Unlearning God: How Unbelieving Helped Me Believe
QuakerSpeak
34.2K subscribers
24,004 views Sep 28, 2018
===
In order to have a healthy relationship with God, Quaker pastor and author Phil Gulley says that we must first unlearn what we’ve been taught about God.
SUBSCRIBE for a new video every week! http://fdsj.nl/QS-Subscribe
WATCH all our videos: http://fdsj.nl/qs-all-videos
Filmed and edited by Jon Watts: http://jonwatts.com
Music from this episode: http://jonwattsmusic.com
___
Become a Friends Journal subscriber for only $28
http://fdsj.nl/FJ-Subscribe
Find out about Quakers in PA, DE, NJ and MD
http://fdsj.nl/pym
FCE: deepening intimacy, finding peace, building community. Curious? http://fdsj.nl/fce
Learn about how Friends Fiduciary witnesses to Quaker values on Wall Street https://fdsj.nl/friends-fiduciary
___
Transcript:
It seems to me that when I think of people who are spiritually well and happy–and here I’m positing that happiness ought to be the goal of religion, not only our happiness but the happiness and well-being of others–people who are spiritually well and happy have all gone through a process of unlearning some of the first things they were taught about God.
Unlearning God: How Unbelieving Helped Me Believe
My name is Phil Gulley. I live in Danville, about 20 miles west of Indianapolis. I’m the pastor of Fairfield Friends Meeting in Camby, IN which is just south of the Indianapolis International Airport, and I serve as the pastor there. I also write books.
Unlearning Two Major Beliefs
First was the belief that there was a one true church, that a human institution had somehow become the only legitimate community in which folks could gather and worship and learn and grow together. So I had to unlearn that, that there was a “true church.”
And the other thing that I had to unlearn was what I learned and were called the “omni”s. That is–God is omnipotent, God is omniscient, God is omnipowerful (all-powerful), which lasted for a long time, until I grew old enough to start having bad things happen to people I loved.
Questioning God
These were people of faith, wonderful people. It became impossible for me to sustain the belief that God was both all-loving and all-powerful and all-knowing. I just could not continue in that belief. Once I released that, I liked God a lot more.
Being Angry with God
Before I began unlearning the first things I was taught about God, I would have moments in my life where I was very angry at God because the world seemed to me to be a very unfair place. And it is unfair. But I had convinced myself that the reason for that was because of God’s failure to act. When you see evil and when you believe that is a consequence of God’s failure to act, it is very difficult to sustain any kind of relationship with God, because you just have this spiritual resentment.
Growing Into a Healthy Relationship with God
When you no longer have the need to say everything in this life happens because of God, or doesn’t happen because of God, then you are free to have a much healthier relationship, not unlike parents and children.
Children, when they’re young, think their parents are so powerful that they can do anything, which is a good belief to have when you’re young and insecure and need so much. But if an adult child has that opinion of their parents, wouldn’t we say that they have failed to grow? And yet so many adult Christians persist with this belief that God can do anything and that everything that happens is for a reason and that God knows the reason and God has caused this thing to happen. I think that is a patently unhealthy view of the power and personality of God.
Letting Go
It’s hard to like a God who is all loving and all powerful and then doesn’t do something when innocent people suffer. But when you let go of that burden and you no longer have the need to have God be all-powerful or all-knowing, it really liberates your theology.
___
The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.
===
Living the Quaker Way
The long-held priorities of Quakerism–simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality–are so universally attractive and so urgently needed in today’s world, it begs the question, Is there a little bit of Quaker in all of us? As an antidote to the complexities and challenges of modern life, award-winning author Philip Gulley offers the opportunity to participate in a world where the values of the Quaker way bring equity, peace, healing, and hope.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
The Evolution of Faith
If Grace Is True describes Gulley and Mulholland’s conviction that God will save every person.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
I Love You, Miss Huddleston
I Love You, Miss Huddleston: And Other Inappropriate Longings of My Indiana Childhood is the uproarious story of Philip’s coming-of-age years in Danville, Indiana. Huddleston placed as a semi-finalist in the 2010 Thurber Prize for American Humor. The Thurber Prize is the only recognition of the art of humor writing in the United States.
Buy the Book
If Grace is True
If Grace Is True describes Gulley and Mulholland’s conviction that God will save every person.
Buy the Book
If God is Love
If God Is Love further explores the implications of this belief in eternal salvation and how it can impact every aspect of our lives.
