The very first episode of Ground! (brought to you by Cathedral Project)
Hi. I'm William Collier, founder of Cathedral Project, and I'm here to share the story of my deconstruction. Hear the tale of fundamental Christian upbringing coupled with purity culture and leadership conditioning, and how these factors led to many difficulties - including an identity crisis - but paved the way for a spiritual awakening. We'll end with a lovingkindness meditation of forgiveness.
- Atonement: I'll shine some light on childhood conditioning not to trust my own mind and heart
- Purity Culture: hear my experience with learning not to trust my own body and how the christian glorification of marriage as an institution acts as a tool to subjugate people to this day
- Church: it's funny how we often hear it taught that the church in the second chapter of Acts is our ultimate model (they shared everything in common to the point there was no need among them), yet the modern church tends to abandon this model as "idealistic" in favor of free market capitalism
- Mysticism and Universalism: if no one is truly doomed to a literal hell for all eternity, a lot of doctrines used to push church discipline fall apart fast. Jesus showed us with John on the Jordan River that God is as available to us as water; as the life of Jesus shows us, the message of no longer needing an intermediary is earth shattering (and not everyone wants you to preach that way). Recognizing Jesus - a human being - as our high priest at home here inside us, one with our own souls...it changes everything.
- Forgiveness: "What you resist not only persists, but will grow in size." - Carl Jung // Yes, we need to validate the negative effect of our experiences, but that does not mean we need to spend time re-traumatizing ourselves with their memory. Forgiveness frees us from our suffering and opens new channels of positive energy inside us. It's no wonder Christ's model of forgiveness and his non-violent method go hand in hand with key messages from the world's great religions. This is the way.
More to come!
