Read on Twitter
(1/11) Imagine you grew up in a particular home. Your family made a lot of memories and spent many formative years there. Then after graduating high school you went off to college. After a semester or two, you come back home... only your family now lives in a different house.
(2/11) However, when you ask them what happened and why they moved, they say, “What are you talking about? We’ve always lived in this house.”
They keep saying things like, “Look, here’s your room,” or “remember when you fell down over there when you were little?”
They keep saying things like, “Look, here’s your room,” or “remember when you fell down over there when you were little?”
(3/11) There are even marks on one of the door posts to show how tall you were at different ages.
Like any rational person, you might think that you had lost your mind. Maybe you have some mental disorder that ruined your memories. Maybe there's something really wrong with you.
Like any rational person, you might think that you had lost your mind. Maybe you have some mental disorder that ruined your memories. Maybe there's something really wrong with you.
(4/11) But as time goes on you start to notice holes in your family's story. You can't shake those memories of your old house, and you keep finding small pieces of evidence that don't line up with what your folks are saying. You even begin to meet others with similar experiences.
(5/11) Eventually you come to the conclusion that you're not crazy. This really is a different house than the one you grew up in. And you are tired of playing along with your family's fiction.
So you decide to speak up about it.
So you decide to speak up about it.
(6/11) But your folks aren't too happy to hear about it. "Why are you saying these things?" they reply. "Look at all the nice things this house has to offer. You shouldn't say such terrible things about our home. Why are you attacking our family?"
(7/11) "I'm not attacking our family," your respond. "I'm attacking the notion that this is the house I grew up in. Yeah, this is a nice house in its own way; but it's not THAT house!
I love this family. That's WHY I'm saying these things. Why are we maintaining a lie?"
I love this family. That's WHY I'm saying these things. Why are we maintaining a lie?"
(8/11) Your family continues to insist that this is the house you've always lived in, and starts to theorize that college has ruined your values and made you anti-home and anti-family.
(9/11) You can't help but think your family either (a) is genuinely ignorant, (b) is willfully ignorant, or (c) is outright lying to you. You don't want to think your family is dense or deceptive, but you're not sure what else to think.
(10/11) Is there something about the truth they're afraid of?
Why would they spend your childhood saying one thing only to say something completely different once you're grown?
Maybe you ARE going crazy.
Why would they spend your childhood saying one thing only to say something completely different once you're grown?
Maybe you ARE going crazy.
(11/11) In case you haven't figured it out yet, this is an analogy...
You = you
Your family = the church (other Christians)
Old house = Jesus-like Christianity
New house = present-day evangelicalism
... and this is what it feels like being a progressive Christian.
You = you
Your family = the church (other Christians)
Old house = Jesus-like Christianity
New house = present-day evangelicalism
... and this is what it feels like being a progressive Christian.
