Shari A Smith

Absolutely. That’s why deconstruction has to go further than beliefs. People need to get curious about what worldview they hold and whether that’s actually healthy or helpful

2025: New Year, New Focus Moving Intentionally Through The New Year

The court of public opinion is a cruel place, and it cannot be trusted to hand out justice appropriately. 

Read more on my latest Substack post:

I see it every time the public square of social media zeroes in on someone they believe is bad, and then they put all of their energy into doxing, harassing, and cancelling that person to the point that they lose their ability to work or function in society.

I saw it in the celebrations of the October 7th massacre in Israel and the subsequent hate crimes, riots, and pogroms in Europe and Canada and the violent protests that took place on college & university campuses all across North America that left Jewish students and faculty fearing for their safety

I saw it with the celebrations and jokes of the rich passengers who died in the submersible implosion in June of 2023. 

I saw it in the TikTok videos praising Osama Bin Laden. 

I saw it in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO by Luigi Mangione, and his subsequent rise to sex symbol status.

I’ve noticed a disturbing trend within progressive/social justice circles in the last several years; it’s one of cruelty and of glorification of death and violence. Things that are antithetical to social justice work.

I want to know A celebration of a love that was never supposed to be

Toxic faith taught me that loving someone outside my faith was a sin.

Thank God I broke free and chose love anyway.

Read the poem I’ve been working on this month as my valentines gift to my husband ❤️

open.substack.com/pub/faithand...

2025: New Year, New Focus Moving Intentionally Through The New Year

This is what I want to reflect, moving forward, in my work. 

Read more in my latest Substack post:

Once, I was a black-and-white thinker who happily embraced a world of authoritarianism that enabled dangerous and unhealthy people to hold a massive amount of control over others. but now I embrace a worldview of egalitarianism and humanism where every person matters.

And the one thing all my lessons in life have converged to teach me is this:

People matter and life is sacred.

I feel like I’ve lived so many lifetimes in those 40 years. I’ve been a daughter, a friend, a girlfriend, a wife, an aunt, a villain, a hero, a mama to multiple fur babies and a nanny to even more human babies.

2025 is a special year for me because it marks the 40th spin of the earth around the sun of my lifetime.

Would you agree with this? What would you add?

What else does a healthy faith include?

I believe that relationships are healthier and more interesting when disagreement is allowed and we are able to influence and challenge one another to dig deeper. 

What a boring world this would be without the ability to ask questions or to doubt or disagree.

I don't believe that this is how the Divine created us to exist. 

I think we were created with wonderfully complex minds that are great at asking questions to better understand the world around us.

Without the ability to ask questions and to think deeply about the things our teachers, pastors/priests, families, and communities teach us to believe, we have no agency or autonomy. We become little more than obedient robots, accepting what we're programmed to think.

Sarah said, "Room to consider and ask questions about the things you were taught as a kid in the church. Deciding for yourself what you believe as you grow in your faith (vs being expected to accept teachings at face value without questioning them)."

What a great response!

What does a healthy faith look like?

I recently asked followers across social media what they believe a healthy faith includes, and I've been collecting answers that I will be sharing.

Would you agree with this? What would you add?

What else does a healthy faith include?

If we are certain we already hold all truth, what else is there for us to learn? How else might we grow? But a faith that embraces uncertainty is a faith that allows and encourages us to be teachable and humble and allows us to grow in whichever way is necessary.

One requires evidence. The other requires belief, but not evidence. They are not one and the same. 

I would also argue that to reject uncertainty in faith is to become unteachable.

If we flip that same dictionary over to the entry on "certainty," we see:

"the quality or state of being certain especially on the basis of evidence."

Look up the word faith in a dictionary, and you will see definitions about trust and loyalty. Cambridge includes this:

"firm belief in something for which there is no proof."

Many of us grew up with the words "faith" and "certainty" used interchangeably, as if being mature in one's faith meant that we *must* have certainty in all things.

But this isn't true.

My friend, Dr. Camden Morgante responded by saying that a healthy faith includes uncertainty.

I *loved* this answer!

Because she is 100% right. For a faith to be truly healthy, one must adopt uncertainty.

What does a healthy faith look like?

I recently asked followers across social media what they believe a healthy faith includes, and I've been collecting answers that I will be sharing.

Would you agree with this? What would you add?

What else does a healthy faith include?

9/9

A healthy faith is a consistent faith that leaves us feeling secure in our skin and in our relationship with God. A consistent faith doesn't equate a loving parent with a monster who would willing burn his children eternally for failing to live up to his standards. 

8/9

We could never really be sure we'd receive salvation because: what if our hearts were never quite as pure as we thought? What if we deceived ourselves into thinking we were saved? We could only ever know after this life was over if we believed the exact right things & lived the exact right way

7/9

We were dirty, rotten sinners, after all. We deserved Hell.

It would only be by the grace of god that we might escape eternal torture.

6/9