Blessed Are the Canceled

Can a critic become a friend?

When my firestorm first erupted, Dr. Amy Peeler wrote a public critique of my work for Christianity Today. So it might surprise you to know we've actually become good friends.

Just a month or so later, Amy went through a painful controversy of her own, one that threatened her calling, her ministry, and her sense of belonging in her church community.

In this bonus episode of Blessed Are the Canceled, Amy, a New Testament scholar and professor at Wheaton College, shares her story, the remarkable parallels between our experiences, and what God has been teaching us through them.

We also explore what it means to be blameless. The New Testament calls Christian leaders to be blameless, but does that mean never being critiqued? Or never making mistakes? How do we distinguish being blameless from being blame-free?

Jesus can turn your critics into friends. And your most painful experiences into a deeper encounter with God's love, not because you're perfect or useful, but because you're beloved.

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Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God. 
 
Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 

🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
📬 Read along on Substack
🎧 Season One Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify

Find more of Amy's work at: amypeeler.com.
 
Edited by Ryan Biermann 
Theme music by Tents 
 
If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it. 
 
#BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering

In today’s episode, “Resilience: Turning Your Past Into Power for Your Future,” you’ll hear Josh reflect on how he slowly rediscovered confidence in the voice of God, and how the experience of being canceled, while deeply painful, became something God used over time to bless and strengthen him.

He’ll also share his dreams for the future—both literal and figurative—and how the image of a tsunami has become a way of naming what God can do with the force of what we’ve been through.

We’ll explore a theology of resilience: How does God meet us in hardship and form strength over time? What role does courage play in allowing crisis to shape character? And how can you move beyond survival toward hope and a future that feels possible again?

This season has been about storms and dark nights—about loss, grief, and costly faithfulness. But it’s also been about a quieter truth: even overwhelming experiences can be redirected into something life-giving.

There is hope. What you’ve been through does not have the last word on your story. The God who loves you does.

-- 

Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God. 
 
Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 

🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
📬 Read along on Substack
🎧 Season One Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify
 
Edited by Ryan Biermann 
Theme music by Tents 
Intro music by Orchid Rainbow 
 
If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it. 
 
#BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering

In today’s episode, “Forgiveness: How to Move Forward,” you’ll hear Josh reflect on his own slow, costly process of letting go of bitterness and resentment toward those who wronged him. You’ll also hear how he learned to forgive himself for mistakes and regrets he wished he could take back. 

We’ll explore a theology of forgiveness: How do you move forward when real harm has been done? What’s the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation? What role do healthy boundaries play when someone you’ve forgiven is still unsafe? 

We’ll also get practical, talking about how to practice forgiveness when you don’t feel you have it in you. 

Forgiveness is central to the heart of Jesus. Bitterness binds us to the past. Forgiveness opens the door to freedom. 

-- 

Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God. 
 
Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 

🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
📬 Read along on Substack
🎧 Season One Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify
 
Edited by Ryan Biermann 
Theme music by Tents 
Intro music by Orchid Rainbow 
 
If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it. 
 
#BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering

In today’s episode, “Catholic: Where My Wife Found Peace,” you’ll hear Josh share a part of his family’s story that he hasn’t told publicly until now. It’s the story of his wife Holly’s entrance into the Catholic Church, a journey that culminated in the year following his cancellation.

This wasn’t a reaction to the firestorm, and it wasn’t a sudden change of direction. It was the fruit of a long, quiet pull, more than a decade of prayer, formation, and a growing love for the liturgy, the sacraments, and the life of the Church.

Josh and I will reflect on Holly’s experience, how she lived through the firestorm alongside him, what it was like to watch it unfold from the inside, and how, in the year that followed, she found a deep sense of peace within the Catholic tradition.

We’ll also speak honestly about the challenges and gifts of being a Protestant pastor and a Catholic spouse: how Josh and Holly have learned to navigate family life, church life, and shared faith across real differences.

This episode is about celebrating faithfulness, honoring conscience, and living into Christ’s unifying love for marriage and for the church.

-- 

Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God. 
 
Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 

🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
📬 Read along on Substack
🎧 Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify
 
Edited by Ryan Biermann 
Theme music by Tents 
Intro music by Orchid Rainbow 
 
If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it. 
 
#BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering

In today’s episode, “Inheritance: When God Is All You Need,” Josh reflects on how he began to reconcile the haunting sense that God had moved on–that he had been discarded, and his future handed to someone else. 

We’ll explore a theology of inheritance: What is our inheritance in Christ? Can it be taken away? How does God form and provide for us in seasons when it feels like we’ve lost everything? 

Discover what it means to say, “the Lord is my inheritance.” Because when you have him, you truly have it all.

--

Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God. 

Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 

🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts 

📬 Substack: 
Brenna Blain: https://brennablain.substack.com/ 
Josh Butler: https://joshuabutlerpdx.substack.com/ 

📚 Books: 
Brenna Blain: https://brenna-blain.vercel.app/ 
Josh Butler: https://joshuaryanbutler.com/books/ 

🎧 Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify 

Edited by Ryan Biermann 
Theme music by Tents 

If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it. 

#ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering #CancelCulture #spiritualformation  #ChurchHurt #TheologyPodcast

In today’s episode, “Trauma: How Your Body Keeps the Score,” you’ll hear Josh reflect vulnerably on the tremors, sleeplessness, and suicidal ideation he experienced in the year following his cancellation, and the painful childhood memories it brought to the surface, memories God gradually began to heal.

We’ll explore a theology of trauma and the body: How are the body and mind connected? What does a biblical, holistic approach to mental health look like? How do we heal from painful memories and cultivate resilience?

We’ll also reflect on the role trauma played in the firestorm itself, and the unique ways it can surface in the life of a leader. 

And we’ll discover how facing the pain of your past can become a pathway to a deeper layer of belonging than you’ve ever known.

Jesus is out to heal the whole you–not just part of you--body and soul, heart, mind, and strength.

-- 

Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God. 
 
Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 

🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
📬 Read along on Substack
🎧 Season One Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify
 
Edited by Ryan Biermann 
Theme music by Tents 
Intro music by Orchid Rainbow 
 
If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it. 
 
#BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering

In today’s episode, “Appease: Why Good Leaders Fail,” we go behind the scenes as Josh reflects on leadership failures he and others made in an attempt to appease a small group of leaders.

Along the way, we explore how anxiety can infect a church or organization, and why being a non-anxious presence matters in moments of crisis. 

We’ll also dig into the tensions that arise when you’re both a pastor and an author, a shepherd and a public figure. 

And we’ll see why appeasement doesn’t work, theologically or practically, and what healthier ways of leading through crisis can look like. 

Jesus doesn’t die to appease the mob. He dies to atone for your sin, to fight for you and bring you back. You are not discarded; he will not let you go.

-- 

Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God. 
 
Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 

🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
📬 Read along on Substack
🎧 Season One Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify
 
Edited by Ryan Biermann 
Theme music by Tents 
Intro music by Orchid Rainbow 
 
If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it. 
 
#BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering

In today’s episode, “Betrayal: When a Friend Wields the Knife,” you’ll hear Josh reflect on those who retracted their endorsements during the firestorm, and we’ll go behind the scenes of how one close friend leveraged the firestorm in ways that fractured his church community. 

We’ll move from the national to the local: it’s one thing to be attacked by people who don’t know you. It’s another when the wound comes from friends you trusted.

We’ll explore a theology of betrayal: How do you grapple with friends who turn on you? Who gossip about you or misrepresent your story? How do you recover from broken trust without becoming cynical or jaded?

Jesus knows the sting of betrayal firsthand, and he can help you rise beyond it toward healing and hope.

--

Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God. 
 
Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 

🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
📬 Read along on Substack
🎧 Season One Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify
 
Edited by Ryan Biermann 
Theme music by Tents 
Intro music by Orchid Rainbow 
 
If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it. 
 
#BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering

In today’s episode, “Outrage: How to Feed the Machine,” you’ll get an inside look at how the attack on Josh was more organized than it first appeared, driven by a particular tribe with a pattern of misrepresenting and digitally swarming dozens of Christian leaders.

We’ll explore how social media got hijacked by outrage marketing, how online bullies learned to weaponize anger to build a platform, and why mobs are a terrible vehicle for justice. 

And we’ll dig into a theology of anger. Why does God get angry? When is anger good–and when does it become destructive? How do we learn to use it well?

Your anger can become fuel to build up God’s world rather than to burn it down.

-- 
Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God. 
 
Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 

🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
📬 Read along on Substack
🎧 Season One Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify
 
Edited by Ryan Biermann 
Theme music by Tents 
Intro music by Orchid Rainbow 
 
If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it. 
 
#BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering

In today’s episode, "Underwater: When God Lets You Drown," you’ll get an inside look at the most hidden, and most painful, part of Josh’s story: a seven-year dream he believed God had given him, and how it came crashing down in the firestorm.

We’ll explore what the Christian tradition calls the dark night of the soul—what it is, what it isn’t, and how we navigate seasons when it feels like God is absent.

And we’ll discover how God can do some of his deepest formation in the very places that feel God-forsaken.

There is hope when you feel hopeless. It may be that God is most powerfully present precisely where he feels most absent.

-- 

Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God. 
 
Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 

🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
📬 Read along on Substack
🎧 Season One Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify
 
Edited by Ryan Biermann 
Theme music by Tents 
Intro music by Orchid Rainbow 
 
If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it. 
 
#BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering