Graceful Atheist Podcast

This week’s guest is Shifra Lowen. Shifra grew up in a small, well-controlled Hasidic community in Canada. As a girl, Shifra wanted to do everything according to the rules of their village. At the same, she desperately wanted forbidden things, like a kitten or a pet bird. At 17, her marriage was arranged to someone she knew and even liked, and Shifra was on Cloud 9 for a while, though suspicious of her own happiness. Then her husband did something unthinkable. “…Imagine my shock and fear when I found out that my husband visited a library.” Visiting a Jewish library was only the beginning of Shifra’s world coming apart, but slowly she would realize it was all for good—for the good of their whole family. Years later, after much learning and growing, Shifra and her family are thriving, living in accordance with their own values and not someone else’s rules. Links Instagram https://www.instagram.com/yiddishe_/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@shifralowen Patreon http://www.patreon.com/ClaraWasserstein Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/05/27/shifra-out-of-hasidic-orthodoxy/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week’s guest is comedian and writer, Holly Laurent. See her full bio and work here. Holly tells a bit of her story, growing up in a fundamentalist evangelical household. From the fear of demons to eternal conscious torment, Holly is still dismantling the indoctrination. In comedy, she’s found a way to express her “voice that always got [her] in trouble” as well as an accepting community, something she struggled to find in the church. Her podcast Mega has a new five-part mini-series parodying the downfall of an infamous Mars Hill pastor. Episode 1 of “The Rise and Fall of Twin Hills” drops May 21. It sounds like it’s going to be great fun! Links Holly’s site https://www.hollylaurent.com/ Mega the Podcast https://www.megathepodcast.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hollylaurent/ https://www.instagram.com/megathepodcast/ Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/05/21/holly-laurent-the-rise-and-fall-of-twin-hills/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week’s guest is Josh de Keijzer, PhD. Josh writes at After God’s End: Fragments of a Post-Christian narrative Josh grew up in an evangelical home in the Netherlands. He knew his family was “set apart,” different from the mainstream Dutch culture. “I realized…I had been brought up as an evangelical…We were always part of a minority.” As a teenager, Josh took his faith seriously, so he had a hard time with the adults in the church. Their actions did not line up with what they believed, and the hypocrisy was rampant. Josh always wanted to visit the US and was able to attend university and seminary in the States. In seminary, the questions really began. “[I was at] a solidly evangelical seminary but there were plenty of people who did a lot of questioning. I have to credit them for opening my eyes…” Josh’s questions led him out of the Christian church, but he hasn’t given up on spirituality. He gives meaning to his life by living with compassion and love for others, and what a beautiful thing to behold. Links Substack https://joshdekeyzer.substack.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/aftergodsend/ Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/05/14/josh-de-keijzer-after-gods-end/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week’s guest is author Jo Lloyd Johnson. Jo grew up in a “non-denominational charismatic commune”. She spent her adolescence in various churches, but they weren’t as “Spirit-filled” as she was taught they could be. She married young and the first years of marriage were difficult. There was alcohol abuse, church shopping, and the difficulties that come with having young children. She and her husband needed the church to be a place of deep and meaningful relationships, but it wasn’t. “When we started seeing church as a social club [with no depth], we were like, ‘No. This is not what we thought it was…’” By 2018, Jo realized the Church was steeped in Patriarchy. She had been fine with “a woman’s place” until she wasn’t. Now Jo has used writing as a way to process the trauma and emotions she’s experienced and her book, Silenced in Eden, is helping others along their own journeys. Links Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jolloydjohnson/ Silenced In Eden https://amzn.to/3nBRBYy Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/05/07/joanna-johnson-silenced-in-eden/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week’s guest is Cat Delmar. Cat grew up in a nominally Seventh-day Adventist family. The SDA churches, however, were anything but nominal. They had all the rules, from no caffeine to no pierced ears. “There’s a lot of control of the body [in Seventh-Day Adventism].” At sixteen, Cat took ownership of her faith and started going to church on her own, but she never quite fit in. By her twenties, she realized that the difficult questions in adulthood don’t have easy “Biblical” answers. Before she knew it, she’s figured out that the SDA church doesn’t have the answers and that perhaps no one does. Today, Cat doesn’t need solid answers. She finds peace within herself and in her connection with nature. Cat’s story is one you’ll want to hear! Links Instagram https://www.instagram.com/catmangrove/ Link Tree