62
" That same patient, long-suffering, often annoying God seems rather adamantly committed to putting to death my notion that this life is all about being right—and especially that my life is all about me being right. Even as I still believe that God calls us to help change the world, to make it more just, to make it more equitable, to make it more loving, I also believe that God empowers the world to help change us, to make us more just, to make us more equitable, to make us more loving. "
― Rachel Held Evans , Wholehearted Faith
67
" To live and to love like this points us toward our true selves, which are part of a greater whole. If unholy religion has contributed to our fragmentation, healthy faith can point us toward our restoration. Faith gives people language and stories with which to draw meaning from their experiences, to see their lives as part of a larger narrative of wholeness and healing. At its best, faith teaches us to live without certainty and to hope without guarantee. "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for," wrote an anonymous biblical author, "the conviction of things not seen." At its best, faith teaches us to take risks. To live and to love like this is to live and to love in holy danger. Sometimes we can see love as construction material for spiritual cloisters-safe spaces for our hearts, our souls, our egos. In fact, it's the opposite. Love tears down the walls, and it beckons us out into the wildlands of human existence. "
― Rachel Held Evans , Wholehearted Faith
70
" Early on I sense a profound disconnect between what I was supposed to believe and what I actually believed. At home, my parents encouraged questions, and when they didn't know the answers, they said so. But in Sunday school, my precocious inquiries met with furrowed brows, cleared throats, and the not-too-subtle suggestion that good Christians don't ask such impertinent things. At home, we talked about a world that was broken and beautiful, just waiting for us to make our mark on it. At my Pentecostal elementary school, I learned that demons hid around every corner, Bill Clinton was the antichrist (I sobbed when I found out that my grandfather had voted for Clinton for president), and the rest of the world lived in "darkness." My church told me a woman's place was in the some; in my home, dad told me I could be anything I wanted to be. My Christian books said following my heart would only lead me astray; mom taught me to listen to my gut. "
― Rachel Held Evans , Wholehearted Faith
76
" The faith that I had once possessed demanded disintegration. Of course I could use my brain-as long as it led me to the correct, predetermined conclusions about science, biblical interpretation, and public policy. Of course, I could use my heart- as long as it didn't empathize with the wrong people or end up on the wrong side of complex moral dilemmas. Of course I could use my conscience- until it grew troubled by certain teachings and actions of the church. Of course I could use my body- as long as it remained heterosexual, cisgender, attractive but not too attractive, feminine but not too feminine, modest, appropriately clothed, restrained, demure, uncomplicated, and especially sexually dormant until my wedding night, at which point it would magically transform into a sex carnival for my husband. "
― Rachel Held Evans , Wholehearted Faith