Once an evangelical missionary, now an advocate for justice and inclusion - Marla Taviano

Today I spoke with Marla Taviano, who was an Evangelical Christian missionary and prolific author, but who ultimately deconverted as the truth claims of Christianity fell apart.
We touched on many topics, including:
• As a missionary, seeing that focusing on sharing the gospel often left people's physical needs completely unmet.
• Realizing that she could not truly love people while clinging to beliefs that harm them.
• Questioning the narrowness of the evangelical gospel.
• When she felt the need to choose between loving people and staying a Christian, choosing people.
• Seeing non-Christians show more love and compassion than Christians.
• Learning not to care what the Bible says about people’s identities and choices, and instead caring more about their humanity.
• Seeing that the Bible is not inerrant or a moral authority, but is just a product of its time, full of contradictions and harm.
• Being amazed at how many Christians are comfortable not asking hard questions and preferring to stay willfully ignorant.
• Losing relationships with people she loves, as a result of her deconversion, but gaining truth, freedom, authenticity, and peace.
• Acknowledging the fear of death and loss but choosing to focus on finding joy in the present.
• Becoming a strong advocate for justice and inclusion, and promoting love, justice, and community over dogma.
• Using her poetry and art as therapeutic tools to process her evolving beliefs and past religious trauma and to call out hypocrisy in evangelical stances on social issues.
Many thanks to Marla for sharing her story!
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Connect with Marla!
marlataviano.com.
marlataviano.s...
IG: @marlataviano and @whitegirllearning
www.amazon.com...
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--Tim
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Ending music by Kazuya / Eyal Raz, "Friends"
artlist.io/roy...
• Friends
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