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Slow Train to HeckBonus Episode: The Divorced Virgin ProjectCheck out a special bonus episode of Slow Train to Heck where I interview Mindy, the creator of The Divorced Virgin Project, about her experience growing up in purity culture and how leaving it motivated her to create this resource for others who are trying to figure out how to deal with the fallout of purity culture in their own lives.The Divorced Virgin Project brings together dedicated psychotherapists and specialists, including divorce coaches, financial advisors, sex educators, and more, providing accessible content to help victims of purity culture to heal.Check out The Divorced...2024-04-2632 minSlow Train to HeckEpisode 43 (Finale): The Story You ToldWelcome to the finale of a podcast about people, sharing their stories of deconstruction and leaving behind toxic religious systems... so what happens next? I've got one more story for you.Podcast episode about Hegel's God: https://www.philosophizethis.org/podcast/hegels-godSlow Train To Heck - the Substack: https://slowtraintoheck.substack.comThank you all for listening for the past two years. It has meant the world.2023-10-1143 minSlow Train to HeckEpisode 42: Love Really Does WinIn this final conversation on Slow Train To Heck, Matt and Mandy Ottaway share the story of their lives together: Growing up in evangelicalism, attending Moody Bible Institute, getting into youth ministry in their early 20s... eventually with Matt realizing the restrictive intellectual cage that his ministry position required and Mandy experiencing the burnout of a life dedicated to church ministries while trying to raise their kids. After leaving ministry, they discovered what the world outside of "required belief" was like, and the freedom to be able to "deconstruct", to learn, to grow, and to change.2023-09-271h 39Slow Train to HeckEpisode 41: The Kid in the BookstoreMatthew Burkholder joins the podcast to share his experience of growing up immersed in purity culture, starting all the way back as a kid in a Christian bookstore surrounded by the key texts of that ideology. We talk about the lasting damage that can be done by teaching children to hate the natural things that make them human, and the subsequent roadblocks that are created that can get in the way of healthy spirituality. We also chat about his journey into academia, as he's now working on his PhD in Theological Studies through Wycliffe College, how that has affected...2023-09-131h 15Slow Train to HeckEpisode 40: Forced to Betray OurselvesOlivia Grigg shares her experience of Christianity and the spiritual trauma that it caused her, and gives her take on religious trauma as a whole from her perspective as a social worker and counsellor focused on helping people navigate changing beliefs, deconstruction, and that religious trauma. She discusses how many church environments force us to betray ourselves in many ways, from an early age, and normalize the lack of boundaries, portraying that lack of boundaries and submission to church authority as a necessary prerequisite to community. Additionally, she dives into the normalization of physical abuse of children in the...2023-08-3058 minSlow Train to HeckEpisode 39: The Correlation of DysfunctionLaurel talks about the link between dysfunctional families and dysfunctional fundamentalist churches, and how people in abusive situations who are desperate for love are reeled in by the promise of love from leaders who manipulate that desire for the purposes of control.She also shares her own story of growing up in an abusive environment and how she has since found freedom from environments that use fear as a method of control.Content warnings: physical and spiritual abuse of children, mental illness, depressionBooks Laurel mentioned:Bradshaw on The Family (John...2023-07-121h 35Slow Train to HeckEpisode 38: This Was The Grace Of GodThis week I'm joined by Kevin Wilcox (see his previous appearance on the podcast in Episode 6) to talk about how you might be able to maintain or forge relationships "across the aisle" - is it possible for an evangelical and an exvangelical to be friends, and if so, how? What needs to be considered when entering into a relationship like that? What boundaries need to be established, what considerations need to be taken into account, and most importantly, how can we best love and care for ourselves and other people in the process?We chat about these...2023-06-211h 48Slow Train to HeckEpisode 37: We're All Having The Same QuestionsThis week I had the pleasure of chatting with Jannah Rulfs, who grew up Pentecostal in Southwestern Ontario and has since left the church. Jannah has a lot of really insightful things to say about the anxiety and fear that Christianity generated in her as a young teenager, the challenges she has with some of what Christianity seems to require of young people in terms of evangelism and certainty, and how she relates to Christianity and Christians now in a positive way.2023-06-071h 18Slow Train to HeckEpisode 36: The System Is BrokenAlexandra and John share their experiences growing up Christian and the fear-based narratives they lived within. Eventually, they entered the mission field, living in China for some time, and eventually worked for Christian nonprofits. What they saw in these arenas further confirmed what they had grown up experiencing of Christianity - the system is broken. The way Christianity said Christians would act was not at all how the Christians in their lives were acting - even worse than "the world" in many cases - and this caused them to question whether the church really had a role to play...2023-05-241h 43Slow Train to HeckEpisode 35: Hope Is Very PunkCassy shares her story and talks about her mental illness and sexual assault, and processing these heavy things while also processing her faith deconstruction. Cassy is an incredibly strong person who has come through a lot of really hard things, and I hope her strength inspires you as much as it did me.Please take note of the content warnings below and mentioned in the opening, as this episode digs into a few things in detail.Content warnings: sexual assault, mental illness, self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, trichotillomania, homophobiaCassy's essay "Should You Report...2023-05-102h 09Slow Train to HeckEpisode 34: The EndgameThe Slow Train is back, and with it comes David Hayward, a.k.a. the Naked Pastor. David is a former pastor who has since become an artist, creating amazing paintings and cartoons that challenge aspects of religious environments in ways that provoke conversations - in fact he's recently released a collection of cartoons called Flip it Like This which you can check out right now and put it on your coffee table if you want to spark some conversations of your own. He's also an author, having written 10 books including one of my favourites, Til Doubt Do Us...2023-04-2658 minSlow Train to HeckEpisode 33: The Best Tag Team EverWalter Schultz hops on the Slow Train to Heck to share his story of being required to attend church as a child, the confusion that caused him when presented with two wildly opposed worldviews between Sunday School and public school, and how his relationship with his mother was what ultimately helped him escape that world and leave it behind.Content warnings: spousal abuse, generational trauma, residential schools/church abuse, the holocaust2022-11-301h 31Slow Train to HeckEpisode 32: A Paper Wall of Fire and FlamesThis week Marie Wall shares her story of joining, living in, and ultimately Escaping the Church of God fundamentalist Christian cult in Aylmer, Ontario. She shares her harrowing experience of being slowly worn down by the church until she joined, then being brainwashed to believe that there was no hope for her outside their walls. After a deep descent into depression, she was able to escape and has never been happier. Content warnings: significant spiritual and religious abuse, physical abuse of children, depression, suicideIf you're struggling with suicidal thoughts, please call for help. Canada's s...2022-11-1648 minSlow Train to HeckEpisode 31: A Skewed Definition Of LoveJake 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 l...2022-11-021h 04Slow Train to HeckEpisode 30: There Are No Wrong Notes [Part Two]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 useLuke provided some show notes as well, which are as follows:2022-10-192h 04Slow Train to HeckEpisode 29: There Are No Wrong Notes [Part One]Luke Williams joins the Slow Train to Heck to share his journey through and out of Christianity. Luke has lived through many different experiences in his life, and the message of suffering, and the expectation of suffering both now and in the future, was a strong one. However, Luke was able to move beyond that message and share his story with us now.I'm a big believer in people being able to share all of themselves and their whole story, and Luke and I realized that his story needed two parts to be told in full. This...2022-10-052h 00