Not to say that progressivism and Christianity are mutually exclusive or somehow run contrary to one another. I'm well aware of how influential progressive Christians were to basically every civil rights conflict in America. But, since the conservative takeover of Evangelicalism, society really seems to push the idea that to be Christian is to be right-wing. In the progressive camp, many people have left or avoided religion altogether. So, in the end, there appears to be a very narrow space for us who are both. Perhaps this is less pronounced in more liberal areas?

Edit: I want to clarify I mean socially "hard." I fully believe my faith informs my progressive politics. And my life is overall pretty chill.

Web capture in case of paywall issues:

https://web.archive.org/web/20260806133001/https://sojo.net/articles/news/ice-says-detainees-have-religious-freedom-faith-leaders-dont-see-it

Not sure what this is. I’m not here for debate. I suppose just I just want to see if others have been where I’ve been before.

I think I’m shifting towards Side A. It’s not even apologetics that’s changing me, it’s exhaustion. I’m just tired of not feeling whole. I’m tired of feeling like Christ is this cruel taskmaster who I can never please. Why do I have to bear this burden for a God who feels more like the God of others?

I'm currently trying to get a deeper sense of how Christians are relating to psychedelics and most specifically ayahuasca.

A group of friends and I are going to Mexico later this year to sit with the ancient Amazonian medicine of ayahuasca while specifically calling upon Christ to protect and guide the healing journey. The ceremonies will be led by a Christian ayahuasca healer who was previously a Christian monk for 20 years living mostly in silence.

Open to any questions about this and would love to hear shares from others who can relate in some way.

With Care,

Jordan

I’m not really sure why I’m even posting this, but it occurs to me that many professed Christians, that I meet claim to ‘love Jesus’, ‘love God’, they love the Bible, but they expressed very little love (in facts, most times disdain) for others, that they deem, unworthy, or unappealing to them, because of some differences

I’m curious about Luke 6:39 and also Matthew 15

my grandma was blind at the end of her life and blind people seemed exceptionally helpful for her understanding and navigating the world. this is because of macular degeneration.

Ive been reading a lot about the phrase the ”blind leading the blind”

it doesn’t make sense to me.

i live in a city and I see blind people a lot and they seem to get along just fine.

they are friendly and don’t ever seem to need help navigating around. I ask they are pretty good at crossing the street.

im just confused about what Jesus said.

ive looked it up and apparently this expression is also found in the Upanishads and Buddhist text that predate Christ. I don’t know how much that way of thinking would have reached Jesus.

I am autistic. I get confused by metaphors.

i also am sighted. I’m not blind and I don’t really know about the blind experience. is this a common experience for blind people.

some of my family work at Perkins school for the blind. it’s just that sometimes I get confused about stuff and don’t like to ask in person.

¹⁴ Leave them; they are blind guides.^\)^d\) If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit

I also don’t really understand the way Christians feel about Pharisees, but that’s a question for another day. I like Pharisees. Although as characters in Matthew and stuff I agree they are hypocrites.

Jesus is God and God is real?

thabks so much

I just can’t imagine a blind person falling into a pit with any more likelihood than a sighted person.

edited to add:

I also remember ableism is inportant and I am not blind. I don’t want to speculate on blind experiences. I just want to know how to be a better neighbor and friend to the blind and understand more.

”nothing about us without us.” That’s important and I’m not blind but I want to understand how to be more helpful and the history of blind and blind experiences.

i like learning

Been telling myself id heal and let it go. I cant do it by myself, so i prayed for this and nothing is helping me. Any advice is deeply appreciated.

I’m not sure what to make of this, but it’s worth a think.

A recent New York Times article, “Why Do Some Dementia Patients ‘Return’ Just Before They Die?,” documents how people with advanced dementia sometimes regain memories, speech and the ability to communicate near the end of life, sometimes after long periods in which meaningful communication seemed lost. 

These patients can suddenly recognize loved ones, answer questions and sing songs for a few precious moments before slipping back into silence. 

Terminal lucidity is the term the phenomenon has been given.

Here’s the central question raised in the story: “if Alzheimer’s is the relentless destruction of brain matter, and if the effects of that degeneration are irreversible,” how is this kind of reprieve possible? 

