Holy Runaways

Rediscovering Faith After Being Burned by Religion

By: Matthias Roberts, Jen Hatmaker - foreword

Narrated by: Matthias Roberts

Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

In the past decade, church attendance among US adults has decreased by more than 25 percent. Americans report leaving religious communities because of the institutions' hypocrisy and resistance to change or because of trauma they have experienced in those spaces. Instead of safe havens for people of faith, many churches have become sites of harm—places people feel the need to escape at all costs.

In Holy Runaways, psychotherapist Matthias Roberts reaches out to those who, like him, want to understand the religion they've run from and erect a new faith on firmer foundations. He concludes that the best blueprint for a new spiritual home requires reimagining ourselves, God, and our very definition of faith.

Roberts blends deeply personal stories, new interpretations of familiar Christian parables, and recent scholarship about the dynamics of trauma to offer a way forward—and a warm, helpful companion—for listeners on their own journeys. He calls out people who perpetuate systems of violence and oppression and suggests ways we can all contribute to a new system built on love—and a new home we can inhabit together.

©2023 Matthias Roberts (P)2023 eChristian

Heart-gripping

This is a book I’ve needed for so long and I am so grateful for someone farther along in their journey to have put it to words so masterfully. This has been heart and life changing.

Truth, a powerful story, food for thought

Absolutely engaging and wise. I loved how much epistemological humility the author has. And a reverence for spiritual growth. The performance was great, although I did find it distracting that i could hear breaths and swallows. That’s not really a performance note, more of a production note. I highly recommend this book.

Beautiful. Gritty. Real.

This book is written with such grace and generosity. I can feel his pain, his joy, his love. Remarkable, as he is one who found so little of those things in the Church or in his Christian College…even in his family. Yet, in his retelling of each, he is understanding and empathetic. He leaves room for growth…his own as well as theirs.

I found this book to be hopeful. And if he, as a gay, Jesus follower can have hope…not just for himself and his faith, but for the Church and ultimately the world? Who am I to believe it not possible?!

I always love it when the author reads their own work. It really “sells me” on the truth and conviction of their work. An excellent, inspiring story for those of us trying to hang into our faith in a world gone utterly mad. Highly recommend.

Made me feel seen

This book made me feel seen as we are both what Matthias calls in this book, holy runaways.
I’ve been dismantling the theology around which I grew up after my first marriage, where my ex used the Bible to justify verbal and emotional abuse. That along with the typical train of abuses that LGBTQIA+ folks face growing up in a space that is explicitly against our existence.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for what it means to still have a sense of spirituality of faith (not in the traditional sense) post-deconstruction.
For anyone looking for a new place to call home.
For anyone who feels lost and alone as they navigate and heal from spiritual abuse….this book is for you.
Thank you Matthias for a cathartic and wonderful book🫶🏽

Hard won wisdom

Matthias Robert shares hard won wisdom from his life experience, his studies of Christian Theology and Psychology, the years he has spent both in therapy and as a therapist. He is honest in the forward that this book is not for everyone. But for those who have been hurt by religious communities, are still trying to make sense of those experiences, and trying to decide if they want to remain in Christian community or grieve their losses and move on; this book is for you.

The Bible is being dismissed

I had high hopes for this book in terms of understanding the world of a gay person following after Jesus. I wanted to look into the inner world of a person who truly believes the Bible as they struggle with the same sex attraction.

The problem I have with this book is it's high reliance on feeling/psychology/personal perception rather than an objective biblical truth.

For example, the parable of the seeds and the soil is actually interpreted by Jesus himself within the Bible, yet, the author decided to reinterpret it in his own way and base his theory on that.

Then, instead of logically looking at the creation and design, the author decides God designed same sex relationships to exist simply based on the theory of shame, not any biblical foundation.

The creation story in Genesis is called a myth.

I am not even half way through the book, but I already feel discouraged from finishing it because I feel that the author is reinventing Christianity taking feelings/psychology as a guide and dismissing the Bible almost entirely.

I think Matthias is a very smart and creative guy but this book is not helpful for the Christian folks, only for those who want to hold onto their same sex attraction at all costs, even at the expense of their Christian faith.