Graceful Atheist Podcast

This week's guest is Judah. Judah grew up "Church of God, Pentecostal adjacent," where Judah's father was convinced, "God is alive in these people." By eight years old, Judah was speaking in tongues and absorbed into eschatology—the study of the end times. Around ten, at a more "separatist" church, the family started homeschooling. His church and family were convinc...

This week's guest is Will from Heretical Theology . Will grew up in a Methodist church until high school, when he began attending youth group in what he now calls the, "cult church."  Years later, will he and his wife were still at that church, he would have a seemingly supernatural experience at his brother's church in Florida. The decide to move, and not only was there a megachur...

This week's returning guest is Carlene! She grew up in the Independent Church of Christ—a cappella music, wholly male leadership, baptism before heaven and Biblical inerrancy. One church teaching that took up too much emotional energy was the constant push to be baptized. She was told, "you'll feel so much better when you do it. You'll feel so clean." But it felt inauthentic to...

This week's guest is Derek Webb, musician, song writer and public deconstructor. For 10 years, Derek was a member of the Christian rock band, Caedmon's Call. He then went on to a solo career where he focused on self reflection in his art. During that time, Derek began to desconstruct. He did so publicly in his music and on social media. For Derek's Fingers Crossed album, "the tale...

Ask Me Anything 2021. Questions from Sheila, Emily, Rick and Mark, Jimmy, Arline, Judah, and Matt. Links Deconversion How To https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Still Unbelievable https://anchor.fm/still-unbelievable/episodes/Episode-39—Deconstructing-a-Deconstruction-Deconstruction-els542 https://anchor.fm/still-unbelievable/episodes/Episode-64—Discussing-Sean-McDowell-and...

The Holidays: The Big White Elephant in the Room When one has deconverted, the holidays may look completely different, reexamining everything from family traditions to singing carols to dealing with those extended family members. On today's episode, two returning guests, Arline and Lars and a new guest, Carlene, share how the holidays have and haven't changed since deconversion. Lars and A...

This week's guest is Jose Ramos, Hannah's husband from her episode two weeks ago. Jose's family converted to Independent Fundamentalist Baptist and his father became a pastor. They were taught that the IFB had the "pure word of God," and it was their purpose to evangelize and change the world. Throughout his teens, Jose's only rebellion was, "like a month partying with...

"Good afternoon. Good evening. And good night." This week's episode is a compelling discussion between David and past podcast guests Jimmy and Colin. They take a deep dive into how The Truman Show mirrors the long, painful journey of deconstruction—realizing the story you've been told isn't quite what it seems, pushing back little by little, and then sometimes leaving completel...

My guest this week is Hannah Ramos. Hannah grew up in an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist family, one of ten homeschooled children. Dissuaded from going to bible college, she waited for her Prince Charming. When Jose showed up to speak at her church, she knew he was "God's choice" for her as a husband. Very early in their marriage, Jose took over as pastor of a Spanish speaking churc...

My guest this week is Phil Quagliariello who blogs at Phil Q Musings . Phil grew up as a PK in Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Churches which, of course, were the one true Church. He moved around often as a kids and saw the dark side of ministry when his father was removed from a church by the board for being too "new fangled." He went through the entirety of his education including col...

My guest this week is Jack Robertson, host of the Musings of an ADD mind podcast. He grew up with a super Evangelical Southern Baptist mother and always went to church. As a teenager he became super religious himself until a confidant let the whole youth group know he was having sex with his girlfriend. Then he stopped going to church for a while. Then late in his 30s Jack got heavily involved in...

My guest this week is Mark Landes, a former Army officer who is working toward becoming a humanist chaplain. Mark grew up in the United Methodist tradition. He went to West Point and became an officer in the Army. He wanted to become an Army chaplain. Mark's army career is a fascinating tale in itself. He was stationed in West Berlin shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Then during the...

This week's show is a  Deconversion Anonymous  episode. My guest this week is Emily. Emily grew up in an Evangelical Free Church in the rural Midwest. She was on the Cubbies-Sparks-AWANA track. Around age 10, she became a pastor's kid when her dad switched careers and went into ministry. Her early childhood experiences of church were fairly positive, but she struggled with severe fear of h...