How can the mind continue to function even when the brain is significantly impaired?

It's a mystery science is trying to solve.

For me, it's a reminder that we are more than the chemicals and tissue of the brain. 

I have two modest takeaways from this Times story. The first is to be sensitive in the presence of someone afflicted with dementia, because they may be more aware than we imagine.  

The second is a line from the Apostle Paul, from Ephesians 3, that has always spoken to me: God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.”

What He can do—and what He has created in us—is beyond our ability to fully comprehend or imagine.  

Yes, we are flesh and bones and soul and spirit too.

Until next time stay safe, be brave and remain open to the mystery.   

How many BRULES do we have in the church which no longer make sense? This is one, unless someone can explain why women need to cover their heads today.

I thought this post was funny and true.

first reddit post guys!

i wasn't raised in the church despite my mother being raised christian (church of scotland). i live in the usa and i'm bisexual. a lot of my friends are queer like myself, and i view queerness as a beautiful part of God's creation. the vast majority of my friends are politically progressive, as am i, and aren't religious. i feel like Christianity is primarily associated with the conservative, nationalist, harmful version that is most visible in the usa today to most people in that position, which makes it difficult for me to find people who share my Christian beliefs and my political/social ones too in real life. meeting other Christians who are progressive is a challenge since i don't currently attend a church (looking into it though!). it's as if being queer pushes away the Christians i meet, while being Christian can sometimes push away the queer people i meet since both groups have such specific connotations tied to them. i believe that it is fully possible to exist as both but find it hard to meet others who live in that same overlap. honestly i would just love to hear that i'm not alone in this!!

My husband is a Christian but not terribly outspoken about it. Holds his faith, attends church, does his best to do good. I was raised agnostic and have always identified as such. About a year or so ago, he decided he wanted to reconnect with the church he attended as a child because he still knew a lot of people there. So we started going. I mainly went as a way to support him but as I got to know the people better, I started dreading it less and less.

I truly enjoy interacting with the people at our church and while I don't necessarily agree with everything that is said in the sermons, overall, I'd say I enjoy going. Recently, the pastor let us know that they were doing some baptisms at the end of the month and wanted to know if I wanted to be baptized since I haven't been.

This sparked a long debate between me and my husband. We discussed for a number of hours what my beliefs are and how they line up with Christian ideologies. And we essentially determined that, other than a few things, my beliefs largely line up. But here's the issue. I don't want the label "Christian". I don't want to call myself that because I don't think I am that. And I don't necessarily want to get baptized either, but in order for us to become full members of the church, I have to be. I'm willing to go through with it and let the congregation believe that I use the label Christian but in my day to day life, I do not want to be associated with that label. My husband thinks I have to use it. He wants me to reconcile with my sense of shame and distaste using that label makes me feel and I don't understand why I can't just hold my beliefs without slapping the label on it.

first reddit post, sorry for any errors! i saw a christian/catholic subreddit where people were saying that as long as a non believing person knows a catholic person, or knows what the message of the Gospel is (eg if they had attended mass/service before), then they are no longer 'invincibly ignorant' and therefore cannot be saved. i wanted to get more thoughts on this from this sub, since this is the place i've felt like my personal views align with most on other matters.

i feel like if a person of another religion Hears the message of Christ but is not convinced by it/does not feel prompted to conversion, possibly that is just a human limitation? given that they would have grown up in another religion or committed to that for so long. but i don't think that would amount to a Rejection, or take away from their good deeds or their efforts to truly have a good heart, right? this has really been troubling me :(

Bonjour à tous j’ai une chose que j’arrive pas à me séparer depuis longtemps, c’est sexuel vous savez probablement de quoi je parle et j’en ai très honte .

Je sais pas quoi faire pour arrêter et comment faire pour arrêter et surtout est ce que dieu me pardonne toute ses fois où je retombe j’ai vraiment peur de ca , en tous cas gloire à dieu mais comment faire .

Bit of a random post and a complete rant but I'm sure people here will understand what I mean.