Buy the Book
Porch Talk
Beloved American storyteller Philip Gulley evokes a time when life revolved around the front porch, where friends gathered, stories were told, and small moments took on large meaning. In today’s hurry-up world, Gulley’s observations are frank and funny, reminding us of the world we once shared, and can again.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
Hometown Tales
Stories from a Place That Feels Like Home
Master storyteller Philip Gulley envelops readers in an almost forgotten world of plainspoken and honest small-town values, evoking a simpler time when people knew each other by name, folks looked out for their neighbors, and people were willing to do what was right—no matter the cost.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
For Everything a Season
Filled with a cast of lovable, quirky characters, punctuated with simple wonders, the everyday truths found in this book offer much needed clarity to our own befuddled world.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
Home to Harmony
In this acclaimed inaugural volume in the Harmony series, master American storyteller Philip Gulley draws us into the charming world of minister Sam Gardner in his first year back in his hometown, capturing the essence of small-town life with humor and wisdom.
Buy the Book
Just Shy of Harmony
Thousands of readers have fallen in love with Harmony, the small town with the kindly spirit whose endearing and eccentric residents are like old friends. Join them for Sam Gardner’s second year as pastor of his quirky flock.
Buy the Book
Signs & Wonders
A Year of Laughter and Grace in harmony
Master storyteller Philip Gulley returns to the winsome ways of Harmony, Indiana, in the third installment of the beloved Harmony series.
Buy the Book
Christmas in Harmony
Philip Gulley takes us to Harmony, Indiana, at Christmastime as inspiration strikes the inimitable Dale Hinshaw. Always looking for a way to increase the church’s profit margins, Hinshaw brainstorms a progressive nativity scene that will involve the whole town, complete with a map like those for the Hollywood stars.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
Life Goes On
Squarely in the crosshairs of the Church’s heresy hunters, can Pastor Sam survive?
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
A Change of Heart
Now in paperback, is the fifth full–length novel in the beloved Harmony series Philip Gulley reunites us with the quirky cast of Quakers in Harmony, Indiana.
Buy the Book
A Christmas Scrapbook
It’s autumn in Harmony, and Pastor Sam Gardner has vowed to be ready for Christmas. Determined to redeem a dreadful history of gift giving, Sam enrolls in a scrapbooking class to make a Christmas gift his wife will never forget. However, Sam’s absence from their home every Wednesday night, coupled with his fishy alibi of attending a men’s group, raises her suspicions.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
Almost Friends
It’s summer in Harmony, but not everything is as sunny as the weather. The good citizens of Harmony are back and stirring up trouble as usual, sometimes with disastrous results.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
If the Church Were Christian
Thousands of readers have fallen in love with Harmony, the small town with the kindly spirit whose endearing and eccentric residents are like old friends. Join them for Sam Gardner’s second year as pastor of his quirky flock.
Buy the Book
A Place Called Hope
A Place Called Hope is AVAILABLE NOW! Fans of the critically acclaimed Harmony series will delight in the return of it’s central character, Sam Gardner, in this new series by Gulley.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
A Lesson in Hope
Sam Gardner has been pastor of Hope Friends Meeting for just four months when a ninety-eight-year-old member, Olive Charles, passes away and leaves her entire estate–worth almost one million dollars–to the meeting.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
A Gathering in Hope
Thanks to an unexpected windfall, Sam Gardner’s congregation (with the exception of a few malcontents) is eager to expand their meetinghouse. But before building can commence, the County Environmental Board and the Department of Natural Resources put the quietus on the plan.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
Unlearning God
Most of us grow up taking in whole belief systems with our mother’s milk, only to discover later that what we received as being certain is actually nothing like it. And then we’re faced with a choice–retreat to spiritual security and the community that comes with it, or strike out into the unknown.
Full Synopsis
With his trademark humor and down-home wisdom, Philip Gulley serves as just the spiritual director a wayward pilgrim could warm to, inviting readers into his own sometimes rollicking, sometimes daunting journey of spiritual discovery. He writes about being raised by a Catholic mother and a Baptist father across the street from a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses–all three camps convinced the others are doomed. To nearly everyone’s consternation, Philip grows up to be a Quaker and a pastor. In Unlearning God, Gulley showcases his well-loved gift as a storyteller and his acute sensibilities as a public theologian in conversations that will charm, provoke, encourage, and inspire.
Buy the Book
Living the Quaker Way
The long-held priorities of Quakerism–simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality–are so universally attractive and so urgently needed in today’s world, it begs the question, Is there a little bit of Quaker in all of us? As an antidote to the complexities and challenges of modern life, award-winning author Philip Gulley offers the opportunity to participate in a world where the values of the Quaker way bring equity, peace, healing, and hope.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
The Evolution of Faith
If Grace Is True describes Gulley and Mulholland’s conviction that God will save every person.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
I Love You, Miss Huddleston
I Love You, Miss Huddleston: And Other Inappropriate Longings of My Indiana Childhood is the uproarious story of Philip’s coming-of-age years in Danville, Indiana. Huddleston placed as a semi-finalist in the 2010 Thurber Prize for American Humor. The Thurber Prize is the only recognition of the art of humor writing in the United States.
