Losing Our Religion

"None of us can ever know if there is a God, but we do know there is an us. None of us can ever know if there is wrong or right. But we do know there is an us."- Russell Brand "The question is not is there a God but is there suffering?"- Amma, The Hugging Saint "Yes there is suffering and what can we do about our suffering? We can help one another and we can love one another. Now if you can do that through atheism then do it through atheism."- Russell Brand You all know by now that Losing Our Religion is not a church bashing free for all......although the church deserves to be bashed. It's not a political bashing brawl......although politics deserve to be dismantled. Nor is it a show exposing corporations and slay them for their greed......although many deserve to exposes and taxed out of business. Losing Our Religion is a show about joining together not tearing apart. Knowing full well that to rebuild something else has to be torn down, or at least dismantled to the core and renovated from within. However we

"All you can do is be somebody that you love and turn yourself into somebody that you love."- Maggie Young Maggie has admittedly had sex with over 50 men, and she has authored a memoir about the first 23. Her Sex-Positive ideology has her free as a bird, and able to openly talk about her sex life and more. Including growing up in abuse, rape, and even a recent sexual harassment incident while driving for UBER. Maggie Young is a military veteran, UC Berkeley graduate, and author of her gritty sex memoir, Just Another Number. Her voice is a form of investigative reporting with a memoir’s emotional authenticity. While her work covers a wide array of topics, her primary focus is rape culture, patriarchy in Millennial dating, sex, and masculinity. Her goal is to expose corruption with exploitative literature. She writes for several publications, including Thrillist, Bust, Bustle, and YourTango. Maggie’s sex-positive feminist podcast, The Harlot, is set to release this summer. Her story littered with hypocritical C

Stephen grew up Greek...Orthodox, in the American South, Atlanta Georgia. I love how he has gone through changes in his faith, all while being true to himself and remembering the beautiful parts of religion. He does a fantastic job reminding us of the things religion can offer that exude beauty and humanity. The community, the rituals, the family atmospheres, the food, the holidays. We chat about our hopes in who God is as well as how we all have different forms of how we connect spiritually to the divine, the universe, and humanity. I love Stephens' belief that religion is like a big puzzle that we will never see the full picture of until then end, and then realize that we're really just all the same. Join the CounterCulture Society:  http://eepurl.com/bwqMWT Become a Producer:  https://www.patreon.com/losingourreligion Find Out More:  http://www.losingourreligion.org This Episode's Landing Page: http://www.losingourreligion.org/episodes/2016/4/12/lgbtq-038-growing-up-greek-orthodox-stephen-p Twitter:  https

Best-selling author Joshua Becker joins me for a chat on minimalism and learning to live life with less.  Joshua has shared his story on top podcasts like Entrepreneur On Fire as well as, CBS Evening News, NPR, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal and countless media interviews around the world. I've wanted to have Joshua on since we begin the Loser journey in August 2015. Ever since we met, his words and story stuck with me. We're both former pastors, so we may get a little more "churchy" sounding than some of you are used to. But don't let that stop you from hearing the quality stuff he shares here. In a world of consumerism and lust of continual accumulation we've learned that there's nothing to find in it. I love the lyrics of the Crass song, Pay As You Go... You can put a mortgage on your lifeTo enter Shoppers' Paradise.A trade-in for your dignity.A lovely colour console TV.To watch and cherish as the days slip by,And dream of the things that money can buy.Brushed chrome shit, plastic crap,My life a

This is a pun-filled joy ride of laughter and conversation about how we grew up in Jewish and Christian religious homes. Our first Losing Our Religion episode with Tequila, well, mezcal. In cocktail form of course, since we were recording at the posh Hotel Vintage in downtown Portland Oregon. The cocktail was called Up In Smoke, and we had the best time. My wife Jen joins us again in this episode and uses her Peanut Gallery powers to draw us back into more important things rather than our happy rabbit trails. Grace's story of being Jewish but not Jewish enough to be accepted by some Jews is a story relatable to many of us. We spend some time trying to talk out what we're going to do when each of us has kids. Cause both our parents made us go to the church building and synagog, and we learned some great life lessons there. Grace and I share an affection for Daniel Johnston, so we highlight some of his work in this episode. As well as Slayer, which is hilarious to me that Grace likes Slayer. We finish this epis

