What if there is a path to a healthy faith you can feel confident in?
Thousands have left Christianity through deconstruction—and not just casual Christians, but also sincere believers struggling with doctrines that don't seem to align with Jesus's message of love and grace.
In Curing Christianity, D.L. Webster examines ten common beliefs which may be causing you confusion, doubt, and spiritual harm. Learn how you can avoid these common pitfalls through a constructive approach that focuses on healing rather than leaving.
Inside, you'll discover:
· How fear-based theology undermines genuine faith
· What the Bible really says about God's love and character
· How to understand hell, salvation, and scripture in healthier ways
· Why some beliefs cause anxiety and spiritual trauma
· How to build a robust faith that withstands cultural currents
If you've ever felt confused by contradictory teachings, wounded by religious practices, or watched friends walk away from their faith—you're not alone. Whether you're questioning your beliefs, supporting someone who is, or simply want to strengthen your understanding of Jesus, this book offers a path toward authentic, resilient Christianity.
Too many Christians are spiritually unwell. It’s time for a cure.
What if there is a path to a healthy faith you can feel confident in?
Thousands have left Christianity through deconstruction—and not just casual Christians, but also sincere believers struggling with doctrines that don't seem to align with Jesus's message of love and grace.
In Curing Christianity, D.L. Webster examines ten common beliefs which may be causing you confusion, doubt, and spiritual harm. Learn how you can avoid these common pitfalls through a constructive approach that focuses on healing rather than leaving.
Inside, you'll discover:
· How fear-based theology undermines genuine faith
· What the Bible really says about God's love and character
· How to understand hell, salvation, and scripture in healthier ways
· Why some beliefs cause anxiety and spiritual trauma
· How to build a robust faith that withstands cultural currents
If you've ever felt confused by contradictory teachings, wounded by religious practices, or watched friends walk away from their faith—you're not alone. Whether you're questioning your beliefs, supporting someone who is, or simply want to strengthen your understanding of Jesus, this book offers a path toward authentic, resilient Christianity.
Too many Christians are spiritually unwell. It’s time for a cure.
"Do not give way to fear." 1 Peter 3:6
"'Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.'" Isaiah 8:12, 1 Peter 3:14
Why would I start a book regarding Christianity with a chapter on fear? Fear may be the biggest, most unacknowledged sin prevalent among Christians today. More precisely, it’s the actions people take as a result of fear which perhaps account for the most sin.
Fear itself isn’t bad; it’s how we choose to respond to fear that can be good or bad. A variety of feelings can be grouped under the general category of fear. You might be startled if someone jumps out from behind a corner, for example. Or you may feel terror if you see a bear cross your path as you hike. Many people have a fear of speaking in front of others. You might be afraid of failing on a project. Or you may worry if your child comes home late.
I’m not saying all of these are sin. Furthermore, fear is like anger—the emotion itself isn’t wrong. We are human, and part of our humanity is feeling emotions. Our emotions are important signals that give us insight into ourselves and the world around us. They are like gauges that monitor how we are doing in ways we might not otherwise be aware of.
However, what our emotions tell us isn’t always the true reality of our situation. We must evaluate our feelings in order to determine what message they are trying to send and if this message is accurate. God has given us our minds and intends us to use our reason in concert with our emotions in order to make wise choices (Rom 12:2, Jas 1:5, Phil 1:9–10).
For example, if our friends plan a surprise party for us, we might feel fear the moment everyone jumps out and yells, “Surprise!” In that moment, we might get a shot of adrenaline and our heart rate jumps. Our body is telling us, “Danger!” even though we are clearly safe. In this scenario, we should be able to quickly recognize our safety and react not by running out the door or by punching the nearest person in the face. However, not every situation is as clear, and our body doesn’t always go along with our conscious thoughts right away. In other words, even if we consciously recognize we are safe in a particular situation, we may still physically feel fear, worry, nervousness, or anxiousness.
Fear affects your life personally. I can say this with confidence because it affects all of us. The question is, do you recognize the fears in your life? Can you determine which of your fears are unreasonable and choose to act despite them?
For years, when people talked about fear, I only thought of the feeling of being scared such what as I might experience in a haunted house. I didn’t recognize how fear affected my life for a long time. I finally realized that I refrained from doing certain things because my unconscious mind thought that if I did them, then I would feel afraid. My unconscious mind tried to protect me from scary feelings by avoiding them before I even got to the point of feeling them consciously.
For example, one time I went to buy flowers for a friend of mine. Once at the store, I realized I felt hesitation to do so. I recognized this and began to ponder why I was apprehensive. I figured out that carrying flowers through the store would be noticeable, and I had buried memories of kids teasing others about boys “liking” girls. As a child, I had unconsciously developed a strategy of avoiding painful criticism by going unnoticed. Once I was able to understand this and realize my fear was unreasonable, I was able to choose to act despite my fear.
Fear triggers self-preservation instincts. This isn’t bad. Just like the rest of the emotions God created us with, fear has a useful function. Being safe is good. God wants us to be alive and healthy, and the self-preservation instincts help us in this regard.