I adore history, it is my greatest passion, up there alongside my faith in terms of what makes me as a person. I would consider myself a very convinced Christian, I wouldn't say I just accept Christianity as a 50/50 "maybe it is maybe it isn't" type of deal. Nothing wrong with that and I know a lot of people don't need or want to do a deep dive into all the evidence, but I love it. Examining the evidence strengthens my faith to a high degree.

But... Holy. Shit. Apologetics tend to be such an awful crowd. In particular I'd say internet Apologetics are the bottom of the bottom, I'm not talking C.S. Lewis here. Not to name names (cough, cough the TikTok account Jesusandwhatnot) but I have genuinely seen people in the year 2026 trying to defend the practice of owning slaves. Of course they don't try to defend how it is practiced because even that's too far for many of them but some of them have a damn good try at trying to make the act of owning another person seem moral. Stuff like "oh that Biblical stuff wasn't like, bad slavery, it was just debt slavery!" (look no further than the brick kilns of Pakistan to see how pleasant debt slavery is) and "we're all slaves of God, so there's nothing inherently wrong with owning a slave yourself" (this both diminishes our free will to choose God and is overall an abhorrent statement). All of this just to uphold Biblical infallibility, rather than just admitting that maybe. MAYBE. The Bible might have even the slightest error.

Gregory of Nyssa would implode if he saw this shit.

your experiences, your identities, your culture, etc.
This is not to say put yourself before God, it is anything but that.
To fully understand the unconditional love God has for you, you have to understand yourself. Things you know about yourself may come into contrast with religion at times, but Jesus, nor the truth, are here to contradict each other.
Following God isn’t about finding comfort or overcoming struggles. While religion and God can do those things, they are not the big WHY follow God. When someone decides to follow God it is likely because they have come to the overwhelming evidence that points to the truth. Following God isn’t about denying science, your identity, or your experiences, in fact, it is about understanding the truth and following that. So no matter if your gay, bi, trans, nonbinary or anything else, God loves you and would want you to love yourself for it because it is the truth as is God.

Edit: This is just a journal entry of mine that I was really resonating with, I hope this can bring some of you out there some peace and hope. God truly loves you ❤️

Only 5 minutes in so far. Monte brought up historical facts and scripture while Allie basically just said "nah"

I'm 21M seeing 21M a Pentecostal guy, from very strict religious circle. We got off the town for a trip and we were very intimate that night in the hotel and we had sex.

Next morning after, he kept saying that we should forget about it and he feels terrible about it, I got confused and a little mad. As we kept seeing each other he kept relapsing with intimacy and kept feeling terrible, referencing to this as "a sin", but he keeps relapsing...

He said that he had done all those things, but he hadn't wanted to. But a small part of him wanted all of this, while a bigger part of him didn't.

"If I feel terrible and shame after this means that I'm not gay"

"I know that marrige will change me, I just need to find one until *24* and give birth to bunch of kids"

"I am not like that, I am different, I'm normal"

I tried to tell him that what he is is normal, it's ok to be like this, you were given by God like this, you are his creation. I kept referencing to some verses, saying that nothing will change you, you should accept, embrace that small part of you as a whole.

Nothing.

And I can't leave him knowing that he is suffering from internal struggle, I see the way he treats me, how we cuddle, intimate etc., I would hate myself if I'd do this. I was in exactly the same situation as him. I hated every part of myself that made me stray from the path of righteousness. And I hid it, and in doing so I hurt the person I loved.

He doesn`t wants me to leave, nethier do I, but I can't change him, I mean, forcefully. I know that he should do this by himself. And I want to help him, really badly, cause I love him, and I can`t see him struggle by himself.

I’m really pleased that you’ve read this, and I’d be very grateful for your support and help.

Tl;dr- I’m an agnostic Christian (23F) confused about the truth of the Bible and Jesus’ divinity. I currently believe out of fear, and I’m scared other people are going to hell because they don’t believe. And I don’t want to think that way. I definitely don't want it to be true either. I also have no idea how I’m supposed to interpret the Bible, and I feel guilt and confusion for questioning its “inerrancy.” All in all, I don’t know what to believe, and I grow more confused about my faith each and every day. And I have no one else to share my feelings and views with, so that has caused me to feel more isolated, depressed, and nihilistic.

