Graceful Atheist Podcast

This week's guest is Audrey. Audrey spent her childhood and adolescence deep in American Christianity. In college, she took a course in "biblical perspectives," and she had many questions. She would shelve the cognitive dissonance for years, though, pretending that everything was fine. After years of experiencing church from the inside and working around more "secular" people,...

This week's guest is Taylor. Taylor grew up in a small church in a small town, surrounded by Christianity. She had family devotions at home and a private-Christian-academy curricula at school. By twenty-one, however, she moved out and stopped attending church completely. Her "personal relationship with Jesus" was more important than church-going. While watching a loved one live with ca...

This week's guest is Rachel Hunt. Rachel is both the Support Group Director and an Ambassador for Recovering From Religion. From her RFR bio, "Rachel is a motorcycle-riding ballroom dance teacher from rural Texas. Married with two adult children, Rachel has a strong interest in psychology, philosophy, and communication, in addition to the creative arts and home improvement. She was raised...

This week's guests are Brian and Troy of the podcast, I was a Teenage Fundamentalist. They interviewed David at the end of 2022, and now it's our turn to hear from them. Brian and Troy "used to be loyal Christians megachurch leaders. They're not anymore." Their parallel stories are fascinating, as we are given a glimpse into their past lives and the Pentecostal movement in Aust...

This week's guest is Evan Clark. Evan is the Executive Director of Atheists United. Evan grew up in a partially religious home, but at six years old, the idea of a god didn't make sense to him. He attended a Christian liberal arts college and was able to start its first atheist group. Since then, he's gone on to create many humanist communities. In this episode, Evan explains why athei...

Arline guest hosts to ask David anything. David tells his deconversion story. He talks about the beginning of the Deconversion Anonymous FB group. David goes deep on what Secular Grace is and what it means to him. Links Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Why I am a Humanist https://gracefulath...

AMA? Try AAA. Ask Arline Anything. This week's guest is your community manager, Arline. Arline tells us what she has learned from managing the community and interviewing guests. She explains how her views have changed on Christianity and fundamentalism after deconversion. She let's us know what makes her mad and what gives her hope. She reveals her love language(s). Join me in thanking Arl...

Content Warning: Spiritual, physical and sexual abuse. Depression, post-partum depression, infertility and suicidal idealization. Arline guest hosts interviewing author and podcaster, Nicki Pappas. Nicki Pappas is a writer who critiques the evangelical establishment that shaped her. She's the author of As Familiar as Family: Leaving the Toxic Religion I Was Groomed For . She's also the hos...

This week's guest is Jessica Moore, a life coach focusing on purity culture. Jessica grew up in a non-denominational Christian in Salt Lake City Utah surrounded by Mormons. She felt both the pressure to evangelize and be proselytized. Jessica went to an unaccredited Christian college where she first began to have doubts. She wound up traveling to Israel and seeing life on both sides of the Pal...

Ben and Ang have been married for seventeen years. They met as tender homeschooled church-kids. They married young, and the church's "formula" worked well for a while. They were mostly happy and went on to have kids of their own. But little things from childhood would pop up now and then—purity culture shame, fear of emotions, fear of the end of the world… In June of 2016, the shooting...

This week's guests are podcasters, Nathan Alexander and Todd Tavares of  Beyond Atheism . Nathan grew up Anglican and in his early twenties, he realized there were no good reasons to continue believing. Todd grew up Catholic—technically still confirmed—but even at ten years old, he was a skeptic, wanting to explore reality rather than make-believe. In this interview, Nathan and Todd discuss ra...

This week's guest is Heather Wells, author of Trustworthy: A Journey from American Christianity to Freedom . Heather grew up in a happy Christian home, attending a variety of churches—from "Women cannot wear pants," to "There are drums!" She married at eighteen and expected to have a similarly happy marriage as her parents, but no matter how hard she worked—both literally and m...

