Growing Up Christian

This week Sam, Casey, and Jeremiah take a hard look at the recent Balenciaga scandal involving kids with S&M teddy bears, unsettling court documents used as photo props, and the resulting backlash and its effects. It’s a lot of weird. Some would argue it’s too much weird.   Of course, we wouldn’t feel right without spending some time in the Word with you folks, so we’re going back to the...

Our guest this week is the fantastically-talented singer, songwriter, and creator, Ian McConnell! Months ago, we stumbled across a video of Ian performing a song called “Important,” and we knew from the lyrics that we had to talk to him. Ian spent a lot of time in church, as a kid, and really enjoyed it. However, life experience led him to question the validity of his faith. We think Ian may be on...

This week we’re joined once again by the fabulous April Gloria (Casey’s wife), and we’re jumping back in the Word, folks! Grab a pad and pen, because we’re studying the heavenly sex offenders known as the Nephilim, and the story of Esther. I’m telling you, these Bible stories just keep getting better with distance… Follow April on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok (@_aprilgloria)!

This week we’re joined by author and journalist Casey Parks! Casey is a Washington Post reporter who covers gender and family issues. She spent a decade at The Oregonian, where she wrote about race and LGBTQ+ issues and was a finalist for the Livingston Award. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Oxford American, ESPN, USA Today, and The Nation. In this episod...

Happy Halloween, friends! This week, we’re reviewing some very important warnings about this, the most evil of all holidays, from the totally sane and rational prophets of Christian TikTok. But first, Sam has some very exciting news to share… If you’re enjoying the show, we’d sure appreciate it if you’d share it with a friend or two and leave us a review wherever you listen. As always, we’d love t...

This week, we’re joined by author and actor Barrett Carroll! Barrett grew up in unusual circumstances, to say the least… His father was a preacher, conspiracy theorist, and right wing political activist that kept the family moving off the grid for decades. On top of that, he was physically and emotionally abusive. Barrett found purpose and hope in the one thing he was allowed to do – acting. In th...

On our first Friday Fellowship episode in quite some time, I (Casey) got to hang out with my old Michigan buddies, Ian and The Jowl! We spent an evening cackling about attending Promise Keepers rallies as kids, getting arrested for possessing various flea market weaponry, Ian’s reservations about the Heavenly streets of gold, and finally, the heartwarming Biblical account of Ehud and King Eglon fr...

Last week, we aired an interview with Jeremy Courtney, who along with his wife Jessica, founded the charitable organization Preemptive Love. We had a lot to say about the controversy surrounding the Courtney’s dismissal from the charity that they had spent well over a decade building, but we thought it best to let people hear from Jeremy, first. This week, we got together with Jeremiah to discuss...

This week, we got the opportunity to sit down with humanitarian and author, Jeremy Courtney, who comes to you from his home in northern Iraq! In 2008, Jeremy and his wife Jessica founded an incredible organization called Preemptive Love, who’s mission includes providing aid in the form of food, shelter, and medical care to people caught in the midst of global conflict, as well as launching local b...

This week, we’re joined by musician and vocalist, Dawson Scholtz! The Ongoing Concept is one of the most interesting bands on Solid State Records, and a personal favorite of Sam’s. In this episode, Dawson talks life in a family gospel band, writing music and touring with his brothers in TOC while they were still very young, and some of the weird things about being perceived as a Christian band. Th...

This week, we are once again joined by our good friend, Dr. Luke Wilson (that’s right, he’s a freakin’ doctor, now)! This time, Luke was kind enough to tell us a little bit about his two fields of focus - Holocaust studies and Critical Evangelicalism. Spoiler alert: there’s some overlap… Historically, the Christian community has played a large role in the persecution of their Jewish neighbors, and...

This week, we’re debating one of the more controversial and frequently mentioned ideas in ex-Christendom: should churches be tax exempt? Many former church kids shout a sudden and emphatic “NO!!!,” but I’m not so sure… Join us as we discuss a number of obstacles that must be factored in, as well as the safeguards protecting our political system that are currently under attack. Let us know what you...

