RSS 
E-Mail31 comments
This is the time of year we’re all thinking about ways we’d like the upcoming year to be better than the last. And in order to see these differences take wing, many of us are in the mood for our annual ritual of resolution-making.
Some desire to quit smoking while others (once again) aim to lose weight. That last one was my resolution for 2009 – I’m down 75lbs and feeling great – all of which has put me in the mood for yet another, even more aggressive challenge.
There are resolutions of all kinds for all ages – study harder, make better grades, be more consistent in arriving to work on time, make that needed career change, begin or cease going to church, on and on.
My new resolution, which may sound a bit strange at first, is to quit… God.
I know how that sounds a bit startling – especially from someone as deeply committed to the Jesus narrative as I. However, enough is enough. Enough of being haunted by the God of my youth – the one that is mean and violent and waiting for me to screw up; the one that is ‘this,’ ‘that,’ or ‘the other’ – all in toxic ways.
I’m thinking that the atheists need to give up the God they know too. He isn’t very flattering. Same with the Baptists – their God seems so white and Republican. And while we’re at it, I think that should also go for the Pentecostals as well as the Mormons. Maybe the Methodists too. Shoot, while we’re on a roll, how bout everybody quitting their 2009 version of God in search of another one in the New Year?
Maybe that’s the only thing that could really bring about peace, unity and a modicum of sanity in our world, if all of us joined together in search of another God, a better one, one beyond all we could ask or imagine – one that doesn’t look so much like we do (ouch).
I’m not suggesting we do this permanently, of course. Just for 2010. Then, when it’s over, if we want to return to the God we knew at the end of ’09,’ well, that’s certainly an option. (I realize that depending on your present version of God, such a return would require more penance and groveling for some of us than for others.)
My suspicion, however, is that if I work hard enough at quitting the God I know as 2009 now fades to black, I’ll not want to return to this God. I don’t know that for sure, although precedence tells me this is likely to be the case: Enough so that I think I want to make it my new “New Year’s” resolution.
Yep, that’s it. I’m quitting God.
So, off I go… anybody coming with me?
31 comments to “New Year’s Resolution: I’m Going to Quit God”
-
Interesting stuff. Since deconverting I’ve slowly begun to realize how so many people’s gods look a lot like they do or rather an ideal version of themselves. For us atheists it tends to be the opposite, the gods we reject we many times do so on the basis of the many things we attribute to them that we disagree with.
-
I’m with you. After a brief time back in the church, much appreciated, by the way, for pointing me toward a more spiritual perspective…I find the god discussed there is often the human dad of the person speaking. The God I want, the God I hope for is far better than that, so far that i don’t think I can begin to know HIm. There are glimpses though, and acknowleging those is one of my resolutions moving forward.
-
Oh, I am SO with you…!
We had this very conversation last night … with our last remaining, local, previously-Christian friends. Brave and loyal souls that they are…!
How the old god has to fall by the wayside (fired, as it were), so that the real God (for whom even the term “God” is too limiting a definition) can emerge to (& in, and through) each of us.
May ALL fear, including the “fear of God” (& ESPECIALLY that pernicious fear!) be replaced with Perfect Love.
I don’t know which suits you better, Tim … your svelte profile, or that twinkle in your eye…!
-
I’m with you Tim. Let’s let go of our perspectives of what we think or feel or believe God to be. Instead let us step out in faith and surrender our will and our lives to the Peace that passes all understanding, to the Love that knows no boundaries and to the Light that makes the night shine like the day.
-
I quit the “God” of my youth when I read the book “Why Men Hate Going To Church” by David Morrow and really ran away from the “old” God when I read “No More Christian Nice Guy” by Paul Coughlin. For both authors, unknown to them, taught me to read Jesus’ story very differently than what I was raised to do.
Of course since then I’ve met people like you, Dena Brehm and Kevin A. Beck who have shown me “The Kingdom of God” that is within.
Being “Godless” is a whole lot of fun!
-
Tim, you drew me right in with that topic headliner:! As I read through your post, I was thinking…Yes! But maybe I will be doing this permanently: “quitting”, to some extent, every year……though more like a creature that has yearly cycles of shedding/molting.
