Holy Heretics: Losing Religion and Finding Jesus

After 30 interviews and 35 episodes, Gary Alan and Melanie look back, reflecting on what they’ve learned, what surprised them, where they hope to go with Season 2, and more.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review 🙏Show notes: https://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast/reflecting-on-season-oneFollow us on social media! Twitter: @holyheretics | Instagram: @holyhereticspodcast | Facebook: @holyhereticsAdvertising inquiries: podcast@sophiasociety.orgSupport our work on Patreon and get early access to episodes! https://www.patreon.com/holyhereticsThis episode was produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound engineering is by Joshua Mudge (currently accepting new clients: josh.mudge09@gmail.com).

Why are we so offended by “cussing”? Is someone really “going downhill” if they smoke tobacco or have tattoos? Melanie joins Katherine from Uncertain Podcast and William from The Space Between Podcast to discuss the morality, legalism, and taboos surrounding these behaviors in the Evangelical Church. How and why did they become such a marker of one’s status with God? And are there more forces at work than simply sin and holiness?Follow The Space Between on Instagram: @TheSpaceBetweenUKFollow Uncertain on Instagram: @UncertainPodcastIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review 🙏Show notes: http://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast/cussing-smoking-tattoos-oh-my-the-space-between-uk-uncertainFollow us on social media! Twitter: @holyheretics | Instagram: @holyhereticspodcast | Facebook: @holyhereticsAdvertising inquiries: podcast@sophiasociety.orgSupport our work on Patreon and get early access to episodes! https://www.patreon.com/holyhereticsThis episode was produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound engineering is by Joshua Mudge (currently accepting new clients: josh.mudge09@gmail.com).

CW: We discuss trauma, sexualized violence, abuse, and other topics that may be triggering. Please listen at your own discretion.Religious trauma is sneaky for so many reasons, perhaps none more so than the fact that trauma of any kind was minimized or delegitimized by religious leaders. So many of us who call ourselves ex-vangelicals find it hard to even believe that we have trauma. But do we? Have we let ourselves really consider that? In our last interview of Season 1, we talk with Dr. Laura Anderson, a licensed psychotherapist who specializes in religious trauma, about the ins and outs of religious trauma, why it’s so different from one person to the next, and how to begin to heal—with or without a therapist.Follow Dr. Laura on Instagram (@DrLauraEAnderson). Follow The Religious Trauma Institute on Instagram (@ReligiousTraumaInstitute), on Facebook (@ReligiousTraumaInstitute), on Twitter (@ReligiousTrauma), and the web: www.ReligiousTraumaInstitute.com. Follow The Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery on Instagram (@TraumaResolutionAndRecovery), Facebook (@TraumaResolutionAndRecovery), and the web: www.TraumaResolutionAndRecovery.com.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review 🙏Show notes: http://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast/do-i-have-religious-trauma-dr-laura-andersonFollow us on social media! Twitter: @holyheretics | Instagram: @holyhereticspodcast | Facebook: @holyhereticsAdvertising inquiries: podcast@sophiasociety.orgSupport our work on Patreon and get early access to episodes! https://www.patreon.com/holyhereticsThis episode was produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound engineering is by Joshua Mudge (currently accepting new clients: josh.mudge09@gmail.com).

Continuing our conversation from last week with C Davis, we hear more about her faith journey, as well as chat about why she is able to have so much compassion despite everything she’s experienced and seen and able to see beyond rhetoric to the truth.Follow her on Instagram: @DeconstructingBlack and @DeconstructingColors; and consider supporting her work: https://cash.app/$DeconstructingBlkIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review 🙏Show notes: http://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast/when-racism-and-compassion-collide-part-2-deconstructing-blackFollow us on social media! Twitter: @holyheretics | Instagram: @holyhereticspodcast | Facebook: @holyhereticsAdvertising inquiries: podcast@sophiasociety.orgSupport our work on Patreon and get early access to episodes! https://www.patreon.com/holyhereticsThis episode was produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound engineering is by Joshua Mudge (currently accepting new clients: josh.mudge09@gmail.com).

From being raised in a predominantly Black church to finding herself in predominantly white megachurches to calling herself a spiritualist today, C Davis has had quite the faith journey. Though many who hear that might feel sadness over her losing her faith, she has gained such immense compassion and empathy that she doesn’t see it as a loss. In this first half of our interview with her, we dig into why ignorance doesn’t bother her and why she works so hard to bring people together.Follow her on Instagram: @DeconstructingBlack and @DeconstructingColors; and consider supporting her work: https://cash.app/$DeconstructingBlkIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review 🙏Show notes: http://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast/when-racism-and-compassion-collide-part-1-deconstructing-blackFollow us on social media! Twitter: @holyheretics | Instagram: @holyhereticspodcast | Facebook: @holyhereticsAdvertising inquiries: podcast@sophiasociety.orgSupport our work on Patreon and get early access to episodes! https://www.patreon.com/holyhereticsThis episode was produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound engineering is by Joshua Mudge (currently accepting new clients: josh.mudge09@gmail.com).

