New to Examined?
A little about this place
Welcome.
I weighed in on a topic last week that has a lot of traction in the Orthodox part of the internet.1 I don’t usually write on such topics because there are other voices handling it well, but honestly, the conversation is growing. And I thought I had some points worth bringing to it.
And the purpose of Examined is to evaluate, consider, and challenge ideas so that we don’t entrench ourselves and surrender the ability to see the topic from another perspective.
I’m a principled person. (I have the disposition, values and personality tests to back that up. If you’re into Enneagram, I’m a one. If you’re into Meyers-Briggs, I’m an INJF. And some other tests I had take for jobs and school said I’m in the category with Ghandi types. Very idealist about right and wrong.)
When I was young I wielded moral certitude and conviction weapons. I didn’t want to be a follower or get it wrong. And back then, I was terrified I’d end up in hell for every little failure. This was not a healthy, kind, or gracious way to live.
“Don’t have a mind, so open your brains fall out.” In the early 2000s, people seemed to say this a lot.
When we start using phrases or terms over and over, a little alarm light starts blinking in my head.
It’s usually then that I start to wonder what unspoken assumption lies beneath what comes out of our mouths or what we think we are sure of. I happen to think it’s fair to have questions, be curious, stay willing to learn.
About twenty-five years ago, I taught at an evangelical Christian school. Only for two years, the year David and I became catechumens in the Orthodox Church and the year after we were received into the Church. My mentor teacher was a former homeschooling mom and was “deconstructing” her evangelical faith.
We talked a lot about what caused her certainty in the theology she’d trusted for most of her life to crumble. And what changed mine. I remember talking way too much about Jacques Derrida, like I’d read his canon instead of a few essays for my literary theory courses. “If you’re going to pull it all down, what will you rebuild in its place?” I asked her.
Deconstruction just for the sake of it leaves you with …. Back then I imagined something that Gaza and parts of Lebanon look like now. Rubble.
The school administrator would gather us early on Wednesday mornings for a bible study. His favorite whipping boy was post-modernism. “They sell a clock that says, ‘Whatever’” he’d say. “Everything is meaningless and subjective to them,” he’d say, otherizing anyone who used post-modern ideas to approach topics with a new lens or way of trying to understand it.
I wanted to buy a Whatever clock and put it in my classroom. Just to be contrarian. Because it’s a clock, for pete’s sake. Just because someone hangs “Whatever” on the wall, they aren’t flirting with nihilism and going to hell. It wasn’t all so “demonic” as he insisted it was.
(Do you need an unsubscribe button right here? Sorry. Substack doesn’t offer that option to embed here.)
This is what Examined is for. Daring to sit with ideas that don’t necessarily fit with our faith system or way of seeing the world. I talk to atheists, agnostics, deconstructors, and people whose journey of meaning takes a lot of twists and turns.
By being brave enough to take others at face value and give them an honest listen, I’ll discover areas where my own faith lacks resilience, refinement, or integrity.
This is not a journey for everyone. It can dredge up some serious noise inside some people. If that happens to you, it’s best to find other voices. I’m not here to destroy anyone’s faith or worldview. This is a place to learn.
It requires good-faith conversations. It requires some internal work. Because I enjoy this work and think there are others like me, I offer this place to you all.
I’ve covered a lot of topics here. Recently, a decent number of posts have been on estrangement, because it’s associated with forgiveness and the divided climate of our moment. I’m writing a book about these. I hope to share the book with you all here.
Obvs, I’m an Orthodox Christian. Yes, I’m a clergy wife. But this is not necessarily an Orthodox Christian publication. I’m not trying to convert or persuade anyone to be an Orthodox Christian. I have a low desire to advertise religion or faith. I’m more interested in how to live a life with integrity and in right relationship with creation and the Creator.
Finally, I travel a lot. It’s part of the learning curve. I read constantly: books, articles, news. I research. I listen to a stupid amount of podcasts. I garden, run, cook. I have an aging body with an autoimmune disorder, and I’m recovering from a crippling addiction to self-loathing. That’s just a little more about the main writer here.
Good to share the world with you. Feel free to tell me a bit about yourself, your learning curve, your questions and concerns. See the comments below. I love learning about others.
I had a hunch afterward that Orthobro is a keyword with decent volume. I ran it through SEMrush, and what do you know, it’s getting a decent amount of volume. Sigh.
As I wrote, the term doesn’t have a clear definition and the comments on the piece underscored that.