Religion on the Mind

I’m joined by Dr. Sam Perry to discuss the tangled historical web of White Evangelicals in the US and their use of and affiliation for various conspiracy theories, starting in the 1950 around “outside agitators” in the Civil Rights movement. Sam traces through lines all the way up to Donald Trump, hitting the Moral Majority, Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye/Left Behind, Obama, and birtherism along the wa...

Natalie Schepman of the band Joseph joins Dan for the latest in the “I Don’t Believe In That God” series, where Dan talks with folks do not consider themselves to be theists/Christians with the aim of getting to the bottom of what precisely they do not believe (in a non-evangelistic way). At the end of the conversation, the two compare their views and explore various areas where they agree/disagre...

John and I were scheduled to record a patron-exclusive episode today, a follow-up to our previous episode. We didn’t feel that that conversation was possible to have, given our strong feelings and need to process what we witnessed yesterday on the news as thousands of Trump-led supporters rioted and broke into the Capitol building. We hope our processing is helpful for your own processing! We disc...

Budding autistic theologian Erin Burnett joins Dan to talk about her undergraduate thesis (Europe is slightly different, and Dan misspoke in the episode calling it a master’s thesis), which looked at the unique ways that autistic Christians understand and experience God. Erin finds that progressive Christianity tends to sit better with many autistic Christians, including herself, and — get this —...

Jed Payne, host of the Church & Other Drugs Podcast, shares his story of serious lifelong drug addiction, how he ended up an addictions counselor, as well as some of the psychological tactics those counselors use to help addicts toward recovery. Specifically, “motivational interviewing” is a common approach Jed uses in his work, and Dan has recently been learning and practicing MI as part of his o...

Ashley Davis Gavila does "trauma-informed life coaching & spiritual care” with clients who have often suffered religious or spiritual abuse. She is not a therapist, and her work is therefore distinct from therapy, but both her dissertation research and client work give her an interesting perspective on this issue that I am, as you now all know, so interested in. So how about some trauma-informed p...

I know, I know, I know. Megachurches are so often panned and criticized that it is hard to consider whether or not or in what ways they might actually be good for people. But here is some serious peer-reviewed research to help burst us our of our bubbles from veteran religion researcher James K. Wellman, Jr. (University of Washington). You might be surprised what you hear, so give it a chance!- Ji...

The first in a series of conversations with musicians who have had some experiences with “Christian Music,” whatever that ultimately means. John Van Deusen is one of my absolute favorite recording artists, period. Formerly leading the band The Lonely Forest, his solo work of the last few years is both phenomenal and prolific. And he has some TAKES about the Christian music industry!“Mind Reader” p...

Today we are celebrating the launch of Sarey Martin Concepcion and I’s web resource soyouredeconstructing.com! To do so, our entire little friend group has gathered around some microphones to tell stories from our own faith journeys, touching on various topics that tend to come up for people whose faith is changing and re-forming. I’m joined by Sarey, Sarah Lane Ritchie, Myron Penner and Tripp Ful...

Dan talks with Tony Jones about the failures of the Emerging Church movement, of which he was a central part, and what’s going on today with churches in America. How might they thrive in the future? Are there any signs that they will make necessary changes? What happens to churches after Covid? Why do gay-affirming people stay in non-affirming churches? What role does church actually play in peopl...

This is the first in a series of episodes where I interview hosts of podcasts that focus primarily on the Bible itself, since it is now clear to me that You Have Permission will never quite be one of those shows. And yet, there are many great shows that do focus on the Bible! So listen to these interviews, and see which Bible-focused podcasts resonate with you. SoYoureDeconstructing.comThe Bible f...

My guest is Dr. Paula Swindle, one of the only people in the world currently doing peer-reviewed research on the topic of spiritual and religious abuse. She is also on my dissertation committee (stoked!). We break down the varieties/types/settings of this kind of abuse in detail, and it’s a fantastic conversation. Dr. Swindle on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drpaulaswindle/Sacred Intersecti...

I chat with Karna Lozoya, host of the Crisis Podcast, chronicling the largely sexual clergy abuse scandal in the Catholic church, with a special focus on the last couple years. Crisis Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crisis-clergy-abuse-in-the-catholic-church/id1526136389Pope Francis daily homilies: http://www.popefrancishomilies.com/Follow Dan on IG: https://www.instagram.com/dancok...