However, emotions aren’t intelligent and aren’t always right. Even when they are, the actions our feelings want us to take may not lead to the actions that God wants us to take. Our emotions are fallen like the rest of us.
A godly response to fear often goes against our natural instincts. For example, Jesus clearly—and very understandably—feared the experience of being tortured and crucified for our sins. He felt so distraught that he sweat blood immediately beforehand. Yet he chose to trust the Father and took the path of self-sacrifice for our sake.
It’s clear from both Scripture and Jesus that God loves people. The Bible instructs us to love others, because we are to represent God’s love in the world. The Bible says that, “God is love” and “perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:8, 16, 18).
The Bible also speaks about the fear of the Lord. I’ve heard many a Christian struggle to understand this concept. I have found it helpful to consider its opposite. What does it look like not to fear God? Those who don’t consider God in their lives, who don’t respect or take seriously his ways, do not practice the fear of God. In contrast, those who do fear God do recognize him and take seriously his ways. The fear of the Lord doesn’t mean a person is terrified of God. Once again, “Perfect love drives out fear.” Instead, fear of the Lord means that one takes seriously God and tries to live in his ways.
If fear motivated only positive or merely inconsequential behavior, then I wouldn’t be writing this chapter. As it is, many of the actions we take as a result of fear lead us to act in ways contrary to the ways of Jesus. This shouldn’t be surprising. In the Bible, people are instructed over eighty times, “Do not be afraid.” And fear is mentioned in some way over five hundred times. Clearly, fear is a common human emotion. A decision to follow Christ doesn’t immediately make a person perfect. God neither immediately removes our fears nor our natural reactions to fear. Recognizing our fears and learning to respond to them in a Christ like way is a part of learning to be disciple of Jesus.
Fear raises our defenses. We may attack the object of our fear in an attempt to eliminate it. If the object of our fear is a spider, then perhaps this isn’t a big deal. But what if the object of our fear is our neighbor? The apostle Paul tells us that we fight not against other people but against spiritual forces. However, we often think other people are the enemy. God wants us to love others. I will examine love more thoroughly in the next chapter. But for now, understand that building walls to protect us from others or attacking them aren’t ways of loving people.
I’m not arguing against prudence. Locking your door at night is prudent, for example. There are people in the world who will do harm if given the chance. I’m not saying that we love them by letting them take what they want or allowing them to inflict harm. God may lead us to take this kind of action at times, but this isn’t a given in every situation.
Too often, we are tempted to fear a broad range of people. Many people experience an existential dread of anyone who doesn’t look and think like themselves—or whom they simply don’t know—believing they intend to cause harm. Many people believe someone out there desires to take what’s theirs and ruin their way of life.
We are wrong to think that people of a different class, language, nationality, religion, political party, etc. are less trustworthy than others solely due to these classifications. We sin when we judge whole groups of people as bad because of one or more of these differences. Either Jesus loves and died for everyone in the world, or he did not. Recall that Paul states, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28).
For example, some people who have money judge those who don’t. They may verbally acknowledge the exceptions—especially for anyone they know personally. Yet they will generalize all those in poverty as lazy and out to steal their money through government programs. On the flip side, many working class people will judge all those with more wealth as being greedy, evil, hoarding money for themselves while not paying workers enough.
Both extremes can claim an element of truth since there are people who fit these stereotypes. The problem is when we pre-judge everyone in a group. Using the above example, it’s a gross oversimplification to believe that all wealthy people are greedy, or all poor people are lazy. Good and bad people exist in most groups. Fear isn’t the only reason for being prejudiced against others, but fear of being taken advantage of and fear of there not being enough both play a role.
The following two chapters examine love specifically. But I quickly want to look at one applicable example of God’s love. If we want to be consistent in saying that Jesus loves everyone, we must believe that he loved the Pharisees. Reading through the Gospels, it’s easy to see the religious leaders as the enemy. Jesus certainly has some harsh words for them, but he didn’t dehumanize them or wish their death. Quite the contrary—he desired their repentance and his actions were directed to that end.
Jesus commanded his disciples to go into all the world as representatives of his kingdom. Presumably as they did so, they would encounter people with different backgrounds, different cultures, different languages, and different ethnicities. Jesus didn’t say to love these people only if they learned Hebrew or got circumcised or supported the “right” Roman emperor. Jesus didn’t promote building walls around Israel to keep others out. Instead, he taught that we should be like the Father, who causes rain to fall on both the righteous and unrighteous (Matt 5:45).
Fear and love are like oil and water. Fear of our neighbor causes us to protect ourselves at the cost of our neighbor. Jesus does the opposite. He serves humanity even at cost to himself.
How can we tell if we are responding to fear with prudence or sin? First, ask yourself if your fear is reasonable. Sometimes this questioning is all we need to recognize we are being unreasonable. However, we must be cautious knowing that our emotions can bias us to rationalize what we already feel. Am I simply attempting to protect myself against a nebulous, abstract, perceived threat, one that isn’t truly grounded in reality?