https://linktr.ee/catdelmar Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/04/30/cat-delmar-former-seventh-day-adventist/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week’s guest is Stephanie, a Deconversion Anonymous group member. Stephanie grew up in the Assemblies of God church as a Missionary Kid for most of her childhood. Her younger years held all the trappings of white American evangelicalism, from conservative Christian school curricula to a paralyzing fear of going to hell forever. “The ‘hell belief’? It’s a sticky one.” Stephanie’s beliefs, however, had been set on precarious foundations: Christians are good and everyone else is bad; the Bible is true and inerrant; the Earth may look old, but it is only thousands of years old. Stephanie made friends outside the church as a young adult, and these new relationships plus great documentaries and books cracked open the bedrocks of her faith. It’s been a long time since she deconverted, and she is living a life she loves by loving others without reservation. This is true secular grace, Humanism 2.0 Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/04/23/stephanie-deconversion-of-an-mk/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week’s guest is Kelly. Kelly was raised as a daughter in a traditional evangelical household, “indoctrinated from diaperhood.” They grew up perfectionistic, depressed, timid, and anxious, given Christian cliches about ‘God always being with them’ through their depression. Who they really needed were queer, whole, mentally healthy adult mentors. “There was a dizzying array of mental exercises I had to engage in to keep the faith.” Today, Kelly is living their truest life with wisdom and compassion. It’s been said that we become the person we would have felt safe with as a child, and Kelly has done that beautifully. Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/04/16/kelly-you-are-enough/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week’s guest is Bart D. Ehrman, the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His new book is Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End. Is the book of Revelation a prophecy of future catastrophe? Is it a book of hope? Or is it a book of violence and wrath? In Armageddon, Bart delves into the most misunderstood—and possibly the most dangerous—book of the Bible, exploring the horrifying social and political consequences of expecting an imminent apocalypse and offering a fascinating tour through three millennia of Judeo-Christian thinking about how our world will end. Bart’s work has been a part of many of our deconstructions. In my interview with Bart, we get to hear his faith transition. We learn from his New Testament expertise. But most surprising of all, we learn what a nice guy he is. Links Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End https://amzn.to/3KjLW0i Website https://www.bartehrman.com/ Blog https://ehrmanblog.org/ Misquoting Jesus with Bart Ehrman Podcast https://www.bartehrman.com/podcast/ Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/04/09/bart-d-ehrman-armageddon/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

TW: sexual violence; intimate partner violence; postpartum PTSD This week’s guest is Grace. Grace was fortunate not to grow up in the church, but when she became a Christian in high school, she—in her own words—“quickly became the quintessential insufferable Christian teenager.” Grace was a zealous believer for years, and it wasn’t until she had her first child that the questions began coming. At first, she didn’t think she was deconstructing her faith; she saw it as spiritual growth. But then—as with many other guests—“the Pandemic hit.” While in lockdown, more than theological questions came up for Grace. With her husband’s support, online friends, and medication, Grace managed, but one thing was missing. What she needed but couldn’t find, she created. hyssopandlaurel.com is a “grassroots arts and literary magazine for religious deconstructionists.” It is a thriving community of creative minds coming together to make art and poetry, sharing their stories because their stories matter. Links Website https://hyssopandlaurel.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hyssopandlaurel/ Link Tree https://linktr.ee/hyssopandlaurel Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/04/02/grace-hyssop-laurel/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week’s guest bares his whole heart. “My story—at the moment—doesn’t end really well, but there’s hope for the future.” This week’s guest is Matt. Matt grew up in a Methodist family and after partying through high school, Matt chose to attend a Christian college and became serious about his faith. As an adult, Matt did everything he could to be all things to all people—a good husband, a good leader, a father, a friend, a mentor… He tried for years, but superhuman expectations are put on Christian men. He couldn’t do it all. No one can. Matt tells his story with vulnerability and a whole lot of grace for others. He bore heavy burdens for a long time: Cognitive dissonance, covert narcissism (in himself and others), codependency and spiritual abuse. Yet his story reveals his great optimism for the future. Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/03/26/matt-deconversion-anonymous/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week’s guest is David Hayward, also known as The Naked Pastor. David is “a pastor turned artist painting, drawing, and thinking about what it takes to be free to be you.” For over a decade, David has been creating online spaces for anyone “interested in deconstruction, spiritual journeying, freedom of thought, or looking for your authentic self.” His personal story and the wisdom he’s gained over the years continues to speak to those of us who have completely left religion and those who still believe. For more information, be sure to check out David’s website and follow him online! Links Website https://nakedpastor.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nakedpastor/ David’s Books https://amzn.to/3lm9oSr Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/03/19/david-hayward-naked-pastor/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion X-Shaped Hole In Your Heart https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/02/08/the-x-shaped-hole-in-your-heart/ Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week we are celebrating the fourth anniversary of the Graceful Atheist Podcast! In this episode, you’ll meet everyone who works alongside David on the podcast, the website or the online community. Joining David are Arline, Mike T, Jimmy, Colin and Daniel. They discuss some of their favorite movies, shows and books highlighting deconversion or secular grace. It’s a great conversation that you won’t want to miss! Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/03/12/four-years-of-the-graceful-atheist-podcast/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week’s guest is Jennifer Michael Hecht, bestselling author of Doubt: a History plus many other works. Her latest book, The Wonder Paradox: Embracing the Weirdness of Existence and the Poetry of Our Lives comes out this week! Jennifer is a poet and historian and in this interview, she makes a solid case for the important place that poetry—and other art forms—can have in our lives. “It’s got to be a poet who says, ‘This virtue still matters,’ because we’re at a moment where we don’t even know what to do with things that are not fairy tales but also not physics.” This is a great conversation that you won’t want to miss! Links The Wonder Paradox: Embracing the Weirdness of Existence and the Poetry of Our Lives https://amzn.to/3SPAfCw Website http://www.jennifermichaelhecht.com/ Previous appearance on the podcast https://gracefulatheist.com/2019/05/16/jennifer-michael-hecht-doubt-a-history/ Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/03/05/jennifer-michael-hecht-the-wonder-paradox/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week’s guest is Stacie, the creative mind behind the @apostacie on Instagram and the co-host of @skeptichaven on Youtube. Stacie grew up in charismatic churches, believing what she learned about and experienced at church was normal—from speaking in tongues to full-on demonic oppression. It wasn’t until Stacie was an adult that she began to seriously question her upbringing. After watching a Reformed-Christian documentary about the Charismatic church, the questions started coming. “I made the promise to myself: If I had questions, I was going to find the answers to them.” Now, she uses her online platforms to reach both atheists and doubting religious folks. Her compassionate wisdom is helping many of people. Links Instagram https://www.instagram.com/apostacie/ Skeptic Haven https://www.youtube.com/c/SkepticHaven Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/02/26/stacie-apostacie/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week’s guest is Anne. Anne grew up in an English family whose Christian history goes back generations. As a young child, Anne and her twin took their beliefs seriously, even the damaging ones. Her parents’ divorce shook her up. Her family had been “that Christian family,” and it felt like her parents had become strangers. Still, she clung to her faith throughout her teens and twenties. Anne married young, meeting an American missionary while in Scotland, but it seemed her partner wasn’t as devout as she’d hoped. His was on his own journey through deconstruction but she didn’t want to see it. In her thirties, Anne began to acknowledge the questions and psychological distress she’d had for years. “It’s almost like this pressure had been building and building and building and finally it broke through, and I just thought, What if it’s not real? I had not allowed myself to ask that question.” It took a little googling, excellent therapy and other people’s deconstruction stories for Anne to see that she no longer believed. It’s been freeing for her to see the world as it really is. No more “magical thinking.” She and her partner are asking whole new questions, and it’s growing them and changing them in ways they never could have imagined. Interact For quotes, recommendations and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/02/19/anne-so-i-persisted/ You are not broken, you are human https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/12/06/you-are-not-broken-you-are-human/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week’s guest is Audrey. Audrey spent her childhood and adolescence deep in American Christianity. In college, she took a course in “biblical perspectives,” and she had many questions. She would shelve the cognitive dissonance for years, though, pretending that everything was fine. After years of experiencing