Waypoints With Daniel Rushing

An ancient genre of literature has been trying for generations to convey the seasons of our existence and the cycles of power and empire that dominate our imagination. Apocalyptic literature uses symbols to show us that the end of the world as we know will most likely come in our lifetimes. Modern writers like Brueggemann, Hedges, Girard, Strauss, and Howe have prepared the way by illuminating the cycles we seem to be caught in and how they climax in painful and revelatory times. This episode nerds out on all things apocalypse. There is enough woo-woo here for all the wizards in the room.

Back in April of this year Pete Enns tweeted, “In my experience people do not so much deconstruct from Christianity but from certain forms of Christianity that claim to be the only Christianity.” In this episode I reflect on being raised in a church that claimed to be the only Christianity and how that played a role in the unraveling of my faith. I share my thoughts on backsliding, wilderness experiences, and why scripture and church doctrine/tradition are not my priorities when forming personal beliefs and practices. 

In this episode I push back against the idea that being sad, depressed, or anxious is bad. Often in church we are led to believe that God wants something better for us, and that we should be happy and joyous. But what if what we feel is important to our growth, even when what we feel doesn’t feel so great?

In this episode I talk about how my religious upbringing created a cycle of shame, fear, and anxiety that kept me from being myself and from having talks that were long overdue. I share the work I put in to heal those religious wounds and how that process led to me having the hardest talk of them all.

The Uncensored Wizard community has been discussing what it is like to tell your religious friends and family that you no longer believe like they do. In this episode, I begin sharing how I experienced having this talk with the people who mattered by describing my personality and how two beliefs I was taught as a child created the most pain in this process of sharing.

This week Jessica Chastain won Academy Award for best actress in a leading role for her portrayal of Tammy Faye Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye movie  that came out in theaters on September 17, 2021. The film, based on a 2000 documentary by the same name, follows the controversial and scandalous lives of Tammy Faye Bakker and her husband Jim, through the rise and fall of their wildly successful TV ministry based out of Charlotte, NC. A couple of friends and I, including one who played as an extra in the film, went and saw it the night it came out.  In this bonus episode you'll hear from guests Jimmy Humphrey (of Jimmy's Table podcast),  Derek Henson, and me-- three friends, from Pentecostal backgrounds, sit down to discuss our thoughts and reflections on the movie, the greater impact of the Bakker's PTL ministry, and what their story might mean to the modern Evangelical church in America. *Audio is from recorded video chat; live and unedited. *