Reclaiming the Garden

In this episode, we discuss the theological concept of the Trinity–God as Creator of the universe, Jesus of Nazareth, and the Holy Spirit. April gives the historical context for how the early church wrestled to explain their experiences with God within their own cultural context, and how folks argued over words in the creeds–some of it was about conviction, but it was also a power struggle. Ultimately, the early church and all Christians since have been grasping at language to a Mystery that cannot be defined. April and Anna find resonance in the idea that God is love, so of course God would be a community of self-giving and receiving love with Themself–and God invites us to join in that ecstatic dance of Love.

We have merch! Get your Bible Dyke Energy Tee and more here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/rtgardenpodcast/shop 

Our social media: @reclaimingthegarden on Insta, and Reclaiming the Garden on Facebook. Our personal accounts: @thatpunchabletheaternerd and @April_TheWriter. Also, our podcast account follows a bunch of awesome folks + podcasts in the exvangelical/deconstruction world and progressive Christian world, so if you’re looking for more resources, that’s a great place to start!

In this episode, April and Anna pour out our anger and grief over the 2024 election in which the majority of voters chose a fascist rapist to lead the country. We talk about how we’ve been checking in with our queer kin and other loved ones this past week, and how we are balancing our well-founded fears about the future with our hopes that our communities will fight for each other’s safety and well-being. While being realistic about the hard work that lies ahead of us (white people, step up and leverage your privilege!), we also cannot give in to doomerism because it’s like rapture theology that leads people to feel helpless.We are not going to be silent, we’re here and we’re queer and we will not let Christian Nationalists take away our joy and resilience.

If you are craving community, consider going to the Q Christian Fellowship Conference in January (not sponsored): https://www.qcfconf.org/ 

We have merch! Get your Bible Dyke Energy Tee and more here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/rtgardenpodcast/shop 

Our social media: @reclaimingthegarden on Insta, and Reclaiming the Garden on Facebook. Our personal accounts: @thatpunchabletheaternerd and @April_TheWriter. Also, our podcast account follows a bunch of awesome folks + podcasts in the exvangelical/deconstruction world and progressive Christian world, so if you’re looking for more resources, that’s a great place to start!

In this episode, we have a conversation with PhD student, progressive Christian, and April’s token straight best friend, Reagan Page! Reagan talks about her upbringing in liberal Christianity, her time in Seattle as a UMC service fellow, and her thoughts on the state of our country and the upcoming presidential election. Just like us, she has a lot of concerns going into November, especially around what political violence may happen no matter what the outcome is,  but Reagan is also hopeful about people continuing to connect to their local communities and starting social change from the ground up.Go and vote if you haven’t yet, and keep in mind your marginalized neighbors as you fill out the ballot!

We have merch! Get your Bible Dyke Energy Tee and more here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/rtgardenpodcast/shop 

Our social media: @reclaimingthegarden on Insta, and Reclaiming the Garden on Facebook. Our personal accounts: @thatpunchabletheaternerd and @April_TheWriter. Also, our podcast account follows a bunch of awesome folks + podcasts in the exvangelical/deconstruction world and progressive Christian world, so if you’re looking for more resources, that’s a great place to start!

In this episode, we have a conversation with author Brandon Flanery! He shares his journey of going from being a YWAM evangelist in Germany yelling on street corners about how he “escaped homosexuality” to accepting his queerness as a blessing and exploring his spirituality.

You can find Brandon on Instagram @flanbran. You can find links to purchase his book, Stumbling: A Sassy Memoir about Coming Out of Evangelicalism, on his website.

We have merch! Get your Bible Dyke Energy Tee and more here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/rtgardenpodcast/shop 

Our social media: @reclaimingthegarden on Insta, and Reclaiming the Garden on Facebook. Our personal accounts: @thatpunchabletheaternerd and @April_TheWriter. Also, our podcast account follows a bunch of awesome folks + podcasts in the exvangelical/deconstruction world and progressive Christian world, so if you’re looking for more resources, that’s a great place to start!

