Episode Summary: (CW): Mental Illness, Suicidal Ideation, Depression, and Anxiety) Anna Gazmarian’s new book Devout: A Memoir of Doubt, investigates the overlapping complexities of religious faith, mental illness, and doubt. If you grew up in religiously conservative spaces, odds are you either never talked about mental illness or you were made to …

Episode Summary: Interviewing Jonathan Merritt felt like having a conversation with myself. His journey out of white evangelical subculture is an almost mirror-image of my journey. My guess is, you’ll find a lot of correlation as well. Jonathan was a card-carrying evangelical who left his Southern roots and evangelical home to find faith, family, a…

Episode Summary: Do you feel spiritually and physically domesticated? Are you struggling to free yourself from the long-term impacts of spiritual colonization? Do you feel disconnected from the natural world? Are you longing for something more than merely reconstruction? If so, spiritual rewilding might be the next step in your faith seeking journe…

Episode Summary: Author Liz Cooledge Jenkins joins us on the show to discuss the harmful effects of patriarchy on men, women, families, LGBTQIA persons, culture, nations, and spiritual communities. With its ties to domination, violence, aggression, militarism, and white supremacy, patriarchy centers white, heterosexual men at the expense of everyon…

Episode Summary Have you ever wanted someone to sit with you by the fire and watch your old religious beliefs go up in flames? Maybe you’ve longed for a guide or a coach to help you navigate all this wandering in the spiritual wilderness. If so, then this week’s episode is what you need right now! Faith deconstruction coach Angela J. Herrington joi…

Episode Summary Have you ever paused long enough to consider why you continue pursuing the spiritual path? After all the scandals, abuse, religious trauma, and oppressive theology, why are you still here? This same question hit me last week during church and I didn’t have a profound answer. For whatever reason, I just can’t quit my search for the S…

Episode Summary: Living in the United States is a daily dose of trauma. Our nation is philosophically and pragmatically built on injustice, coercion, lies, oppression, exploitation, violence, dehumanization, and planetary destruction. Do we ever stop to think about how messed up the world is? The answer, of course, is an overwhelming no. We are liv…

Episode Summary Have you ever paused long enough to consider that maybe, just maybe you are living a lie? Is it possible that your outer shell, or your outer identity isn’t really you after all? What if all your coping mechanisms that have come to shape your identity isn’t the real you? Maybe you’ve spent your life operating out of your false self …

Episode Summary One of the paths available to you post-evangelicalism is mysticism, a spirituality that in many ways is almost the direct antithesis of evangelical Christianity. If evangelicalism was all about certainty, apologetics, Biblicism, and defending your faith at all costs, Christian mysticism can be defined by unknowing, mystery, paradox,…

Episode Summary Authoritarianism is on the rise all across the world. Here in America, the leading proponents of anti-democratic ideology are evangelical Christians who have been swept up in the cult of Donald Trump. Driven by a dominator theology and good old-fashioned white supremacy, conservative Christians can be counted on as the leading suppo…

In this episode, guest Nhut Le joins Jocelyn Hallman in conversation about pottery and many other forms of creative expression - including acting. Nhut is an actor whom you may know for his portrayal of Judomaster in HBO Max's Peacemaker. He is also a visual artist who has experimented with many art forms, from painting to woodworking, sewing and m…

In this episode, Jocelyn is joined by Anna Lambe, an actor and beadwork artist from Iqaluit, Nunavut. Anna has appeared in Three Pines on Amazon Prime, Trickster on CBC, True Detective, Alaska Daily, Diggstown, and more. She started beading during the pandemic and has become a skilled artist and designer of jewelry, primarily making beaded earrings…

OK, I'll admit it right up front, this is a heavy episode. This one feels like a therapy session processing through the anger, the rage, the bitterness, and all your past complicity in white evangelical Christianity. If you haven't noticed yet, one of the pit stops on the deconstruction road is animosity. You finally wake up to all the harmful ways…

In this episode, Jocelyn Hallman talks to actor Aya Cash (The Boys, Welcome to Flatch, You’re the Worst) about her newfound love of ceramics. We talk about the rituals of working in the studio, embracing imperfections, accepting the loss of control that comes with the unpredictability of clay and glaze, making body parts, trimming as editing, and t…

Episode Summary In the second-part of our conversation about the Divine Feminine, we look at the ramifications of believing God is a guy. Institutional Christianity has given us God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, a triune male God with “He/Him” pronouns. And this male dominated theology has created a male dominator culture that m…

Episode Summary Have you ever paused to wonder why it was always God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—a trio of divine beings known only as “He” and “Him?” This should cause us to ask a basic question. Why is God so overwhelmingly referred to as a He in institutional Christianity, as well as in Judaism? Did you know that from ancien…

Jocelyn is joined in this episode by Chasten Harmon, a deeply intuitive knitter and knitwear designer. Chasten is an actor who has appeared on Broadway in Mr. Saturday Night and Hair, has toured nationally with Les Miserables, and has appeared on many television series and films, including The Good Fight, Damnation, and Paterson. In this conversati…

Episode Summary We continue our march toward the marginalized this week with another conversation with Dr. Miguel De La Torre about the future of American political identity. As a Lantinx scholar, Miguel sees a future in which American society is run by white Christian nationalist elites at the expense of everyone who is 'the other.' Much like Sout…

