Holy Heretics: Losing Religion and Finding Jesus

Episode Summary:

Today is June 14, 2025, a day that will live in infamy.

A sitting United States president is hosting a military-style parade in Washington D.C. that every...

Episode Summary:

Regina Cates joins me on the show to discuss her latest book The Real Conversations Jesus Wants Us to Have: A Call to Bravery, Peace, and Love. This episode is part memoir, part social commentary, and part call to action for th...

Episode Summary:

You need to sit down for this episode.

Mercer University’s Dr. Angela Parker joins me today on the podcast for a heart-wrenching conversation about white s...

Episode Summary:

John Dominic Crossan is the world’s most prominent Jesus scholar. He joins me today on Holy Heretics to discuss what we can, and what we cannot, know about the life of this first century Jewish peasan...

Episode Summary:

I wrote an article almost two weeks ago titled, Trump’s Willing Executioners. Drawing on my graduate work in Holocaust Studies, I compared and contrasted the MAGA movement and Nazi Germany, and in particular, the glaring lack o...

Episode Summary:

For ten years running, Dr. Rupert Sheldrake has been recognized as one of the “most spiritually influential living people in the world” by Watkins Mind Body Spirit magazine. His work has been featured in many magazines, newspap...

Episode Summary:

Dr. Rachel Wheeler joins me today on Holy Heretics to discuss ecospirituality and the practice of rewilding both our life and faith.

Let’s be honest, Chris...

Episode Summary:

I distinctly remember sitting in the back row of sixth grade art class in Jonesboro, Arkansas and saying to myself, “I am NOT CREATIVE!” I couldn’t draw a lick. While my friends brought forth beautiful sketches and lovely paint...

Episode Summary:

If I had a guess, I’m betting one of the main reasons why you deconstructed evangelicalism is because of the Bible. Growing up evangelical, the Bible was the center of faith. It was the key to unlocking the Divine. This big bla...

Episode Summary:

John Philip Newell is best described as “a wandering teacher with the heart of a Celtic bard and the mind of a Celtic scholar.” Formerly the Warden of Iona Abbey in the Western Isles of Scotland, John Philip joined me from his home in Edinburgh to offer a new, yet ancient way forward in a time when the empire has once again wedded and bedded Christianity.

Long before the colonizing forces of imperial Christianity mad...

Episode Summary:

Like a dog returning to her vomit, America chose the sexual predator, white nationalist, pathological liar, and criminal instead of an educated, compassionate Black woman to lead this nation into our collective future. This feels more sinister than 2016 because Trump and his henchmen now have a plan in Project 2025 and I promise you, people are going to suffer.

How do we sit with suffering and respond with compassion...

Episode Summary:

We are less than two weeks away from election day here in the United States. The question is - will America get its first female president or a second Donald Trump term? A more pressing question is - will America remain a democracy or will our constitutional republic deteriorate further into a Christo-fascist Trump family dynasty?

Kamala Harris has a slight lead over Trump in the national polls, but in the seven batt...

Episode Summary:

In this captivating conversation with mythologist and psychologist Dr. Sharon Blackie, we explore the mythic imagination, the reclaiming of indigenous Western spiritual traditions, and the relevance of our native myths, fairy tales, and folk traditions.

Your life is a story, and your story is one small part of a larger cultural story. For good and bad, your individual story is shaped by the larger cultural story of w...

Episode Summary:

[TW: sexual assault and sexual harm language]

I am joined today by Rev. Dr. Danielle Tumminio Hansen to speak about the unspeakable. A theologian and Episcopal priest focusing on pastoral approaches to trauma, Hansen addresses the persistent crisis of sexual harm in the U.S., and the “haunting silence” of survivors. Why do most victims remain silent? Why don’t we trust women? Why do we assume perpetrators of sexual h...

Episode Summary:

Liberation theology is a theological movement that emerged primarily in Latin America in the late 20th century, although its principles and ideas have influenced theological discourse worldwide for millennia. It seeks to address the social, economic, sexual, gendered, and political oppression experienced by marginalized and disadvantaged individuals and communities. Liberation theology actually dates all the way bac...

Episode Summary:

In this unique, collaborative episode of Holy Heretics, I chat with Jude Mills, the creator of the FKD Up By Faith podcast. Jude created the FKD Up By Faith podcast for individuals harmed by religious fundamentalism. She hails from the Southeast of England, and is using her podcast to fuel her scholarly work at the University of Kent...

Episode Summary:

(CW): Mental Illness, Suicidal Ideation, Depression, and Anxiety)

Anna Gazmarian’s new book Devout: A Memoir of Doubt, investigates the overlapping complexities of religious faith, mental illness, and doubt. If you grew up in religiously conservative spaces, odds are you either never talked ab...

Episode Summary:

Interviewing Jonathan Merritt felt like having a conversation with myself. His journey out of white evangelical subculture is an almost mirror-image of my journey. My guess is, you’ll find a lot of correlation as well.

Jonathan was a card-carrying evangelical who left his Southern roots and e...

Episode Summary:

Do you feel spiritually and physically domesticated? Are you struggling to free yourself from the long-term impacts of spiritual colonization? Do you feel disconnected from the natural world? Are you longing for something more than merely reconstruction? If so, spiritual rewilding might be the next step in your faith seeking journey.