In this episode, we take our first phone call from a loser, discuss middle America, and whether losing hell is a good idea or not. I don't know if there is a heaven or hell. I used to be certain there was, but these days I am not so sure. After reading the scriptures in context more than ten times, I don't see it speak of a heaven, but of a recreated earth, and there doesn't seem to be a hell, but more of an existence apart from God. Which for many of us reading this post, probably sounds pretty good. I don't claim to be a theologian, but I used to. I don't claim to be well educated, but I used to think I was. I have already been labeled a heretic by my old church, received hate mail and fighting messages from pastors, all while joyfully accepted my apostate reality, but am I going to hell? I don't think I should care anymore. At least, I don't want to. I have recently come to the conclusion that trying to live like there is a hell is of no help to the fulfillment or joy to be found in my life. It only makes

The second part of each episode is usually the far deeper more fulfilling and revealing part. Do to our trust for one another growing as well as the amount of drinks we've ha! Zeke empowers me to get very transparent about my forming of a "Christian" institution (Once called Love is not Lost now called life) after I left the machine and to talk about the pain that ensued...but also the hope, joy, and community that has come out of it. We talk about the Jesus we want to believe in, albeit not sure yet if that Jesus exists. With suffering beginning our discussion in this episode we come to some therapeutic conclusions that the human experience doesn't need answers. That conclusions only lead us to definitive responses which build walls around us and shut us off from growth. There is great joy to found in pain. "Suffering helps us realize our stupidity, pettiness, and fear. it serves us by revealing to us that we don't need to hold back. That we are free to be ourselves." - Zeke Rudick Zeke speaks to us about th

Zeke is a fantastically beautiful musician. Hearing his songs gave me goosebumps as tears welled up in my eyes. He’s the first former Mormon to be on the podcast but is most recently from the Mars Hill, Acts 29, Imago Dei, Missional Community type of religious institution. Zeke was drawn into the Mars Hill scene when many of his musical hero’s were heading into the culture there. Through his journey of losing religion, he has grown from a "strong" miscegenistic, “Christian” viewpoint and lifestyle. To finding humility, community and solidarity in places that religious folks would assume to be unlikely. We engage in a fascinating conversation regarding faith, belief, and wonder along the lines of journeying through life in the godless world. What if I don’t believe anymore? What happens now? What's next? What about the Bible? The book that kept trying to convince us to love someone that maybe we don’t love? So many make it a narrative about a god that is so insecure that if you call him another name he banishe

A continuation of Rob and I's fun night of drinking together. We have a great time talking about the changes we are seeing in our neighborhood of Capitol Hill, what we feel Seattle is losing, and how we feel about it. You can tell how much we love our current hood and at the same time miss our old neighborhood. This is a must listen to episode because of the beautiful spirituality expressed in our connection together. As well as Rob's ability to call me out on my own shit shut me up when I'm talking too much, and mutually honor each others art and lives together. Rob asks me some very specific questions about my life, faith, church attendance, and what being a "believer" looks like post-institutional religion. If I'm not in church, what keeps me going? It is so beautiful how we discuss our faiths and our idea of growth as human beings in such candid, honest, and messy ways while coming from two entirely different backgrounds and viewpoints. But the conversation doesn't stop there. Rob gives his two cents abou

[All Music on this Episode is The Femurs] "We're Jews; we're God's chosen people. You Christian's are always concerned with what you do because you're afraid of hell. When you're God's people, you don't have to worry about a hell."- Rob Femur "The evangelical church likes Donald Trump because they've been programmed to respect authoritative leaders. Trump is not a politician or a leader. He's a CEO. He's a pastor. The American church pastor today is not a pastor, they're a CEO. They don't shepherd people; they give orders to minions."- Zac Gandara Rob and I were hanging out at a local bar having an amazing conversation and decided we wanted to share it with you. So we quickly tabbed out at Captian Blacks and hoofed it to the studio...apartment to record these episodes. Rob, raised in New York City by a family of Holocaust survivors. But perhaps we could also say he was raised by the Ramones, Iggy Pop, and Lou Reed because his musical talent and knowledge is awesome. He's a New York Jew. You can hear it in his

