In this episode I had a wonderful and wide-ranging conversation with Gary Alan Taylor, who is co-founder of The Sophia Society & Co-Host of the Holy Heretics podcast. Gary Alan is also an international speaker, content creator, and writer. He describes himself as being in recovery from fundamentalist Christianity and his passion is to see others free themselves from toxic expressions of faith. His dream is to help spiritual seekers move beyond some of the corrosive manifestations of evangelicalism and to embody the radical way of Jesus.

https://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast

This is the first in the new bonus series which I am calling UnFkd. Along with some guests, I will be examining and deconstructing theological ideas - the harmful, the misunderstood and the just plain wrong!

In this first episode, I didn't choose one of the more obvious ones - like hell, sin or the devil ( we'll get there, I promise) Instead, I tackled something which is very close to my own 'Fkd Up By Faith' experience - Clericalism.

Works Cited

Cuff, Simon. Priesthood for All Believers - Clericalism and How to Avoid It. London, SCM Press, 31 Mar. 2022.

Quotes from Pope Francis cited are in this book.

I had a wonderful conversation with Mike Maeshiro for this episode. Mike is the founder of Numa, an organization that supports people recovering from religious toxicity. Mike is gay, an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, and a queer theology enthusiast. Mike is a former instructor at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, best known for his class, “Discerning of Spirits.” He now teaches on emotional health and redemptive deconstruction. He is a consultant and coach for gay men recovering from evangelicalism.

WEBSITE https://www.mikemaeshiro.com

INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/mikemaeshiro

YOUTUBE CHANNEL https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH5vGo6yRl6Gay-wbJ7F6og

PODCAST https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mike-maeshiro

PRAYER OF ST. BRIGID

https://www.saintbrigids.org/prayers

MUSIC

Written especially for me for the podcast by the late David Goodall

Erin uses their intersecting marginalizations to help support her clients in creating mutually-inclusive cross-cultural spaces. Erin is a Qualified Administrator for the Intercultural Development Inventory and uses this tool in her work.

The "Jesus & Justice & Cussing Too Much" T-Shirts: https://faithxwtf.com/shop

This episode, the first in... quite a while... is the start of a new Fkd Up By Faith season, and also a tribute. Very sadly, on 27th September this year, my dear (and oldest) friend David Goodall died. David, as you may know, is the composer of the theme music for the podcast. He was an actor, composer, musician and award-winning director of theatre and film.

You can find out more about him - while the website is still there at https://www.soundsmove.com

He also did a wonderful food blog at https://www.foodopolis.org and I encourage you to try one of his recipes.

Rhian, who is a mental health social worker, spoke to me candidly about her childhood in a fundamentalist Welsh chapel, where not even (or maybe especially not) the Anglicans were going to heaven!

Through travel and exposure to other cultures, as well as moving for education and exposure to a range of philosophical thought, Rhian found herself rejecting those ideas for something more integrated, and more mystically connected to the divine.

It was a real delight to interview Richard Turner for the podcast.

RIchard is a cult recovery therapist and cult psychology consultant.  Alongside working in this field, he teaches counselling at his local college and works to raise awareness of cult abuse in the media, sometimes discussing the relationship between cults and autism.

The website for Richard's counselling and consultancy practice is www.tothinkagain.co.uk

Richard's Linked-in page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-j-turner/

As part of his media work, Richard also presented a show called 'Me, My Autism and Cults' on BBC World Service which you can find here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct4244?fbclid=IwAR0qMVunNUYAW1NyMLRGpIYj71PBuQVnaejRIE9pRsmEQXVMmEKJiyXMm_E

And he was interviewed for BBC Radio 5 Live: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0cdtfnt

As a hobby, Richard also runs a gaming channel on YouTube and sometimes produces cult psychology gaming videos too: https://www.youtube.com/@richjturn/featured

I was very lucky  and very excited, to interview Matthew Remski for this first Fkd Up By Faith of 2023! Many of you will know Matthew as one of the hosts of the fabulous Conspirituality podcast which is easily my favourite podcast, and the highlight of my listening week.

He is a writer, journalist and cult researcher whom I first met in the yoga world, with which we have both become rather disillusioned. Our wide-ranging conversation begins in Catholicism and ends in the online world of the New Age influencer.

Matthew is author of several books, the latest being 'Practice And All Is Coming: Abuse, Cult Dynamics, And Healing In Yoga And Beyond' which is a must-read for anybody who is involved in yoga (especially those who teach)

He is also co-author - along with his fellow podcast hosts, Derek Beres and Julian Walker -  of the upcoming Book 'Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Public Health Threat' which is out in June, and available for pre-order from the publisher, and all the usual book places.

LINKS

Matthew’s website http://matthewremski.com/wordpress

The Conspirituality website https://www.conspirituality.net

The Conspirituality book https://www.conspirituality.net/book

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In this episode Matthew shares from ‘Noctograms’ by Luciano Iacobelli and  from ‘An H in the Heart’ by bpNichol

We continue with the fourth, and last (for this year) of our bonus reflections for the period of Advent.

I have invited some of my guests from this past year to record their own reflections for each of the four weeks of Advent on the themes of Hope, Peace, Love and Joy.

Mark Townsend, an independent priest, writer, magician and celebrant, offers a wonderful reflection this week on the theme of Joy. Mark joined me in episode 21 where he spoke, amongst other things about being a 'Trainwreck for Jesus.'

You can find Mark at https://www.marktownsendministry.co.uk

The incidental music on this episode is 'Carol of the Bells' by lesfm on Pixabay - https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021

You can see the Muppets version of 'Carol of the Bells' at  https://youtu.be/ysIzPF3BfpQ

The Fkd UP By Faith theme music is by David Goodall - https://www.soundsmove.com

We continue with the third of our bonus reflections for the period of Advent.

I have invited some of my guests from this past year to record their own reflections for each of the four weeks of Advent on the themes of Hope, Peace, Love and Joy.

Mairtin McNamara - who was my guest on Episode 17 of the pod -  has shared an incredibly beautiful reflection on this week's theme of love. 

I begin by having a bit of a laugh at myself for supposedly getting muddled over the order of the advent themes, and a recording I made of the hymn 'Gaudete'.

As always our theme music is by David Goodall https://www.soundsmove.com 

The incidental music is 'Silent Night' by Music for Videos on Pixabay https://pixabay.com/music/christmas-silent-night-128870/