Demolish, Repair, Restore A Season of Healing In 2013, my husband and I began a serious renovation project. Our 40+ year old home was in dire need of being rescued from its 1970's design and we were looking forward to bringing our sacred living space into the current decade. Our excitement morphed into exhaustion after ... Read More

Christianity's Day of Reckoning For a minute, it was somewhat entertaining. The scenario would go something like this…. I would make a video disparaging the churches that are "welcoming" but not "affirming," or who are intricately linked to white supremacy, which is inherent in American Christianity. Post video. Wait for the comments to confirm the ... Read More

The Strength and Beauty of a Snowflake The hypocrisy in disparaging creation The 60's were a dichotomy. They held great tension as people risked their lives to free themselves from the oppression their ancestors had endured. Even brutal winters did not deter activists from marching in frigid temps to stand together and fight for their ... Read More

What Does the Lord Require of You? Not What You Think "Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." Chances are, you recognize that line from The Wizard of Oz. Throughout history, Hollywood has gifted us memorable quotes that are used metaphorically in everyday language. From Humphrey Bogart's "Here's looking at you, kid" in Casablanca (1942) ... Read More

Dear Mr. President Prologue: For the first time since I began writing a blog several years ago, I've included a prologue. I hadn't considered it necessary until a video version of this writing titled, "Dear Mr. President" was posted on social media. While I knew that my open letter to President Biden had the potential ... Read More

Holy Holy Holy Grieving the Religion I Lost Grief arrived today, wrapped up in the words of a song that I hadn't heard in years. A song that at one time in my life, I played during prayer time. If I was dealing with a tense situation or just needed a reminder that "all things worked ... Read More

Keeping God in a Box Discovering the Holy in Our Daily Lives If you had told me that four years after seminary I would be creating an online ministry to help people heal from religious trauma and explore a spiritual but not religious path, I'm not sure I would have believed you. I knew I ... Read More

They Fear Your Strength I shouldn't be surprised, but yet somehow I was hopeful for a different reaction. The Christian's response to anyone leaving church is to hurl phrases dripping with fear and manipulation in an attempt to control them. From the outside looking in, it's a power move of cowards. Anyone who uses fear ... Read More

When Leaving Your Faith Feels Like Leaving a Toxic Relationship Why the spiritual but not religious movement is growing There was a time in my life when I would have despised the person I am now. That sentence was hard to write because packed in those words is a lifetime of living as a judgmental, ... Read More

The Wisdom of the Ages Honoring Your Heritage on Your Spiritual Journey 23 and Me, the test kit that assesses your DNA for your ancestral heritage, became even more popular during the pandemic. The company announced that they grew in the 1st quarter of 2021, due largely to the lockdowns that kept people home and ... Read More

What If You're Wrong Living with Fear of Hell, the Rapture, and the Return of Jesus Nichole Nordeman remains one of my favorite contemporary Christian singer/songwriters. In the years leading up to the deconstruction of my religious heritage, her songs comforted me in ways that I couldn't explain. With lyrics like, "when I close my ... Read More

For the Good Times Grieving What Was Lost and Finding Hope After Deconstructing Christianity My childhood was filled with all genres of music. From country and soul to hard rock, music was a huge part of my life. Throughout the years, that early exposure to music helped develop one of my superpowers that comes in ... Read More

When the Pope's Words Fail Humanity What the Pope really meant when he talked about pets in our lives. This month Pope Frances, one of the most influential people in the world, reminded all of us that he belongs to another time. A time when religion held so much power that people believed their salvation ... Read More

Thank You For Rejecting Me Leaving church impacted my life in so many ways. In the early days, the loss of my spiritual community was what pained me the most. Being as involved as I was in the daily operations of my church meant a constant stream of texts messages, phone calls, emails and meetings. ... Read More

If there is a God, why is there suffering? Something has shifted. It began late in 2021 and continues into the new year. Our followers are asking questions that reflect they are processing their spirituality on a deeply personal and sacred level. And we are here for it! While I still enjoy making videos that ... Read More

Leaving Church is Not Enough Why rejecting your faith is different than deconstructing from it. Like most of you, I've been posting on social media for many years. Although I considered myself experienced in the social media game, nothing prepared me for going viral on TikTok. Even though the platform appeals to a younger audience, ... Read More

What Scars Teach Us I am writing this in the final days of 2021- a period of time that has put an exclamation point on an already challenging year. I know I'm not alone. People are sharing their struggles on social media, and they're truly heartbreaking. Stories of loss, deception, disappointment, illness - all part ... Read More

Normal Is Not Enough Do you remember that time in 2020 when the murder hornets made a brief appearance then decided to exit the sh*t show because….well….2020. Did they return in 2021? No? Thank God, because that may have been the tipping point that would have broken many of us. In 2020, we mused that ... Read More

A Case for Separation of Church and State I have many fond memories of growing up in the 60's and 70's.  However, I also can see the places where the political, educational and religious systems in place at the time failed, allowing some of us to fall through the crack and land where empathy and ... Read More

This image was taken right after my grandson and I had finished his class project for his homework titled, "The First Americans." He and I had traversed the yard in search of the perfect stick that would make for the handle of the tomahawk he was to make as the final part of his assignment. ... Read More

It's Only Out of Love That I Judge You Why Christian love hurts, dehumanizes and needs to be called out... "There is nothing more hateful than Christian love." This phrase is a paradox, and people's responses to it range from relief by those who have been hurt by it, to anger and offense toward those ... Read More

Not All Christians? ​We've been here before, but it's obvious this is a topic we're destined to revisit time and again. I'll begin by admitting that I understand how some people may feel compelled to push back with a "Not all" statement when the truth hits too close to home. I understand this because I've ... Read More

Summertide Chasing the Sun "... And we'll never grow old again You'll find us chasing the sun …" That's from a song you may already be familiar with called "Chasing the Sun." The video has been viewed on YouTube over 127,000,000 times. Well, I don't know where I've been because that's kind of a big ... Read More

God Within Us ​Searching for Connection to the Holy There was a time I was a huge Mercy Me fan. For those unfamiliar with them, they are one of the most popular contemporary Christian rock bands whose popularity soared with their hit "Word of God Speak." This song crossed music genres and was continually played ... Read More

I Won't Back Down An Invitation to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone "Rev Karla, why do you have to be so rude? She's just sharing her opinion." Wait, what? I must admit, the first time someone said something like that to me, it gave me pause. I hadn't expected that a follower would suggest ... Read More

You Say "Abomination" Like It's a Bad Thing When Scripture is Weaponized to Dehumanize "Stop cherry-picking the Bible!" This comment gets thrown at me any time I speak on why being gay is not a sin, how you can be spiritual and not religious or why Christianity does not "own" the rainbow, much less God. ... Read More