Voices of Deconversion

Be Excellent to Each Other!

In part 2, Bill discusses his time helping people out on Skid Row in Los Angeles. He encounters people who make a huge impact on his life, including a rabbi he decided was most certainly not going to hell.

Bill's family moves from southern California to Alaska! His daughter begins asking who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. She questions the Trinity.

Bill transitions to CFO of his congregation. When the church wants to spend money they don't have, Bill advises against it. Their response to Bill triggers a big change in his life.

I absolutely loved this quote from Bill: "If their theology was right and what they believed was true, it would've made people a lot better". Everyone's Agnostic podcast: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/everyones-agnostic-2/everyones-agnostic

Life After God podcast: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/life-after-god/e/52933021 Books: Good Without God by Greg Epstein- https://www.amazon.com/Good-Without-God-Billion-Nonreligious/dp/006167012X Why I Left, Why I Stayed by Bart Campolo and Tony Campolo: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Left-Stayed-Conversations-Christianity/dp/0062415387/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1517976276&sr=1-1&keywords=why+i+left+why+i+stayed

Bill starts our conversation discussing the difficulties he experienced when his parents divorced. As a child, Bill had no warning the day his mom decided to pack up their stuff and move out. 

Boy Scouts became a stabilizing force in Bill's junior high and high school years, as he became the de facto mediator between his parents.

He moved to Colorado for college and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies.

Bill and his wife served as Officers/Ministers in the Salvation Army for over twelve years. They now attend a Unitarian church and Bill considers himself a Humanist.

Krista Cox is a poet, Program Director of Lit Literary Collective, Associate Poetry Editor at Stirring: A Literary Collection and Pittsburgh Poetry Review.  She's also on the Advisory Board for the Feminist Humanist Alliance. She has an inspiring story to tell.  Following a traumatic experience in a relationship she spent years not feeling like herself. She explained it like a switch being flipped. When it begins to impact her son, the switch flips back. Her resilience and determination when she describes that moment were really inspiring to me. Her instincts kicked in. 

Late in the interview she describes how she is "drawn to joy". I loved the way she explained that and found it to be incredibly hopeful!

Learn more about Krista and her work at: https://kristacox.me

In this week's episode, Ryan Bell shares his compelling story of deconversion. Ryan also talks about what he's been up to since joining the Secular Student Alliance as National Organizer Manager. I've been looking forward to meeting Ryan for a while, so it was wonderful to finally speak with him. Although I'm familiar with Ryan's story, I learned some fascinating new details during our conversation. He explains what convinced him to stop pursuing Pre-Med in college and become a pastor. He also shares what motivated him to live in Nicaragua for 6 weeks. Finally, it was fun to hear the story of how his "Year Without God" blog went viral, resulting in breakfast with Penn Jillette.  Ryan spent nearly 20 years in congregational pastoral ministry. His very public deconversion in 2014 is documented in his blog, “Year Without God”. Since that time, Ryan has been a writer and speaker on the subjects of religion, humanism and justice. In 2015, he founded the Life After God community and is the host of the Life After God podcast. His writing can be found at The Humanist, CNN, and The Guardian.

https://secularstudents.org

[email protected] http://www.lifeaftergod.org

https://www.facebook.com/ourlifeaftergod/

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/life-after-god

@ryanjbell

@ourlifeaftergod

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/yearwithoutgod/

In Part 2, Ariel discusses his transition out of Christianity and into atheism. He searches for meaning in life and finds it in Humanism. He talks about what he likes best about being a Humanist, what stayed the same about him after his deconversion and making a difference in the world.

http://iheu.org https://www.facebook.com/IHEYO/?timeline_context_item_type=intro_card_work&timeline_context_item_source=577990171&pnref=lhc

He's also a web developer and blogs at http://ghostlessmachine.com/en/

https://medium.com/humanist-voices

https://humanistfederation.eu

http://humanismromania.org

http://www.asur.ro

Ariel was raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil-well known for being a very Catholic country. However, Ariel describes how spiritism, reincarnation and out-of-body experiences are a normal part of Christianity in Brazil.

In his early teen years he sought out how he could have an out-of-body experience. He began asking questions to learn more...and that's when things take a turn. 

He is now Chair of the Americas Working Group at IHEYO (International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organization): 

http://iheu.org https://www.facebook.com/IHEYO/?timeline_context_item_type=intro_card_work&timeline_context_item_source=577990171&pnref=lhc

He's also a web developer and blogs at http://ghostlessmachine.com/en/

He currently lives and works in Bucharest, Romania.

This is the second-half of my conversation with Vennie Kocsis, a cult survivor.

Vennie left off in part 1 when her family had just been banished from the cult in Alaska. It was fascinating to hear how very practical, everyday things were new to her, like wearing jeans. 

As she adjusted to normal life, she began to exude independence. As she grows into young-adulthood she discovers a variety of beliefs and tries out several of them. We also discuss raising freethinking kids, which is always interesting for Ex-Christians. 

Vennie devouts a lot of her time to raising awareness about modern-day cults. If you'd like to support Vennie or learn more about her work, check out her website:

 http://venniekocsis.com

Vennie lives in the Pacific Northwest, in the United States. She is an author, artist and podcaster.

Through her podcast "Survivor Voices" and her other work, Vennie stands beside fellow cult and abuse survivors, encouraging them that they're not alone.

Being raised in a cult, Vennie endured some of the most difficult experiences a child could go through. She survived mental, physical and sexual abuse in the cult. Although she doesn't go into a lot of detail, she does discuss the abuse.  *Please be aware that in this episode we discuss mental, physical & sexual abuse. If these topics are a trigger for you, or if this is a particularly difficult subject, please take note before deciding to listen. Also note that she briefly discusses animal sacrifice that occurred within the cult.

She's quite courageous to speak so candidly about these difficult issues. I admire all the work she does in bringing awareness about cults and supporting those who have survived cults and abuse.

You can find her art, writings and podcast at venniekocsis.com http://venniekocsis.com/home/4592874752

In Part 2 of my conversation with David, he shares the moment he realized he was no longer a Christian. He also shares the painstaking process of telling his wife (who is still a Christian today) that he was no longer a Christian. 

David discusses finding comfort in the history of doubt and secular thinking throughout history. He also explains his thoughts on the basis of morality as an atheist.

It was a wonderful conversation! Twitter: @GracefulAtheist

https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com

[email protected]

Jesus tells David's mother to stop drinking. Her struggles with addiction ended when she dramatically converted to Christianity. This had a major influence on David's faith.   He approached his faith with authenticity, but soon found he was in the minority amongst friends. He learned that others approached their Christianity in different ways.

David eventually enters the ministry, before burning out and distancing himself from church activities.  When David reads something from Greta Christina, it's the final straw.  After 20 years of Christianity his faith broke down in 2015.  He respects and cares for those who remain in their faith. David is interested in finding evidence based truth. He want's to discover and communicate the subtleties of why some believe, some do not and some change their minds.

@GracefulAtheist on Twitter