The Spiritual Brewpub

Keith Giles and his wife, Wendy, work with Peace Catalyst International to help build relationships between Christians and Muslims in El Paso, TX. Keith was formerly a licensed and ordained minister who walked away from organized church over a decade ago to start a home fellowship that gave away 100% of the offering to the poor in the community. Today he is the author of the best-selling “Jesus Un...

Author, podcaster, and retired pastor David Artman joins Michael to discuss his book Grace Saves All: The Necessity of Christian Universalism . As a child, the first time David attended a church, after he walked out he told his mom, “That place is scary. I’m not going back.” Why? Because this church taught the doctrine of hell with a vengeance. After a few years, now in the 5th grade, David was ev...

When Bart Campolo announced he no longer believed in God, it rocked his father's and family's world, as well as shocked the wider evangelical movement. Yet it also opened a new opportunity--to openly discuss the hard questions and problems with modern Christianity, particularly evangelicalism, but to do so in a respectful way. That's what Bart and his famous evangelical father, Tony, did. In their...

Author, professor, and researcher, Martin Prozesky, joins Michael Camp for a illuminating conversation on how to unravel modern Christianity from its dogmatism, exclusivism, and biblicism, to recover the spiritual and ethical revolution begun by Jesus of Nazareth. Goodness, is the fundamental essence of God, argues Prozesky, who grew up in the shadow of apartheid. He makes the case that the revolu...

Feather ruffler and author, Becky Garrison, joins Michael to discuss American colonial history, Christian and other forms of satire, examples of secular spirituality in the Pacific Northwest, and certain virtues that we sorely need today. Becky is an investigative journalist; she writes books on religious deconstruction and she's a former writer for the Christian satire magazine, The Wittenburg Do...

Michael interviews Kim O'Reilly on her story coming out of a conservative church movement as a lesbian. Learn how she navigated deconstructing evangelical/fundamentalist theology and how her relationship with her minister father evolved to a more peaceful place despite him still disagreeing with her. Kim is a professor of cultural and diversity studies and a teacher of conflict resolution. Join us...

Lang Charters was a highly successful officer in the Air Force when his life was interrupted by a tragic accident that brought him to the brink of death. Lang shares his story of recovery, rehabilitation, and care by a loving community that transformed his life, and along with his deconstruction from conservative theology, taught him lessons for a new paradigm on Jesus and spirituality. Join us fo...

Kevin Miller joins us in a illuminating conversation on his controversial and popular documentary films, particularly his latest JESUSA (2020) and Hellbound? (2012). Michael observes how the first film, according to popular theology, is really about how God supposedly deals with the problem of evil in the world and the second film is how humanity deals with the problem of evil.  Learn Kevin's jour...

FreedHearts founder, Susan Cottrell, joins Michael sharing her story choosing her bisexual daughter over conservative Christianity. Her organization helps those in the LBGTQ community deal with family, religious, and community wounds and find a chosen family. They help the non-affirming church be more inclusive and help parents understand their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender children, kee...

After meeting author Christy Berghoef and her husband Bryan at the Wild Goose Festival a few years back, I was fascinated when I heard she does workshops on Common Good Communications. Join us to hear her take on coming out of conservative "Reformed" Christianity and her material on common good, authentic curiosity, and identifying and avoiding toxic tribalism, which sadly is too common in our cur...

Our very special guest today is Dr. David Smith, a philosopher and religion scholar at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Washington (UW). David grew up as a missionary kid (MK) in the world of fundamentalist Christianity. As an adult he gradually moved away from that paradigm and became a religious progressive/skeptic but not an atheist. After earning an M.A. in philosophy...

Julie Ferwerda joins Michael for a fascinating conversation on what starts a person's journey to question hell, what stages people go through to finally reject it, and how one's life is changed for the better as a result. Julie shares what led her to see the emotional, logical, biblical, historical, and Jewish cultural evidence that debunks hell and how she was set free from fear-based faith and b...

Sued by her pastor! Tactics of spiritual abusers. How women are most vulnerable. Julie Anne Smith shares with Michael how she got slapped with a $500,000 lawsuit, uncovered abuse in her church and among evangelicals, and how patriarchal theology harms women. Hear this lively conversation as they discuss the prevalence and roots of spiritual abuse, including: Tactics and teachings that cause religi...

If you have experienced an evolution in your faith, whether you're going through a faith shift now, or went through one in the past, this interview will encourage you. It will help you learn why you’re not crazy, what stages you go through, and how to come to terms with your change. You are not alone!  Kathy has really hit on something in her book by the same title of this podcast. This topic is i...

Author, speaker, and biblical/historical scholar Michael Hardin joins Michael over some virtual craft brews for a lively conversation about the late Rene Girard, a former Stanford professor who is considered “the Darwin of the social sciences.” Hardin explains Girard’s Mimetic Theory and how it is displayed in ancient literature and the Bible. Drawing on his book, Mimetic Theory and Biblical Inter...

Coming out of evangelicalism years ago, I always struggled with how to reconcile parts of the Bible. When I started to study history, however, there were several mysteries I solved about the Bible that totally blew me away and helped me finally make sense of most of it. I’m going to share those with you on today’s podcast. Buckle your seat belts and let’s take a ride together off the mythological...

Author of "Escaping Christianity-Finding Christ," Barbara Symons joins Michael for a lively conversation on her journey out of evangelical/charismatic/fundamentalist Christianity into a mystic awareness of Jesus. Learn how she was indoctrinated over decades into a "schizophrenic Christianity" and ultimately went through a sometimes painful, but an incredibly freeing deprogramming process.  Barbara...

What if we turned the concept of "fake news" on politics to examining fake claims about religion? What would we discover?  We'd find the DNA of ancient Christianity (i.e., Jesus’ teaching and peace movement) has suffered grave mutations that the Western Reformation never completely corrected, and in some cases, made worse. How can we know this? Through careful historical, biblical, and linguistic...

What if we turned the concept of "fake news" on politics to examining fake claims about religion? What would we discover?  We'd find the DNA of ancient Christianity (i.e., Jesus’ teaching and peace movement) has suffered grave mutations that the Western Reformation never completely corrected, and in some cases, made worse. How can we know this? Through careful historical, biblical, and linguistic...

Welcome to The Spiritual Brewpub Podcast, a safe haven for ex-evangelicals or anyone restless about their faith or religion in general. In Episode 2, the topic is: Contrasting the Original Jesus Movement with Christianity - or The Difference Between Jesus and Christianity.   How it will help you: This episode will help you understand logical reasons you may have rejected evangelicalism, fundamenta...

Welcome to The Spiritual Brewpub Podcast, a safe haven for ex-evangelicals or anyone restless about their faith or religion in general. Today’s topic is:  Why Understanding Good History Matters in One’s Spiritual Life – A Former Evangelical’s Discovery.  Learn about the big idea that a sound study of history is critical to helping one form a spiritual worldview.  Most Christians, and I suspect mos...