Second, and perhaps most importantly, we need to ask how our response will affect others. Am I willing to even consider how my actions may affect others? Will my actions or the actions I am advocating for help others? Will they be inconsequential to others, or will they actually harm them? Am I effectively advocating to sacrifice the wellbeing of others in order to maintain my own sense of comfort? Or am I willing to consider others’ points of view?
Below are examples of the contrast between fear and love.
Fear: Keep out the foreigner.
Love: Welcome the outsider. (Exod 23:9, Lev 19:33–34, Deut 10:18–19, Jer 22:3)
Fear: Avoid talking about sex (out of fear that this will lead to sexual sin).
Love: Teach about healthy sexuality. (Prov 22:6)
Fear: Condemn those who hold different views.
Love: Listen respectfully to those who hold different views.
Fear: Preach God’s wrath and judgment out of fear that otherwise people will sin.
Love: Preach God’s love and mercy so that people won’t want to sin.
Fear: Exercise tight control over every group in the church because someone might say something doctrinally wrong.
Love: Allow others to exercise their own gifts and trust that God will take care of doctrine. (1 Cor 12:7, 13:26)
Fear: We mustn’t dare question the institutions that supposedly protect us.
Love: When a person claims to have been hurt by an institution, we can consider their story.
Fear: Governments, politicians, and/or other groups are conspiring to ruin our way of life.
Love: Though there are corrupt people and institutions, many in leadership are doing their best for their constituents.
Fear: We must homeschool our kids and only let them participate in Christian groups or else they might be taught something contrary to our beliefs (a wall of sorts).
Love: We can allow our kids to attend schools and/or participate in groups that aren’t specifically Christian, and we can guide them through whatever they encounter.
We, as ambassadors of Christ both individually and collectively, must learn to love others despite our fears. Jesus has given us this ability through his resurrection from the dead. Because of the resurrection, we can choose to risk ourselves instead of sacrificing the wellbeing of other people. God empowers us through the cross because we know that no matter what happens, God is more powerful.
When you find yourself anxious, worried, hesitant, or even angry (which can come from feeling threatened), ask yourself what you are really afraid of. Try to identify the issue behind the fear. For example, if a bear runs across my path, I could say I am afraid of the bear. But behind this, I’m afraid of being injured and subsequently having a major disruption to my life. After identifying your fear, consider what this fear is urging you to do. Ask if this is a godly or worldly response.
Your fears may be preventing you from living the full life that God desires for you. As you study scripture and pray, ask God to reveal your unreasonable fears. Ask him to give you the courage to take the steps he wants despite your fears. Facing our fears is one aspect of the journey to healthy Christianity. And we can use our fear of missing God’s desire for our lives to fight our natural, fleshly reactions to our other fears.
I hope that you will hold your fear in check while reading the remainder of this book. Some ideas may at first seem scary. However, I want this book to help guide you to a more resilient faith. A dead, brittle tree will break in the wind. A healthy tree, however, is flexible enough to bend but not break.
* * *
Fear is a vital human emotion. However, because of our fallen nature, our fear may urge us to act in a way that is contrary to Christ’s love. As it is written, “In your anger, do not sin” (Eph 4:26), so also we must avoid sinning out of our fear.
In Curing Christianity, D. L. Webster addresses negative beliefs that have emerged inside the church and suggests that they be replaced with a more positive view of faith and scriptures. Readers who have struggled with confusion, guilt, anxiety, or misunderstanding in their spiritual journeys will discover reasonable explanations in Webster's writing. The aim of this book is to overcome the common misunderstandings about the Bible and the doctrines of the church.
The thing I liked most about the book was the writing style and the straightforward language. Many Christians struggle with issues related to doctrines of the church and the Bible. Some people feel intimidated to discuss their concerns in casual church settings. Webster's approach to the subjects of fear-based beliefs, spiritual anxiety, legalism, and emotional traumas is restorative and healing.
Webster reminds us that our salvation is given to us as a gift through Christ’s sacrifice. We can’t earn our salvation, but we are able to somehow convince ourselves that we can lose our salvation based on our actions. According to Webster, love and trust—rather than guilt and fear—are the hallmarks of a strong relationship with God.
Webster warns against interpreting the Bible literally. It is a poetic book filled with symbolism, which doesn’t diminish its status as “the infallible Word of God.”
Another thing I liked about the book is its positive tone. Webster points readers in the direction of hope, grace, and rejuvenation rather than criticizing Christianity.
Curing Christianity will appeal to a wide range of people because it is easy to read and understand. This book does not do a deep dive into formal religious studies. It is a practical guide that is written in plain English. I think that is its greatest strength.
Curing Christianity will appeal to readers seeking spiritual healing and a deeper understanding of their faith because of its honesty, warmth, and upbeat message. Curing Christianity is a meaningful, inspiring, and uplifting 5-star read.