In this episode, we go through one of April’s papers she wrote in grad school. We explore perspectives on Jesus’ death and on corresponding atonement theories (or lack thereof) from Black, feminist, and womanist theologians to work towards a non-violent, liberative Christology of the cross. April wrote this for all the people who have been harmed by the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement theory (that on the cross, God's wrath was placed on Jesus in our place as a way to atone for our sins), and its often complementary belief that our suffering in this life is redemptive or caused by God ("just like Jesus’"). We reject this view of a child-abuser god and put forth ways in which we can see the cross as a call to solidarity with the marginalized, as an example of the evil that empire can do, and how God's response to the crucifixion (resurrection, not more violence) is a Divine proclamation that God does not desire for us to suffer, but to flourish.

Bibliography:

Cone, James. The Cross and the Lynching Tree. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2011.

Copeland, M. Shawn. Knowing Christ Crucified: The Witness of African-American Religious Experience. New York: Orbis Books, 2018.

Douglas, Kelly Brown. Stand Your Ground; Black Bodies and the Justice of God. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2015.

Evans, Rachel Held. “We argue over metaphors…” rachelheldevans.com. April 22, 2011. https://rachelheldevans.com/blog/cross-argue-metaphors?rq=metaphor

Mennenga, Mason (@masonmennenga). “My only atonement theory is a rejection of atonement theories altogether. Because of my reading of Delores Williams, the *only* theological meaning I can…” Twitter. February 7, 2020, 11:35 AM. https://twitter.com/masonmennenga/status/1225865668354027520

Ruether, Rosemary Radford. “Suffering and Redemption.” In Introducing Redemption in Christian Feminism. Introductions in Feminist Theology. Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 1998.

Williams, Delores. Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2013.

Young, Frances. Construing the Cross: Type, Sign, Symbol, Word, Action. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2015.

We have merch! Get your Bible Dyke Energy Tee and more here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/rtgardenpodcast/shop 

Our social media: @reclaimingthegarden on Insta, and Reclaiming the Garden on Facebook. Our personal accounts: @thatpunchabletheaternerd and @April_TheWriter. Also, our podcast account follows a bunch of awesome folks + podcasts in the exvangelical/deconstruction world and progressive Christian world, so if you’re looking for more resources, that’s a great place to start!

In this episode, we have a conversation with our wonderful friend the Rev. Mel K! Mel talks about their denominationally promiscuous upbringing, their studies in social work and life as a foster parent, and her recent ordination in the Progressive Christian Alliance. We also talk about the importance of comprehensive sex ed, and Anna and Mel talk about some of their experiences as social workers, and their doggos. And of course we talk some shit about evangelicalism!

You can find Mel on Instagram @holyqueerit. 

We have merch! Get your Bible Dyke Energy Tee and more here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/rtgardenpodcast/shop 

Our social media: @reclaimingthegarden on Insta, and Reclaiming the Garden on Facebook. Our personal accounts: @thatpunchabletheaternerd and @April_TheWriter. Also, our podcast account follows a bunch of awesome folks + podcasts in the exvangelical/deconstruction world and progressive Christian world, so if you’re looking for more resources, that’s a great place to start!

A note on content for this ep: CSA and other abuse

There are many cults or high-control groups that are rooted in Christianity or are Christian-adjacent (and some groups toe the line of being one…*coughHillsongcough*). In this episode, we give an overview of just a handful of them: Christian Science, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the FLDS, Twin Flames Universe, and self-help scammers like Jodi Hildebrandt. We explore the ways these groups harm the people in them and the people who leave them with medical neglect, shunning, abuse, and manipulation. To learn more about these cults and other high control groups, check out the resources below!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Knowing Better

Owen Morgan (Telltale) 

ExJW Panda

Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey on Netflix

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

Escaping Twin Flames on Netflix

BITE Model

Cults to Consciousness

Jordan and McKay, ex-Mormons

We have merch! Get your Bible Dyke Energy Tee and more here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/rtgardenpodcast/shop 

Our social media: @reclaimingthegarden on Insta, and Reclaiming the Garden on Facebook. Our personal accounts: @thatpunchabletheaternerd and @April_TheWriter. Also, our podcast account follows a bunch of awesome folks + podcasts in the exvangelical/deconstruction world and progressive Christian world, so if you’re looking for more resources, that’s a great place to start!