This week, we’re joined by artist, educator, and furry, Jonathan Vair Duncan! Over the past few weeks, there have been several articles about the plight of Christian in the furry fandom – which we now know is a rich, diverse subculture of people interested in anthropomorphic characters. Some of the Christians referenced in these articles expressed concerns about being “persecuted” for their faith...

This week, we have the pleasure of speaking with a true prayer warrior who is tirelessly fighting for the souls of America’s youth: the esteemed director of Christians Against Skaters Ministries! He outlines his upbringing in the Evangelical church, his brush with doom as a young man interested in skateboarding, and how, through the grace of God, he triumphed over the wiles of Skatan. We had a fan...

This week, we’re face-to-face for the first time in like 6 years! Sam came down to Kansas for a visit, and we had lots of fun! So, we spend the first part of the episode talking about our many adventures, including giant spider safaris, skeetin’ all over my back yard (with shotguns, that is), and dining on Rocky Mountain oysters in my local MAGA meth den honkey-tonk straight out of The Hills Have...

This week, we’re joined by our new friend Paul, who runs one of our absolute favorite meme pages, @xripped_girl_jeansx! Like us, many of you sowed some wild oats in a mosh pit at a church basement show, two-stepping with 14 other people in a rented out American Legion, or just loitering around a Hot Topic talking about the band tee you were saving up for because your mom wanted you to buy school c...

This week, we’re joined by an absolutely fantastic comedian, Amy Miller! Amy basically lived at her Free Will Baptist Church in California from an early age. However, things were less picturesque than they appeared (see title above^). We discuss her slow drift away from the faith, her pastors’ worries about attending a “secular” university, and some of the things that led her to pursue a career in...

This week, we’re happy to welcome back our good friend, Amber Viola! Amber is the Human Resources Director and mayoral cabinet member for the city of Scranton, and she’s the first black director in the city’s history. She’s also a Navy veteran, social worker, and the first black commander of the Gouldsboro American Legion. We spent the vast majority of our first episode with Amber discussing her u...

Our guest this week is comedian, podcaster, and writer, Spencer McRay Bland! Spencer is the cohost of Bop or Flop, a music-comedy podcast that revisits the Billboard Top Ten songs from a specific date in history, and determines whether they bop or flop. Spencer was steeped in Christianity, as a young man, but circumstances (including working for a very strange Evangelical organization) eventually...

This week we’re joined by podcaster, chef, and vocalist for Christian punk band, Dogwood, Josh Kemble! Josh joins us to discuss his upbringing in Catholicism and Evangelicalism, his days of touring in Dogwood, and his glowing passion for food and music, in general. He hosts a phenomenal podcast called “The Family? Cast: Punk Chef Pairings with Chef Josh Kemble,” which you can check out on your fav...

Our guest this week is Sacramento-based comedian, John Morris Ross IV! John joins us to discuss Bible camp, traveling Evangelical grifters, his foray into Christian music, and much more. We had a great time talking to him, and you will enjoy the conversation! You can follow John on Instagram (@johnmorrisrossiv) and Twitter (@xjohnrossx), and check out his upcoming comedy dates at www.johnrossatsta...

This week we're joined by Chalice and Dex, two ordained Ministers of Satan from the Satanic Temple! You've probably heard about the Satanic Temple's activism through things like erecting Baphomet statues in contrast to Christian statues in that area, or maybe through their "After School Satan" program meant to contrast the many Christian after school programs. We were fascinated by some of the thi...

This week we're joined by an musician, humanitarian, and old friend of Sam's, Ben Sooy! Ben split his time between progressive churches and his fundamentalist school, while also grappling with some tough realities at home. He ended up attending Liberty University, intent on becoming a youth pastor. However, his ideas about God would undergo many changes that ultimately led him in a different direc...

This week we’re joined by author, speaker, and Emergent Church pastor, Brian McLaren (the interview starts at 1:27:00)! His most recent book is entitled “Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned,” and in it, he attempts to help readers make a responsible, honest, ethical decision about their religious identity by asking some of the toughest and most c...

This week, we're joined by musician and author, Aaron Lunsford! Aaron is a veteran of the Christian heavy music scene, and his band As Cities Burn was and is a favorite among people like us. He joins us to discuss his entry into the church as a teen, the ark of his career in music, and some of the weird and funny things he saw while touring the country and playing music. We had a lot of fun talkin...