I’m Going Full Heretic

I find myself drifting farther and farther away from the Christianity I grew up with.

What I mean is….I really just DO NOT CARE anymore about what the Bible says about this or that topic…and I am SO DONE with conversations about what was going on in the Garden of Eden or if Satan is real, or debates about this doctrine or that theology….It just exhausts me to my core and I really cannot find the strength to care about any of it anymore.

Believe whatever you want. Figure out what works for you and be happy. But…I am just finding myself beyond caring at all about any of this anymore.

Sorry if that scares you…or offends you…or shocks you. This is just me being transparent.

It’s why I posted on my Facebook page the other day, “I think I’m going full heretic“….because the more I read such beautiful truth in The Gospels of Thomas and Mary and the wisdom of Black Elk and the Buddha…and the fascinating discoveries in Quantum Science…the more I just don’t feel the need to limit myself to what a handful of guys in First Century Palestine thought about God or reality.

Now…yes…I do treasure certain texts in the New Testament…the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount…the Gospel of John, and Ephesians and Colossians, and 1 John, and the book of Hebrews…but that list is getting shorter and more selective to be honest.

I almost feel like creating my own personal Canon where I snip out the stuff I no longer accept or believe from the Bible and add in all the other sources that are really inspiring me lately and just assemble my own book of Truth….you know…like all the early Church Fathers did for the first 400 years…before Constantine forced them to agree on what was Scripture and what was not….when Christians were allowed to decide for themselves what writings were “God-Breathed” and which were not…based on their own personal experiences with those texts that either spoke to them or didn’t.

Yes…I know…this is “dangerous” and I am falling down the slippery slope…and if that makes you nervous I will understand if you want to leave me here to wallow in my own heretical views….no hard feelings.

But I can’t help the way I feel right now. I just can’t pretend anymore.

To be clear: I still believe in God…and I still believe in the message of Jesus…and I embrace the notion of Christ in us….and all of that. But I’m realizing that this same truth is scattered in a variety of places all through space and time….spoken not only through the writings of Jewish rabbis and Christian apostles, but by shamans, monks, mystics, poets, songwriters, and even scientists of many times, places, cultures, and religious traditions.

I just do not feel the need to be bound by or limited to what is or is not in the Bible.

So…yes…I guess I am going full heretic now.

Hopefully that doesn’t scare you off.

I’ll keep writing and thinking and posting, but I’m not exactly sure where we go from here. Maybe that’s just part of embracing mystery.

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Keith Giles is the author of the 7-part best-selling “Jesus Un” book series from Quoir Publishing. His latest -and final book – in this series, Jesus Unarmed: How The Prince Of Peace Disarms Our Violence is available now.  Keith is also the host of Second Cup with Keith [a new solo podcast available now on the Ethos Radio App, for Apple and Android and on Spotify; and the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast [along with co-hosts Matthew Distefano, Dr. Katy Valentine, and Derek Day], and the new Apostate’s Anonymous podcast with Matthew Distefano. He and his wife, Wendy, currently live in El Paso, TX and work with Peace Catalyst International.