Recently, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill (a Christianity Today podcast that looks into why Mars Hill church met such a quick demise) released a bonus episode. In the episode, host Mike Cosper spent time looking at how Mars Hill’s pastor, Mark Driscoll, and Joshua Harris, the I Kissed Dating Goodbye author and former Sovereign Grace Ministries prodigy, had many similarities, despite having wildly different personalities. But then, because Harris no longer identifies as Christian and considers himself to be “deconstructing,” Cosper spends the final 20 minutes talking about deconstruction. So Melanie asked Katherine Spearing of Uncertain Podcast and Tim Whitaker of The New Evangelicals to join her in analyzing his points and examining why evangelicals and ex-evangelicals are having polar opposite reactions to it.Follow Katherine on Instagram (@UncertainPodcast) and on Facebook (Tears of Eden).Follow Tim on Instagram (@TheNewEvangelicals) and Twitter (@NewVangelicals).If you enjoyed this bonus conversation or any other episodes, please consider leaving us a rating and a review 🙏 It helps so much!Follow us on social media! Twitter: @holyheretics | Instagram: @holyhereticspodcast | Facebook: @holyhereticsAdvertising inquiries: podcast@sophiasociety.orgSupport our work on Patreon and get early access to episodes! https://www.patreon.com/holyhereticsThis episode was produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound engineering is by Joshua Mudge (currently accepting new clients: josh.mudge09@gmail.com).

When your entire understanding of God, Jesus, and faith is filtered through the lens of the colonizer, it changes everything. But as today’s guest points out, it’s to the detriment of not only ourselves, but to everyone and every thing. Author Ched Myers talks with us about “radical discipleship,” how that relates to decolonizing our white American evangelical faith, and how a decolonized reading of Jesus offers us a truly wholistic, abundant, life-giving faith.Note: We apologize for Ched’s sound quality on this episode.Find Ched online: https://chedmyers.org, https://healinghauntedhistories.org, https://www.bcm-net.org If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review 🙏Show notes: http://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast/the-discipleship-of-decolonization-ched-myersFollow us on social media! Twitter: @holyheretics | Instagram: @holyhereticspodcast | Facebook: @holyhereticsAdvertising inquiries: podcast@sophiasociety.orgSupport our work on Patreon and get early access to episodes! https://www.patreon.com/holyhereticsThis episode was produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound engineering is by Joshua Mudge (currently accepting new clients: josh.mudge09@gmail.com).

We all hate politics. With every politician and candidate seemingly corrupt af, voting has turned into an exercise of futility and despair. But our guest today, Charlie McCallie, is a pastor who sees politics very differently. In this episode, he walks us through what politics are at their best, why Christians should be involved, and why it’s about so much more than partisanship and nationalism. If you’ve ever wanted even just a glimmer of hope for the U.S.’s political future, don’t miss this episode.Follow Charlie on Instagram (@CharlieMcCallie), his church on Instagram (@TheCommonsFlagstaff), or his podcast at AmericanHeretic.org.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review 🙏Show notes: http://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast/reclaiming-christian-politics-charlie-mccallieFollow us on social media! Twitter: @holyheretics | Instagram: @holyhereticspodcast | Facebook: @holyhereticsAdvertising inquiries: podcast@sophiasociety.orgSupport our work on Patreon and get early access to episodes! https://www.patreon.com/holyhereticsThis episode was produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound engineering is by Joshua Mudge (currently accepting new clients: josh.mudge09@gmail.com).

Is the American Evangelical Church worth saving? Or is it beyond repair? Many ex-vangelicals are ready to let it die and build something new in its place, but in this episode, we chat with Tim Whitaker, creator of The New Evangelicals, about how he’s fighting to rebuild the American Evangelical Church in a more loving, Christ-like image, despite great pushback from within the Church itself.Follow Tim on Instagram (@TheNewEvangelicals) and Twitter (@NewVangelicals), and check out his podcast.If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review 🙏Show notes: http://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast/does-evangelical-church-need-to-die-new-evangelicalsFollow us on social media! Twitter: @holyheretics | Instagram: @holyhereticspodcast | Facebook: @holyhereticsAdvertising inquiries: podcast@sophiasociety.orgSupport our work on Patreon and get early access to episodes! https://www.patreon.com/holyhereticsThis episode was produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound engineering is by Joshua Mudge (currently accepting new clients: josh.mudge09@gmail.com).

After growing up in the south in the heyday of purity culture, Blair of @TalkPurityToMe recognized that she needed to relearn how to relate to herself and others. Once she healed from the harm she endured through purity culture, she decided to start speaking out against it so that others could heal, too. We talk with Blair about how she came to recognize how unhealthy purity culture had made her, how she healed, and what hope she has for the future of sexual education in the evangelical church.Follow Blair on Instagram, on Twitter, and on TikTok (@TalkPurityToMe)!If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review 🙏Show notes: http://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast/why-purity-culture-doesnt-work-talk-purity-to-meFollow us on social media! Twitter: @holyheretics | Instagram: @holyhereticspodcast | Facebook: @holyhereticsAdvertising inquiries: podcast@sophiasociety.orgSupport our work on Patreon and get early access to episodes! https://www.patreon.com/holyhereticsThis episode was produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound engineering is by Joshua Mudge (currently accepting new clients: josh.mudge09@gmail.com).