I agree, this “quitting” could contribute to “peace, unity and a modicum of sanity”. Over the past few years, I’ve been reading about quantum physics which seems to be the new frontier of science. With recent and amazing discoveries, many scientists have been led to more questions than conclusions about a Presence they perceive in the universe. Lacking the knowledge or ability to fully define that Presence shouldn’t divide us as much as it results in commonality and mutual respect.
Mike, I appreciate your response! As I read your comment, I’m thinking -so here we find our place of “unity” as “believers” and “atheists”: From the deepest place within us, we are both moved to reject certain concepts of a “God” or “The Numinous” that we believe couldn’t possibly be true. It reminded me of a recent discussion with a neighbor that led to her stating all of the things she didn’t believe in or endorse about God. As she listed each of them, and I nodded in agreement saying “yeah, I agree…I don’t believe that either”; we both ended up with eyes widened, eyebrows raised and her saying “WOW, we have a lot of the same beliefs”. Some of what I do believe, she hadn’t yet considered, so that is an ongoing discussion. So for 2010 and beyond…..I’ll be molting and Yes Dena, Embracing Perfect Love!
-
We’ve always been with you…why stop now??
Happy New Year as we jump in with both feet! This is one resolution I can probably keep
Alicia
-
Cathy, thanks for responding to my comment. Michelangelo is quoted as saying “The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor’s hand can only break the spell To free the figures slumbering in the stone”
Perhaps reality is like that, we each chip away in an attempt to reveal what is really there.
-
Love the article. Love the site. What you are doing is courageous, wonderful, and REAL. Keep up the good work, my brother.
-
Well-stated Tim… This should be our prayer every new day. That we might see God more clearly… for now we see as though through a glass dimly, but then we will see Him as He is face-to-face. All of our images of God are merely that…images of God. Yet, we are like the blind men describing the elephant… We only know part of the eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, God… His ways are higher than our ways and beyond our finding out. How could it be otherwise? I have heard it said that the greatest hindrance to wisdom is not ignorance, but thinking we already know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We may know much of it, but we will always have much more to learn. Blessed are the poor in spirit–the humble–for they will see and know God in increasing measure. Our quest in life should be to know more of Him and to know Him more clearly day-by-day…January 1, January 2, January 3…December 31…
-
I am new to this website, and I would have to say that the discussion raised because of this article is indeed very interesting to me.
However, I would have to contend with this whole idea of “quitting God” in order to know God more fully. I would propose that a different new year’s resolution should occur in the life of the Christian if they truly want to know God better. This new year’s resolution-one that I myself have made- is to know the Creator, Triune God of the Bible more deeply and fully. How am I going to do that? Through deep, consistent reading of his Word-The Holy Bible.
If my desire, as a Christian is to know God better why would I “quit God” in order to do that? The God of the Bible is not a God that will forgive everyone but you, nor is He malevolent or vindictive-towards ANYONE. If this is your view of God, I would highly encourage you to read the Bible and see for yourself that God is not all-forgiving and that he is malevolent and vindictive. If you can absolutely prove that he is those things to me, than please, show me Book, Chapter and Verse and I will change my story.
“Quitting God” in order to know God better is an illogical idea. There is ONE God, and there is ONE way to get to him. The good news: If you seek God, you will find him, and you find absolute truth. Quitting God will not help you in your search for the True God, in fact, quitting will only leave you dry and thirsty-and still looking for the very thing that you are “quitting.” That sounds counterproductive to me.
-
Valerie, I appreciate your zeal and your earnest faith, but the truth is we make God up. I’m not saying God doesn’t exist (or I’d just be making up a God that didn’t exist), I’m just saying we make God up. Or we inherit a God that other people made up. At least people like Tim and Mike are willing to recognize that.
You say the Bible reveals the one true God? Okay, then you’re accepting a God made up by an ancient tribal warrior culture — never mind that this God demands genocide as a form of sacrifice. Okay, you’re right, that’s not fair. Because the Bible also gives us God as understood by the Axial age prophets of that culture, chastened by failure on the world stage, and (later) the God of a Greek-speaking apocalyptic sect.
