Exvangelical

On 9/9/21, I spoke with Meghan O'Gieblyn, author of the new book God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning. We talked about her time at Moody Bible Institute, experiencing 9/11 on a Christian campus, the similarities between Christian prophecy & secular transhumanism, and all sorts of other great things. Buy Meghan's book on Bookshop.org or at your local independent bookstore. (Yes, that is an affiliate link, and it helps the show). Follow Meghan on Twitter. Support the show directly via a subscription to The Post-Evangelical Post newsletter. Follow Blake on Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok. Exvangelical is a production of The Post-Evangelical Post, LLC and a part of the Irreverent Media Group podcast collective. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recorded on 9/1/2021, I spoke with Peterson Toscano all the way in South Africa. Peterson is podcaster, performer, climate activist, and biblical scholar. In this conversation, Peterson talks about activism, trauma, and recognizing when to move on to other projects. We also talk about curiosity, the role of relationships in activism & He-Man! Learn all about Peterson's projects at https://petersontoscano.com/ Support my work via a subscription to The Post-Evangelical Post newsletter. Follow me on Twitter @brchastain, and on Instagram & TikTok. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In light of the TX SB8 law going into effect, and SCOTUS' refusal to strike it down, I am re-releasing this episode I recorded with Katherine Stewart, author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. This book is extremely helpful in detailing the strategies and tactics employed by Christian nationalist politicians and their allies. This interview part of Season 1 of Powers & Principalities. Listen to that season here. Follow me on Twitter @brchastain, on Instagram/TikTok @brchastain_. Support the shows & my writing at The Post-Evangelical Post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jamie Lee Finch, author of You Are Your Own, returns to the show! We had been planning to talk this month for quite some time, but our conversation has a different tenor than we anticipated. This is one conversation among many about issues surrounding exvangelical/deconstruction spaces--and this has happened before. Listen to the show for further context, but we’re still going to try and talk about why things like these moments of drama happen, and why these cycles of commentary occur: what is general to the types of conversations we have now, and what is particular to post-evangelical spaces and the sorts of traumas that are activated. I've been talking about this in various ways on other shows recently, including these conversations with Your Favorite Aunts & Activist Theology. We also talk about Jamie's upcoming course, Your Body Is a Person. Registration closes on 8/31/2021, so act fast! One production note: the wrong mic recorded my audio, so it's of lower quality. Support my work via a subscription to T

Earlier this month, Tucker Carlson broadcast from Hungary. This was not an accident, as many figures in the Christian Right and far-right have cozied up to European autocrats like Hungary's leader, Viktor Orban. There's always a lot of simultaneous crises happening (the climate crisis, Afghanistan, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and more), but I think it might be beneficial to loop back to this story and learn what we can from Sarah Posner, author of Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency, and What They Left Behind. I spoke with Sarah Posner last year on Powers & Principalities. Follow Sarah on Twitter. Support my work via The Post-Evangelical Post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, I spoke with Kevin Garcia & Rev. Sarah Heath (aka YFA, or Your Favorite Aunts). This is part 2 of our conversation, and you can hear part 1 over on Your Favorite Aunts! This conversation has a chill vibe. It's the type of quiet conversation you have in the corner at a party. I don't know about you, but that's not something I've experienced in well over a year, so this conversation ended up meaning a lot. We talk about how the pandemic affects caretakers, how it affects community, what the future of spiritual care and community might be, and whether math involves gnomes. Listen to Your Favorite Aunts. Follow Kevin. Follow Sarah. To support my work, sign up for The Post-Evangelical Post. You can also buy merch! Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Follow the show on Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kelsey McKinney, co-owner & features writer for Defector.com and author of the debut novel God Spare the Girls, joins the show! We talk about her novel, how getting to know people outside the evangelical bubble changes your perspective, her experiences in the media, and much more. God Spare the Girls tells the story of two daughters of a megachurch pastor whose rise to evangelical fame came from a viral speech about purity culture - and that's just how the story starts. When news of their father's marital infidelity breaks in their church, the two sisters are drawn together in ways they never were before. It's a great read. Buy God Spare the Girls here and support the show! (Affiliate link.) Follow Kelsey McKinney on Twitter. - We're back! July was very busy, and I'm super excited to get back to releasing episodes for you. A lot happened elsewhere: Exvangelical turned 5! I wrote a piece for Religion Dispatches about David Jeremiah's sermon saying exvangelicals are a sign of the end times! I was on MSNBC's

