"You Haven't Deconstructed Enough."
How deconstruction can become another form of fundamentalism.
When Jinger Duggar Vuolo’s memoir, Becoming Free Indeed, came out, I heard some backlash from the exvangelical/deconstruction community:
“She’s still associated with John McArthur, which is just as awful as IBLP.”
“I hope she gets rid of her patriarchal, homophobic, white supremacist views.”
“She hasn’t deconstructed enough. She has more work to do.”
I don’t necessarily disagree with their comments. I had my own concerns with her book. Jinger’s memoir revealed a very narrow understanding of deconstruction. She disentangled from the fundamentalist cult of IBLP into very conservative evangelical Christianity. She attends John MacAurthur’s church and quotes him and John Piper. She stated that suffering is from God and he causes our suffering. She believes love means giving all of yourself and being selfless and other-focused. And she obviously still believes women are to be submissive and men are “servant leaders”. There’s nothing new in her memoir beyond what every evangelical heard growing up.
So while I am concerned about a few of her beliefs, I hesitate to say she hasn’t “deconstructed enough”.
Because the the criticism Jinger received from the exvangelical community sounds like comments I too have received about my own beliefs.
Does deconstruction have a specific endpoint or goal? What is enough to you, and what is enough to me? And when does this mindset become another form of fundamentalism, the boogeyman we’re all trying to escape?
You may also like this article from my friend
on “Sex Positivity as Fundamentalism.”
“This sounds like a belief that hasn’t been deconstructed enough.”