Kelly Anne: Savannah, what guidance would you have for Christians that are asking questions about how to navigate the deconstruction space?
Savannah: What I would say to people who are deconstructing is this:
Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. Go on Google Scholar and look up some incredible essays on topics that you're questioning. Please, do not, for the love of God, just Google things because you're going to get biased results. You're going to get a lot of things that are created by someone that has a very specific belief. I always encourage people to go to Google Scholar. You're getting peer reviewed articles, you're getting theologians, you're getting scholars, you're getting Christians and non-Christians.
Don't be afraid to let go of what you previously believed. We like things to be clean cut. We know exactly what we believe in and why we believe it, and we feel really good about it. Don't be afraid to throw that out the window for a little bit. You can always go back out and grab it.
Explore some other things. I always describe it like this: you can love apples. Eating an orange doesn't negate the existence of apples. You can always go back to apples. They're right there on the table while you’re exploring oranges and lemons and limes. Even when you were enjoying the apple, all those fruits already existed. You're just going and acknowledging them. You're not discovering anything new. You are just looking at preexisting alternative perspectives that existed long before you were born.
Don't be afraid to be a little confused for a while. The thing that we're always scared of is uncertainty and confusion. We live in a world where if we have a question, we can find an answer in an instant. We're used to having this immediate gratification after a brief moment of uncertainty. What I would encourage and advise people is to not be in a rush to reach certainty.
Your goal should be curiosity. Be comfortable with things not making sense. Look at violence in the Bible, look at sexism in the Bible, look at racism in the Bible, and all those things that don't make sense. Look at commentaries created by scholars who aren’t white men. Don't be afraid to be confused, to get your hands messy, and don't be in a rush to wash your hands.
For more insight from the brilliant Savannah Rae Carreno, listen to the rest of the interview here.