This week's show is a  Deconversion Anonymous  episode. My guest this week is Ginna. Ginna is a software developer in her 30's. She went through deconversion in her 20's after suffering depression during her college years. Even though there were Christians around her who were on medication for their depressions no one was public about it. The implied stigma kept her from reaching out f...

My guest this week is Monique. Monique grew up a cultural Christian until the family of her boyfriend "made it known they were Southern Baptists." She married that boyfriend and had kids. He became abusive. First psychologically, then spiritually and eventually physically. He gas lit her, told her she was not worthy and that she was not following god, and called her purity culture epithets...

My guests this week are Lars, Christie, Teddy, Amy and Eleanor, a whole family who deconverted around the same time. Lars felt a sense of duty to be a Christian all his life because he believed it was true. Christie felt there was "good evidence" for parts of the Bible and accepted that the rest was true. This worked until both of them came to the conclusion there was not enough evidence t...

My returning guest this week is Jimmy. Jimmy and I review Julia Galef's book Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't . We explore the book from two lenses: Deconversion and Secular Grace . Jimmy brings an intense focus on humility, self-honesty and truth seeking to the conversation. The perfect complement to Julia's book. Julia GalefThe best description of mo...

This week's show is a  Deconversion Anonymous  episode. My guest this week is Sara. Sara is "a musician from a home of musicians." She grew up in an Assemblies of God church in a "vibrantly faithful home." She spent her teen years in a "cool" Southern Baptist Church. She then spent some time in Acts 29 churches and Reformed theology. To round things out she attended a P...

This week's show is a  Deconversion Anonymous  episode. My guest this week is Joel. Joel grew up in the WELS Lutheran church. He met his wife at a Christian group during college. They attended a few churches, one of which was Mars Hill, Mark Driscoll's church. Joel began to question what he had been taught. He began noticing discrepancies in scripture. He began to see the way the Church ha...

My guest this week is Stephanie, the host of the StephUp Podcast where she "delve[s] into different topics to learn more about the world and more about ourselves." Stephanie had me on her podcast to delve into atheism. In this episode, Stephanie describes her journey of deconstruction of Christianity, politics and conservative culture. She is focused on caring for people and shedding racis...

My guest this week is Eli Fuhrmler-Wheeler. Eli grew up going to Awanas at an Evangelical Free church. Eventually, he attended an Assemblies of God church and spoke in tongues. His parents forbade him from going to that church and "of course I felt they were keeping me from the gates of heaven and pulling me into hell." Eli's childhood was traumatic in many ways. He experienced sexual...

This week's show is a  Deconversion Anonymous  episode. My guest this week is Jason, the son of a pastor. He grew up in the independent Christian Churches, an offshoot of the Church of Christ that allows music. He grew up doing "sword drills" and was a devout teenage believer. He participated in Bible memorization contests. He became a musician and participated in worship bands for yea...

My guest this week is Geoffrey Wallis, author of A Voice From Inside: Notes on Religious Trauma in a Captive Organization . Geoffrey is Physically In but Mentally Out (PIMO) of the Jehovah's Witnesses. After recognizing the religious trauma and the cognitive dissonance he was experiencing he found help through therapy. He remains within the Watchtower organization because it is a "captive...

My guest this week is David. David is the son and grandson of pastors. He does has have good memories of growing up in the church and he credits his parents with restraint. As an adult, he became more fundamentalist. He was a Southern Baptist and went through a very strong Calvinist phase. David taught apologetics classes. He delved into apologetics to qualm his own questions. But teaching apologe...

My guest this week is Daniel Kelly, the new co-host of When Belief Dies . Daniel began as a Charismatic Christian, moved to an Orthodox Christian church, and eventually was at a Bible church that preached through every verse in the bible. Daniel was a dedicated Christian working in a Christian non-profit helping those with disabilities. His mother had MS when he grew up so he was focused on helpin...