand.

No, our deconstructions are not inherently different, but the experiences and circumstances prior to it often are. It's okay to acknowledge that and beneficial for everybody to listen to each other's experiences.

[soiledlight]

"A sense of order is the easiest and most natural way to begin; it is a needed first 'container.' But this structure is dangerous if we stay in its safe confines too long. It is small and self-serving. It doesn’t know the full picture, but it thinks it does. 'Order' must be deconstructed by the trials and vagaries of life. We must go through a period of 'disorder' to grow up."

–Richard Rohr

[39addict101]

Okay I don’t even know if this will reach anyone but someday I want to write a novel about religious trauma and religious abuse and how religious people who claim to be holy really just… intentionally (or maybe unintentionally in some cases) abuse the shit out of children and women and minority groups.

Also how churches just shelter sexual abusers, and how sexual abusers use holy texts to justify their actions and threaten their victims into silence.

I am compiling a data base of cruel and unusual religious punishments (mostly to make sure I’m not crazy) but also to have a better understanding of exactly how religious abuse is manifested in different situations.

Some examples: a mother physically SITTING on a “disobedient” child while singing the famous hymn “Trust and Obey”

A young woman whose creepy traveling Christian musician uncle would travel to various churches and tell children’s story, during children’s story he would LICK his nieces face, from eyeball to chin, and the entire church would laugh. Her father looked on, and didn’t care how visibly uncomfortable his daughter was.

Finally, and this is just one of my own experiences. I suffer from horrible menstruation symptoms, and my mother refused to allow me to take any pain medicine, because it would not allow for me to have a “clear mind” to hear the Holy Spirit.

Anyway, I know that this can be quite traumatizing to share… but I’m just putting feelers out there… is there anyone willing to step forward and share their traumatic religious experiences?

It’s for research and understand and deconstructing purposes only.

[artist-issues]

Here they go again

And I get to play the mind numbing game of "Twenty One Pilots: Are They Deconstructing Their Faith After All, OR Saying What They've Always Been Saying But This Time With Antlers"

[booknerdashleelee]

Going Back and Reading Chapter 23 in Finding My Way Back

Taking some time to think through my life and my faith. I recently read a book that I think was technically Christian but wasn't written by a Christian? Chapter 23 was called LGBTQ Christians Are the Coolest. It was pretty short but I went back and took another look. I'm having second thoughts about leaving the faith. But I don't know. I'm just trying to sort out my thoughts here so bear with me.

I know my old church was toxic.

My friends were toxic.

My family is toxic.

I'm tired of being judged.

I was always told that being a REAL Christian meant being against the LGBTQ community. But in the book it did point out there are LGBTQ Christians.

I think I'm conflicted because I don't know myself at all. I've been scared part of me might have "certain inclinations". I don't know if I can have both and I have so many questions and I am terrified of the answers.

I don't know where I'm going with this. I just needed to vent I guess.

Something I thought was interesting was that LGBTQ Christians are condemned by the religious leaders. So was Jesus. By that logic they're the real Christians because they are standing against the religious leaders like Jesus. Am I making sense or do I sound insane?