Growing Up Christian

This week, we’re joined by writer, podcaster, and deconstruction coach Micah J. Murray! He hosts a fantastic show called the “Existential Happy Hour,” and offers support to people looking for healthy, authentic spirituality in the wake of religious deprogramming. Follow @micahjmurray on Twitter and Instagram, visit his website at www.micahjmurray.com , and stream the “Existential Happy Hour” where...

Our guest, this week, is a podcast prodigy if there ever was one! Stephen Henning is one of the founders of HighLine Media Network, and cohost of some phenomenal podcasts, including Ravel, K(no)w Normal People, and Whiskey Bench. We get into some off the wall topics while talking about Stephen's upbringing and journey towards his own understanding of faith, and it felt like we laughed the entire w...

This week we're joined by Carina Davis, who you might know as either @deconstructingblack or @deconstructingcolors! The three of us sat down to talk about her long journey away from evangelicalism, historical and doctrinal holes in the Biblical narrative, and positive and negative aspects of the U.S. of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Carina is a vibrant, thoughtful, and overwhelmingly gracious pe...

This week we're joined by sketch comic, musician, and TikTok sensation, Mr. Beard! We cover everything from his homeschool co-op, waiting tables for LA's stuffiest rich pricks, and the long road to social media prominence. This might be the most we've laughed during an episode, and I think you're going to, too!   Subscribe to Mr. Beard on TikTok (@mrbeard), Instagram (@mrbeardofficial), and Y...

Our guest this week is singer-songwriter and former member of Caedmon's Call, Derek Webb! Derek has earned both the applause and the ire of the Christian music industry, over the years. He has been a central figure in the deconstruction movement for many years, and has challenged many of the contemporary church's ideals and sentiments through his music.   Derek is also in the middle of an amb...

On this episode of Friday Fellowship, we're hanging out with professional cosplayer, OnlyFans extraordinaire, and Casey's wife of 11 years, April Gloria! We cover some fun topics like purity culture object lessons (you know, like how a girl who's kissed a boy is like chewed gum), "crossing the line" in Christian relationships, the all-consuming inferno of teenage jealousy, coming to terms with and...

This week, we're joined all the way from Norway by Peter Espevoll, one of the founding members of Christian death metal band Extol (Century Media & Solid State Records). In the late 90's and early 2000's, there was a real groundswell of creativity in the Christian heavy music scene, and Extol was one of the keystone bands from that era. However, surviving and thriving in an emergent genre like...

This week, we're joined by actor, writer, and comedian Jonathan Braylock, who you may recognize from his roles on fantastic shows like Netflix's Astronomy Club and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, as well as the 2016 romantic comedy How to Be Single! He comes from a conservative Christian household, and like many of us, he has painstakingly re-evaluated his faith over the course of many years. Jonathan...

I've got good news and bad news for you. The bad news is that billions of taxpayer dollars are propping up religious universities that actively discriminate against LGBTQ+ students. The good news is there's an elite team of legal professionals, activists, creators, and victims of discrimination that are leading the charge to cut government funding to those schools!   Our guest this week is Pa...

In my experience, doing anything worthwhile means that sooner or later, you're going to lock antlers with old guard apologists - people so entrenched in tradition or ideology that they just can't seem to understand a different perspective. Sometimes it's hard to believe that you're even reading the same source material as them!    Benjamin L. Corey is an activist, theologian, blogger, sp...

If you spent a lot of time at youth group, chances are good that a few different Christian organizations gave a presentation about their program. Some of them were focused on the local community, some sent kids overseas for missionary work, and others were more of a Bible training program centered around the individual. They almost always had a great pitch, with pictures of exciting places and sto...

Alright kids, grab your Kutless tshirt and a copy of CCM Magazine, because we're finally doing a Christian music recap episode! We sat down with old friends Jesse Hoffman and Jeremiah Skinner to talk about the best and worst of 90's and 00's Christian rock, hip hop, and all the bland stuff in between. If your mom ever insisted on reading the lyrics in your Project 86 cd jacket, or you blew out the...