But really, you’ve probably had your God made up for you by a particular interpretation of that sacred text, while there are many others who read the same text and make up a different God based on it. So it’s easy for me to get confused: which made-up God am I supposed to unconditionally give my life to, again?
Giving up last year’s (or yesterday’s) worn-out conception of God gives us the chance to open to something new that might work for the coming year, or at least for tomorrow — our daily bread.
-
-
A fertile ground for growing a better tree of interpretation [a lens of scriptural or any other kind of consideration] that is bearing good fruit for me has been http://www.thisbookwillchangeyourworld.com/
-
I certainly agree that leaving behind a made-up God is a good idea.
How about increased Biblical literacy as a goal?
-
Interesting resolution – good luck and power to you! It’s almost 30 years on from when British philosopher/theologian/priest Don Cupitt first published ‘Taking Leave of God’. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose…
-
“Sacred narratives”…”Lens of scriptural interpretation”…”life-setting”….”made up God”….
Yet, notably lacking amidst the plethora of sentences, cacophony of lyrical prose, & disconcerting self-congratulatory overtones? (imho):Jesus.
“Hear, O Israel, Jehovah is our God. Jehovah is one.”
John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.”
John 8:42, “Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.’”
John 17:3-5, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”Colossians 1:26-29, “This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.”
Want to know God–Yahweh, I Am, Jehovah, Alpha & Omega?
Know & follow hard after Jesus the Christ as revealed through the Bible. (Christ is in the Old concealed; Christ is in the New revealed.)
Nothing less. Nothing more.
No Jesus. No God.
Know Jesus. Know God.
(cheesy, yes, but nevertheless true.)-
I wonder which is more disconcertingly self-congratulatory: recognizing the need to shed a view of God that has only caused you pain, or claiming to know, beyond doubt, that you’ve landed on the one true God with no need to look (or grow?) any further?
Maybe you’ve noticed, but this is not really a crowd easily swayed by spouting scripture references. Now, I’m not going to speak for the others, but the simple fact is that just because you can find it in the Bible doesn’t make it true, even if you’re certain you’ve got it in proper context, nor does an ability to construct pithy bumper-sticker soundbytes constitute a cogent argument. Moreover, people who believe just as adamantly in revelation as you do (or so I would assume) can’t seem to agree on what it means. At which point, I have to ask: what good is it?
If you want somebody to hammer on the Jesus button so you can feel good about your narrow, exclusivistic faith construct, you might have to look somewhere else.
-
Dear Tim and Ira,
My comments were simply thoughts gathered upon observing and contemplating the conversational strand as presented. I did not (and do not) discount the reality of each of us, as followers of Jesus Christ, “working/living out their own salvation with fear and trembling.”
However, to communicate (be it online without the benefit of voice, inflection, nuance, and facial response/body language; or one-on-one with someone we know, trust, and love) of our longing to find God, to know Peace, to be known by our Creator, and not remind one another of the preeminence of Jesus Christ, and, yes, holy scripture, to accomplish just that…well, to not do so seems to me an exercise in futility.
It was Eugene Peterson’s contemporary language of the book of Colossians in The Message that I quoted in regards to “we teach in a spirit of profound common sense.” I’m at a loss as to understand why this stirred ire?
Am I able (or purporting) to fully understand the complexities of the Eternal? Of God? Or His ways? Of course not.
Can I, as well as the 2,000 souls following this post and millions upon millions who will never enter a .com/blog comment, rest confidently the Eternal has made known and provided everything we need for salvation, righteous living on earth, and the reality of the life to come? Absolutely.
The heart and passion propelling my initial comments (and I am sorry for failing to convey this accurately) was that of faith sojourner declaring, “Hey! Good news–no, GREAT news. There are no hidden secrets or new revelations you have to figure out regarding finding God. He did it already: Jesus & holy scripture.”
Good news, indeed.
-
What raises ire is the presumption that the rest of us — those with the “plethora of sentences, cacophony of lyrical prose, & disconcerting self-congratulatory overtones” — have somehow failed to consider your conservative theology in the midst of our personal journeys. What are we supposed to do, slap our foreheads and say “Doh! Of course! It’s JESUS! How could I be so stupid!” Should we be thanking you for showing us the error of our ways? If we wanted preaching, we’d have stayed in church. Thanks for thinking of us, though.
