Deconstructing Mamas

The fabulous Ben Cremer is our guest this week. Ben is all these things: Wesleyan. Writer. Chronic student. Constant investigator. Idahoan (Lizz and Esther had never met anyone before from Idaho) . He is very well-known for the black boxes on social media filled with mic drop after mic drop of wisdom and cut-to-the-chase snippets that speak to where we find ourselves in modern Christianity in Amer...

The very wonderful Joy Vetterlein is our guest this week. Joy is a lifelong church girl and former-pastor-turned-misfit-rebel who got tired of being hurt and seeing other people get hurt by evangelical Christianity. She's here to help you find your own path to spirituality, especially if you feel like a "spiritual misfit" just like her. Joy is a fellow deconstructing mama who spent...

“To be human in an aching world is to know our dignity and become people who safeguard the dignity of everything around us.” -Cole Arthur Riley- This Week on the Podcast: Torri Williams, our guest this week, is an activist and brilliant soul. Growing up in a small town which was prominently white and highly evangelical as a a black charismatic fundamentalist, she found herself constantly curious a...

"As long as a masculine god remains at the top of the pyramid, nothing else we do matters."  Dr. Rev. Will Gaffney Daneen Akers is the author of Holy Troublemakers and Unconventional Saints , an illustrated children's book about people of diverse faiths working for more love and justice in their corners of the world, even when that means rocking the religious boat. Daneen believes d...

" Why do Christians talk so much about love but often, fail to be loving?" Molly LaCroix is the author of that quote, a speaker and licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT). She specializes in treating the impact of early adverse experiences and trauma, using the Internal Family Systems (IFS) Model she finds as a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to healing, and a model deeply...

" Deconstruction is an opportunity to deepen your faith, not just a rejection of what you believed in the past." The author of those beautiful words, Angela J. Herrington, a fellow deconstructing mama of FIVE and a faith deconstruction coach, walks us through how unhealed trauma informs our ability to trust ourselves. We walk through how difficult and necessary it is to be on this journe...

In this episode, Cassie Gottula Shaw, a fellow deconstructing mama and brilliant faith researcher, walks us through something she's deemed "faith Jenga."  Listen in as we chat through the blocks of our faith, the carefully constructed faith towers we build, what we do with the blocks we want to pull out and throw away, and what we can work with the ones we want to keep going forward...

This week on the podcast, we dive deeper with Pete Enns as we continue to navigate the tricky tightrope of parenting while deconstructing toxic religious systems and reconstructing our faith with love and freedom. One of the big questions we ask each other is this: WHAT IS SEEPING IN? You definitely don't want to miss out on the sarcastic and very funny banter between Pete and Lizz and Esther...

" We need to embrace better questions when we try to help relationships thrive, rejecting shame and judgment, and instead focusing on love, respect, and boundaries that encompass the entire expression of what it means to be human and healthy. " In this episode on the Deconstructing Mamas podcast, Brittany Meng of the Bam Blog ,  dives deep with us into the toxic nature of purity culture....

"Faith before doubt is about correct beliefs.  Faith after doubt is about revolutionary love.  Love is our ultimate goal."   (Faith After Doubt)   In this episode on the Deconstructing Mamas podcast, Brian McLaren, author of that quote,  is a stalwart in the arena of faith and deconstructing.  Brian wisely and warmly guides us gently through the four stages of childhood/faith and how to...

Who knew that when we asked our first question about the faith that was either handed down to us or we grabbed onto with all our might when someone shared the "good news," there would be so much loss associated with it. We were just asking a question, right? We were just pulling back the curtain to see what was going on behind there, right? But here we are, and one question turned into a...

"I can't see a way through," said the boy. "Can you see your next step," said the horse. "Yes," said the boy. "Just take that," said the horse. (Charlie Mackesy)   In this BONUS SUMMER episode on the Deconstructing Mamas podcast, Erica Garthwaite, friend of Lizz and Esther (and part of their book club) brings her mic-drop wisdom to the table when it com...