Today, we ask the age-old question: "Does Jesus own an AR-15, or does he own ALL AR-15s?"   There are an estimated 390,000,000 guns in the US - a country with a population somewhere around 328,000,000. In January alone, Americans bought over 4.1m guns, which is a 60% increase! Within five years, every man, woman, and child in the country will be able to dual wield AK-47s to combat the impendi...

We've all heard the phrase "living well is the best revenge," but one of the most important and encouraging things I've learned over the past few years is that living well makes the most compelling case for change. If changing hearts and minds is your goal, you've got to show the other side how green the grass is where you're standing!   Brad Harker grew up in a tightknit Mormon community in...

There were tons of decent people "in the ministry," as my church used to say, but there were always a few that made me raise an eyebrow. Once in a while, we would get a missionary, traveling singer, evangelist, etc. that would show up out of nowhere, give a presentation or performance, and pass the plate. Sometimes they were likable and seemed genuine, but sometimes you just knew that something ab...

Not many of you knew 22-year-old me, but trust me when I tell you that that guy was an idiot... albeit a loveable idiot. I'm sure we all look back on former versions of ourselves and wince, a little. Fortunately, not many of us had a platform to promote those beliefs, but imagine if you did. How well would those ideas age? Think you'd regret some of the messages you preached with absolute convicti...

Welcome to the inaugural episode of a brand new series called Friday Fellowship! These shows will be a little less focused, and a little more light-hearted, and a chance for you to meet some of our old friends like this week's guest, Jess O'Neil! Jesse is an old friend of Sam's, a former roommate/bandmate of Casey's, and guitarist for melodic hardcore band Servants. We spent an evening talking abo...

Lot of us grew up with Christian rock, but how many people can say they grew up in Christian rock? Well, our guest this week certainly did! Michael Sweet Jr's dad is the lead singer of legendary faith-based hair metal band, Stryper. In the 80's, they were an enigma. They were the first overtly Christian band to gain mainstream acceptance, with one of their albums achieving platinum status, and two...

Back in my youth group days, terms like "atheism" and "humanism" were almost as scary as "new age" (I still don't know what that means). My understanding of atheism went back and forth between it being a luciferian coup meant to shatter the scriptural foundations of western society, and just another misguided faith perpetuated by vitriolic curmudgeons of weak moral fiber. Give me a break... I was...

Changing your mind is hard. Changing other people's minds seems impossible, doesn't it? I mean, I've only recently gotten Sam to concede that dinosaurs "probably existed." In a world where we are pulled in so many different directions by so many voices, finding common ground can be a challenge, but it's a critical part of maintaining relationships. How do we encourage those around us to reconsider...

I think anyone who grew up Christian probably heard a sermon or two on the nation state of Israel, and its importance to the return of Christ. Maybe your family had an "I stand with Israel" bumper sticker. Maybe you even heard your parents/pastor bungle through an explanation of how the Jews are God's chosen people (because it says so in the Bible and they have to take it literally) but might get...

It's tough to talk about religion without discussing politics... For my generation, the two subjects are kind of "joined at the hip." You had Christian church on Wednesdays and Sundays, and republican church every night of the week thanks to good ol' Fox News. In fact, I'll bet I've logged almost as many hours listening to the likes of Shawn Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O'Reilly as I have list...

Hey! Yeah, you. Do you know where you're going to spend eternity? If you should die before you wake, did you pray the lord your soul to take, or did you fall asleep watching The Office for the 7th time through because you can't commit to watching a new show even though people won't stop asking if you've seen "The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel," and now you're just avoiding it out of spite? I feel y...

Every night, Sam and I kneel on our MyPillows, and pray that the Lord will bless this podcast. Well, friends, He did.  Joining us this week is childhood hero Jesse Leach! You might know him as the lead singer of several great metal bands like Killswitch Engage and Times of Grace, and the host of the brand new podcast "Stoke the Fire," but what you may not know is that Jesse is a pastor's kid...

Rules, rules, rules. This one goes out to everyone who wasn't allowed to watch Captain Planet, play Pokémon, or read Harry Potter! Go ahead, nobody's looking...   This week, we got to sit down with our new friend, Jada. She is a transnational adoptee from South Korea that identifies as queer, and she grew up on the fruited plains of Central Kansas in a conservative Christian home and church....