Thereafter

Today Cortland and Meghan interview Bradley Onishi, co-host of the podcast Straight White American Jesus and professor of Religious Studies at Skidmore College. A TEDx speaker, he has written for the New York Times, Huffpost, Religion & Politics, The LA Review of Books, The Conversation US, Rewire.News, among other outlets. He has appeared on NPR-affiliate programs and nationally ranked podcasts. Bradley joins us to talk about his own deconstruction journey, the work he’s doing connected with his podcast, and the topic of his next book, white Christian nationalism. We know our listeners will love hearing Bradley’s perspective on the intersection of religion and politics as much as we enjoyed talking with him about it. If you check out Bradley’s podcast, Straight White American Jesus, you’ll find links to support other projects he’s working on. You can also follow him on social media at @bradleyonishi on Twitter and @bbonishi on Instagram.

Today’s episode also includes a special guest for our #twitbits segment, so you may want to stick around to find out who it is!. 

However, if you want to jump straight to the interview, jump to 27:20.

Thanks for listening, and we love it when you drop us a note to say hello! We love to connect with our listeners. Please check us out on social media at @thereafterpodcast on Instagram and @thereafterpod on Twitter. You can find Cortland at @cortlandcoffey on both platforms and Meghan at @thepursuinglife. Send us a DM and let us know what you think of the episode, who you’d like to hear on the show, and you can always show your support by leaving a review at Apple Podcasts.

Brian G. Murphy joins Cortland and Meghan for today’s episode of the Thereafter Podcast. Brian is co-host of the Queer Theology Bible Podcast and also the co-founder of queertheology.com. As Brian talks about in this episode, the work of queertheology.com goes beyond defending the right to be gay and Christian, and creates a comprehensive resource that celebrates the divine intersectionality of queer Christianity. Brian joins us to share their story, talk about their work, and join the conversation about current events in the Christian queer community. We are releasing this interview out of order to share our conversation with Brian in response to recent posts from The Reformation Project, an organization that claims to be LGBTQ inclusive, yet sets limitations on what they consider is acceptable for identification as a queer Christian. Please consider supporting Brian G. Murphy by engaging with the resources at queertheology.com, or even subscribing to their patreon!

As always, if you want to skip straight to the interview, you can jump to 25:00.

Follow QueerTheology on Twitter https://twitter.com/QTheology

Follow Queer Theology on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/queertheology/

Follow Brian on Twitter https://twitter.com/ThisIsBGM

Follow Brian on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thisisbgm/

Visit Brian's website at https://www.briangerald.com/

We are also starting to get some reviews on Apple podcasts from listeners, and that really helps support the work we’re doing. Thanks for listening, and we love it when you drop us a note to say hello! We love to connect with our listeners. Please check us out on social media at @thereafterpodcast on Instagram and @thereafterpod on Twitter. You can find Cortland at @cortlandcoffey on both platforms and Meghan at @thepursuinglife. Send us a DM and let us know what you think of the episode, who you’d like to hear on the show, and you can always show your support by leaving a review at Apple Podcasts.

This week we interview Josh Scott, progressive Christian pastor of Grace Pointe Church in Nashville, TN. Josh talks about how his life as a pastor parallelled his deconstruction, and how ultimately his shifting views brought him to Grace Pointe, a church that is fully LGBTQ affirming and holds space for all travelers no matter where their journey leads them. Josh talks about what church looks like on the other side of evangelicalism, and what being a pastor means to him. We hope you appreciate hearing what Josh has to say, and also that you’ll check him out on Twitter and Instagram at @josh_a_scott. Josh also has a great newsletter that you can subscribe to at https://www.joshscott.online/ to have his thoughts on reimagining, reframing, and reclaiming faith sent directly to your inbox.

If you want to skip the intro and the #twitbits, jump to 26:30.

We love to connect with our listeners. Please check us out on social media at @thereafterpodcast on Instagram and @thereafterpod on Twitter. You can find Cortland at @cortlandcoffey on both platforms and Meghan at @thepursuinglife. Send us a DM and let us know what you think of the episode, who you’d like to hear on the show, and you can always show your support by leaving a review at Apple Podcasts.

Today we interview Carina from @deconstructingblack and @deconstructingcolors. Carina shares her journey, what led her into faith deconstruction, and the ways in which evangelicalism is intertwined with white supremacy and colonization. Not only does Carina bring her rich wisdom and perspective into this conversation, but she also shares her vision for bringing people together and building community through @deconstructingcolors which is becoming a non-profit! Please follow Carina’s accounts on Instagram and consider supporting her work through CashApp.

If you want to skip straight to the interview you can jump to 22:18.

We love to hear from our listeners! Connect with us on social media on Twitter @thereafterpod or Instagram @thereafterpodcast or find Cortland (@cortlandcoffey) or Meghan (@thepursuinglife) on either platform. If you could take a moment to rate us and leave a review on Apple podcasts, we’d really appreciate the support.

Today we sit down with Tyler Krumland for his podcast debut! We are excited to have Tyler share his story with you. Tyler talks about his experience growing up in the evangelical church, living in a conservative Christian world, and attending North Park Theological Seminary while being gay and closeted. The story of Tyler’s struggle to follow the evangelical “rules” prescribed for him while trying to stay true to himself gives listeners an authentic window into what it looks like to try all means possible to eradicate your own true self in an effort to continue belonging with your faith tradition. We know that Tyler’s journey of pain, grief, hope, and healing will resonate with many of our listeners and we are excited to share it with you!