"Life is always moving. You have permission to move with it, to leave behind the things that do not serve you, and become someone new, someone more like you, more like your true self." In this episode on the Deconstructing Mamas podcast, Liz Milani, author of that quote, author of the PracticeCo app (daily devotionals that are holistic, inclusive and cliche-free) shares her  heart with u...

"Parenting may be less about raising our children and more about raising ourselves. It compels us to break our own cycles of shame and pain as we bring healing to our own childhood." In this episode on the Deconstructing Mamas podcast, Cindy Wang Brandt, author of that quote, cohost on the Parenting Forward podcast and author of Parenting Forward , really digs deep into the subject of re...

"You can't love and control at the same time." In this episode on the Deconstructing Mamas podcast, Jared Byas, author of that quote, cohost on the Bible for Normal People podcast and author of Love Matters More , not only tells us what brought him to the place of deconstructing and reconstructing his faith, but speaks about the impact it has had on his parenting. There are so mic d...

"I sink beneath the swirling surf of words, fears, expectations, conditioning, and advice—and feel for the Knowing."  Glennon Doyle) In this episode on the Deconstructing Mamas podcast, Sarah Meassick, daughter of podcast host, Esther Joy Goetz, takes us deep into her childhood journey of fear, anxiety and the desire to be the "good girl" and how this manifested in full-blown O...

"When I started writing about deconstruction, I shared because I needed to know there were others out there like me.  Now I share because I sincerely believe what I'm learning is good news." In this episode on the Deconstructing Mamas podcast, Jordan Harrell, author of that quote, brings her full self to this raw and healing conversation surrounding issues of rejection and exclusion...

"If we had total support, we would change more easily. It's the fear of rejection that prevents our transformation." In this episode on the Deconstructing Mamas podcast, David Hayward, author of that quote, and known as NakedPastor around the internet, allows us to pepper him with your (and our) questions in this "Q&A" style format on this episode. Here are some of our...

"If you, too, find yourself eating your words when a crisis hits: 1. You're not alone and, 2. Being wrong can suck, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't also be delicious." In this episode on the Deconstructing Mamas podcast, Jenny Shannon, author of that quote, tackles the harmful and toxic ideology of "being a good girl" and how that one phrase by renowned poet,...

"When love speaks and both sides listen, hearts connect and healing begins."  In this episode on the Deconstructing Mamas podcast, Shelby, author of that quote, and her daughter, Kahrin, share their heart-breaking and hope-filled "coming in" story about the journey to healing for both of them after Kahrin discovers that she likes girls. Shelby and Kahrin's fierce desire to...

"You don't HAVE to get married." In this episode on the Deconstructing Mamas podcast, Stevie Swift, author of that quote, shares her story of reorienting herself from a narrow and rigid place of falling in line with social constructs to the wide-open space of freedom to be herself and what it means to gift that to her son. Stevie's "out-of-the-box" lifestyle and down-...

“When the dust clears and in the quiet of your own heart, what kind of God do you believe in, really? And why?” (The Sin of Certainty - CHECK IT OUT HERE ). In this episode on the Deconstructing Mamas podcast, Pete Enns, author of that quote and Lizz's dad, candidly shares his own journey of deconstruction and how his own "sin of certainty" played out in his parenting, especially th...

“Curiosity is the opposite of certainty. Curiosity isn’t about right or wrong or should or shouldn’t. Those words are about certainty.” (page 163 of A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself - CHECK IT OUT HERE ). "Raising kids highlighted just how uncertain life was, but my faith was wholly tied to certainty. Therein lies the tension. So I decided to be curious." In this episode on the D...

In our second episode on the Deconstructing Mamas podcast, Esther Joy Goetz, the second half of the dynamic hosting duo, shares her story of growing up in a developing war-torn country with her Evangelical missionary parents and how this impacted her faith journey. Listen in to hear how it all came down to this formula:  “Do all the right things, make all the right, godly choices and life goes the...

To launch our Deconstructing Mamas podcast, Lizz Enns Petters, one of the dynamic hosting duo, shares her story of hardship, heartbreak, and hope.  Find out how "not quite good enough and not quite bad enough" landed her in some very unlikely real life spaces and why she started to go down the path to deconstruct her faith and what good words she has for you today. SHOW NOTES: Lizz Enns...