The Dismantling Doctrine Podcast

After publishing my article "Rapture Anxiety" on Medium several weeks ago, many who read it asked if I could do a special episode on not just the topic of the movie itself, but also critically assess its theology. In this bonus episode, not only do I delve into the theological interpretation of its creator, I further get into various interpretative issues around biblical prophetic and apocalyptic...

This week's episode features a great conversation with Bethany Carter, who became an atheist after confronting a lot of issues around the subject of...spanking her children? Find out how this particular issue started Bethany off on the road of deconstruction of her former evangelical beliefs, including questioning God, the Bible and its many issues, and why she no longer counts herself as a believ...

This week's episode features a conversation with author Ronna Russell, whose book "The Uncomfortable Confessions of a Preacher's Kid" has just recently come out. We talk about Ronna's backstory, growing up as a preacher's kid in evangelical churches. But what happens when things don't go the way they're planned, and all the pieces don't fit into the nice "churchy puzzle?" Ronna has worked through...

In this special follow-up bonus episode to the one I recently did on "The Psychology of Conversion," I move further into developing psychiatrist Dr Robert Jay Lifton's model of cult formation. Lifton demonstrates how, in 8 different ways and methods, cults and cult leaders operate to control and manipulate their followers. This is a fascinating study for me, and has  proven to be very helpful for...

Keeping it in the Great White North, this week I'm returning to Canada for a great conversation with Neil604--the Canadian atheist! On his YouTube channel, Neil loves to speak with people who have left religion behind--religious deconversion, spiritual transitions, divorcing religions--whatever you'd like to call it. Religion has done a tremendous amount of harm to humanity, in spite of its claims...

In this return visit from Canadian ex-evangelical David Hayward, "The Naked Pastor," we get right into the subject of religious trauma, how evangelical churches can resemble cults, and how people can recover from the damage they may have suffered while in the system. As a former evangelical pastor like myself, David has a large and supportive group of people who have left church, and possibly thei...

As I've been connecting with more and more ex-cult members, I have been learning that even though each cult has very different ideology, the psychology of mind control, thought reform, manipulation, abuse and exploitation is virtually identical group to group. Thus, whether you've come out of a dangerous cult group, or a fundamentalist Christian church--chances are, you'll have suffered a lot of r...

This special bonus episode draws upon the work of psychologist Dr Robert Lifton and his seminal 1961 work on the psychology of brainwashing, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of "Brainwashing" in China .  In particular, I make use of Lifton's 12-step model to explore further the psychology of conversion, as well as what happens to a person who deconstructs his or her religious...

In this episode of MindShift podcast, I catch up with Keith Davis, formerly of the Pilgrims & Prodigals podcast. Last year we had a great chat with ended up on their show, and since then a lot has changed--both for Keith and myself. Since I've been studying the psychological aspects of how cults (and some evangelical churches too) control, manipulate and coerce their followers, I wanted to see if...

This week's episode of MindShift podcast features cult expert Rick Alan Ross, author of the book Cults Inside Out: How People Get in and Can Get Out . Rick is not just someone who is informed about cults--he is a court-certified expert who has testified in multiple cases in courts all across America related to cults. In this informative and thought-provoking episode, I have a whole series of quest...

Catch the early release of my conversation with 2 ex-Jehovah's Witnesses from Melbourne, Australia: Lara Kaput and Steven Unthank. We'll go behind the scenes of the Watchtower organization and talk about not only their experiences of leaving the cult behind, but major issues such as the epidemic of child sexual abuse within the organization that has been covered up by the Watchtower for decades.  ...

In this episode of MindShift podcast, I talk to ex-pastor, ex-evangelical and...progressive Christian, Chris Kratzer. Chris is the author of the new book  Leatherbound Terrorism: Crucified by Conservative Christianity, Resurrected by Jesus.  Although Chris is no fan of conservative evangelicalism, somehow he has not abandoned his beliefs in God and Jesus--albeit in a radically different form. So w...