As always, if you want to skip straight to the interview you can jump to 27:30.

Check out Tyler’s book, Love Him Well: My Journey Toward God, Truth, and Self-Acceptance and be sure to follow him on Twitter and Instagram at TylerKrumland. You should also check out his art on Instagram also at TylerKrumlandArt.

We’d love to hear your thoughts from the episode. Drop us a note on social media (@thepursuinglife and @cortlandcoffey) and please take a minute to rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts!

Today we get the privilege of sitting down and having a conversation with the one and only Jo Luehmann! Of course we have our normal TwitBits conversation at the beginning of the episode where we talk about the latest buzz on Twitter. 

If you'd like to skip straight to the interview feel free to skip ahead to 32:00. 

Jo Luehmann (she/her) is a Colombian born and raised pastor, speaker, educator and writer who moved to the US to get her masters degree in ministry and theology. After 10 years working inside of churches, developing curriculum and teaching classes on theology and doctrine so that people’s spirituality was their own; she found in personal and systemic ways how harmful and abusive the American evangelical church is, Jo quit her job and committed to finding an spiritual framework that wasn’t abusive, and a faith that moved individuals and communities to liberation. Alongside her partner she started the Living Room (LivingRoomSD.com) a non-profit reclaiming faith and spirituality as expressions that can lead us toward wholeness, healing and heaven on earth. In the summer of 2020 alongside a group of victims and survivors of church abuse, Jo started @doBetterChurch an online space where people abused in churches can be seen, heard, believed and connected to others who can offer tools in their journey toward healing, as well as an initiative to invite churches to do better. In less than 6 months the space grew to over 15000 people with thousands of reports of abuse submitted.

Jo writes, speaks and teaches about decolonizing faith and theology, and facilitates conversations about liberation for all, as well as the importance of dismantling white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism both individually and collectively.

Jo, alongside her partner, is raising 4 children in unconventional ways so they can have as many tools to be liberated adults as possible, and they are doing it in the lands of the Kumeyay/Tipai Ipai. 

You can find links to all Jo's work at her LinkTree here: https://linktr.ee/joluehmann

Don't forget to follow her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/joluehmann/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/JoLuehmann

In this episode we sit down with Jon Steingard. Jon was previously the lead singer of a Christian band called Hawk Nelson, and talks about his experience having his faith identity tied to his career. A little over a year ago, Jon made an Instagram post stating that he no longer believed in God, and saw the reaction on social media from all sides. We talk with Jon about his faith deconstruction, what he believes now, and how his journey is going.

Skip to 30:16 if you want to get straight into our interview with Jon!

Check out Jon’s podcast, The Wonder and the Mystery of Being, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also watch episodes of the podcast on YouTube.

Jon also has a Facebook group called Wondrous Beings and you can find him on Twitter @jonsteingard and Instagram @jonsteingard.

We’d love to hear your thoughts from the episode. Drop us a note on social media (@thepursuinglife and @cortlandcoffey) and please take a minute to rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts!

Welcome back to the Thereafter Podcast! We are so excited to launch Season 2 and also to introduce Meghan Crozier ( @thepursuinglife on Twitter and Instagram) as the new co-host with Cortland Coffey.

We take some time at the front of the show to hang out a bit and intro a new segment TwitBits (a working title) that we'll be doing each week here on the show! If you'd rather skip straight to our interview, feel free to skip ahead to the 28 minute mark. 

On this Season 2 debut, we had the honor of sitting down with Pastor Judy Howard Peterson. Pastor Judy was ordained in the Evangelical Covenant Church and she most recently served as the campus pastor at North Park University in Chicago, IL until she was stripped of her ordination for officiating a same-sex wedding in 2017. Her decision helped bring to the surface a broader ongoing conversation about the historically hard-line non-affirming stance within the ECC denomination.

Judy’s warm and caring nature leaves a lasting impression on anyone who crosses paths with her and we have no doubt you will feel seen and loved as you listen to her stories. You can find Judy these days on Instagram at @walkingpastor where she continues to share her journey on a daily basis.

We’d love to hear your thoughts from the episode. Drop us a note on social media and please take a minute to rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts!

In our WAY LATE finale episode for season 1 of Thereafter Podcast Cortland and Josh sit down to talk about some of our favorite takeaways from season 1. We also make an announcement about how we are changing up the host lineup for season 2. More announcements about what season 2 will be like coming soon!

At one point we mention a "Rich Giles" and second guess if we were getting his name right. Spoiler alert: we weren't! We were actually talking about Keith Giles (one of the hosts of Heretic Happy Hour podcast. You can check out Heretic Happy Hour here: https://heretichappyhour.com/

We also mentioned the Dirty Rotten Church Kids episode with Mike McHargue if you are interested in checking that out it can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3El5teCQlLW84qpo5BMcDO?si=6074636aea3b4f0b

We haven't decided how long of a break we are going to take yet but we already have some great ideas for season 2 so keep an eye on our social media for more updates about season 2 of Thereafter Podcast coming soon!

Today on the pod we sit down with Keylee and Micah Sudduth from Bob Billiams Productions. They are the creative minds behind the Tribeca Film Festival Official Selection digital Series Backsliders as well as the hosts of the Backsliders podcast. 

Check out all their projects HERE:

BobBilliamsProductions.com