Shift Happens

Brad is the Author of Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next and is the co-host of the political podcast Straight White American Jesus.

In this interview Brad talks about his Christian upbringing in Orange County, California and how that shaped his worldview. He talks about coming out of Christian Nationalism, why we see violence directed at the queer community (and other marginalized groups) and how we can get involved in a sustainable way. 

To learn more about Brad and his work you can visit his website here.
Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism
Straight White American Jesus Podcast
It's in the Code: Don't they Care? Dan Miller

To help support the ongoing work of Shift Happens, click HERE.

Wild Goose Festival is a transformational community grounded in faith-inspired social justice. Click the link to get all the info about this year's festival. Make sure to use the code A - MZN at check out for a $50 discount on any single adult ticket.

See every side of every news story. Read the news from multiple perspectives.
See through media bias with reliable news from local and international sources.To get your 40% discount to Ground News, click HERE.

Visit The Slippery Slope Store for your exvangelical shirt needs. New merch coming soon. Use promo code therealjoesmith10 for 10% of your orders.

If you are a Florida parent and looking to be more proactive or learning about advocacy work please visit Equality Florida's Parenting with Pride.

For counseling from anywhere please check out The Christian Closet. If you would like to support the work of The Christian Closet please go to Affirming Therapy to donate.

Today, Joe talks to Candice Czubernat. Candice Czubernat is a therapist and founder of The Christian Closet, an LGBTQ affirming counseling, coaching and spiritual direction organization. She is also the founder of Gloriously Queer a conference for LGBTQ people of faith developed by LGBTQ people of faith.

Joe talks to her about her upbringing within the church, discovering her queerness later in life and how that impacted her life's trajectory. Candice is very honest about her unique story and perspective. The way her story unfolded has given her an enormous amount of empathy, as she walks with others through their own stories.

To learn more about Candice please visit her website. From there you will be able to contact her and connect with her social media. You can keep scrolling if you would like to connect with The Christian Closet or to donate through Affirming Therapy. Both are in our resource list, at the bottom. 

To help support the ongoing work of Shift Happens, click HERE.

Wild Goose Festival is a transformational community grounded in faith-inspired social justice. Click the link to get all the info about this year's festival. Make sure to use the code A - MZN at check out for a $50 discount on any single adult ticket.

See every side of every news story. Read the news from multiple perspectives.
See through media bias with reliable news from local and international sources.To get your 40% discount to Ground News, click HERE.

Visit The Slippery Slope Store for your exvangelical shirt needs. New merch coming soon. Use promo code therealjoesmith10 for 10% of your orders.

If you are a Florida parent and looking to be more proactive or learning about advocacy work please visit Equality Florida's Parenting with Pride.

For counseling from anywhere please check out The Christian Closet. If you would like to support the work of The Christian Closet please go to Affirming Therapy to donate.

This week we have David Hayward, otherwise known as the Naked Pastor. David was kind enough to talk about his time in the ministry and how he came to be known as the Naked Pastor.

Joe talks to him about how his artwork has touched and inspired so many people, especially those within the LGTBQ+ community. His painting and drawings challenge the status quo and gives room for all people in places of faith.

To learn more about David please click this link to visit his website. There you will be able to see his artwork, originals, resources and you can even commission him for something a little more personal. You'll also be able to connect with him there or find his social media pages.

To help support the ongoing work of Shift Happens, click HERE.

Wild Goose Festival is a transformational community grounded in faith-inspired social justice. Click the link to get all the info about this year's festival. Make sure to use the code A - MZN at check out for a $50 discount on any single adult ticket.

See every side of every news story. Read the news from multiple perspectives.
See through media bias with reliable news from local and international sources.To get your 40% discount to Ground News, click HERE.

Visit The Slippery Slope Store for your exvangelical shirt needs. New merch coming soon. Use promo code therealjoesmith10 for 10% of your orders.

If you are a Florida parent and looking to be more proactive or learning about advocacy work please visit Equality Florida's Parenting with Pride.

For counseling from anywhere please check out The Christian Closet. If you would like to support the work of The Christian Closet please go to Affirming Therapy to donate.

This week Joe talks with Erin Green of REAP LGBTQ. REAP is the only law firm in the country working to end legalized discrimination against queer people in Christian colleges and universities.

Erin talks about her story growing up in the evangelical church, her experiences attending Christian Colleges and how she ended up being an activist. Erin also shines a light on the shocking fact that our tax dollars are being used to fund legal discriminations on college campuses all across the country.  

You can find out about more of what REAP does in the show notes below.

To learn more about On God's Campus, which Erin will co-host, you can click this link to go to their website and be watch for episode #1 on Oct. 17th wherever you stream podcasts from. 

To help support the ongoing work of Shift Happens, click HERE.

