Chapel Probation

Despite this episode containing some incredible music by Shin and the presence of Keiko, a bonafide Gilmore Girl and TV/Movie star, very few people heard this, comparatively. So before season 4 gets going, I wanted to give newer listeners a chance to hear from two of my favorite people on the planet: Shin Kawasaki and Keiko Agena. Even as the show Gilmore Girls was winding down, Keiko Agena came t...

Repost in honor of The Brothers Sun, a series that was just cancelled despite being hugely popular. All the love to Jenny Yang. Before Jenny Yang became a big-time comedian and Buzzfeed sensation, before she became a writer for television, and before she was cast as one of the stars of The Brothers Sun, a Netflix dramedy starring Michelle Yeoh, Jenny was a brand new comic, looking for stage time....

UPDATE: Get to know Priska if you haven't already. She will be collaborating with Scott to bring you a BIPOC-centered, AAPI-flavored podcast about leaving evangelical Purity Culture. Coming soon! About 11 years ago, I went to a Tuesday Night Cafe and saw a young woman in her early 20's perform there for the first time. Priska's voice and playing floored us as she performed her original...

It's a bromance that eclipses the love of women. It's playful, raw, and unabashed. God has made men in his image, and that image is good, so young christian men at evangelical schools not only proudly display their dicks and balls, they create ways to interact with them. In this episode, we look at the practices and we laugh a little, but we also worry that this entitled, rather domineerin...

A thank you to all of you who listen and a preview of things to come. Be sure to register for the Content Warning livestream which happens Feb 17-18. Or better yet, come on out to Portland to hang with us. Chapel Probation is part of the  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dauntless Media Collective⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join the  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dauntless Media Discord ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more conversation with all the podcast communities. Scott's book,  ⁠⁠⁠⁠...

You've probably heard of or seen Angela Herrington through her online events or the Faith Deconstruction Cafe on Facebook, and you might have wondered, what is her back story? Well here it is. Angela has a book due out Feb 20, How to Deconstruct Your Faith Without Losing Yourself , and she did time on Chapel Probation to tell her story of coming out of just about every Wesleyan school in India...

Jon Turney is the co-host of the This Is Not Church podcast with his brother and previous Chapel Probation guest, Nat. He has written a novel, RJ the Astronaut, which is reminiscent of CS Lewis's science fiction work with a modern twist. Jon spent is youth and young adult life trying to find answers to his deep questions about life and faith, and this quest is reflected in his thoughtful novel...

Christian colleges often tout their illustrious alumni who accomplish great things in the christian world. Jeremiah and Julia won't likely be listed in such lists for Abilene Christian or Calvin college. That's because they are licensed sex therapists who promote sexual wellbeing in all of its forms. Their podcast, the Sexvangelicals , is a great look into unpacking religious trauam when i...

Another podcasting hero of mine, Justin Gentry , does time on Chapel Probation. He talks about his time at Indiana Wesleyan and his epic attempt at being a pastor before deciding his humanity and care of others were more important than his faith. After leaving fundamentalist christian faith, Justin has used his voice and perspective, teaming up with Sarah Heath on the RevCovery Podcast and Tori Wi...

Esther Tseng is a badass food blogger and writer who wrote the article, The Silence of My White Friends After Atlanta , back in 2021. She captured what a lot of us were feeling during a time when our AAPI community felt targeted by rabid, ignorant MAGA Trumpers. But before she became a renowned food writer and social justice advocate, Esther grew up in a fundamentalist christian home that hindered...

It may seem a little harsh to post an episode the day after xmas with the creator of the Harmonic Atheist youtube channel, it just kinda worked out that way. Tim Mills is a self-described atheist who, like so many others this season, devoted his life to absolute adherence to fundamentalist Christianity. But his quest for the truth ultimately led him right out of faith, despite the horrible cost of...

Once again, we have someone who did everything humanly possible to be a devout, devoted christian only to walk away from fundamentalist, White nationalist christianity. Ryan Mulkowski, the host of the Some Random Thoughts podcast did time on Chapel Probation to share his story of coming up through the violent IFB cult to a soul-crushing semester at Pensacola, to seminary at Liberty to fully extric...

Jered held on to his evangelical faith for dear life for a long time. But when he couldn't abide the racism, conservative politics, and weak teachings anymore, he just couldn't stay. To his credit. In our conversation, we talk about rampant nudity in the Simpson College boys dorms, problematic teachings in church, parenting, and...math? Yes, math. Pay attention, kids. This could change you...

"K" had the unique experience of growing up Southern Baptist in Southern California. She went to UCLA fully intending to maintain her deeply held fundamentalist Christian faith and sought to fortify her faith by learning as much as she could from campus ministries and local churches. But K realized she was not satisfied with the answers to her questions. It wasn't even close. After a...

Kathleen, aka Kit, will tell you she was infantilized by her parents from time her family entered the IBLP world until she was in her early 20's. In the patriarchal, abusive, and oppressive world of IBLP, going to a Southern Baptist Convention college was a breath of fresh...er air. Freshness being relative in this metaphor, Kit, found freedom in SBC college and even got up the courage to fina...

Like many of us, Sarah Henn Hayward did everything she could to remain a christian. She read books, she asked questions, and she learned to be inclusive and affirming. And everything she did to remain helped her deconstruct all the way out of christianity. It's not so much a "slippery slope" as it is a snowball succumbing to gravity as it rolls down a hill, gathering mass and momentu...

Ryan "RL" Stollar is an invaluable online presence, writing about homeschooling and child liberation theology on his blog and for many online publications. His new book, The Kingdom of Children , is a must-read for those of us interested in fighting the fundamentalist christian parenting movements that seek to indoctrinate children with harmful ideologies. With resources like Ryan, we ca...

I met Simon Graham during my last year at UC San Diego, and though we've rarely seen each since that year, we've kept in touch, marking our growth as people, as husbands, and as fathers in this complex world. And Simon is one of the finest humans I've had the pleasure of knowing. In the past year, we've talked about our views on race, gender, patriarchy, and all aspects of life, an...

I bonded with Jo Luehmann last year over our shared love of comedian Atsuko Okatsuka, and I even had the honor of introducing Jo to Atsuko. Two epic women for sure. In this bonus episode while I'm on vacation, Jo and I talk about our books while sitting on a bench in Central Park just a stone's throw from one of Turmp's towers. Jo's forthcoming book, Predatory God is due out next y...

Ben is a friend I first met at the epic PDX meetup last year. He had told me a little about his past as an evangelical who wanted to be a pastor or some kind of biblical scholar, but I had no idea how far he had come from his early adulthood. It's really an honor to bring you this story that goes all the usual places with problematic evangelical culture and dodgy theology and ends up with Ben...

Back at APU with another of the badass Sisters 9 writing group. Kristin Luna, aka K-wing, was such an important person to me. She was part of the group of students who saw me and welcomed me in as a fellow fringe/bad person at APU. I remembered my mentor professors who let me into their personal lives at UC San Diego, and I allowed myself to be that professor with them. And Kristin being an amazin...

I spend way too much time trying to figure out how fundamentalist, conservative White folks become enlightened and caring of the world around them. We may never know, but meeting Tim Cooper has given me hope. Tim deconverted slowly over time and taught himself to interrogate first his faith and then his worldview. And in a relatively short time, he has become an incredible human being, far from hi...

I was a guest on the podcast, This Is Not Church with Jon and Nat Turney a few months ago, and we had a great time talking about my book and rock music. Sometimes you meet people, and immediately click, and this was the case with me and the Turney boys. So when I heard that Nat was publishing his book, The Seeds of De(Con)struction, I messaged him to come do time on Chapel Probation. And we had an...

Jon Carl Lewis went to Princeton, but he sought out the repressive Christian elements he grew up with, hoping to "pray the gay away." But, he deconstructed after some horrific and lonely times to progressive forms of Christianity, eventually finding his way to leather bars in Boston and a life of sexual liberation. He has written and taught about sex and sexuality, even in largely White...

Xeres survived APU as a neuro-divergent Filipina woman and went on to explore personal and generational healing through community activism and explorations into the mystical aspects of religion. Leaning into her culture and her identity have helped her to find ways to help others with her project, The Estuary Moments . And I've had the privilege of knowing and witnessing Xeres' development...