#125 – Paul’s spiritual journey

Another listener tells his story of navigating a long and meandering path through Evangelicalism: many detours, but the same destination.

This week, we talk to an old friend of both of ours: Paul Almas. Paul played a key role in Luke’s reconstruction journey, was someone that both Luke and Scott looked up to 20 or 30 years ago in two very different church settings, and has been an ardent supporter of the Recovering Evangelicals Project from the very beginning. He’s constantly plugged into various podcasts and sending us articles of political, religious, theological, sociological, and/or philosophical interest. Points that we talked about in today’s conversation include:

• his father was a circuit preacher in rural Canada in the 30s and 40s
• Paul was steeped in Fundamentalist, Dispensational Theology … Young Earth Creationism …. inerrancy/infallibility of scripture …. he fully embraced all of this for the first two decades of his life
• a very tightly knit family and social group (church congregation)
• for young members in this community, becoming a pastor/missionary was top priority, while secular work was second choice
• in order to pursue what ultimately became his career (industrial design and consulting), Paul needed to leave the constraints of his community and go to the big city (Toronto) to get education; this exposed him to a whole new world
• started to ask questions in his youth years, especially when the church brought in travelling preachers/evangelists with their emotionally manipulative revivalist tent meetings
• as a young adult, he was very much involved in teaching, leading, and serving as elder and board member in the churches he attended (and helped build)
• in his 40s, became disenchanted with the church as an institution
• became critical of much of the theology that he had held firmly during the first two or three decades of his life, particularly the inerrancy and infallibility of scripture, morality of many Old Testament stories, Dispensational Theology, atonement theology, the blood of Christ, his concept of God, the Trinity, etc. ….
• needed to soften his positions on those aspects of his theology and belief system, eventually reconfiguring parts and even rejecting other parts outright
• when he subjected his personal theology to the creative problem-solving methodological tools that he developed for his business (industrial consulting), or the critical thinking that comes with the Scientific Method, he found big holes and gaps (see 29:00 – 32:00)
• he still fully believed in a creative force, but had serious problems with the arrogance and certainty that theology invoked … still “has not landed” on many theological issues about which he previously had great certainty
• what is Paul’s secret? why has he been able to give up on many of the same theological tenets that other people have blamed for the shipwrecking of their faith, and yet still retain a firmly committed Christian belief? Answer: you have to learn to be comfortable with mystery … requiring certainty is fatal to belief
• no longer interested in the institution of church, but greatly values the fellowship and community of church
• any regrets about that journey? … none at all … rough patches were learning and growth opportunities
• even as he’s “turning up the seats, putting up the chair tables, and getting ready for final landing approach,” he’s getting excited to meet the creative force from which we came
• when asked can/should Evangelicalism be recovered, his answer was: “I don’t think so. I’d never use the label anymore.” We need to find a new label for what we want it to mean.

As always, tell us your thoughts on this topic …

If you’re interested in other personal life stories of people we’ve interviewed, check out this thematic collection.

Image by Kevin Klarer from Pixabay.

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