Wild Goose Festival is a transformational community grounded in faith-inspired social justice. Click the link to get all the info about this year's festival. Make sure to use the code A - MZN at check out for a $50 discount on any single adult ticket.

See every side of every news story. Read the news from multiple perspectives.
See through media bias with reliable news from local and international sources.To get your 40% discount to Ground News, click HERE.

Visit The Slippery Slope Store for your exvangelical shirt needs. New merch coming soon. Use promo code therealjoesmith10 for 10% of your orders.

If you are a Florida parent and looking to be more proactive or learning about advocacy work please visit Equality Florida's Parenting with Pride.

For counseling from anywhere please check out The Christian Closet. If you would like to support the work of The Christian Closet please go to Affirming Therapy to donate.

This week Joe talks to Zach and Tyler.

Zach & Tyler walk us through their strict fundamentalist upbringing, going to bible colleges, meeting and marrying their girlfriends, meeting at a Side B conference and  coming to terms with who they are. It's an emotional ride, so make sure you have your tissues handy.

If you'd like to get in touch with Zach and Tyler you can connect with them on Instagram.

To help support the ongoing work of Shift Happens, click HERE.

Wild Goose Festival is a transformational community grounded in faith-inspired social justice. Click the link to get all the info about this year's festival. Make sure to use the code A - MZN at check out for a $50 discount on any single adult ticket.

See every side of every news story. Read the news from multiple perspectives.
See through media bias with reliable news from local and international sources.To get your 40% discount to Ground News, click HERE.

Visit The Slippery Slope Store for your exvangelical shirt needs. New merch coming soon. Use promo code therealjoesmith10 for 10% of your orders.

If you are a Florida parent and looking to be more proactive or learning about advocacy work please visit Equality Florida's Parenting with Pride.

For counseling from anywhere please check out The Christian Closet. If you would like to support the work of The Christian Closet please go to Affirming Therapy to donate.

This week Joe talks to Ellen Mennell.

Ellen talks to us about growing up in a strict Lutheran home that wasn’t all it looked like, traveling the world as a YWAM missionary, coming out during those missions and how she has come to explore the idea of God across multiple traditions.

If you’d like to connect with Ellen, follow her on Instagram. And if you’d like to read more about her story, you can find her book As Is on Amazon.

To help support the ongoing work of Shift Happens, click HERE.

Wild Goose Festival is a transformational community grounded in faith-inspired social justice. Click the link to get all the info about this year's festival. Make sure to use the code A - MZN at check out for a $50 discount on any single adult ticket.

See every side of every news story. Read the news from multiple perspectives.
See through media bias with reliable news from local and international sources.To get your 40% discount to Ground News, click HERE.

Visit The Slippery Slope Store for your exvangelical shirt needs. New merch coming soon. Use promo code therealjoesmith10 for 10% of your orders.

If you are a Florida parent and looking to be more proactive or learning about advocacy work please visit Equality Florida's Parenting with Pride.

For counseling from anywhere please check out The Christian Closet. If you would like to support the work of The Christian Closet please go to Affirming Therapy to donate.

Noemi Uribe (she/they) is an organizer and health policy analyst advocating to make healthcare a human right in the US regardless of immigration status. They currently work at Mathematica Policy Research as an Advisory Services Analyst where she seeks to provide qualitative and quantitative research with an emphasis on health equity. They joined the MA Commission on LGBTQ Youth in 2020 and is serving their second term as a Vice Chair.

You may recognize Noemi from the Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed documentary on HBO Max but the documentary only touched on part of her story. Noemi walks us through dealing with the trauma that so many suffered while at Hillsong but also dealing with the ambiguous and harmful strategies Hillsong employed to string queer folks along and how she finally won her hard fought freedom.

If you would like to connect with or follow Noemi's story click the links below:
Instagram

To help support the ongoing work of Shift Happens, click HERE.

Wild Goose Festival is a transformational community grounded in faith-inspired social justice. Click the link to get all the info about this year's festival. Make sure to use the code A - MZN at check out for a $50 discount on any single adult ticket.

See every side of every news story. Read the news from multiple perspectives.
See through media bias with reliable news from local and international sources.To get your 40% discount to Ground News, click HERE.

Visit The Slippery Slope Store for your exvangelical shirt needs. New merch coming soon. Use promo code therealjoesmith10 for 10% of your orders.

If you are a Florida parent and looking to be more proactive or learning about advocacy work please visit Equality Florida's Parenting with Pride.

For counseling from anywhere please check out The Christian Closet. If you would like to support the work of The Christian Closet please go to Affirming Therapy to donate.

Molly is our first two time guest. If you missed her first episode, make sure you go back and listen to where she came from and how she untangle horribly toxic theology: Molly's first episode. 