In this inaugural episode of MindShift podcast for 2019, I begin to explore what--if any--connections exist between the world of recognized, mainstream cults and the evangelical church. Most evangelicals would doubtless be outraged and offended if anyone suggested their church might in any way resemble a cult. But since the symptoms reported by both ex-cultists and ex-evangelicals are remarkably s...

In this final episode of MindShift podcast for 2018, I bring back a guest from the buckle of the Bible belt in the South of the United States--one "Seamus Clarke."    In our previous episodes, Seamus mentioned that the film "The Last Temptation of Christ" was hugely helpful in his deconstruction journey. So in this episode, we not only unpack the movie in more detail, we examine the evangelical an...

Several months ago, Andrew was a guest on MindShift podcast and provided a lot of very helpful analysis regarding much of what causes religious trauma--particularly in evangelical Christianity. In this episode, Andrew and I get into the specifics of what emotional health looks like, particularly for the person who has de-converted from religion. Andrew not only explores spirituality as a path for...

In September of this year, I caught up with Andrew Gurevich down in Portland, OR and sat down for a great interview around the topic of "reconstruction after deconstruction." In this process, it turns out that reconstructing involves nothing less than...a total reorientation of our former worldviews, belief systems, and identities. If you've left religion behind, and are wondering what happens nex...

Back in September I caught up with ex-missionary and author, Steve Slocum, for a great podcast interview about his upcoming book:  Why Do They Hate Us? Making Peace with the Muslim World . The title of his book is taken from a speech given by President George W. Bush mere weeks after 9/11--giving Bush's justification for "why they (Muslims?) hate us." Steve will explain not only what that speech m...

In this special edition of MindShift podcast, I talk to filmmaker Christopher Maloney about his project entitled "In God We Trump." What are the implications for the evangelical church going forward, based upon the fact that 81% of (largely white) evangelical Christians not only voted to elect Trump in 2016, but many continue to support him and many of his policies? Statistics have shown that thou...

This week's episode features a conversation with Canadian ex-fundamentalist Janice Selbie. Now a trained counselor, she now helps people cope with the grief, loss and trauma associated with deconversion and spiritual transitions.   This is Janice's passion--to assist people in dealing with issues and problems from their past that may well be negatively impacting their lives and mental health curre...

Deconstruction looks different for everybody--this is something I've learned from talking to many ex-evangelicals. Some become atheists, agnostics, angry theists; in fact there's a spectrum of paths people take.   In the case of Jimmy, however, his deconstruction looked entirely different: the sloughing off of the structures and strictures of evangelical, "American Christianity." What was left was...

In this episode, I talk to author and ex-fundamentalist, Sheri Pallas. Her new book is entitled "Man Has Ruined God: My Journey out of Religion and Into the Arms of God."   This is the substance of our great conversation--how exactly has Sheri survived such a toxic religious background, only to deconstruct her beliefs and yet somehow retain a view of God?   Although, as we will discover, this view...

Back in September of 2018, myself and Stacie Rae, "The Resting Traveller," put on a live podcast in the Seattle, Washington area. Together with a live audience, we had a great discussion on the topic of "reconstruction after deconstruction."   If you've left the church behind--and possibly your former faith too--where do you go from here? Turns out that deconstruction isn't the end game; rather, w...

Catch this great conversation between myself and my sister, Valerie Heacock Cunningham! This is a 1-year update from our podcast we did last year entitled "Surviving a Fundamentalist Upbringing."   What's changed in both of our lives since last year? How have we processed the traumatic experiences from our evangelical and fundamentalist past, and moved past it? How have we disentangled ourselves f...

Catch the second half of my conversation with Australian Dr Josie McSkimming, a clinical social worker and ex-evangelical who now focuses on helping those who come out of controlling and fundamentalist religions. In this second half of our conversation, Josie and I delve a bit more into her book, "Leaving Christian Fundamentalism and the Reconstruction of Identity." This piece of "reconstruction a...

In this special bonus edition of MindShift Podast, I interview Andy Herndon as we discuss his important upcoming domentary film entitled "The eXvangelicals: A Documentary." Not only do we get into Andy's own backstory of deconstructing his former evangelical faith, we discuss what led him to start this journey of documenting the many stories of people from the ex-evangelical community. Find out ho...