The hosts of Good Christian Fun join the show to talk about Christian school (with goats!), satellite home school curricula (Covenant Eyes included!) and much more! Follow GCF on Instagram, and Kevin & Caroline on there too. Follow Blake on Twitter @brchastain. Support the show via Substack. This episode was produced by Jake Lewis, thank you Jake! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's guest is IMG's very own Josie Jimenez! Josie is the co-host of Irreverent Media Group's Making Spaces podcast as well as the podcast Speaking in Church. We talked on a Sunday afternoon and things got a little silly, talking about Josie's life, why expecting people to be the same is so damn boring, and all sorts of other stuff. Listen to Making Spaces with Josie Jimenez & Rev. Sarah Heath. Listen to Speaking in Church with Josie Jimenez & Spencer Rose Taylor. Follow Josie on Instagram & Twitter. Support Exvangelical, Powers & Principalities, and all of Blake's projects by subscribing to The Post-Evangelical Post. Follow Blake on Twitter & the show on Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Joy Allison returns to Exvangelical to talk about #SBC21, the recent departures of Beth Moore & Russell Moore (no relation) from the denomination, and her own direct action through protest. We also discuss the conservative resurgence in other denominations, how the media (and post-evangelicals of all stripes online) discuss bad theology, and how to respond to these types of conservative initiatives. This was recorded on Tuesday, June 15th 2021 and was not edited because the events we're discussing are timely and in-flux. You can follow Emily on Twitter @emilyjoypoetry. Buy her book, Church Too: How Purity Culture Upholds Abuse and How to Find Healing. Follow Blake on Twitter @brchastain. Support this podcast directly through a paid subscription to The Post-Evangelical Post. This is an Irreverent Media Group podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I'm publishing an episode of fellow Irreverent Media Group podcaster Kevin Garcia's show A Tiny Revolution. It's Pride Month and ATR is running a special series in conjunction with Beloved Arise. Listen to this episode featuring an interview with Blake Mundell to learn more about Beloved Arise. Subscribe to A Tiny Revolution anywhere you listen to podcasts, and follow Kevin on Instagram & Twitter. Kevin (they/them) describes ATR like this: "Because all revolutions begin as conversations between friends. Join digital pastor and soul coach Kevin Garcia for a conversation that actually matters. Covering the intersections of spirit, sexuality, gender, and justice, Kevin curates convos with the brightest and most incredible humans that you may or may not have heard of, with delicious takes on faith, sexuality, practice, and how we do this life together."  Learn more about the Irreverent Media Group line-up at irreverent.fm or by following @irreverent_fm on Instagram. Follow Blake on Twitter, and support

This episode is a re-release of my first interview with Mark Russell, author of several books including Second Coming, God is Disappointed in You, Apocrypha Now!, The Flintstones, Snagglepuss, Wonder Twins, Billionaire Island, and more. Superhero movies are returning to theaters soon, and I'm resurfacing this conversation because I think of it a lot when I think of superhero narratives in general. Mark Russell is one of my favorite comic book writers, whose ability to provide satirical and insightful social commentary through popular characters like The Flintstones, or subvert superhero tropes in books like The Wonder Twins sets him apart from other writers on the scene. Of particular interest to listeners of this show, he also writes the comic book Second Coming - a story of Jesus coming back to Earth to room with a Superman-type character. The mere announcement of this book was so 'controversial' that it led to an online petition that quite literally canceled the book before it was published by DC Comics. I

This week's guest is Beth Allison Barr, author of the new book The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth. I'm joined by two guest co-hosts, Emily Autenrieth and Laura Navarro. The theology and practice of complementarianism in conservative Christian circles has shaped the lives of millions of women. For over a century, it has oppressed women and become a requirement for involvement and belonging in conservative churches. Dr. Barr's expertise in church history illustrates that - despite the claims of complementarianism's proponents - this is a newer understanding of Christian history and scripture, and not an unchanging, millennia-long orthodox belief. This is a book that will spur conversation inside and outside the church. You can purchase the book here or from A Seat at the Table Books. Follow Dr. Barr on Twitter: @bethallisonbarr Order books from A Seat at the Table Books. Follow Blake on Twitter @brchastain, and follow the podcast on Twitter & Instagram @exvangelic