Humanist author and speaker, Joe Simonetta, grew up in a Catholic home with good values. He and his brothers "did well," and he is thankful for the foundation his parents gave him. As a young man, affected by all the suffering in the world, he vowed to be part of the solution. He has lived a fascinating life, holding degrees from multiple universities, traveling extensively and enjoying al...

This week's guest is the content creator, @boundless_and_free . Boundless grew up in a good Christian home, attended a PCA church and believed all was well in her life. She would later learn the term CPTSD and understand that a "good Christian upbringing" may not have been quite what she'd thought. In college, Ms. Free first experienced anxiety and depression but had no vocabulary...

This week's guest is Daniel. Daniel is a social scientist with a master's degree in psychology. He grew up in the United Church of Canada, but church wasn't a huge part of his life until high school. He then went to bible college and worked in ministry. He tried to experience God like others were, but it just wouldn't happen. He took on the "Office of Skeptic," for himself....

This week's guest is Treasure who is interviewed by Arline, the Deconversion Anonymous community manager. Treasure grew up in the Seventh Day Adventist tradition. Her whole family was focused on ministry. Treasure is a singer and she was continually asked to sing for every church she attended. She was focused on mental health issues and ministering to people in need. In 2020, Treasure began to...

Content Warning: miscarriage; traumatic birth; mental health problems; hell anxiety This week's guest is Julia. Julia is the clever mind behind @painfulpostchristianprayers on Instagram. Julia grew up in a German mostly-atheist environment. The hostility, however, she saw for religion made it all the morning appealing. As she came of age, she found herself confirmed in the German Lutheran chur...

Stay skeptical? This week's guest is Thom Krystofiak. He's the author of Tempted to Believe: The Seductive Power of Claims About "The Truth." Thom grew up Catholic but as an adult began practicing TM, Transcendental Meditation. He followed gurus and groups for decades, even though he was never quite convinced of the more spectacular claims of TM. Thom shares about his experiences i...

This week's guest is Doug. Doug became interested in church when he was in junior high, and when Doug is in, he's all in. He was a believer throughout high school, college and into the military. But then books and magazines happened. Doug began reading more "skeptical literature," and the questions began. Doug's faith unraveled while he was "an atheist in a foxhole," bu...

This week's guest is Cooper. Cooper grew up deeply immersed in church world. From the time she was a little girl, she was devoted to God and obedient to her family. In high school, life threw her a curve ball, but she continued faithfully loving Jesus and doing what she believed to be best. Parenthood, marriage, church life and military life all, in different ways, knocked her feet out from be...

This week's guest is Jack Robertson. Jack is a returning guest and an integral part of the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group. Earlier this year, Jack's youngest daughter, Emily, was in an accident, suffering severe burns on her body. Jack discusses how his online community and IRL friends stepped in to support his family. He also discusses the anger and hurt their family experience at...

Content Warning: This week's story includes references to physical and emotional abuse, mental illness and suicidal ideation. Listener discretion is advised. This week's guest is Jan. Jan grew up in a strict fundamentalist household which made church safer, and that disconnect planted the first seeds of doubt. She went off to a Christian university where she was told to expect "signs a...

This week's guest is Matthew. Matthew grew up in the Pentacostal tradition and went from being a youth leader in high school to a full-time international missionary as an adult. He had all the right answers to all the important questions. The missionary life, however, didn't turn out as he'd expected. He and his team did everything in their power to tell people about Jesus but nothing...

This week's guest is Drew. Drew grew up as a Missionary Kid and has traveled to nearly every continent and all across the United States. Drew spent years of his life evangelizing and serving others through construction, farming and carpentry. Drew has since left mainstream evangelicalism, with its exclusivity and supremacy culture, but he is using the tools he developed. He and his family serv...

This week's guest is Adria. Adria is a sociologist working in international development. Adria grew up in various multiethnic churches but each one seemed to worship whiteness alongside Jesus. By the end of college, Adria was done with church. Years later, in atheist spaces, she would find racism to be just as prevalent. Her experience with the Christian missionaries showed her the inequity th...