An Update to My Faith Crisis
While browsing YouTube, I stumbled across a video from a channel called Ear Biscuits that showcased a familiar face in the videos thumbnail titled Rhett’s Spiritual Deconstruction. Rhett Mclaughlin and Link Neal are famous YouTuber’s back when I was in high school and I remember watching some of their content. I never subscribed to them or anything as their content wasn’t something I was fully interested in, but they were still a big part of YouTube and internet culture back then. Coming across their video podcast and the subject of leaving the Evangelical Church was quite eye-opening for me. Mainly because I never knew they were religious in the first place (Again, I wasn’t a big fan of theirs), but also because I could deeply relate to Rhett Mclaughlin‘s story.
Our stories are a search for truth lead by science and evidence. In his video he expresses his concerns with Christianity and how the evidence of evolution was so convincing that he found believing in Adam and Eve as literal interpretations was becoming more and more difficult; much like my own struggles on the topic. He, much like my own experience, wasn’t out to attack the religion he grew away from, but rather to have a deep introspection of his life and seek the truth. Link also posted a Spiritual Deconstruction video detailing his struggles with doubt and seeking truth, although his journey wasn’t as relatable to mine when compared to Rhett’s.
I found it reassuring and also a bit humorous, despite not really following these two closely during their careers, that I would come across their videos from a podcast I‘ve never heard of before and listen to a story from someone who I somewhat knew from YouTube and yet could relate to in such a way.
Rhett also posted a follow-up video a year later in 2021 about his spiritual deconstruction which also happened to be around the same year I began having my most pressing doubts about Christianity. He talks about how the COVID-19 pandemic brought out the worst in most members of the Evangelical community, much in the same way I did concerning the LDS community. There was a part in the video that really struck a cord with me which I believe I spoke on in an earlier section. Rhett says at 39:08 the following:
“White Evangelicals … represent an intersection of science denialism and racist ideas that have made them an impediment in the fight against both COVID and racial injustice and instead of worrying about the poor, and the black, and the brown, who are more likely to suffer from both the pandemic and racial injustice, white Evangelicals have been preoccupied with their own personal freedoms spending more time and energy talking about their own persecution rather than those actually being persecuted.
This was a more elegant way of what I was attempting to say earlier. While the LDS church has (in my opinion) taken great strides in moving away from racism, the issues around science denialism and the use of religious freedom during a global pandemic were definitely seen in the LDS community and from its leadership. And while the LDS church “officially” claims to not have a position on these issues—except, of course religious freedom in which it fully supports—the devout members of the church definitely do. And the leaders of the church are either too afraid of push-back from those members if they speak out against science denialism or they themselves also believe in these ideas. Either way, I don’t want any part in it.
Rhett goes on to talk about Donald Trump and how Christians (for whatever reason) have latched on to Trumpism and their infatuation with bringing God into the government. He shares a HuffPost article titled Donald Trump vs. Jesus Christ: 10 Quotes which just goes to show how detached Trump is from anything religious, yet the Christian community clings onto him as though he was their savior reincarnate. Rhett and I feel the same on this matter. To be relieved that we have both decided to distance ourselves from these groups of people. Because if American Christianity—whether evangelical or LDS—wants to prop up their religion alongside Donald Trump, I don’t want to be apart of it. He does not represent Jesus Christ or what Christ would want in this world and anyone who really followed the teachings of Jesus Christ would see that.