The Dismantling Doctrine Podcast

How does the African-American civil rights movement impact upon the state of black churches in America today? And should it be important to understand the legacy of African-American atheists and free thinkers? Today's conversation features the continuation of last week's discussion related to the history of African-American peoples and how that has affected black churches (and treatment of African...

How did the transatlantic slave trade and the resulting cultural violence affect Africans? Add to this the introduction of "white Christianity" into the mix and what results helps to explain much of the current situation within many African-American churches today. This week's episode features a fascinating conversation with Valerie Wade: author, historian, and "cultural Christian." Valerie shares...

In this second episode we pick up Dana's story from last week: coming out as a transgender woman and having to formulate a plan to do so, without her entire world falling apart. Part 2 continues that story and also develops what happened when she and her spouse decided to talk to the pastor of their church, where they were both heavily involved in leadership. Would either end well? And where is Da...

What's it like to grow up in the evangelical church culture, with parents who were pastors, but all the while struggle with your own gender identity? What do you do when you're married with a family, involved in church leadership, yet have the feeling inside that you're not being honest with yourself about your own gender? How does God factor into all of this also? This week we're going to hear ex...

What's it like to attend a Christian school? And what happens if you've never had any experience of Christianity or the Bible? This week's guest, Tim Malins, is an old friend from way back--he moved up from Southern California to Washington State at the tender age of just 12 or 13. We met at the Christian fundamentalist school I and several other church friends attended. This is Tim's story: how f...

If Jesus of Nazareth did not exist--as the Gospels indicate he did--what are the implications for Christianity? Find out more in Part 2 of my conversation with mythicist and atheist David Fitzgerald, author of  Nailed: 10 Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed at All  and  Jesus: Mything in Action. We explore the implications for Christianity, society, culture, and as a planet. Christianity...

Did Jesus of Nazareth actually exist? Believe it or not, this is not the first time this question has been posed by theologians and biblical scholars.  Dating to the 18th and 19th centuries, scholars responding to biblical higher criticism sought to find the "real Jesus of history"--not the Jesus of the Gospels, whom they alleged had been covered up by layers of traditions. But today, mythicist an...

Should Christians who believe in "young earth creation" be threatened by the notion of ancient civilizations that predate all major world religions? Only if their own worldview is so narrowly restricted with a literalist reading of the Bible. In the second half of my conversation with Andrew Gurevich of Portland, OR, we somehow tie together: apophatic theology, neurology, politics on the right and...

How does a person go from evangelical Christian, studying at Bible college and seminary, to becoming an angry atheist and now an expert in paleolithic cave art? Believe it or not, this trajectory describes the life of this week's guest: Andrew Gurevich of Portland, OR, USA. A leading mythologist and teacher of world religions, Andrew is fast becoming an expert on not just ancient cave art, but als...

Part 2 of my conversation with "Seamus Clarke" (a pseudonym) continues our exploration of the deconstruction of his Christian faith.  What happens when you mix the childhood trauma of sexual abuse, a distant father with major issues of his own, evangelical dogma, "spiritual bypassing," and life in a red-state, Trump-supporting Bible belt? Let "Seamus" tell his story of a man who is in the process...

This week's episode of MindShift podcast features a discussion with "Seamus Clarke," who feels the need to use a pseudonym to protect both himself and his family. Why use a fake name? This is actually quite a common theme--people raised in the evangelical or fundamentalist church feel that they cannot "be themselves" and tell their friends and family members still steeped in the church that they'v...

Today's episode features a discussion with Richard Jacobson, author of  Unchurching: Christianity Without Churchianity."  Have you left the church behind? Perhaps you have, but still seek a sense of community. But if you've abandoned the "institutional church," yet still consider yourself a Christian who yearns for an authentic experience of church, where do you turn? Listen in as Richard offers a...

In the second half of my conversation with David Madison, we finish up talking about biblical inerrancy and move on to two tough problems facing Christianity: the problem of evil and the atonement. Theologians and scholars alike--both within Judaism and Christianity--have struggled to explain the problem of evil. Theodicy--a defense of a supposedly all-powerful, all-knowing and all-benevolent God-...

