{"id":30295,"date":"2024-02-27T06:00:28","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T10:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/?p=30295"},"modified":"2025-03-07T18:54:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T22:54:53","slug":"of-bathwater-and-babies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/es\/of-bathwater-and-babies\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Bathwater and Babies"},"content":{"rendered":"

When people begin a process of \u201cdeconstruction” or questioning the way that faith was packaged and given to them, a common response by concerned friends or relatives is \u201cGo ahead and ask questions, but don\u2019t throw the baby out with the bathwater.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

But I think this is an unhelpful imperative, because the discernment of what is \u201cbaby\u201d and what is \u201cbathwater\u201d is precisely what is being sought in the process of deconstruction.<\/strong> People undergo deconstruction exactly because<\/em> they want to keep the baby. If the difference between baby and bathwater were obvious, deconstruction would be unnecessary.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, often the very reason<\/em> people find themselves needing to deconstruct is that they have sensed that within their inherited faith construct, there is an already-present conflation of baby and bathwater that is causing problems: the bathwater is never thrown out at all, and so the baby never gets clean, or the bathwater is being treated like the baby, etc. Thus people consent to undergoing the process of deconstruction <\/strong>for the specific purpose<\/strong><\/em> of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s just that part of figuring that out is asking questions about the definitions of \u201cbaby\u201d and \u201cbathwater\u201d that we\u2019ve inherited. And it\u2019s not something you can discern \u201cahead of time\u201d before you actually begin asking the questions that discernment requires. You can\u2019t just decide to not throw the baby out with the bathwater, because that\u2019s the very distinction you\u2019re seeking to discern. There\u2019s an inherent risk in the process of figuring out what\u2019s baby and what\u2019s bathwater.<\/p>\n

\"Baby

Photo by Lubomirkin<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

So whether you or someone you love is going through something you might call \u201cdeconstruction,\u201d I encourage you to refrain from this anxious injunction. Instead, listen to the questions, empathize with the pain, affirm the goodness of the quest, and trust that those who seek the truth will find what they\u2019re looking for (Matt 7:7-8).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When people begin a process of \u201cdeconstruction” or questioning the way that faith was packaged and given to them, a common response by concerned friends or relatives is \u201cGo ahead and ask questions, but don\u2019t throw the baby out with the bathwater.\u201d But I think this is an unhelpful imperative, because the discernment of what…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30296,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-deconstruction"],"yoast_head":"\nOf Bathwater and Babies - 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