Episode Four: Letting Go of a Punitive God with Brian Recker

If fear is how we first met God, what does it take to unlearn that?

In this episode of Blessed Uncertainty, we talk with writer and former evangelical pastor Brian Recker, author of Hellbent, about how beliefs about hell shape our inner lives, our parenting, our politics, and the world we are building together.

This is a conversation about letting go of punishment as the foundation of faith and trusting in the God who restores. We explore hell as something we create here and now, the harm fear-based theology does to children, and why grace, not punishment, is what actually changes people.

We first recorded this episode in October, when Brian's book was released. But with conservative evangelicalism doubling down on embracing a tyrannical and authoritarian regime more and more each day, this conversation feels even more urgent now than it did then.

Guest: Brian Recker

Author of Hellbent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love

Free study guide available at: https://brianrecker.com

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Spiritual director Lacy Finn Borgo joins Blessed Uncertainty to explore the sacred art of listening with children, where wonder, healing, and trust reveal the presence of God already at work in their lives.

Episode 2: Children's Liberation Theology with R.L. Stollar:

What if respecting children's dignity isn't radical, but the most basic thing? Author and advocate R.L. Stollar joins us to explore Children's Liberation Theology — a vision that sees children as full human beings made in the image of God, reshaping faith and community for everyone.

On this first episode of Blessed Uncertainty, Danny and Flo talk about why children's spirituality matters, where prayer fits in, and how their childhood experiences of God have shaped their concern for children's agency and autonomy in faith spaces.