If you are someone who identifies as a Christian, do you feel you have the freedom to question what you think you believe, and what you think you know? Can you prove the existence of God and Jesus with 100% certainty? Is the Bible indeed inspired, inerrant (without error), infallible and totally trustworthy in everything it affirms? If you are in the process of deconstructing your faith, or just w...

MindShift podcast is back for 2018! Since I never did a pilot episode when I started the podcast nearly a year ago, it's time to do one now! Originally called "The Preacher's Forum Podcast," a lot has changed over the last year. As I continue down the road on this journey of deconstruction, discovery and now reconstruction, will you join me in 2018? In this episode, I lay out 2 helpful models for...

In this final episode of MindShift for 2017, Ray Gilford and I finish our discussion we began last week on the subject of biblical inerrancy--the fundamentalist belief that "the Bible is 100% error-free"--inerrant. In Part 2, Ray opens up about his own personal journey away from church. The idea of biblical absolutism--the teaching that the Bible is all that is necessary for faith and practice--pe...

What does the word "inerrancy" even mean? And in what possible way could  that term apply to the Bible? Common among many Christians is the belief that not only is the Bible  inspired  (the human writers of Scripture were guided by the Holy Spirit), it is also  inerrant  (free from errors),  infallible  (completely trustworthy in all that it says), and on the basis of all of the above it is theref...

What would you do if you were told by your doctor: "You have cancer." How would you react to such news? Many people all over the world have indeed heard that prognosis. For Jeff and Karin Green, those words completely rocked their world just 7 months ago when he was diagnosed with leukemia.  But rather than react out of despair or anger--completely understandable emotions--Jeff and his family have...

Part 2 of my wide-ranging and though-prvoking conversation with Karen Garst, "The Faithless Feminist," continues in this episode. For those undergoing a process of discovery and deconstruction of their inherited belief systems--particularly coming out of a fundamentalist or conservative religious framework--then this episode is a must-listen. That process is fraught with emotional threats: fear, a...

"Religion contributes to--or directly causes--gender inequity." Particularly in the case of women, this statement is certainly true--both historically, and even now in terms of religions. Women have been marginalized, oppressed, shunned, vilified, and more by a variety of religions, and not just limited to Christianity. In this episode, I engage in a wide-ranging interview with author, blogger, fe...

What standard to you use to measure success? In our money- and achievement-driven Western world, where success is measured in very quantifiable ways by our current society, this becomes a very important issue.  You could, for example, be considered a huge success if you're wealthy, have a large house, several (expensive) cars in the driveway, or have a high-powered job moving fast up the corporate...

How do you measure success?  Depending upon the yardstick you use, the answer to that question can vary wildly. Pastors of churches, for example, can measure "success" by the number of members attending their church; how many are on church staff; or by the church's annual budget. Others measure success by how much money they earn, or where they're at on the corporate ladder--which rung are you on?...

What is the legacy of one, single sermon? Even though Jonathan Edwards, the famous American theologian, preacher, missionary and pastor, is well-known in academic circles for his volumes of work, most people know him only from one sermon he preached in 1741: "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." But did toxic theology affect Edwards personally? It certainly had an impact both on his personal lif...

What's it like to grow up in a strict Christian, fundamentalist home? The effects of growing up being "sheltered from the evil world" can linger with people, long after they've grown up, left home, and are raising families of their own. Sometimes they never do get out, and are still within "the system."  My sister Valerie Cunningham and I got together and recorded this episode sharing our stories...

Did Jesus ever do, or say, anything wrong? This is the major question posed by Dr Hector Avalos in his book,  The Bad Jesus: The Ethics of New Testament Ethics , and this forms the basis of the discussion in Part 2 of this episode. Perhaps the real question is this: can such a question even be raised without offending large swathes of Christians worldwide? If Jesus was supra-human (both human and...