Graceful Atheist Podcast

This week's guest is Jenny McGrath. Jenny is a licensed mental health counselor, a somatic psychotherapist, and a movement educator specializing in religious trauma and sexual abuse. She believes "in the power of story and the wisdom of the body." Jenny's work stems partly from her evangelical upbringing in Colorado Springs. She was steeped in the world of purity culture. Her work...

This week's guest is B. B grew up homeschooled in a large evangelical household and spent nearly thirty years in the church, trying to fit in.  He had felt like leaving for a while, never having belonged, and then in 2016, he knew it was the end for him. He hit the door running. One of the most destructive forces within his Christian upbringing was Purity Culture. Since deconverting, he's...

This week's guest is Bob Barnes. Bob is an organizer with BAHA, Bluewater Atheists, Humanists & Agnostics. BAHA "is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the image of Freethinkers and Atheists and to give back to our communities." BAHA is hosting its annual conference, BAHACon , this year with speakers and events you won't want to miss! August 26 – 28th, 2022 in Sarn...

After years in the mission field and in pastoral ministry Paul is done. Paul is Deb's (last week's guest) husband. Deb's episode https://gracefulatheist.com/2022/06/26/deb-is-done/ Interact For quotes, recommendation and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2022/07/03/pual-is-done/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/group...

This week's guest is Deb. Deb "asked Jesus into her heart" at six years old and remained a devoted follower of Jesus for decades. She married her high school sweetheart, started a family and found herself living the missionary life on the continent of Africa. As the years passed, Deb's faith was tested—praying and watching children die on two continents, her husband pointlessly fir...

This week's guest is Ruby. Ruby is an author, blogger and YouTuber, living her journey out loud for the benefit of her followers. Lutheran to her core, Ruby spent her life committed to the institution of the Church. It took multiple heartbreaks and difficulties in life before she began to wonder, "Is any of this true? Is any of this real?" She threw out the formal church experience fir...

Community manager, Arline, guest hosts. This week's guests are a couple of fabulous black women who've come a long way in their journeys away from white evangelicalism. They've known one another for over a decade and their conversation is both information and so much fun. Marissa grew up in church and loved it as a kid. As a college student, however, she found herself in a ministry tha...

Our guest this week is Dave. Dave grew up in the Mennonite Brethren faith and followed all the rules until at age 50, a gift from his son made him begin to ask questions. Dave's love for his family and a desire for truth are equally apparent in his story. He asked hard questions and was never given satisfying answers. Knowing he had to tell his wife about his waning faith, Dave feared the cons...

This week's show is a  Deconversion Anonymous  episode. This week's guest is Elizabeth. Elizabeth grew up in what she calls a "Methodist Baptist" church, mostly Methodist but with more conservatism and even some charisma thrown in. Elizabeth loved church as a kid, but as a teen, things were harder: purity culture demands, a youth pastor leaving abruptly and even a camp with exorcis...

This week's show is a  Deconversion Anonymous  episode. This week's guest is Shannon. Shannon' story delves into the emotional experience of deconversion. Shannon grew up in an Independent Fundamental Baptist church, where the teachings were pernicious. As a teen and into adulthood, Shannon knew her own beliefs and convictions did not always align with her church or family. She tried t...

This week's show is a  Deconversion Anonymous  episode. This week's guest is Seth. Seth was the oldest child in a large homeschooling family who attended attended mostly non-denominational churches. He was always studious and had read through the Bible multiple times before adulthood. In high school, Seth made his faith his own and dove deeply into Youth Earth Creationism. He studied at a...

This week's show is a  Deconversion Anonymous  episode. This week's guest is Anne. Anne grew up in a loving and happy Christian home in a large city where her father pastored a small reformed church. As a teen, her faith was very real to her, and a few years later, she attended a Christian college, but struggled mentally and physically. Anne left that school and attended a Bible college, b...

This week's guest is artist Ursula Schneider. As a child, neither her charismatic church nor her unstable home were safe for her. There was a lot of mental illness at home and Ursula often felt abandoned by the church. Their family was simply "too much." Ursula grew up, married young and began going to church again. As an adult, she needed something real to her. She saw that something...