Buy the Book
If Grace is True
If Grace Is True describes Gulley and Mulholland’s conviction that God will save every person.
Buy the Book
If God is Love
If God Is Love further explores the implications of this belief in eternal salvation and how it can impact every aspect of our lives.
Buy the Book
Porch Talk
Beloved American storyteller Philip Gulley evokes a time when life revolved around the front porch, where friends gathered, stories were told, and small moments took on large meaning. In today’s hurry-up world, Gulley’s observations are frank and funny, reminding us of the world we once shared, and can again.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
Hometown Tales
Stories from a Place That Feels Like Home
Master storyteller Philip Gulley envelops readers in an almost forgotten world of plainspoken and honest small-town values, evoking a simpler time when people knew each other by name, folks looked out for their neighbors, and people were willing to do what was right—no matter the cost.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
For Everything a Season
Filled with a cast of lovable, quirky characters, punctuated with simple wonders, the everyday truths found in this book offer much needed clarity to our own befuddled world.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
Home to Harmony
In this acclaimed inaugural volume in the Harmony series, master American storyteller Philip Gulley draws us into the charming world of minister Sam Gardner in his first year back in his hometown, capturing the essence of small-town life with humor and wisdom.
Buy the Book
Just Shy of Harmony
Thousands of readers have fallen in love with Harmony, the small town with the kindly spirit whose endearing and eccentric residents are like old friends. Join them for Sam Gardner’s second year as pastor of his quirky flock.
Buy the Book
Signs & Wonders
A Year of Laughter and Grace in harmony
Master storyteller Philip Gulley returns to the winsome ways of Harmony, Indiana, in the third installment of the beloved Harmony series.
Buy the Book
Christmas in Harmony
Philip Gulley takes us to Harmony, Indiana, at Christmastime as inspiration strikes the inimitable Dale Hinshaw. Always looking for a way to increase the church’s profit margins, Hinshaw brainstorms a progressive nativity scene that will involve the whole town, complete with a map like those for the Hollywood stars.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
Life Goes On
Squarely in the crosshairs of the Church’s heresy hunters, can Pastor Sam survive?
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
A Change of Heart
Now in paperback, is the fifth full–length novel in the beloved Harmony series Philip Gulley reunites us with the quirky cast of Quakers in Harmony, Indiana.
Buy the Book
A Christmas Scrapbook
It’s autumn in Harmony, and Pastor Sam Gardner has vowed to be ready for Christmas. Determined to redeem a dreadful history of gift giving, Sam enrolls in a scrapbooking class to make a Christmas gift his wife will never forget. However, Sam’s absence from their home every Wednesday night, coupled with his fishy alibi of attending a men’s group, raises her suspicions.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
Almost Friends
It’s summer in Harmony, but not everything is as sunny as the weather. The good citizens of Harmony are back and stirring up trouble as usual, sometimes with disastrous results.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
If the Church Were Christian
Thousands of readers have fallen in love with Harmony, the small town with the kindly spirit whose endearing and eccentric residents are like old friends. Join them for Sam Gardner’s second year as pastor of his quirky flock.
Buy the Book
A Place Called Hope
A Place Called Hope is AVAILABLE NOW! Fans of the critically acclaimed Harmony series will delight in the return of it’s central character, Sam Gardner, in this new series by Gulley.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
A Lesson in Hope
Sam Gardner has been pastor of Hope Friends Meeting for just four months when a ninety-eight-year-old member, Olive Charles, passes away and leaves her entire estate–worth almost one million dollars–to the meeting.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
A Gathering in Hope
Thanks to an unexpected windfall, Sam Gardner’s congregation (with the exception of a few malcontents) is eager to expand their meetinghouse. But before building can commence, the County Environmental Board and the Department of Natural Resources put the quietus on the plan.
Full Synopsis
Buy the Book
Unlearning God
Most of us grow up taking in whole belief systems with our mother’s milk, only to discover later that what we received as being certain is actually nothing like it. And then we’re faced with a choice–retreat to spiritual security and the community that comes with it, or strike out into the unknown.
Full Synopsis
With his trademark humor and down-home wisdom, Philip Gulley serves as just the spiritual director a wayward pilgrim could warm to, inviting readers into his own sometimes rollicking, sometimes daunting journey of spiritual discovery. He writes about being raised by a Catholic mother and a Baptist father across the street from a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses–all three camps convinced the others are doomed. To nearly everyone’s consternation, Philip grows up to be a Quaker and a pastor. In Unlearning God, Gulley showcases his well-loved gift as a storyteller and his acute sensibilities as a public theologian in conversations that will charm, provoke, encourage, and inspire.
Buy the Book