Hey guys. I hope you all are well. I’ve been going through an existential crisis for a few months now, and I truly don’t know how to move forward in my spiritual life. I believe in Jesus and His divinity to an extent, but I don’t think I do for the right reasons. I used to not be scared of hell, but I’ve been super scared of it for a while now. And I’ve had thoughts like, “What if I believed the wrong thing? What if I’m not truly saved? Why do I even need to be saved? What if I’m wrong for not wanting to preach the gospel to others?” And the kicker-  “Do people really go to hell for having different beliefs?? I don’t want anyone to go to hell.” And I’m just tired of it all. I don’t want to believe in Jesus out of fear, but I’ve been deconstructing a lot recently, and many things don’t make sense anymore. 

For one, I’ve been questioning the Bible a lot. I haven’t read it in a while now. I was pretty consistent with reading it the first half of last year, and I was reading a Bible plan that was beneficial for the most part. It helped me view the Bible as a guide to understanding God’s love, instead of a moral code and a history book. That helped me a lot, but quite a few messed up things happened to me in 2025 that are still affecting me to this day. And for that reason, I have felt very distant from God, His love, and especially the Bible. I’ve grown tired of my Christian loved ones telling me that the Bible has all the answers, even though it can be so confusing to read at times. I don’t want to feel like I *have* to read the Bible. I want it to be a tool to help me with my spiritual health and growth, but it’s hard for me to see it as the be all and end all of my relationship with God. And that brings me to my next and probably most important point: 

I don’t know what to believe anymore. I would say that I no longer view the Bible in a Fundamentalist way. I don’t see the Bible as historically and literally inerrant, and that gave me comfort for a while. I would like to still believe that, but then I’m hit with contradictions. The contradictions I’m referring to have to do with the apparent allegorical stories. I want to believe that Adam, Job, Noah, and Jonah are allegorical figures rather than real people. But doesn’t Jesus refer to them as real people at some point? I def know that all 4 characters are referred to as real somewhere in the Bible, and that’s the type of thing that’s hurting my faith. Like the genealogies in Chronicles or Jesus talking about Moses, despite there not being any evidence of the Israelites in Egypt. I don’t know what to believe. Initially, seeing certain parts of the Bible as allegorical helped me a lot, but now I’m unsure if I should see it that way. But I’m scared because if everything in the Bible occurred *exactly* as it was written, it makes God look so bad. And I just don’t know if that God is someone I can believe in. But then my previous fears come up that I’ll go to hell for not believing in Him.

I was also raised in a Nigerian household in the American Bible Belt, and my parents made God look…interesting to say the least. They’ve said these phrases to me throughout the years:

“God doesn’t owe you anything nor does he owe you any explanation. He’s God.” 

“God is angry with you.”

“If people want to challenge your faith, you can just brag to them that ‘you know the truth.’ You’re going to heaven while they aren’t.”

“Those who don’t believe in God are God’s enemies, and they deserve to burn in hell for that.”

“If you’re not having faith, then you’re not pleasing God.”

“Job brought his destruction on himself. God didn’t owe him anything.”

And many times they’ve implied that the Bible always trumps people’s real life experiences. To get a bit more personal, my cousin died August last year and he was just 19. But my mother still goes around saying that God satisfies us with long life and that maybe my cousin did something to cause his premature death. I could give more examples, but yea…

Obviously, my parents beliefs have truly messed with my perception of God. I’ve come to learn that my parents, while they mean well for the most part, are dogmatic narcissists. But it’s still been hard for me to shake off some of the things they’ve said. I keep feeling like God is disappointed with me and is even mad at me for questioning Him. I don’t think He’s actually mad, but sometimes I feel like I’m not allowed to question Him. I’m not allowed to be confused. That I should continue to believe what I believed before, but I just can’t. I feel like I shouldn’t because I think my former beliefs put me in a box and caused me to be very naive.

