Back in the late ’90s, Joshua Harris wrote the book “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”, sparking a cultural revolution among evangelicals where couples began to court each other instead of dating in the secular sense and spawning the True Love Waits movement.
The book became a bestseller in Christian circles, but was panned by the secular crowd for discouraging friendships between men and women and some of those critics said the book shamed women for sexual desires.
Then, shockingly in 2016 Harris said he was wrong for writing the book, stating in an op-ed for USA Today that the ideas in his book were naive and caused harm. He then asked his publisher to stop future publications of the book.
After listening to the stories and conducting a lengthy and sometimes painful process of re-evaluation, I reached the conclusion that the ideas in my book weren’t just naïve, they often caused harm. As a result, my publisher has agreed to my request to cease its publication.
The book also gave some the impression that a certain methodology of relationships would deliver a happily ever-after ending — a great marriage, and a great sex life — even though this is not promised by scripture.
Now, Harris is renouncing his faith and getting a divorce from his wife. In a post on his Instagram page, the former pastor and author says he is no longer a Christian and also apologizes to the LGBTQ community for harm he has done to them.
“The information that was left out of our announcement is that I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is “deconstruction,” the biblical phrase is “falling away.” By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian,” he wrote.
“I have lived in repentance for the past several years — repenting of my self-righteousness, my fear-based approach to life, the teaching of my books, my views of women in the church, and my approach to parenting to name a few,” he writes.
“But I specifically want to add to this list now: to the LGBTQ+ community, I want to say that I am sorry for the views that I taught in my books and as a pastor regarding sexuality. I regret standing against marriage equality, for not affirming you and your place in the church, and for any ways that my writing and speaking contributed to a culture of exclusion and bigotry. I hope you can forgive me,” he continued.
A previous post announced his divorce.
Harris didn’t say what he plans to do next, but according to his Twitter account, Harris owns a marketing and branding company. Last year, he was involved with the documentary “I Survived I Kissed Dating Goodbye.”