The truth is, many of us, judging by some of the response here, have come away from that kind of certainty because it didn’t serve us well on on the journey. That doesn’t make our path normative; I’m not suggesting, for instance, that you’ll get over it eventually and be where some of us are. Besides, it’s different for each of us anyway. Tim has gone places I can’t abide, and vice-versa.
No one is begrudging you your faith. You need it, just like I need mine — even though it looks a lot different. Telling your story is one thing. Rebuking the rest of us for having a different story is another.
-
-
-
-
Hi,
First time on this site – came via Brian Mclaren.
Excellent post and discussion.I quit GOD about 4 years ago.
This was after injuries from an accident almost killed me. According to the docs and medical records, I should have died and/or if I lived, I would probably never walk again. Today I not only walk, but I run also (I was a marathoner pre-accident) though I have a nasty deformed leg.
It was about a year post-accident, as I was coming to grips with the lifelong limitations/pain I would now live with, that I quit God.
I could not love the God I grew up with and/or that many told me “caused this to happen for a reason.” or that “He loved me and this is why this happened, I just don’t understand his love.” Or “I was special and he had a special plan for me.”
If this is what special is, forget it!
After quitting God, I spent time in nature seeking a meaning to life. I spent hours “Being Still” (which also helped my physical body continue to heal) I was open to connection with a creator, a spirit, a god of love. I was thrilled to read the Psalms (and other books) and find the love in them with my new lens. In the process I found (or he found me) an amazing creator – creator of me, creator of all – a creator that is love. (gosh, that sounds Biblical!) This love healed my broken, fractured spirit and emotions. I now love and connect with my creator in a deeper more relational way than I ever have. I believe in the Bible and read it, but differently now. I believe in and love Jesus and continually am amazed at him. I believe in and love the spirit of my creator within me. Its only by strength, peace and wisdom from this spirit that I not only survive, but thrive in each day.
So I applaud you for quitting – as you wrote, “the God of my youth – the one that is mean and violent and waiting for me to screw up; the one that is ‘this,’ ‘that,’ or ‘the other’ – all in toxic ways.”
May you be aware of the true love your creator has for you each day on this journey!
Janet -
I like this resolution. Bound to be fruitful. But, how’s it going so far? I find quitting on my old god very difficult, even when I know I should. Finding God without the old god just puts me down on my knees most days.
I’ve read a lot of spiritual memoirs and have seen how variegated the process of disillusionment and deconversion and conversion is. Most often it’s hard to quit on your old god, but those who have success seem to embrace the old god while transforming it. It’s hard though. I list some of these memoirs on http://www.soulsouvenirs.com if you want to browse.
Again, good resolution. I’m with you too.
David
-
My journey away from the god I had spent so many, many years making in my image to flat on my face before the King of Creation was a bit lonely for the first few years. I didn’t want to speak of it. I didn’t want to discourage people away from their faith. I believed that if G*d wanted to be revealed to others, it would be done, and there was no call for me to be the bringer of the revelation. It was getting to the point where sitting in church amid worship choruses felt a bit… blasphemous.
I think I’ve settled in now. I’m maturing, becoming more patient as I wait, and look, for God’s true self.
Thank you so much for your words… -
I fully concur with the one who said “I can’t ‘unsee’ what I’ve seen. On 17 August 2007 I had an ephiphany that made me quit the god I knew. I then discovered the one Tillich calls ‘God beyond God’. This one is much bigger than the evangelical God I knew. Bigger than the one who ‘created the world 6000 yrs ago. Bigger than evolution & much much bigger than anything one can imagine. I discovered that I’m part of who God is and God is beyond the beyond that we humans limited by space and time can ever define.
Oh…if it were just that easy. The God of my youth is the one who will forgive everyone completely except me. All pasts are in the sea of forgetfulness except mine which results from the schizophrenic lens that I was given as a child. God forgives you but….you’d better walk the chalk. I have tried to quit that God for years now. Maybe this is a resolution that can slowly take effect over a lifetime. Actually I think it is getting better now that I think about it.