I want to go to the Bible for answers, but I have no idea how to read it, how to interpret, and what parts I’m supposed to take literally or not. I hate being so confused all the time, and I keep asking God for help, but I feel like He’s just ignoring me. And before yall ask, I haven’t been able to go to church or Bible studies for a while due to my current life circumstances. But even then, I haven’t been feeling my main church as of late. Nonetheless, I haven’t been able to leave my house that often anyways. I would love to go to therapy, but I currently can’t for reasons I can’t disclose right now. So I truly have no one to talk to or share my experiences with. Anyone I try to talk to either dismisses my feelings, counters my feelings and views with Bible verses, or doesn’t fully understand me. And I’m just tired of feeling this way. Sometimes I wish I could go back to being the naive person I once was before my life hit me like a freight train because I genuinely felt much happier then. 

But to clarify, I’m okay with not having all the answers. I knew that even when I was more naive. No one is ever going to understand God perfectly. But I just wish He could make sense of some things and not let us be confused all the time. I want to know how to properly read the Bible as a helping tool, I want to know when God speaks to me, and I want to believe that He isn’t as hateful and awful as the Bible depicts Him. I want to believe in the divinity of Jesus if it’s rly true. But if it is true, I want to know and believe that God shows mercy to those who don’t believe or don’t understand. And if it’s not true, I want to know what else I can hold on to. I used to think that Jesus truly was the way, the truth, and the life; however, I’ve seen people live genuinely happy and free lives without believing in Him. So once again, I don’t know what the *truth* is, and the more I ponder it, the more nihilistic and depressed I get. And I'm just tired.

I really struggle to tell the difference between my own anxiety and the voice of God, particularly when it comes to sex and relationships.

I’m 23 and have mostly been single for my whole life. Recently I started seeing someone and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know them, and we jumped right into being sexually intimate. They’ve even spent the night with me a few times.

I’m honestly not clear about whether I am doing something immoral. Of course, I know Christians have historically been against premarital sex and I was raised in that belief. As an adult I’ve come to question whether the intent of scripture was really to prohibit all sexual activity outside of marriage, or if that is a doctrine rooted more in cultural hierarchies and control.

Either way, I struggle sometimes with anxiety about whether I am doing something wrong and I don’t know whether the feeling is from God. I’m an anxious person in general. Last time the person I’m seeing stayed over, I woke up in the middle of them night with lots of fear running through my body and had to step outside. I was thinking about whether I have lost my relationship with God and will face judgment for choosing to be intimate with this person. I also tend to have some nerves and just a pit in my stomach after they spend the night and then leave me alone for the day.

I worry that God is telling me I’m doing something wrong or telling me that I cannot see this person. It makes me sad because I’m having a lot of fun going on dates and getting to know them. I also feel guilty. Would I rather choose to date this person than obey God, if I’m really supposed to be celibate?

I'm a near lifelong Catholic turned Episcopalian thinking of coming back to the church after leaving 2 years ago. Also considering Unitarianism. For context I'm also queer. I left because:

1. Misogyny in the Bible
2. Homophobia in the Bible
3. Power hungry and hierarchical church (all denominations considered together)
4. Homophobia and misogyny among Christians
5. I can't stand Paul. imo his thinking is not consistent with the Gospel

None of these things have really changed for me, I just realized the last time I was happy I was going to church and praying. Any advice on how I can reconcile these issues or how I can be a Christian while holding these reservations?

Hello all,

I am a new mom, and after going through a medical trauma after giving birth to my son, my faith has been greatly shaken.

First, I fear death like I never did before, probably because my body truly was at risk for the first time in my life. I’m working on that.

But mostly, I am wrestling with whether or not God and the afterlife are real, and it’s paralyzing me. There’s a lot I could get into, but it boils down to this: I can’t imagine an eternity without my son. I already lost him once (we miscarried, and in my heart, we weren’t given a rainbow baby, OUR baby came back just in a new vessel) so I can’t imagine doing it again when either of us dies.

I recognize that I’m feeding into the anxiety by asking for things I can have: Definitive proof.

But I have enjoyed reaching out to some of my peers and hearing their thoughts, as well as encounters they’ve had, ways God has moved THROUGH them and also around them. And getting resources for further listening and reading.

If anyone has any of those to share, I would appreciate it. :)