In this episode, Molly talks to Joe about internalized homophobia. You will be surprised how she approaches the topic and talks about how it can even serve you in the right circumstances. Molly also goes into ways to help you process through these things, as the old belief system pops up from time to time. 

Molly is always super encouraging and you'll walk away feeling like you just talked to a long time friend. 

To help support the ongoing work of Shift Happens, click HERE.

Wild Goose Festival is a transformational community grounded in faith-inspired social justice. Click the link to get all the info about this year's festival. Make sure to use the code A - MZN at check out for a $50 discount on any single adult ticket.

See every side of every news story. Read the news from multiple perspectives.
See through media bias with reliable news from local and international sources.To get your 40% discount to Ground News, click HERE.

Visit The Slippery Slope Store for your exvangelical shirt needs. New merch coming soon. Use promo code therealjoesmith10 for 10% of your orders.

If you are a Florida parent and looking to be more proactive or learning about advocacy work please visit Equality Florida's Parenting with Pride.

For counseling from anywhere please check out The Christian Closet. If you would like to support the work of The Christian Closet please go to Affirming Therapy to donate.

Zack has spent the last decade writing about the interplay of faith and politics in the public sphere on his eponymous blog, Substack, and Patheos as well as contributing articles to multiple publications. He’s also made appearances in Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Huffington Post, and various other media outlets. Zack’s work culminated in the launch of his first book, Unraptured, in 2019 which Publishers Weekly called “a piquant debut.” Using stories drawn from his own faith deconstruction, Unraptured reimagined the biblical theology and application of Revelation to see it not as mysterious code to be unraveled, but a source of hope and liberation, particularly for the least of these among us. His next book, Godbreathed: What It Really Means For the Bible To Be Inspired, was released in the spring of 2023.

In this episode, Zack talks about his journey out of fundamentalism and how that affected his world view. Zack talks about learning to be ok with disagreeing with the Bible, how it was a relationship that changed his mind on LGBTQ+ inclusion and how to move forward.

You can find all the information about Zack, how to contact/follow him and all his work at his website:
Zack Hunt

To help support the ongoing work of Shift Happens, click HERE.

Wild Goose Festival is a transformational community grounded in faith-inspired social justice. Click the link to get all the info about this year's festival. Make sure to use the code A - MZN at check out for a $50 discount on any single adult ticket.

See every side of every news story. Read the news from multiple perspectives.
See through media bias with reliable news from local and international sources.To get your 40% discount to Ground News, click HERE.

Visit The Slippery Slope Store for your exvangelical shirt needs. New merch coming soon. Use promo code therealjoesmith10 for 10% of your orders.

If you are a Florida parent and looking to be more proactive or learning about advocacy work please visit Equality Florida's Parenting with Pride.

For counseling from anywhere please check out The Christian Closet. If you would like to support the work of The Christian Closet please go to Affirming Therapy to donate.

Susan Cottrell is an international speaker whose TEDx talk has 1.6 million views. OutSmart magazine called her “The Mother of All MamaBears.” The Advocate dubbed her “our favorite affirming matriarch.” She is a prominent voice for the LGBTQ community, a public theologian and through her nonprofit organization—FreedHearts—Susan expresses her authentic love for the LGBTQ+ community and families; and she sees love as the healing foundation of family, faith, and community. She spent 20+ years in the nonaffirming Evangelical church, has a Master of Arts in Theological Studies, and served as the Vice-President of PFLAG Austin. Her FreedHearts podcast, Blog and YouTube videos have millions of followers, and her books are critically acclaimed. She and her husband Rob have been married for 35 years and have five children, two of whom identify as queer.

Today Susan talks to Joe about how their journey began, what they learned about God, themselves and the queer community along the way and the work she is doing today. Susan is as loving as she is fierce and you will walk away encouraged and ready for the battle ahead. To learn more about Susan, her work or to listen to her talks/podcast please visit:

FreedHearts

To help support the ongoing work of Shift Happens, click HERE.

Wild Goose Festival is a transformational community grounded in faith-inspired social justice. Click the link to get all the info about this year's festival. Make sure to use the code A - MZN at check out for a $50 discount on any single adult ticket.

See every side of every news story. Read the news from multiple perspectives.
See through media bias with reliable news from local and international sources.To get your 40% discount to Ground News, click HERE.

Visit The Slippery Slope Store for your exvangelical shirt needs. New merch coming soon. Use promo code therealjoesmith10 for 10% of your orders.

If you are a Florida parent and looking to be more proactive or learning about advocacy work please visit Equality Florida's Parenting with Pride.

For counseling from anywhere please check out The Christian Closet. If you would like to support the work of The Christian Closet please go to Affirming Therapy to donate.