Holy Heretics: Losing Religion and Finding Jesus

Those of us who were raised evangelical are well acquainted with the terms “family values” and “Christian values.” But do we know where they came from, what came before them, and that they’re more political than they are rooted in Christ? That’s why historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s seminal new book Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation is a game-changer…for anyone willing to read it and take it seriously. We delve deeper into why she wrote it, what in her research surprised her the most, and how knowing this history can uproot our faith—in a good way.Follow Dr. Du Mez on Twitter @kkdumez or on Facebook @kkdumez.For show notes, click here or go to holyheretics.org.Follow us on social media! Twitter: @holyheretics | Instagram: @holyhereticspodcast | Facebook: @holyhereticsCreditsThis episode was produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound engineering is by Joshua Mudge.

If Americans could call a truce, just for a moment, what would happen? Would we see the humans on the other side of the political aisle? Would it enable us to find common ground with people who believe differently than we do? We sat down with Chris Staron, producer of Truce Podcast, to talk about what he’s learned about the history of Christianity in America and why it matters so much more than most of us realize. For show notes, click here or go to holyheretics.org.Follow us on social media! Twitter: @holyheretics | Instagram: @holyhereticspodcast | Facebook: @holyhereticsCreditsThis episode was produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound engineering is by Joshua Mudge.

What does it look like to actually love our enemies? We sit down with Dr. Russell Johnson, a professor at the University of Chicago, to talk about his personal faith journey, as well as what he’s learned through his studies about dualism, the “us vs. them” mindset, disagreement, and how to truly love our enemies.For show notes, click here or go to holyheretics.org.Follow us on social media! Twitter | Instagram | FacebookCreditsThis episode was produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound engineering is by Joshua Mudge.

Melanie and Gary Alan briefly respond to the results of the independent investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against the late apologist Ravi Zacharias of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.For show notes, click here or go to holyheretics.org.Follow us on social media! Twitter | Instagram | FacebookCreditsThis episode was written by Gary Alan Taylor and Melanie Mudge (read their bios here) and produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound levels were mixed by Joshua Mudge.

The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 wasn’t a spontaneous decision by rogue militants to commit treason, this day was decades in the making. Fueled by a network of Christian nationalists including mega-church pastors, politicians, and religious organizations, January 6 showed the lengths many evangelicals will go to to maintain power over culture. But are Christians supposed to be in power? And what has happened throughout history when they have been in power? This final episode in our series on “America’s Unholy Trinity” details not only the danger of Christian nationalism, but more importantly how the Gospel is distorted by the evangelical thirst for power.For show notes, click here or go to holyheretics.org.Follow us on social media! Twitter | Instagram | FacebookCreditsThis episode was written by Gary Alan Taylor and Melanie Mudge (read their bios here) and produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound levels were mixed by Joshua Mudge.

If you are like us, you grew up in a home and a church where men were in charge and women submitted. The Bible was even used as the reason why. Why can women be Prime Ministers or Vice Presidents but not pastors or priests? Why also is the church one of the safest places to be for a sexual predator and one of the more dangerous places to be as a female victim of sexual assault? The answer, “biblical” Patriarchy. It’s time to shatter the glass ceiling the church has placed on women. Looking at the second of the 3 Ps that make up the unholy trinity, Gary Alan and Melanie discuss how Patriarchy pervades every area of our lives, often without us realizing it.For show notes, click here or go to holyheretics.org.Follow us on social media! Twitter | Instagram | FacebookCreditsThis episode was written by Gary Alan Taylor and Melanie Mudge (read their bios here) and produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound levels were mixed by Joshua Mudge.

Examining specific aspects of “Purity Culture” and what their effects were, Melanie and Gary Alan draw both on personal experience and listeners’ stories to give an honest critique of the methods adopted by many ministries and churches to keep young people from engaging in any sexual activity before marriage. They also highlight the lies hidden in plain site within the purity culture movement, offering some ideas for how to move forward. If you were harmed or objectified by purity culture, this episode is for you. For show notes, click here or go to holyheretics.org.Follow us on social media! Twitter | Instagram | FacebookCreditsThis episode was written by Gary Alan Taylor and Melanie Mudge (read their bios here) and produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound levels were mixed by Joshua Mudge.

Examining the first of the three “P”s of American Christianity’s “unholy trinity,” Gary Alan and Melanie dive deeper into the world of Purity and purity culture. In order to honestly discuss how the concept of purity and the resulting “purity culture” of the 1990s and 2000s affected an entire generation, they first look at the history of purity, then delve briefly into the history of purity movements in the United States. They then examine Jesus’ response to the purity system of His day and how He offered a better way.For show notes, click here or go to holyheretics.org.Follow us on social media! Twitter | Instagram | FacebookCreditsThis episode was written by Gary Alan Taylor and Melanie Mudge (read their bios here) and produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound levels were mixed by Joshua Mudge.

Is it possible that the American Church stopped worshipping God a long time ago and began worshipping something else? What if we’ve begun bowing down at the altar for a substitute, an “unholy trinity,” rather than bowing to the real Trinity? In this episode, Gary Alan and Melanie look at the 3 “P”s of fundamentalism, demonstrate how they’ve influenced Christianity in the United States, and consider the possibility that the Church as a whole may have aligned itself with this Unholy Trinity.For show notes, click here.Follow us on social media! Twitter | Instagram | FacebookCreditsThis episode was written by Gary Alan Taylor and Melanie Mudge (read their bios here) and produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound levels were mixed by Joshua Mudge and Melanie Mudge.

In the premiere episode, Melanie and Gary Alan explain why you might be a “Holy Heretic.” They discuss how orthodoxy and heresy not only interact with each other, but also how they have shaped the Church throughout history. But most importantly, they highlight how this has impacted not just the modern Church, but also our theology and our understanding of God.For show notes, click here.Follow us on social media! Twitter | Instagram | FacebookCreditsThis episode was written by Gary Alan Taylor and Melanie Mudge (read their bios here) and produced by The Sophia Society.  Music is by Faith in Foxholes, and sound levels were mixed by Melanie Mudge.