The way I see it is being a Christian is a process of building up faith layer by layer. And leaving that faith is a process of tearing it down layer by layer.
Thats an interesting way of explaining that other usage. So then we have two ways of looking at the word deconstruct:
Meaning 1: Pull things apart to see their logical roles. An example would be to deconstruct the food recepie in order to see the logical role of each ingredient, and then use that information to see how you can improve it
Meaning 2: Take things away layer by layer. An example would be if you built something and you decided you don't need it any more. In this case you don't analyze the role of each layer to see which one is needed. Yet, you are still taking it apart layer by layer. So you still use the word deconstruct even though the logical role of each layer is no longer important.
I guess to me, in the context of faith, I want to use Meaning 1, but they want to use Meaning 2.
Maybe the difference between Meaning 1 situation and Meaning 2 situation is that meaning 1 pertains to ideas while meaning 2 pertains to physical things. Like in case of a recipie, thats not physical: thats an idea on how to build the physical. But in case of the building it is physical.
So if, instead of a recipie (not physical), you were to have an actual dish (physical) then
physically deconstructing it would be a bad idea: then you won't be able to pull it back together. Well, you would be able to replicate it with a different dish. But in case of faith you don't want a different Jesus (2 Cor 11:4), there is only one Jesus. So if you don't want to replicate a dish with a different one, you clearly don't want to deconstruct it (is this where Hebrews 6:6 and Hebrews 10:26 come from?)
On the other hand, what if instead of a building (physical) you had a
design of a building (not physical). In this case, in the scenario of wanting to get rid of it altogether, would you really need to take it down layer by layer? No of course not: you just forget the whole thing. But if the building is physical, thats when you take it layer by layer (hence the word deconstruct in its second meaning).
So maybe the reason why I assign Meaning 1 to the faith context and other people assign Meaning 2 to it, is that my faith is more intellectual, while other people's faith is more tangible? For example, I been wondering how can people with Alzcheimer still be saved if they lost their intellectual capacities to have faith in Jesus? Or how can infants be saved without knowing Jesus? Thats because I think of faith of Jesus as an intellectual pursuit. But others, when they picture relationship with Jesus as something more tangible, then of course Jesus can take care of both infants and Alzcheimer's patients. Just like both infants and Alzcheimers patients can live in a bulding without having intellecutal capabilities to see how that building is being built.
So maybe the fact that I picture faith as more intellectual while others picutre it as more physical is the reason for disagreement with regards to word usage, too.
As a matter of fact, people that "deconstruct their faith" might be a prime example of how it is more than just an intellectual pursuit. Intellectually, they already decided that they don't believe. Yet on practice its still there. So they have to deconstruct it, with Meaning 2 of the word, just like they would any building thats there.
In fact look at it this way. Intellectually, I have more faith than them. I keep choosing to continue to believe, yet they chose not to. But in terms of the actual physical relationship with Jesus, they have it more real than me. Here I am wondering "what does it mean to have a relationship with Jesus", "can it be something more than an abstraction", etc? But in their case they KNOW its real, thats why they have to deconstruct it with Meaning 2, treating it just as real as any other building. If only I saw what they see (its not about "knowing" any more, its about "seeing") this would probably address most of MY faith issues. Except that, unlike them, I would say "thank you Father for SHOWING the building to me, I will cherish it" -- unlike them, who want to deconstruct it.