In this episode, we talk with soon-to-be Master’s student in gender, sexuality, and culture, Artie Peters (they/he). They share about their faith journey, and he also talks about his hopes and interests for his Master’s degree program, and the importance of rituals in his life (such as reading, which leads into a big discussion about media and its impacts on our lives). We also poke fun at April’s kitschy Christian merch she bought at Christian music festivals in the early 2010s (check our Instagram for photos!).
You can follow Artie on Instagram and TikTok @patrongodartemis. And here are the socials for the orgs they recommended: Transvisible Montana (@transvisiblemontana on Insta and @TransVisibleMT on Twitter) and Kaleidoscope (@Kalediscopemissoula).
To anyone who happens to be reading this who is parenting a middle school aged child...April highly recommends the Warrior Cats series. Mostly the original series (there are like, God knows how many sequel series now, since they’re ghostwritten by a group of multiple writers…). And if you or your child is going to read Harry Potter, please do so in a way that gives no more money to the author (thrift stores, letting your child read the copies that you bought when you were a kid and didn’t know JK was transphobic, etc), and listen to the podcast Artie mentioned, Harry Potter and the Sacred Text (@hpsacredtext). If you or your child is going to read the Chronicles of Narnia, please know that the religious metaphor is really heavy-handed at times, and the books are also sometimes sexist and racist (but they’re still a fun read). Dear God, that lion is Jesus.
Our social media: @reclaimingthegarden on Insta, @RtGardenPodcast on Twitter. Our personal accounts: @thatpunchabletheaternerd, @April_TheWriter (April is on Twitter and Insta). Also, our podcast account follows a bunch of awesome folks + podcasts in the exvangelical/deconstruction world and progressive Christian world, so if you’re looking for more resources, that’s a great place to start!