CW Mental health and depression This week's guest is Andrew Pledger. Andrew has spent nearly his entire life in the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Church—where the KJV rules and women do not. Andrew was homeschooled K-12 with a mildly white Christian nationalist curriculum, no sex education and no diverse friendships. For years, Andrew's mental health suffered, but there were no resour...

This week's guest is Robert Peoples of Affinis Humanity . Robert grew up in a Black Baptist church in New Jersey. When he was young, he enjoyed church but was an inquisitive child with many questions and no satisfying answers. As a teenager, Robert looked for answers outside the church—from Thomas Paine to Allah to the Buddha. By 18 years old, Robert could no longer believe in anything superna...

This week's guest is Luke J. Janssen, M.Sc., Ph. D., M.T.S., Professor Emeritus, Dept. Medicine, McMaster University, and co-host of the Recovering Evangelicals podcast. He is a scientist in medical research. During a faith crisis he began taking courses on theology which turned into an M.T.S degree. Luke tells his story in four 15 year phases: his early years as a nominal Reformed Christian,...

This week's Deconversion Anonymous guest is Bethany. Bethany grew up in the Pacific Northwest, attending an Assemblies of God church. It was an insular experience of their brand of Christianity against the world. The older Bethany got, the scarier the church doctrines—eternal torment, losing one's salvation, the Apocalypse, faith healing that doesn't always work and even demons under h...

This week's guest is April Ajoy, viral Tiktok'r, youTuber and podcaster. She is a "recovering conservative humorously detoxing religion." April had a unique childhood. She was homeschooled and spent half of each year in Pentacostal spaces and the other half traveling the US with her family, singing and evangelizing. Her parents were evangelists and her grandfather was a pastor of a...

This is the three year anniversary of the Graceful Atheist Podcast. Thank you to everyone who has listened and participated. Special thanks to Mike T and Arline for their work on the podcast over the past year. This week's guest is Ryan Mulkowsky. Ryan grew up Independent Fundamentalist Baptist. He made a "profession of faith" when he was nine years old and was reading Christian apolog...

This week's guest is Marla Taviano, author of  Unbelieve: Poems on the Journey to Becoming a Heretic . Marla grew up in Middle America and moved across the globe and back, searching for God's will for her life. She grew up in a loving home and didn't realize she was in a "white Christian bubble." Her church was almost all-white, her hometown was almost completely white, and the...

This week's guest is Meghan Crozier, the writer behind The Pursuing Life blog and co-host of Thereafter Podcast . Meghan grew up in an Evangelical Free church and she was all in. After high school, she went to a christian university, signing a pledge to become a missionary. Her life turned out differently, and though it took years to be okay with that, she is now extremely thankful she never b...

This week's guest is the Nigerian podcaster, The Ranting Atheist. He grew up in a strict Pentacostal church where his parents were ministers. At home, his parents were tough on him and his brothers, and made sure they attended Christian schools, even into university. While TRA was in university, following all the rules, his parents parents were rising in the ranks of their church. All was well...

This week's guest is Jeffrey Caldwell. Jeffrey grew up in Lancaster county, PA in a liberal denomination set in a conservative area. As a child, church was okay; it was filled with the usual things—bible crafts in Sunday school and singing in the choir. His family was "quasi-religious." It was good for children to have morals, but no one was pressured to believe anything. Jeffrey had d...

This week's episode is Natalie. Natalie grew up in a traditional Christian household, one of six kids. Living in the South and attending a Southern Baptist church most of her childhood and adolescence, however, left a bad taste in her mouth. One place she found solace? Books. Natalie was an avid reader from a young age and reading authors like Judy Blume opened her eyes to a whole good and hap...

"Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/ "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/ This week's episode is Matt Oxley. Matt has what he calls a "Bapti-costal" background—mainstream Southern Baptist with "some extra flair and drama." At six, he was saved, by thirteen he was "hardcore about fa...