This week's guest is Rev. Lenny Duncan. Lenny is a pastor and the author of two books: Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the US, and the forthcoming United States of Grace: A Memoir of Homelessness, Addiction, Incarceration, and Hope. In this conversation we talk about Rev. Duncan's life, his books, Christianity in America, and America overall. Please note there were some technical difficulties with this recording. Follow Lenny on Twitter and visit unitedstatesofgrace.com. Follow Blake on Twitter, subscribe to his newsletter, and visit his website. Exvangelical is part of the Irreverent Media Group. Visit irreverent.fm to see all the other shows. Buy Exvangelical merch here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Exvangelical is now a part of the Irreverent Media Group! Visit irreverent.fm to learn more about this new collective. Follow Irreverent on social: twitter.com/irreverent_fm instagram.com/irreverent_fm facebook.com/irreverentfm Are you a creator that wants to join IMG, or an advertiser looking for sponsorship opportunities? Email us at irreverentfm@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Anthea Butler returns to the show (she was a guest on season one of Powers & Principalities) to discuss her new book, White Evangelical Racism. Her book is of utmost importance to helping us understand both our past and our current moment. We discuss the history of white evangelical racism, and how it played a part in the Jan 6th insurrection and the murders in Atlanta in March 2021. I also wrote about the book in my new series, The Good Books, published via my newsletter The Post-Evangelical Post. Help support the show directly via a paid subscription to the newsletter. (Free tiers are also available.) Stay tuned for more news about the show next week! This interview was recorded on 3/19/2021. Follow Dr. Butler on Twitter @AntheaButler. Follow Blake on Twitter @brchastain, and follow the show on Instagram @exvangelicalpod. This episode was produced and edited by Jake Lewis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Joy Allison returns to the show to discuss her new book, #ChurchToo: How Purity Culture Upholds Abuse and How to Find Healing. Emily launched the #ChurchToo hashtag in November 2017 and it has taken on a life of its own, calling churches to account. You can follow Emily on Twitter and Instagram. I'm also joined by guest co-host Amy Congdon, a clinical mental health counselor in the Kansas City, MO metro area whos work focuses on providing care to clients who have experienced religious trauma and seek to find healing from these wounds. This includes concerns around sex and sexuality, gender, reproductive rights, and racial injustice. I wrote about #ChurchTooBook in a new series for my newsletter called The Good Books. Subscribe to my newsletter, The Post-Evangelical Post, here. There are free and paid options; Substack is currently the main source of support for this show. I also wrote about the role of purity culture in the shootings in Atlanta here, and included some comments made by Emily. Follow Blak

In this episode, I chat with Andrew Phelan and John Potter from Magnified Pod. Their show focuses on Tooth & Nail era Christian alt music - season 1 focused on the MXPX discography, and season 2 focused on Five Iron Frenzy. In this conversation, we learn about Andrew & John's stories, the power of music and memory even after our beliefs change, and what it was like becoming friends with Five Iron band members. Check out their podcast here, follow them on Twitter @magnifiedpod, and support them on Patreon! Follow Blake on Twitter @brchastain, follow the show on Instagram @exvangelicalpod, and support him via Substack at postevangelicalpost.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laura Polk returns to the show to discuss the Jan 6th insurrection and the Religious Right. In particular, we discuss three pivotal events in 1980, and how they set the stage for much of what's followed. This interview was recorded on 2/7/2021. Laura Polk is an independent educator and researcher. You can support her via Patreon here. (I do!)  Follow Laura on Twitter @seelolago. You can support Blake's work on Exvangelical and Powers & Principalities via Substack at The Post-Evangelical Post. Follow Blake on Twitter @brchastain and the show on Instagram at @exvangelicalpod. This episode was produced by Jake Lewis. Thank you, Jake! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/exvangelical/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/exvangelical/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Stedman is a Minneapolis-based writer, speaker, and community organizer. In this conversation, we discuss his book IRL: Finding Realness, Meaning, and Belonging in Our Digital Lives, how people form and express their identities online, spirituality "fads," and much more! (This conversation was recorded on January 4th, 2021, two days before the insurrection and the rest of the country went topsy turvy.) Follow Chris on Twitter! Support this podcast (and sister podcast Powers & Principalities) through a paid subscription to Blake's newsletter, The Post-Evangelical Post. Follow Blake on Twitter and Instagram. Get Exvangelical podcast merch, featuring the new logo, here. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/exvangelical/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/exvangelical/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices