This podcast episode, based on Panagiotis Pentaris and colleagues' 2025 scoping review "Religious Disaffiliation and Sexually Minoritised Groups," explores the intricate and often non-linear journey of LGBTQIA+ individuals as they navigate the tensions between their faith and their sexual or gender identities. Drawing from an analysis of 29 peer-reviewed studies, the discussion highlights how negative religious teachings and exclusionary community practices function as primary "push factors" that make maintaining both identities increasingly untenable for many. The episode unpacks a diverse range of outcomes following disaffiliation, ranging from religious reaffiliation with more affirming traditions to a shift toward personalized spirituality or a complete move into nonaffiliation. Listeners will gain insight into the profound impact these transitions have on mental health and well-being, weighing the risks of losing familial and social support against the long-term benefits of identity affirmation, freedom, and empowerment. Ultimately, the podcast introduces a nuanced framework of "affiliated" versus "disaffiliated" engagement, illustrating that religious exit is rarely a clean break but rather a dynamic process of renegotiating the substance and meaning of faithComplete Citation:

Pentaris, P., Freund-Williams, L., & Kapoor, V. (2025). Religious Disaffiliation and Sexually Minoritised Groups: A Scoping Review of the Literature. Journal of Homosexuality, 72(11), 2077–2110.

This podcast episode, based on Elizabeth E. McElroy, S. Abby Young, and Cyrus Schleifer’s 2025 article "The Stalled Revolution versus Secularization," investigates the dynamic and reciprocal relationship between gender attitudes and religiosity in the United States. Utilizing longitudinal data from two national panel datasets, the discussion explores how an individual's support for gender egalitarianism in private family life serves as a powerful driver of their future religious decline across all age groups. While religiosity is found to be a far less reliable predictor of future gender attitudes for the general population, the episode highlights a critical exception: for young women in their 20s, religious engagement appears to counteract the broader societal trend toward egalitarianism, effectively stalling their adoption of more equitable family views. The podcast ultimately unpacks how these intertwined shifts suggest a "tipping point" in cultural power, where the social influence of traditional religious institutions is increasingly being eroded by the ongoing "gender revolution"Complete Citation:

McElroy, Elizabeth E., S. Abby Young, and Cyrus Schleifer. "The stalled revolution versus secularization: The dynamic relationship between gender attitudes and religiosity." Socius 11 (2025): 23780231251366719.

This research explores how Latter-day Saint religious doctrines inadvertently foster gender inequality within Utah’s modern technology sector, known as Silicon Slopes. Through extensive interviews and ethnography, the author demonstrates that the LDS Proclamation on the Family creates a cultural logic that prioritizes motherhood over careers for women, leading to economic precarity and professional disenfranchisement. These religious values penetrate educational pipelines and corporate structures, often discouraging women from pursuing graduate degrees or leadership roles. Even when founders are no longer active in the faith, gendered organizational norms persist, restricting women's access to vital professional networks and mentorship. Ultimately, the study reveals that religious teachings continue to shape labor dynamics and corporate language, reinforcing glass ceilings in the contemporary economy.

Citation:

Hulme, Alyssa. 2025. “Sexism in Silicon Slopes: Religion and Gendered Organizational Structures in the New Economy.” Journal of the Mormon Social Science Association 3(1):43–77. doi:10.54587/JMSSA.0303.

Lois Lee’s research explores the complex identities of non-theists in Britain, moving beyond highly visible, organized groups like "New Atheists." She argues that many individuals possess ambivalent non-religious identities, often choosing generic labels like "not religious" to express indifference or non-partisanship rather than active atheism. These self-representations are multifaceted, as they can function as mechanisms of social power for some while leaving others feeling culturally disenfranchised or illiterate. By utilizing ethnographic methods, Lee uncovers how these diffuse beliefs are woven into the fabric of daily life and social status. Ultimately, the text highlights the political and subjective significance of being "godless" in a society where such positions are both common and poorly understood.

Lee Lois, 2015. Ambivalent Atheist identities: Power and Non-religious Culture in Contemporary Britain. Social Analysis, Volume 59, Issue 2, Summer 2015, 20–39 doi:10.3167/sa.2015.590202

The provided academic text examines how white American evangelical "purity culture" negatively impacts the marital and sexual health of Christian women. By analyzing a large survey, researchers found that internalizing sexually restrictive and coercive tropes—such as the idea that men have uncontrollable sexual needs—is strongly linked to higher rates of sexual pain disorders like vaginismus. The study highlights that while past belief in these ideologies often leads to physical trauma, current belief is frequently associated with diminished sexual and marital satisfaction. Notably, the authors argue that the deconstruction of these beliefs often occurs as a response to experiencing marital unhappiness or sexual dysfunction. Ultimately, the research suggests that structural sexism within religious literature and teachings can undermine women's sexual autonomy and long-term physical well-being.

Citation:

Sawatsky, Joanna, Rebecca Lindenbach, Sheila Wray Gregoire, and Keith Gregoire. 2025. “Sanctified Sexism: Effects of Purity Culture Tropes on White Christian Women’s Marital and Sexual Satisfaction and Experience of Sexual Pain.” Sociology of Religion 86(4):519–43. doi:10.1093/socrel/srae031.

The provided text explores how individuals who leave their faith manage to maintain family connections despite the potential for relational conflict. Central to this process is a foundation of love and a shared commitment to the relationship, which allows families to navigate the tension of differing beliefs. Key strategies for the disaffiliated person include developing empathy for their religious relatives, practicing flexible participation in traditions, and seeking support from outside communities. Success also depends on joint efforts such as establishing clear boundaries, practicing mutual respect, and utilizing effective communication, whether through open dialogue or intentional avoidance of sensitive topics. Ultimately, the research offers a clinical framework for therapists to help clients preserve these vital bonds during a significant life transition.

Citation:

Janes, Emily E., Jaclyn D. Cravens, Stephen T. Fife, and Carissa D’Aniello. 2026. “Maintaining Family Relationships After Religious Disaffiliation: A Grounded Theory.” Family Process 65(2):e70173. doi:10.1111/famp.70173.

Caitlin Trombley’s 2026 study examines how nonreligious individuals successfully navigate recovery within Alcoholics Anonymous, a program traditionally rooted in spiritual concepts. Through qualitative interviews, the research reveals that secular members build a personalized recovery toolbox by redefining a "higher power" as nature or human connection and utilizing outside secular literature. Many participants find essential support in Secular AA groups, which provide a sense of belonging without requiring the adoption of religious dogmas. The findings suggest that the benefits of recovery, such as mindfulness and community support, are accessible through explicitly secular frameworks. Ultimately, the study highlights that personal autonomy and group fit are more critical to long-term sobriety than religious belief.

Citation:

Trombley, Caitlin. 2026. “‘Take What You Like, and Leave the Rest’: A Qualitative Examination of How the Nonreligious Navigate Recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous in the United States.” Journal of Religion and Health. doi:10.1007/s10943-026-02704-4.

This research paper investigates why some people in Japan lack religious faith, specifically testing the analytic atheism hypothesis. Through two large-scale surveys, the authors confirmed that individuals who utilize logical, deliberate thinking are less likely to hold supernatural beliefs, though this link is relatively modest in the Japanese context. The study also examined the inCREDulous hypothesis and the mind-blind hypothesis, finding that a person's childhood exposure to religious actions and their level of empathic concern are even stronger predictors of faith than cognitive style. By validating these three distinct theories, the researchers demonstrate that secularism is driven by a combination of cognitive processing, social learning, and emotional intelligence. Ultimately, the work fills a gap in cross-cultural psychology by proving that these cognitive foundations for atheism apply to non-Western, low-religiosity societies like Japan.

Ishii, T. and Watanabe, K. (2026) ‘Analytic Atheism in Japan: Examining the Association Between Analytic Thinking and Religious Beliefs’, Secularism and Nonreligion, 15(1), p. 9. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5334/snr.229.

This research article examines how atheism and religious decline manifest within the complex framework of Hinduism, specifically focusing on the Gujarati and Maharashtrian communities. The authors argue that secularization is not a uniform process but is heavily influenced by caste hierarchies, secular education, and exposure to Credibility Enhancing Displays (CREDs). While Gujaratis maintain high religiosity through time-intensive rituals that signal trustworthiness in trade, Maharashtrians show greater variance in belief due to a higher emphasis on academic schooling. Within the Maharashtrian context, the study identifies "fuzzy fidelity" among middle castes and active rejection of religion among lower castes as a form of resistance against social oppression. Ultimately, the source highlights that Hindu atheism is a pluralistic phenomenon shaped by the intersecting socio-economic realities of identity and community structure.

Badiani, F. and Willard, A. (2026) ‘Godlessness in the Land of Gods: Unravelling Atheism in a Hindu Context’, Secularism and Nonreligion, 15(1), p. 10. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5334/snr.236.

This podcast episode, based on Landon Schnabel's 2026 article "Studying the West and Ignoring the Rest," critiques the WEIRDS (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic, and secular) bias in the social sciences, which often mistakes specific Christian-influenced patterns for universal human trends. The discussion dismantles three prominent "stylized facts" by applying them to a more globally representative dataset: first, it reveals that while the West sees generational decline, younger people are actually more religious across the global population due to high fertility rates in more religious nations. Second, it challenges the "universal law" of greater female religiosity by demonstrating that men are significantly more religious in many Muslim contexts, particularly when public ritual participation is measured. Finally, it shows that the perceived conflict between religion and science is a specific Western cultural product rather than a global reality, as several traditions—including Islam and Hinduism—show positive associations between faith and scientific optimism. Ultimately, the episode highlights the urgent need to decolonize and de-Christianize sociological frameworks, moving away from grand universalizing theories toward more accurate, context-dependent understandings of global religious life

Full citation: Schnabel, L. (2026). Studying the West and Ignoring the Rest: Do Stylized Facts Established in the Christian West Generalize?. Socius, 12, 23780231261451682.