Paul VanderKlay's Podcast Dawn's story from a House-church Sect to Orthodoxy and the TLC
Mar 16, 2026
A personal journey from a strict home-church upbringing into Eastern Orthodoxy and chrismation. Stories of a Jamaican-African childhood, global schooling, and musical scholarship. Reflections on cultural decline, generational transmission, and the online 'little corner' as a refuge. Concerns about woke ideology in schools, national identity, and why seekers turn to sacramental, embodied faith.
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Raised In A Home Church With Two-By-Two Traits
- Dawn grew up in a strict home-church tradition that met in homes, banned icons and paid clergy, and enforced modest, countercultural behavior.
- She describes it as restorationist/two-by-twos style, oral-tradition, global missionaries, and girls always wore skirts and no TV in the home.
Divorce Sparked A 10+ Year Theological Deep Dive
- After her husband left, Dawn began an intense soul-search about what she actually believed and why she had been taught it.
- That crisis drove her decade-long reading of Keller, Lewis, Anselm and a shift from functional materialism toward exploring deeper theological questions.
From Intellectual Belief To Embodied Faith
- Intellectual reading (Tim Keller, C.S. Lewis, Francis Collins) got Dawn 99% of the way to belief, but she needed embodied practice to bridge the final gap.
- That led her to Jordan Peterson/Pajot, then Orthodoxy, where immersion in a community recognizing angels, demons, saints and icons finally felt coherent.
