Deconstructing DNA
/Many of the core revelations discovered because of DNA testing can be applied to the reasons why people are choosing to walk away from traditional Christian structures and faith altogether—abuse, hypocrisy, lies, and trauma.
Could it be that science and faith have collided in the quest for truth?
Nearly four years ago, I began working as director of public relations for a fledgling nonprofit. This organization is raising awareness by providing community and education for those whose lives have been affected by an NPE (“not parent expected”) discovery after completing an at-home DNA test. In chorus, I am a writer and life coach advocating for those who have experienced spiritual abuse. Both positions have opened the doors for consulting and various other amazing opportunities. It didn’t take long before I began seeing some patterns piecing both of my professional worlds and I could not help but compare the effects DNA testing is having on society with the conclusions of those who are deconstructing their faith and the accompanying religious structures.
DNA Testing
At-home DNA testing has caused one media frenzy after another in recent days as companies are galloping forward with science, connecting our DNA around world with those who share our genetic story. While most people take an at-home DNA test out of curiosity to discover more about their ethnicity, many are also testing for health or other reasons—not realizing there will be secrets conveyed by their test results.
Science is constantly learning more about how amazing our bodies are. We have learned through DNA testing that we can read our own family history book. Today, it’s not if someone you care about will make an unexpected DNA discovery, it’s when.
As genetic connections are revealed which indicate an affair, assault, lie or secret, individuals are faced with stark realities about the humanness of their own family-as is often the case inside the NPE community such as when a person learns the man who raised them is not their biological father. Often, further investigation uncovers a new medical history, race, religion, or biological relations. The meaning and traditional structure of family is being challenged around the globe.
Faith Deconstruction
Faith deconstruction as a movement is also a contemporary phenomenon. People are boldly standing against abuse, authoritarian control and systems of shame, manipulation, and patriarchy coupled with a new passion for justice and undefiled religious thought.
Craftily veiled or shrouded in fear, the naked truth about our churches, private family life, and the foundation of our culture’s existing religious systems are being shaken, not only through difficult questions and challenges to conventional Christian faith, but by what science is disclosing through DNA test results.
What Is Being Revealed?
When you spit in that tube or swabbed your cheek, in that moment, you were unaware that your life was about to change forever. Weeks later your life’s trajectory would be altered with a revelation about what flows inside of your own veins or someone with whom you share a genetic connection.
Disruption of identity can occur, striking suddenly like an earthquake when a DNA discovery flashes across your computer screen, leaving fractures in your own heart, your family and in the lives of the ones you love the most.
If the at-home DNA test says you are related…you’re related, as it has an approximate 99% accuracy rate on that account. Due to this precise science, much is shockingly made known to blindsided participants including:
secrets
family traumas
generational behaviors
hypocrisy
lies
abuse
and more
Often in unexpected DNA matches, you must gather all the “truths” to determine the facts. Once, I heard a statement, “There is a difference between truth and fact.” The fact might be that your DNA is connected to someone you did not expect. The truth is mom and your newly discovered biological family member(s) have different stories.
The “truth” can be approached much like a crime-scene detective. The detective comes up to the scene of a crime where there are several witnesses. Each witness has their own perspective—they saw one aspect, one angle of the crime. The detective interviews and listens to each witness tell the “truth” about what happened. Then he takes each of those stories and sees where they overlap to get the facts.
With the revelation of sometimes painful or formerly hidden information, comes significant relational and social decisions. DNA testing is revealing the truth, from all perspectives, about our lives and the lives our ancestors.
DNA and Deconstruction
Within the American church today, individuals are also experiencing a crisis of identity, that identity having been founded on a certain religious or spiritual platform which has now been shaken. As new information is welcomed and new ways of thinking or belief possibilities enter a person’s life, they are faced with stark realities.
Layers of abuses, unbiblical and toxic structures, and cultures of shame and victim-blaming are being realized and cannot be bypassed but must instead be faced with the realism of human behavior, a science affirming grasp of mental health and untainted Christian ethics.
No longer willing to defend the abusive environment in which they lived, people are telling their stories to raise awareness, be a voice of caution and support to others who have also survived religious abuse. Those raised inside high-demand groups masquerading as Christian churches or organizations within fundamentalist extremism or shaming twists of Scripture are revealing realities about the Christian constructs of our last generations.
Those raised inside authoritarian, high control groups masquerading as a Christian church or organization within fundamental extremism or evangelicalism, are revealing realities about the Christian constructs of our last generations. No longer willing to defend the abusive environment in which they lived, people by the thousands are examining their religious foundation and dissecting, or deconstructing, their beliefs. While some cannot reconcile what they have been taught with the realities they discover thus choosing to leave their faith altogether, others are finding a healthier approach to Christianity free of shame, manipulation, man-made rules and interpretations, or misemployed uses of Scripture.
Does Heritage or Societal Impact Matter to God?
There is an entire book of the Bible devoted to who begat who—it’s the book of Deuteronomy. But if we’re honest, most of us skip over that detailed book because it’s “boring.” Even the opening chapters of the Bible are filled with the description of Adam’s family tree, and unless you’re into exegesis, you likely skimmed those chapters too.
Knowing our family heritage and the heritage of our people seems to be important in the Bible. The genetic line of Jesus Himself was well-documented and included some amazing, dare I say rebel, and progressive women. Understanding our history as a stepping-stone for the future carries significant Biblical meaning.
Written by dozens of authors, spanning more than one thousand years, the entire Old Testament is documentation of the religious, historical, and yes, ancestral foundation setting up the arrival of Jesus. The New Testament displays that through the life and death of Jesus came fulfillment of not only ancient Jewish law and customs but also the historical foretelling found in the Old Testament.
The story of Jesus has been relevant in every age of human existence. The first miracle performed by Jesus was at a wedding, a social gathering. The event had run out of wine and Jesus stepped in—He cared about the couple’s big day. This was also important in the culture in which they lived. He turned water into wine at that wedding, which kept the party going! The initial public act of Jesus showed His concern for a cultural social situation and is evidence to us that yes, Jesus would care about the social ramifications of surprise DNA heritage discoveries or deconstructing harmful religious beliefs in our world today. More than that, He would be concerned with the root causes of these two experiences, including lies and abuse.
The Results
Learning from and seeing the outcomes of the past can deter us from making the same mistakes in our own lives, families, and world in which we live. Understanding the cultural and collective norms of times gone by allows for gratitude for how far we have come and insight as to where we still need to grow today. As a student of your own family history as well as the environment in which you were raised, you can progress with eyes open to the spiritual, emotional, and social needs of yourself and loved ones while charting a course towards healing, health, and restoration.
Every generation has its ethical, spiritual, and moral dilemmas which must be wrestled with and resolved. At-home DNA testing and faith deconstruction are a few of this era’s responsibilities and should not be avoided. These scientific discoveries and the questions warranted by our faith should inform how we do life. It may be idealistic to envision a world free from abuse and secrets, manipulation, and coercion, but to echo Maya Angelo, we can do better because now, we know better.
Originally seen in Issue 2 of The Unmooring Journal, in June of 2021.