...in which in lieu of a new YHP episode, we feature friend of the podcast Jon Ward and his *fantastic* conversation with WORLD Magazine contributors Mindy & Emily Belz. Jon's show notes are below.****Mindy Belz has been with World Magazine since its founding in 1986. It’s a publication aimed at evangelical Christians, started by her brother in law, Joel Belz. Emily Belz, Mindy’s daughter, is also...

My guest is Dr. Kirk Honda, psychologist, professor, and co-host of the fantastic Psychology in Seattle Podcast. We talk about what the psychological research says about the role of faith in people’s lives, about how that is often a blindspot for non-religious therapists despite very strong evidence, and a little about his own faith story as well. Psychology in Seattle: https://podcasts.apple.com/...

We’ve caused a turning point in the Earth’s natural history. Everybody Now is a podcast about what it means to be human on the threshold of a global climate emergency, in a time of systemic injustice and runaway pandemics. Scientists, activists, farmers, poets, and theologians talk bravely and frankly about how our biosphere is changing, about grief and hope in an age of social collapse and mass e...

I spoke with Luke Barnett and Vince Masciale, the guys behind the new indy comedy Faith Based, about a pair of misfit buddies who try and make a quick buck by directing a Christian movie and selling it to the fictitious “Christflix” streaming channel. To make their own film, they did quite a bit of market research around the Christian movie industry, so naturally I was interested to talk about tha...

Dr. Sarah Lane Ritchie joins for her inaugural regular guest spot on YHP to discuss her and Dan’s shared recent experience of having their first children. They each tell their respective stories of infertility and IVF, and various theological and psychological implications of these are discussed, including: the role of neurotransmitter’s in God’s communication to humans, CS Lewis’s idea of Joy as...

When Dr. Greg Cootsona (California State University, Chico) heard a recent episode that touched on the questions of Hell and Universal Salvation, he emailed me almost immediately and mentioned that something was lacking in our treatment of that topic: other religions and perspectives of the span of geography and time. This is especially relevant because doctrines about the afterlife tend to make a...

Bradley Wright is a Protestant professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut where he studies American Christianity, spirituality, and well-being. Sofia Corozza is a Catholic phd student at Cambridge studying child neurodevelopment. Also, she is Brad’s goddaughter, which makes for a lovely interplay between the two of them. So why care about habits and virtue? Aren’t these old fashioned...

If you spend any significant time reading or listening to scholars of religion, looking at polling of religious groups, or anything like that, then you have probably heard the term Spiritual But Not Religious thrown out there. This will usually come with a sentence or two of description, something like, people who do not identify with any particular religion, or people who are neither religious no...

Short interviews with three pastors in different traditions (Foursquare, Episcopal, and Presbyterian-PCA) about their process of referring congregants to therapists in their area. This is a topic that it seems to me could use some more attention, not least because pastors are in a *perfect* position to help Christians of all stripes get the mental health help that they need when they need it, and...

My guest (and dear friend) philosopher Myron A. Penner joins me to talk about demons. His position is as follows:1. Not ruling out their existence2. Quite skeptical what we could really know about them3. Somewhat opposed morally, given how they function in human/religious affairsWe also talk about the phenomena of increased “possession” in non-Western countries, culture-bound mental health syndrom...

This is a wonderful and wide-ranging conversation with the author of one of my favorite books I’ve read in a long time. We talk about Amy Peterson’s missionary story and the Christian soil in which she was raised before turning our gaze to the topic of short-term missions more broadly. Dangerous Territory: https://smile.amazon.com/Dangerous-Territory-Misguided-Quest-World-ebook/dp/B01MRCB54Y/ref=s...

End Times Popularity: Part 2 (#78) Part 2 of a series that addresses the question “Why was End Times/Left Behind/Rapture theology *so popular* by the time we grew up in the 90s and 2000s?” Please start with Part 1, last week’s episode. My main argument:1. The people whose evangelizing kicked off the Jesus Movement were primarily fundamentalists and they were themselves already very focused on bibl...