Seth and I were both pretty nervous to release this episode. Cause we get weird and share very personal things and mystical experiences we've both had in our lives. We're either drunk, sick, fucking nuts, or completely normal. My bet is on normal, but we were enjoying Crown Royal Rye and light beers. We chat briefly about Joel Osteen’s brand of happiness, spirit animals, seeing angels and mystic beings. Seth has some fascinating ideas of how and why we created a leader like Mark Driscoll, and why many of us hunger for ideologies and religions. There may be wounds we are medicating. I know I have many. It takes work to find the wound. But in finding the wound, we can find the healing so that we stop using alcohol, drugs, sex, porn, religion and other things to cover and medicate ourselves away from living lives of freedom. This episode is deep and weird, but therapeutically amazing. Seth is such an encourager, wisdom dropper. While I seem to just ramble on and on he has a knack for making sense of it all and h

"All religion is born from anxiety." Seth Taylor Seth is a crazy ass, mystic, shaman-like, wise, amazing guy. At least, he is to me.  He was featured in EPISODE 014, one of your favorite episodes. He's also a husband, father, and author whom you can read on XXXChurch and his new book. Much of his story of healing has come through his struggle with pornography and his desire for freedom. In reading Seth's writings, you'll often hear him reminding us that porn, and other addictions are not the problem, they're the symptom. Seth has become a friend through our experience with him through Losing Our Religion. It's something I've grown grateful for while still being highly skeptical of the mysticism he embraces. We both divulge some very vulnerable things we are going through right now, and he has a natural wisdom that flows out of him that is arguably the most helpful therapy I have had in a long time. Midlife Crisis When you're going through a midlife crisis, when your marriage is starting to break down, when yo

Now that you're almost a month into the New Year and the resolution talk has faded. How are you doing? This new Losing Our Religion format highlights losing New Years Resolutions and the religious imposition they enforce upon us. It's a discussion about setting our personal agendas without imposing it on others. It's a chat about my struggles with expectations and whether they are worth having. If you're like a lot of Americans, you've already become disillusioned with your goals and resolutions. Upset at yourself and frustrated that the promises of the social media "life coaches" for New Year change have left you the same, or worse, just depressed that you can't be all they say you can be. Some people have accused me of being cynical, and I don't in any way argue with their assessment. However, I consider myself a realist and consumeristic Americana just doesn’t work for me anymore. So what's the alternative? Maybe this show can spark our imaginations to find new ways.   Join the CounterCulture Society: http

This is part two of a conversation with Christian Grindstaff. In our first conversation, we covered a lot of ground. We reminisced about our times together in the Christian institutional church, how I kicked Christian out of youth ministry, and where we're going now and how we're trying to do it together. He's known me longer than my wife, he's a great conversationist and a great drinking buddy. Apparently Christian and I are reaching the bottom of the bottle of Rye at this point. I even end up spilling beer in the middle of our conversation cause I talk with my hands; of course, it has nothing to do with the fact that we've drunk almost a 5th of whiskey together. Right? There's a strong "God believer" factor in this slightly drunken episode of questioning everything and offending almost anyone, including ourselves. We discuss a lot of topics, from how humanities access to information these days gives us the ability to grow and educate ourselves far beyond greater generations. How that fact creates an opportu

Christian is a talented songwriter and music producer. In fact, almost all of the music in the episode is Christian's work. He is a salesman by trade, extremely articulate with his words and a great drinking buddy. Christian has known me longer than my wife has. We have a lot of history together. We've been through the institutional church fire together and come out the other side enlightened, sometimes confused, full of questions, but happier than ever. There have been few people in either of our lives that have caused us more frustration and anger, but continual support and love for one another. We're always honest with each other. We fight it out and find a way to respect, love, and hug each other in the end. We rarely agree with each other - which is great. In these episodes with Christian, we reminisce about our times together in the Christian institutional church, how I kicked Christian out of youth ministry, and where we're going now and how we're trying to do it together. We talk about everything from