church from the inside and working around more “secular” people, the uncertainty could no longer stay buried. “Something just wasn’t right.” Audrey is an atheist now, but deconversion is fresh. The past guilt and shame still come up at times. She’s reconnecting with her body and mind, though, and loving the woman she is—the woman she’s always been. “It’s so incredible how once I stepped away from christianity, how I was able to gain a better understanding of how to actually take care of myself.” “All I wanted to do was be a Woman of God. I had my future planned out: I was going to find a husband at college, be the perfect godly woman, and he was going to be the man that was going to lead me in Christ.” Interact For quotes, recommendations and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/02/12/audrey-deconversion-of-an-american-christian/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week’s guest is Taylor. Taylor grew up in a small church in a small town, surrounded by Christianity. She had family devotions at home and a private-Christian-academy curricula at school. By twenty-one, however, she moved out and stopped attending church completely. Her “personal relationship with Jesus” was more important than church-going. While watching a loved one live with cancer and then face death, Taylor’s faith gave her hope and meaning, until it couldn’t. Depressive episodes came for a while and Taylor knew she needed to get mentally healthy. Once her head was “out of the fog,” and she began reading the Bible again, she was shocked at what she read. It had been there all along, but now she could see. “[People said,] ‘Well you just need to dig deeper in the Bible.’ It had the complete opposite effect.” Now Taylor has let go of many childhood beliefs. She doesn’t have all the answers. but she has peace—a peace that hasn’t come from supernatural help but from doing her own inner work. She is her own savior, no one else. Links Instagram https://www.instagram.com/skeptical_heretic/ Interact For quotes, recommendations and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/02/05/taylor-yoder-in-the-trenches-of-deconstruction-and-deconversion/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week Arline guest hosts interviewing Bryan the Ex-Apologist. Bryan grew up in a deeply fundamentalist church. Not only did they believe they were the True Church, they were taught they they were the Only Church. Bryan spent his teen and young adult years preaching, evangelizing and heatedly debating others. He was convinced he had all the right answers and other people needed those right answers. He sees his younger self as a “jerk for Jesus.” Realizing he was wrong about a single...

This week’s guest is Rachel Hunt. Rachel is both the Support Group Director and an Ambassador for Recovering From Religion. From her RFR bio, “Rachel is a motorcycle-riding ballroom dance teacher from rural Texas. Married with two adult children, Rachel has a strong interest in psychology, philosophy, and communication, in addition to the creative arts and home improvement. She was raised in Christian Science but drifted off as a teenager. She explored Scientology, Law of Attraction, and a variety of Protestant churches before settling comfortably into atheism.” Rachel shares her personal story and how Recovering from Religion is serving people all over the world. Links 24/7 RfR hotline: 84-I-Doubt-It (844-368-2848 ) https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/#rfr-welcome Recovering From Relgion https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/ Secular Therapy Project https://www.seculartherapy.org/ Interact For quotes, recommendations and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/01/22/rachel-hunt-recovering-from-religion/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secular Grace https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Deconversion https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconstruction https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats https://makaihbeats.net/

This week’s guests are Brian and Troy of the podcast, I was a Teenage Fundamentalist. They interviewed David at the end of 2022, and now it’s our turn to hear from them. Brian and Troy “used to be loyal Christians megachurch leaders. They’re not anymore.” Their parallel stories are fascinating, as we are given a glimpse into their past lives and the Pentecostal movement in Australia. Today, Brian and Troy’s “honest and often hilarious podcast peeks behind the curtain at the weird, the worrying and the sometimes traumatic world of Evangelicals and Pentecostals.” This is a great episode that you won’t want to miss! Links Website https://www.iwasateenagefundamentalist.com/ I Was A Teenage Fundamentalist podcast https://pod.link/1558606464 Twitter https://twitter.com/WasTeenage Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TeenageFundamentalist Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/3188989997871128 Link Tree https://linktr.ee/iwatf YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs0jrFsxPsg7rGNfgqzAGug IWATF interviews David from the Graceful Atheist Podcast https://pod.link/1558606464/episode/f8067a71cf74f38205420663954fceaf Interact For quotes, recommendations and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/01/15/troy-and-brian-iwatf/ Attribution “Waves” track written and produced by Makaih Beats