In this episode, we share our thoughts on the 1946 documentary, which tells the story of how the word “homosexuality” did not appear in an English Bible until the 1946 Revised Standard Version. With the help of researchers Kathy Baldock (incredible ally!!!) and Ed Oxford, director Rocky Roggio shows how the translation team took two words in Greek and mistakenly translated them to “homosexuality,” and this choice greatly impacted future Bibles and theologies. We talk about how we appreciated Rev. David Fearon’s courageous journey of questioning the translation committee's decision and writing to them about it, and coming out later in life when Kathy befriended him (it is never too late!). We are so grateful for the work that everyone in this project put into it, and we think that its storytelling and reliable data has the power to change lives and families for the better.

We have merch! Get your Bible Dyke Energy Tee and more here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/rtgardenpodcast/shop

Our social media: @reclaimingthegarden on Insta, @RtGardenPodcast on Twitter, and Reclaiming the Garden on Facebook. Our personal accounts: @thatpunchabletheaternerd, @April_TheWriter (April is on Twitter and Insta). Also, our podcast account follows a bunch of awesome folks + podcasts in the exvangelical/deconstruction world and progressive Christian world, so if you’re looking for more resources, that’s a great place to start!

We are back y’all! And now our podcast has TWO Master’s degrees behind it, bringing theology and social work knowledge to you to help you on your journey of deconstructing faith and living into who God made you to be. In this episode April shares about getting her Master of Arts in Theology and Culture: Community Development, Anna talks about her new doggo, and we chat a bit about some of the major stories that have circulated in the exvangelical/fundie snark spaces: Harrison Butker’s commencement speech, and Bethany and Dav Beal's now-interfaith marriage.

We have merch! Get your Bible Dyke Energy Tee and more here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/rtgardenpodcast/shop 

Our social media: @reclaimingthegarden on Insta, @RtGardenPodcast on Twitter, and Reclaiming the Garden on Facebook. Our personal accounts: @thatpunchabletheaternerd, @April_TheWriter (April is on Twitter and Insta). Also, our podcast account follows a bunch of awesome folks + podcasts in the exvangelical/deconstruction world and progressive Christian world, so if you’re looking for more resources, that’s a great place to start!

In this episode, we have a conversation with theologian, podcaster, YouTuber, and King of #Exvangelical Twitter, Mason Mennenga!! Mason shares about listening to VeggieTales CDs and other typical evangelical kid/teen experiences (conferences, youth group, all the ccm!) he had as the Good Christian Boy. In college, he started researching what the Bible actually said about sexual ethics and orientation, how we are even supposed to approach reading the Bible (seriously does not equal literally), as well as looking into other doubts/questions he had. He discovered the Progressive Christian Cinematic Universe and Process Theology and went down the lovely slippery slope. Mason gives the best definition of process theology April has ever heard (there’s much more to it but these are the two key points): the future is open to all kinds of possibilities, and everything is in relationship with each other. Mason hopes in his podcasts and other content to be what Rachel Held Evans was to him and so many people: a person who gives us space to question and explore, who vulnerably shares stories in the hopes that it lets other people know they are not alone. 

You can find Mason on Instagram and Twitter @masonmennenga. You can find links to all the wonderful things he does here.

We have merch! Get your Bible Dyke Energy Tee and more here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/rtgardenpodcast/shop 

Our social media: @reclaimingthegarden on Insta, @RtGardenPodcast on Twitter, and Reclaiming the Garden on Facebook. Our personal accounts: @thatpunchabletheaternerd, @April_TheWriter (April is on Twitter and Insta). Also, our podcast account follows a bunch of awesome folks + podcasts in the exvangelical/deconstruction world and progressive Christian world, so if you’re looking for more resources, that’s a great place to start!