Yes, I used "The Good Place" naming paradigm for this one. Cynane Shay joins me to talk about the wildest thing I've heard in a while. Well, the wildest thing I've heard since this morning when I read the latest Trump Headlines, because thats the world we live in at the moment. 

www.TakingOffTheTinfoilHat.com

I've been wanting to get Celeste on the podcast for a while. As an out and proud trans woman who doesn't hold the same hatred for church as what the modern day Church seems to hold for trans people, she is a gentle and calm voice in a turbulent sea. In the lead up to the second inauguration of Donald Trump, she was rushing facial feminisation surgery, and now she's living authentically as a parent and partner in a country in which being herself is a revolutionary act. 

Today's episode is a special one. When my friend and co-runner of the Victorian Cult Survivors Network told me she had finally found the courage to tell her story in its full and raw form, I shot my hand up to host it here with the Unchurchables. 

Find her work at the links below: 

www.recoverfromcoercivecontrol.com⁩  

⁦https://youtube.com/@recoverfromcoercivecontrol?si=erwBTZuadZn17PYH⁩ 

⁦https://www.tiktok.com/@renee_rfcc?_t=ZS-8xH0nR18CoC&_r=1⁩ 

This episode comes with a content warning: we are discussing heavy themes including coerced marriage and modern slavery. Please look after yourself as you read.

This episode lands at a crucial point of religiopolitical history, as we talk about all things New Apostolic Reformation. Academic Jon Sawyer joins me as we talk about some juicy, heavy hitting topics - conspiratorial demonology, weaponisation of testimony culture, self-invisible LGBT Christians, sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts, load language inside Evangelicalism, white supremacy and indoctrination techniques used in Christian Nationalism. I mean...that about covers whats wrong in the world, doesn't it? 

In this episode of "The Pipelines" series, we meet Jane Kennedy. While she is now a religious trauma therapist and co-founder of the Religious Trauma Collective in Australia (which compiles resources and religious trauma-informed therapists for those of us who are recovering), she was once a youth leader and church planter. 

and on Instagram at @janekennedycounselling 

Find me at: clareheathmcivor.substack.com and on instagram at @unchurchablepod or @clare_heathmcivor

In an episode that was recorded two days after the Trump victory, and less than 200 days from the next Australian Federal Election, this episode could not be more important or timely. In it, I chat to Blake Chastain, who launched the Exvangelical Podcast back in 2016 as he talks about his new book "Exvangelical and Beyond: How American Christianity Went Radical and the Movement That's Fighting Back."

We have long known that, where America goes religiously and politically, the western world tends to follow. In line with this, strains of Christian Nationalism, even white Christian nationalism, and other forms of fringe and extreme right-wing politics has spiked both here and overseas. 

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/747796/exvangelical-and-beyond-by-blake-chastain/

Instagram @brchastian_

You know I like to get existential. This time last year, I sat down with author and academic, William/Bill Egginton to talk about his book, "The Rigor of Angels." I'd been contacted by his publicist and was intrigued about the book and what it might offer exvangelicals who are reinventing themselves and might not know anything about poetry, philosophy, and quantum mechanics, much less the meaning of the Universe. It was too good a conversation to let sit in the archives after my year of hiatus. Since our chat, his book has won some awards including New York Times and New Yorker book of the year. You'll love it. And I hope you love this chat. 

Its quite a journey to go from eldest pastors kid, with full worship leader, Sunday school teacher, 'dating revelation' adherent and homeschool survivor to forest walking animistic spiritualist who runs womens circles. But that's Jess Manusama. She's a breath of fresh air. She runs the insta account @the.connectedself and the web page www.theconnectedself.com.au