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Why Do People Call Seminaries Cemeteries?
Thriving through seminary
When I was thinking about further education in seminary, I was told that people who go to seminaries often lose their faith.
They called seminaries cemeteries. The place people of faith go to lose their faith.
Other people’s stories may be different but from my experience, seminaries became cemeteries because it can be a place where we are pushed to question the teachings we grew up with.
When you are told THIS IS THE TRUTH all your life, then go to seminary and realize that IT MAY NOT BE THE TRUTH, it can be a very disorienting experience.
I grew up being taught that we needed to believe in a seven-day creation narrative. I was told the secular world and scientists were attacking Christianity and trying to debunk the stories found in the Bible.
I had equipped myself with arguments, facts, and ways to refute whatever was argued by non-believers.
Going from this certainty to seminary, where different options are given as viable options was a disorienting process.
When you are taught all your life that THIS IS THE TRUTH, then you find that the bible, history, and scholarship teach otherwise, you can question if there is anything true about the Christian…
