He believes that trading certainty for curiosity and learning to think for himself was a necessary step for his spiritual growth after leaving Mormonism.

“I traded certitude for curiosity. And as I became curious, I then began to open myself up to, well, maybe the church history that I know is like a whitewashed version and maybe it's not really what truth is.”

The speaker believes there should be more empathy within atheist communities for the painful and challenging process of deconstructing from a religious upbringing.

“But when I get push back from atheists who laugh at me that it took me so long to deconstruct psychological and social anchors and how painful that journey was for me, it just comes off as a very gross lack of empathy.”

The American church needs to hold itself accountable by disassociating from Doug Wilson's harmful ideology.

“Honestly, I think this is on the church, the American church. This is on Christians and pastors all over America to say he's not us.”

Healing requires separating the figure of Jesus Christ from the specific, abusive rules and interpretations imposed by teachers like Doug Wilson.

“And I think that the work to be done is to separate out the figure of Jesus Christ from what Doug is saying and and look at the fruit.”

Leaving one's faith should be an intentional, reasoned decision based on understanding, rather than an impulsive reaction to being hurt.

“I think if you decide to leave the faith, you should do it for reasons. If you decide to stay in the faith, you should do it for reasons. And that it's better to have reasons, which means you have to think about it.”

He maintains that it is detrimental to force individuals out of a religious stage they are not ready to leave.

“one of the things that you and I have always been aware of is that you can't pull someone out of something that they're not ready to get out of it. It it'll backfire and you'll end up doing harm.”