The Life After Podcast
Indoctrination
Episodes
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Religion of Trauma (Biblical Origins x Psychedelics) with Andrew Jasko
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Andrew Jasko (lifeafterdogma.org) joins Chuck and Brady. He tells his story growing up passionate about Christian Fundamentalism and leaving it all behind. They discuss the Charismatic Movement, damage of sexual repression, the mind-blowing origins of Yahweh and El, how humans respond to suffering, and how the Bible seems to have been pieced together as a response to societal trauma.
Andrew ends by talking about the healing he is finding in psychedelics, meditation, and Eastern Spirituality.
Andrew's Story: Andrew's father was an Assembly of God pastor. Before he was born, Andrew was prophesied to be a spiritual warrior. As he grew up, he planned to win 1,000,000,000 souls to Jesus. His whole life pointed toward a future as a pastor or missionary. He got a Theology degree from Wheaton College and worked on another at Princeton. He had plans to go to India and start saving the world. But things weren't adding up.
A faith that promised joy was exhausting him. His doubts got louder, but most of all, he clearly saw how the faith, despite its use of language about peace, produced never-ending anxiety.
Andrew reluctantly studied and gave air to his doubts. Though losing one's faith feels like dying, he kept going. Driven to improve his mental health, he sought to understand how the faith kept him for so long and how he can heal.
Understanding how humans respond to trauma changed his life. He saw similar patterns in the Bible's history. Psychedelics and Eastern Spirituality gave him a new sense of purpose and understanding his life after dogma. He writes about spiritual healing on his blog and coaches others to heal from spiritual trauma.
Find links for The Life After Community (our secret Facebook group), subscribing, rating, and/or reviewing on iTunes here: linkin.bio/thelifeafterorg
Friday Mar 01, 2019
Friday Mar 01, 2019
Last season, Chuck and Brady spoke with Curtis, who lived through gay conversion therapy. This season, a former leader of Love in Action (gay conversion therapy) and author, Tim Rymel, tells his experience.
TW: This episode can be triggering for those who had to disassociate from their sexuality to survive in Evangelical envirnoments and others.
Tim promoted the notorious gay conversion therapy organization he helped organize and led. But over the years, he realized that the organization wasn't honest. His inquisitive mind compelled him to keep asking questions and not making excuses when there was no good answer to be found. In addition to leaving Love in Action, Tim eventually left the faith he always knew.
But that is where he found himself.
The episode includes several gripping coming out stories.
Find links for The Life After Community (our secret Facebook group), subscribing, rating, and/or reviewing on iTunes here: linkin.bio/thelifeafterorg
Thursday Jan 24, 2019
Deliver Us From Your People (Spiritual Abuse x Therapy) with Angie Jay
Thursday Jan 24, 2019
Thursday Jan 24, 2019
TW: This episode includes mentions of sexual abuse, extreme spiritual abuse, and a suicide attempt.
Angie Jay, spiritual abuse survivor and political activist, joins Chuck and Brady to share her horrifying Evangelical experience when she served as a missions intern at the age of 18. Far from home and family, the missions organization leadership forced her to describe -- in mixed company and with great detail -- the long history of sexual abuse she had experienced, which started when she was only 2, in order to "heal." When the leaders felt Angie wasn't responding to their abusive counsel in the way they wanted, the main male leader took the situation to a horrifying new level. Her told her the sexual abuse left a demon in her that he needed to remove. And, without her consent, that's what he attempted to do.
The complex nightmare continues when she returned home and much of her home church leadership believed her abusers over her or showed her no empathy.
Listen to see how Angie discovered a better life after on this episode of The Life After Podcast, hosted by Chuck Parson and Brady Hardin.
Find links for The Life After Community (our secret Facebook group), subscribing, rating, and/or reviewing on iTunes here: linkin.bio/thelifeafterorg
Friday Nov 09, 2018
BONUS EPISODE! Chuck and Brady at Ethical Society Mid Rivers
Friday Nov 09, 2018
Friday Nov 09, 2018
Here is some bonus content to hold you over until Season 2 premieres!
Chuck and Brady were recently invited to present at the Ethical Society Mid Rivers in Saint Peters, MO. They shared the history of the podcast and discussed topics commonly tackled on the show, such as indoctrination, spiritual abuse, religious trauma syndrome, and religious gaslighting.
Season 2 coming soon!
The Life After Podcast and Community | Live Real-LifeWe Hold Space for Those Leaving Their Faith in a Secret Facebook Group and Slack Channel.thelifeafter.org
Tuesday Jul 31, 2018
Tuesday Jul 31, 2018
Chuck and Brady interview a new friend they met purely because of the show, Joey Hill. Joey shares his story of overcoming a gauntlet of obstacles after leaving harmful religion. Determined to keep going, Joey found a unique way to shape his future… but it didn’t go as planned. Brady and Joey discuss how hard it is to bounce back from leaving religion, especially for those who built their futures around plans of being in the ministry. But over time, Joey found his footing and kept going and going and...
After their interview with Joey, Chuck and Brady take time to reflect on what the first season of the podcast has meant to them, sandwiched by audio messages left by the wonderful listeners.
Monday May 28, 2018
Failed Missionary (YWAM x Abuse of Power) with Corey Pigg
Monday May 28, 2018
Monday May 28, 2018
Corey Pigg joins Brady and Chuck to discuss his experiences as a full-time missionary with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) that made way for his exit from toxic religion.
Corey has started his own podcast, which focuses on the dark underbelly of modern missions. He is joined by ex-missionaries to discuss what it means to be “called, not qualified” in an industry full of manipulation, crushed dreams, and abuses of power. Learn about what he is doing at failedmissionary.com.
The Life After Podcast and Community | Live Real-LifeWe Hold Space for Those Leaving Their Faith in a Secret Facebook Group and Slack Channel.thelifeafter.org
Friday May 04, 2018
Recovery (Queer x Addiction) with Kendal
Friday May 04, 2018
Friday May 04, 2018
Have you recovered what oppressive religion took from you?
When Kendal came out as a lesbian, her life never could be the same again. She was once heavily involved in her church’s youth group, but she was banned from being alone with teenagers because of prejudice against her sexuality. This rejection and feelings of purposelessness drove her to alcoholism, a common path for LGBT+ people who have to face the shame their faith communities place on them.
Kendal joins Chuck and Brady in the studio to discuss how shame is often used by religion to gain and keep followers and how AA changed saved her life. Through the program and hard work, she recovered what oppressive religion took from her.
Addition Resource: DrugRehab.com: They provide information, resources, and treatment for people battling addiction and related conditions.
Find links for The Life After Community (our secret Facebook group), subscribing, rating, and/or reviewing on iTunes here: linkin.bio/thelifeafterorg
Friday Mar 23, 2018
The Airing of Grief and Unbelief (Beliefs x Authenticity) with Derek Webb
Friday Mar 23, 2018
Friday Mar 23, 2018
Derek Webb was the lead vocalist for Caemond's Call, a folk/rock band that was wildly popular within Evangelicalism in the early 2000's, before recording solo albums. Known for pushing against the status quo of Christian culture, Derek created a large fanbase of Christians who left like they were on the fringes of their culture. But he had an affair that brought huge life changes. Washington Post, Relevant Magazine, and Huffington Post all wrote articles about his divorce. Also during this time, he examined his beliefs to see if they still held up.
His beliefs didn't survive, but his love for looking at the world and describe it through music remained. He released an album that focused on what he calls his two divorces, one from his ex-wife and the other from God. Many fans, old and new, look at his music as a soundtrack for their faith deconstruction because they see their own pain in Derek's vulnerability found in his music. Others find themselves disappointed that he left the Christianity he was so vocal in supporting years ago. On his podcast, The Airing of Grief, his fans (past and/or present) share their opinions on him, his music, and his unbeliefs.
Derek doesn't just put emphasis on faith deconstruction. He also encourages his fans and listeners to focus on rebuilding more-enriched lives after leaving oppressive religion by finding freedom where there once was guilt and shame.
Chuck and Brady chatted with Derek about investigating long-held belief systems, and he explained how morality means more to him after leaving the faith than it did beforehand. He frankly addresses his affair the eventually ended his marriage and described how the weight of his actions didn't fully affect him until after exiting Christianity.
Lastly, he tackled some major questions Exvangelicals reflect on. What is the source of post-faith morality? How do we explain the seemingly supernatural experiences we felt while in the faith? With God out of the picture, how do we lean on our intuition after years of trying to silence it?
The answer to the last one may surprise you.
Find links for The Life After Community (our secret Facebook group), subscribing, rating, and/or reviewing on iTunes here: linkin.bio/thelifeafterorg
Tuesday Feb 20, 2018
Tuesday Feb 20, 2018
Indoctrination is one very essential topic that permeates everything we talk about on this show, but so far we haven’t really addressed it directly. It is so pervasive within religious systems that its almost impossible to talk about anything on this show without it looming in the background.
That makes it difficult to really define and nail down. OED defines it as “The process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically.” What you end up with is a long line of dominoes, each domino is one of the things you have to believe to in order for your religious system to remain whole. Indoctrination is the insistence that you don’t poke, prod, remove, or even too closely observe the any of the dominoes because what happens if you knock one over? The whole system is exposed.
Host Brady and Chuck sat down their friends, Tim Warzel and Jamie Lee Finch, to discuss the ever-present ghost called indoctrination.
To learn more about Jamie’s work, follow her on Twitter, @jamieleefinch or visit her website: jamieleefinch.com.
Find links for The Life After Community (our secret Facebook group), subscribing, rating, and/or reviewing on iTunes here: linkin.bio/thelifeafterorg
Tuesday Jan 16, 2018
Tuesday Jan 16, 2018
What makes counseling good or bad? What ethical laws are in place to protect people from harmful counselors? Are pastors and “church counselors” held to the same standard? How can you know if you’ve been treated fairly by a pastor, church counselor, or therapist?
Ari Holtz, PhD is a licensed psychologist. He joined The *Life After Boyz in the studio to discuss how church counseling often works and derails. Brady and Chuck shared stories of church counseling and spiritual abuse, allowing Ari to give his valuable input. They ended with a game of “Evangelical View Point vs. Ari’s Professional Opinion” that showed the contrast of the two worldviews and methods.
Mental Health Resources:
Find a Therapist: www.psychologytoday.com. Search by insurance, sliding scale, clinical issues, gender, location, etc.
NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness): 1-800-950-NAMI (6264). They recommend free or low-cost treatment options.
The Secular Therapy Project: Seculartherapy.org. Want to make sure you’re getting a therapist who isn’t going to push a religious worldview even unconsciously? Check them out here.
211: www.211.org. They provide more mental health resources.
Suicide hotline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). You are never alone.
Find links for The Life After Community (our secret Facebook group), subscribing, rating, and/or reviewing on iTunes here: linkin.bio/thelifeafterorg