Slow Train to Heck

Amanda joins us this week to talk about her exit from the church and how she never fit the mold the church wants her to. She also shares her experiences as a mom of autistic children, and the challenges of being part of a church community who expected her kids to act a certain way - and how her and her kids' experience of Christianity caused her to feel like a failed Christian, and how the framework of evangelicalism had a negative impact on her mental health.
Content warnings: ableism in the church, particularly prejudice against autistic people, as well as discussions around anxiety and depression

Zac Schraeder is a psychotherapist based in Toronto with a focus on helping folks process religious trauma - and particularly those of the LGBTQ2S+ community who grew up in the church, as they often receive so many deeply damaging messages from the religious communities of their childhood that have long-lasting effects. Zac joins the podcast this week to talk about the effects of that religious indoctrination, including his own experience of it growing up queer within the Catholic Church, and how we can work to process that messaging by realizing that those messages about ourselves came from outside of us and aren't valid.
We also talk a lot about how the Catholic Church (and many other Christian environments) have built-in mechanisms to suppress criticism and avoid any critical analysis of the harm their doctrines cause to people, and if you stick around to the end of the episode, I talk about how that is being shown again with how the pope recently phrased his apology to the indigenous people of Canada.
Content warnings: homophobia, depression, religious colonization

Jake Kroeker chats with us this week about his time at Trinity Bible Chapel, a fundamentalist evangelical church in the Waterloo Region of Ontario that has been increasingly positioning itself at the forefront of a growing Christian Nationalist movement among evangelical churches here in Canada. Jake talks about what motivates people who adhere to Trinity and churches like it, what his path out of that environment was, and how we can interact with people who hold those beliefs without further fanning the flames of their extremism.
Content warnings: homophobic and transphobic slurs are referenced, as used by leadership at Trinity Bible Chapel

Jeremiah Chapman shares his story of coming to accept his sexual orientation this week on the podcast, and details his experiences growing up in a Charismatic Christian community where his sexuality was unacceptable, and drastic measures were taken to try to suppress it. This led to some seriously traumatic experiences that shaped how Jeremiah grew up and moved through life, but he's now able to share his story of how he's working through that, has come to a place of acceptance of his sexuality despite his upbringing, and how now he gets to live.
Content warnings: homophobia, homophobic slur used as an example of homophobia at 11:57, exorcism, depression, suicidal ideation, psychological trauma
The book about glossolalia and religious experiences Jeremiah mentioned is Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, by Amanda Montell.

We rejoin Luke Williams this week as he shares the remainder of his story, detailing the changes in his life after he left Christianity. Luke covers a whole bunch of life experiences and viewpoints, including exploring polyamorous relationships and cannabis and other drugs; working with the homeless, and organizing conventions; inconsistencies in the Bible and the human influence on its creation; and how his personal politics and views of society and people have been influenced by leaving Christianity.
Content warnings: drug use
Luke provided some show notes as well, which are as follows:
Music Stuff:

-The Plok Soundtrack (Starting from Beach when it gets good!) - https://youtu.be/0JVJP6te8n4?t=1053
-Sammus' powerful rap about inclusion at Magfest 2016 - https://youtu.be/Ss18rvfkCd0?t=2137
-Earthbound Song 'Happy Happy Is Blue' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReKd5LpEOQc
-Jacob Collier's Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9CusMKhoqk
-Phil Keaggy - The Reunion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC4om10cfWw
-And for the very brave: Luke's Spotify Top 20 VERY Wild Favourite Songs- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4Nrowj6IYnIkRkel83hHDm

Luke recommends the following Leftist Podcasts:

For informative deep dives on misinformation: Citations Needed - https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/

For improv comedy stories from history from two leftists comedians: The Dollop - https://www.dolloppodcast.com/podcast

For the murder podcast fan; but more important to know about: Behind the Bastards - https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/

For a scripted podcast about potential solutions: Unf*cking the Republic - https://www.unftr.com/

And check out what an Israeli Kibbutz can look like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ies2R__4c58 (not prescriptive, just fascinating...)

Luke is @lessashamed on Twitter, and he would love to know what you thought about his story. E-mail him: cheflwilliams AT gmail DOT com