This is a very "Christiany" episode. If you're adverse to that, then you may want to skip this one. But it is a valuable conversation for those "of the faith". Mat (Raised Baptist former Non-Denominational Youth Pastor) and I even get into theology and biblical hermeneutics a bit while thankfully, Liz (Raised United Pentecostal Church International) brings us back down to earth. The process of losing your religion isn't easy for a "Christian". As Lyn Morrow said, "It's like wiping the wipe board clean" of everything you ever believed and starting over. That creates so many PTSD triggers for so many of us because these are things that people we respected taught us, our parents may have given us, church leaders we trusted, all shared their concrete personal truths to us, full of certainty. Then finding out their certainty, isn't yours. What do I do now? How do you own your faith?Is the "church" just a business?Should I proselytize?Can I still believe and not go to "church"?Do I need a pastor? Does God care?When

If you've been a fellow loser or part of the CounterCulture Society, you know by now that we believe, enjoy, and embrace the second chance. Well, this weeks episode is the beginning of a second chance story. Liz had an upbringing and coming out story from the UPC (United Pentecostal Church) years ago. Mat raised in the Baptist Denomination. Both are just a few months removed from their former lives non-denominational youth pastors. But their journey together has led them to now. This is a beautiful, hilarious, misfit, couple that are coming out of the institutional religion that they've known all of their lives boldly joining the journey of what's next.   Join the CounterCulture Society: http://eepurl.com/bwqMWT Become a Producer: https://www.patreon.com/losingourreligion Find Out More: http://www.losingourreligion.org This Episode's Landing Page: http://www.losingourreligion.org/episodes/2016/1/19/026-in-process-of-losing-religion-liz-mat-von-ehrenkrook-upc-baptist Twitter: https://twitter.com/LosingRReligio

CJ continues to share his transparent life journey of a drug user, why he lived that way, what motivated him, and learning to know himself and love himself through it all. Beginning in the Assemblies of God Denomination (Evangelical Pentecostal) CJ's indoctrination through the culture of the institutional church is where he learned the religion of wearing masks to fit the molds of other people. As an ex-con, CJ lived in the American prison system under a 6 and then 18-month sentence. In many ways, prison gave him the opportunity of finally seeing himself as he really was. A sober awakening for sure. But he also got to see how problematic the American Prison system is. It's not so much like the movies. CJ refers to it as, "The most lonely place on earth." He has left his prison time, now living life as an ex-con with a great desire to change the system and make reducing recidivism a real thing. Ever heard of the American School to Prison Pipeline? Is it brought on by white privilege? What can we do about it? T

Losing Our Religion and Ideologies comes in many ways, shapes and forms. Growing up in the south, Florida to be exact, was the beginning of CJ's. Most of us are pretty familiar with the bible beltness of the America South. CJ was a "PK". For those of you that don't know that term - Preacher's Kid. CJ was also an addict, a felon, a convict, and now ex-con, husband, and dad. A life far from the goodie too shoes ideal of a Preacher's Kid, but not too far from the reality of a lot of us that grew up in "ministry" life. He is a constant learner and learned a lot in prison. This episode is his story.   Join the CounterCulture Society: http://eepurl.com/bwqMWT   Help Produce the Show: https://www.patreon.com/losingourreligion   Find Out More: http://www.losingourreligion.org   This Episode's Landing Page: http://www.losingourreligion.org/episodes/2016/1/5/024-a-felons-conviction-part-1-cj-smith-drugs-convict-ex-con   Twitter: https://twitter.com/LosingRReligion   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LosingOurReligion

This is part two of our time with Chad discussing fundamentalism and Chad being an atheist. Fundamentalism is something that frustrates us both and is not solely limited to religion. You can be a fundamentalist about anything. Fundamentalist:relating to or advocating strict adherence to the basic principles of any subject or discipline Maybe this isn’t so much an episode about atheism as it is a hope that we could end extremism. Although we discuss and sometimes debate the difference between creationism and Darwinism, we find ourselves very near one another in the understanding of these things. In an information age, when we have abundant access to information we often can find it easier with this information to become fundamentalists. Not to mention Star Wars Nerds! It's amazing how in the end we understand each other and begin seeing closer to eye to eye on our humanity and understanding.   Join the CounterCulture Society: http://eepurl.com/bwqMWT   Help Produce the Show: https://www.patreon.com/losingourre