I’m grateful! As I navigated the uncertain waters of my deconstruction from religion, I went through a season of despising all I endured. For years, I felt like all the time I spent in church and ministry was a complete waste. I vacillated between anger and bitterness and desperately wanted to “reclaim my time.” No more. Now I think about all the wonderful relationships I made. I think about the passionate dedication to study. I consider my time in prayer... Read more
“Hi, I’m Derrick. I’m a recovering churchaholic.” “Hiiiiiiiii Derrrrrrick!” Once upon a time, I was addicted to church. I tried to attend every service, every revival, and every conference I could. I would go out of my way to attend prayer breakfasts and lunch or coffee with as many pastors and preachers as I could. At the same time, I was a preaching junkie. I could watch TBN, Daystar, and the Word Network around the clock. I was intimately familiar... Read more
Salvation. What comes to mind when you hear this word. If you’re a christian, you automatically think of Jesus and his sacrifice to redeem mankind from sin. If you’re a humanist, you may think that it is humanity awakening to a truth that causes us to avert destruction. What if I told you it has nothing to do with either? Christianity, as a religion, is built around the premise that Jesus came into the world to save it from the... Read more
I’m rarely geographically lost. When I was a child, my Mom used to take me places she needed to go because I always knew where I was going. I had a really great sense of direction. And I’m not lost now. However I am at an unfamiliar place emotionally and spiritually. I’m at the intersection of despair and hope. Despair is a familiar place if you’re black in America. When you grow up and watch the economic lifeblood being sucked... Read more
Once again, I am in the unenviable position of having to have “the talk” with my sons. No, it’s not the “don’t do drugs” talk. Not the “don’t have sex before marriage” talk. Not even the “don’t drink and drive” talk. No, this talk is the “don’t be black” talk. I’m sure you have it with your kids, right? If not, it goes like this… “If you’re out and about, just jogging, listening to music, pumping gas, visiting a convenience... Read more
This week’s installment is an excerpt from my upcoming book, “Love|Forward – Moving Forward at the Speed of Love” As far back as anyone can recall, humanity has sought to define what love is. At its most esoteric, it is the most powerful of human emotions; at its most technical, it’s a chain series of complex chemical and hormonal reactions. To the uninitiated, love is a mere emotion. To the biologist, love is the simply chemical changes in the human... Read more
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to belief, lately. Not so much what I believe or even why I believe what I believe. Just the construct of belief, itself. Now, there are some folks who think I’ve gone off the rails, spiritually. Some, in fact, think that I’m tilting toward agnosticism or even atheism. Nothing could be further from the truth! I believe in God and I also believe that s/he believes in me so much that s/he has... Read more
Given a sufficiently long timeline, everyone experiences death. Death comes to family members and friends; eventually it comes to us. It’s one of those things that’s never easy and certainly never comfortable. I believe that lives well-lived generally lead to deaths well-died. Even if the well-lived life ends early, suddenly, or tragically the legacy of the well-lived life transcends whatever means by which death comes. Death is an assassin and its aim is both true and accurate. Last week, death... Read more
In my last installment, I explained why I am no longer a bible/scripture literalist. In this post, I want to take on one of the most common — albeit ridiculous — positions: “The Bible Clearly Says…” So many times, especially in the realm of social media, this variation of the logical fallacy of “appeal to authority” is trotted out in an attempt to silence or discredit a plethora of opinions and positions. The bible is also a go-to to support... Read more
One of the great things about achieving escape velocity from the black hole of religion is freedom. I was once bound by scriptural literalism — but no longer. I used to quote and cite scripture for virtually everything; now I quote and cite it for almost nothing. As a pastor and an aspiring theologian, I was given an overarching premise by many teachers and mentors — that the bible is the inerrant, infallible word of God. They told me that... Read more
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