Rhett & Link Abandon Jesus? 5 Reasons To Think Otherwise

Before February 2020 I had never heard of Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal. Our media fueled “siloed” communities dividing us in politics, religion, race, culture, and various interests meant I was totally oblivious to “Rhett & Link” despite their being YouTube comedy sensations with nearly 17 million subscribers. (And I’m a regular YouTube watcher)

But then “Rhett & Link” appeared suddenly on my radar when their “silo” crossed over into mine. Alisa Childers wrote a piece for The Gospel Coalition critiquing Rhett & Link’s shared spiritual deconstruction from evangelical Christianity. Childers has recently become the go to apologist for Evangelicals who go astray having flirted with deconstruction herself but then (whew) successfully managed to pull herself back from the postmodern abyss. She articulates her argument well as she did in a recent debate with Lisa Gungor, (and I’m more in the Gungor camp) so Childer’s article became my “on ramp” into the deconstruction stories of these YouTube celebrities who seemingly had gone astray.

I quickly downloaded and submerged myself into Rhett and Link’s respective stories (which you can also see on YouTube here and here). It didn’t take long before quickly discovering these two were not some boys who got “saved” at some church youth camp alter call and then used their new found Christianity merely as a buttress against sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll after that.

No, these lads loved Jesus. I mean really loved Jesus! And as a guy who loves Jesus too I quickly found myself resonating with their stories.

And so as I processed Rhett & Link’s stories I found 5 takeaways to suggest maybe they hadn’t abandoned Jesus as much as their (many) critics suggest:

1) Deconstructing Statements of Faith is not the same as Deconstructing Faith itself

When Jesus called his disciples he simply said, “Follow Me”.  Today that simple choice to follow Jesus and learn to engage Life through his Way comes with a whole lot of additional belief requirements.  Peruse many a church website and you’ll find a Statement of Faith list of things you will need to believe in addition to “Following Me”. 

Overtime these add on requirements of belief become so ingrained with one’s Christian faith that when you begin to question them your whole Christian identity feels under threat. 

In Rhett & Link’s deconstruction they frequently site their growing struggles with reconciling these add on requirements with the reality of science, morality, and basic common sense. But as Reformed Evangelicals these weren’t simply “add on” beliefs…

…this was Christianity!

Listening to their podcast you hear the fear that if they stopped believing in this or that could they even still call themselves a Christian?

The answer many of us who deconstructed before can enthusiastically answer, “YES”

Jesus never answered the thief on the cross who asked Christ to remember him when he came into his Kingdom with, “This Day you’ll be with me in Paradise…just so long as you also believe the world was created in six days”

One can believe in a literal Adam OR that Adam is a metaphor and still follow Jesus.

Deconstructing from certain Statements of Faith doesn’t mean you have to jettison the Christian faith altogether…in fact for many of us, it’s put the focus back on Jesus and the fire back in our faith!

2) Don’t Panic

Rhett and Link’s deconstruction journey frequently mentioned the struggle they felt as they began to hold long held beliefs to the fire.  Questioning those beliefs meant friendships, family bonds, and the very fabric of their community were all threatened.  Rhett even invokes the Apostle Peter’s response to Jesus when Jesus asks if he will leave him to which Peter responds, “Where would I go?”

For many people deconstructing, so much of their world revolves around their church community.  To lose that community is a pretty scary thought.

But here’s the thing; spiritual deconstruction is in many ways just spiritual puberty.  Like in biological puberty where one begins to form an adult identity separate from their parents and begin to wrestle with the understanding that the world is much more complex and nuanced than originally thought.   That the simple childlike answers of your youth which at one time gave such clarity and certainty no longer sufficed.

Unfortunately, much of the church and pastoral leadership seems committed to stopping the proper spiritual development of Christians and instead choose to  keep them artificially in a state of spiritual “arrested development”.  As any parent will attest teenagers are difficult, children are much easier to control.

When the “teenage” years come and the questions and pushing the boundaries begin most churches are ill-equipped to handle it.  Because of that many former Christians suddenly and unceremoniously find themselves kicked outside the church wondering what just happened (with various levels of resentment and cynicism thrown in)

My advice to Rhett and Link (and borrowing from the Immortal words of Douglas Adams) is “Don’t Panic”; across the Jordan River of spiritual deconstruction exists a “promised Land” of a deeper, richer, and more beautiful faith in Christ and his Way.

3) You think L.A. stretched you? Try the whole world

Rhett & Link preempt their critics suggestion that their moving to Los Angeles was just the slippery slope to their abandoning their faith.  The two admit in the podcast that moving to L.A. did free them of some constraints that their home town version of Christianity placed on them.  As they mixed with Christians that perhaps had a broader perspective on certain subjects it freed them to consider that the way they had been taught was not the “one size fits all” that they thought.   If you’ve been taught your whole life that your local “one size fits all” faith is THE faith…well, you’re going to be in for a rude awakening when you travel.

And you think Los Angeles stretched you?  Try the whole world.  When you’ve mixed with European Christians, and African Christians, and South American Christians, and Indian Christians, and Asian Christians, and Pacific Islander Christians you soon realize the Church is much more varied and diverse than you can imagine yet can all still be One in Christ.

Which lead me to…

4) There are other aisles in the Christian supermarket besides Evangelical

One of the metaphors I like to use for my own personal spiritual deconstruction and reconstruction is that of a supermarket.  Most of my life I saw the one or two aisles of Evangelical / Charismatic Christianity I was raised with as the totality of the whole store.  Not only was I taught everything I ever needed for my faith in Christ could be found in that aisle but later, sadly, that was what I went on to teach others. 

When I discovered that there were many other aisles in the supermarket that contained delicious spiritual  food I was at first nervous and suspicious. 

Was this healthy food? 

But as I tasted from Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, Anabaptist, and other aisles of the supermarket I discovered the Christian faith was much more rich, varied, and delicious than I had ever thought.  And soon discovered some of these other traditions had different perspectives on some of the issues that often trigger Evangelical spiritual deconstruction:

• Atonement (does God really need a blood sacrifice?)
• Hell
• Gender equality
• Salvation
• Violence
• Biblical Inerrancy

I came to realise the Evangelical aisle of the supermarket is a wonderful aisle in the supermarket but it ain’t the only aisle…as much as they often like to claim it is.

5) Rhett & Link are on a journey…and still following Christ

I often joke that most of the people I personally know that jettison God altogether during their deconstruction often become more “Christ-like” now that they no longer see themselves as Christians.  Much to the chagrin of their critics who often suggest the real reason is so they can succumb to a life of sin, I find the opposite is often true.

Now that they no longer need to outsource their morality to God they begin to take more responsibility for it themselves.  Indeed they become:

• Less judgmental
• More gracious
• More understanding
• More compassionate

From the short exposure I’ve had to the spiritual journey of Rhett and Link it seems they will produce even more love, joy, peace, gentleness, and kindness that Jesus says will come from those who are following him.

Who will separate us from the Love of Christ? 

According to Romans 8… nothing!

So to Rhett and Link I say enjoy the journey and keep bringing Life and Light to those around you!

Peace,

Steve