In this episode, Jocelyn Hallman talks to actors Pablo Azar and Ana Carolina Grajales, both of whom have appeared in many television series and films, including over 600 episodes between them of Spanish-language telenovelas. Pablo and Ana are engaged in a range of artistic projects that include paintings, murals, art classes, comedy videos, and NFT…

Contrary to what many assume, peace isn’t meekness in the face of evil it is the courageous and oftentimes creative task of disarmament. Active peacemaking is a way to fight against injustice without using violence. It is using the transformative force of love to resist oppression. It says that the means are the ends, that the way to peace is peace…

In this episode, Jocelyn Hallman talks to actor Michael Chernus (Severance, The Accidental Wolf, Orange is the New Black, Easy) about tie dyeing, music, gardening, art as community practice, and the act of caring for others through art. After the show, go to @sidecraftspodcast on Instagram to see pictures of some of Michael's dye work! Follow Micha…

Episode Summary In the second installment of our conversation with Natalie Drew, we move deeper into her gender transition and how it impacted her marriage, career, and spiritual journey. If you haven’t checked out Part One, go back and listen now before moving forward into this episode! We answer several questions including, can you be Christian a…

CW: We discuss trauma, addiction, suicidal ideation, abuse, and other topics that may be triggering. Please listen at your own discretion. A lot of times on our show, we discuss theological matters that mostly reside in your head, but this episode is altogether very different. This conversation is personal, it’s raw, it’s painful, it’s the deeply t…

In this episode, Jocelyn Hallman talks to Jeremy Palko (The Walking Dead, Ruthless, Bloodline) about his work as a painter. Jeremy works with acrylic paints on canvas, painting daily and working on multiple pieces at once. His works are characterized by vibrant colours - landscapes and night skies are common themes - often accompanied by stark silh…

CW: Adult Language. Christians were never meant to be normal, we've always been "holy troublemakers" who do not accept the world as it is but who insist on the world becoming the way God wants it to be. In the words of our friends at The Center for Prophetic Imagination, “A world where all walls of alienation are torn down as we live justly with on…

Episode Summary Barbara Brown Taylor is who you want to be when you grow up. Her life is a legacy of wisdom and wonder, walking the long road toward becoming fully human. In this intimate conversation that is more memoir than interview, she looks back on a long pilgrimage of faith while sharing some of the secrets she’s found along the way. As she …

In this episode, Jocelyn talks to comedian and writer Sara Schaefer about her work as a miniaturist and cross-stitcher. Sara creates incredible miniatures in one-inch scale, which range from dollhouses to dioramas and even a miniature comedy club, the Haha Hole. We discuss how Sara got into miniatures, how working as a miniaturist has changed her p…

One of the great ironies of the Christian religion is that the person Christians worship isn’t a Christian. Jesus was born, raised, and died a Jew. He might even find it odd that an entire new religion grew up out of his short life and painful death. He is without question, the most popular person to have ever walked the earth. But what do we reall…

In this episode, Jocelyn is joined by actor Merritt Glover, who is also a collage artist, photographer, painter, and poet. Merritt has worked on shows such as Get Shorty, Breaking Bad, Interrogation, and The Cleaning Lady, among others, and she also creates stunning mixed media art - namely multi-layered collages inspired often by the lyrics of Tor…

Episode Summary "In the Beginning, God created male and female." Evangelicals have used this one verse as a weapon in their war on transgender individuals. But a closer look offers a far more inclusive interpretation. It is true that God made both male and female. God also made light and dark, the land and sea, skies and earth, and guess what? God …

“The Spirit of God, She has made me, and the breath of the nursing God, She gives me life.” - Job 33:4 When you close your eyes and envision God, who do you see? Like me, you probably envision God as an old, white male sitting on a throne looking down from on high with an air of judgment and anger toward the world. This is the god of authoritariani…

In this special Halloween episode, Jocelyn Hallman talks to Jorge Garcia (LOST, Hawaii Five-0, Alcatraz, The Munsters) about his passion for Halloween crafting and building. We discuss Jorge's early memories of drawing, creating, and dressing up for Halloween, and how he got into creating yard displays and hosting pumpkin carving parties. We also t…

We're excited to drop the first episode of Season Three of Holy Heretics with host Gary Alan Taylor! We are dedicating this year to marginalized voices who have either been muzzled by conventional Christianity or who have been pushed to the periphery of faith. People whose voices, bodies, race, gender, or sexuality make them dangerous to the status…

Jocelyn Hallman is joined by theatre artist and TV/film actor Amanda Schoonover (Dispatches from Elsewhere) to talk about sewing. Amanda is an amazing quilter who specializes in piecework, and her quilts tend to feature a vibrant rainbow color palette combined with dark, gothy, witchy imagery. In this episode we discuss Amanda's early memories of l…

Jocelyn is joined in this episode by Annette O'Toole, who currently plays Hope McCrea on Netflix's Virgin River. Annette is a lifelong knitter, and this episode is a deep dive into all things wool and knitting! We talk about how she became a knitter, some of the various techniques and fibers she uses, past and current projects, knitting as meditati…

In this very special first episode of the podcast, Jocelyn Hallman talks to Mary Catherine Garrison (Somebody Somewhere, Veep) about painting, weaving, ceramics, and more. We discuss her early memories of crafting, artistic inspirations, the freedom she seeks in creating and learning new crafts, art and our kids, and some of the political aspects o…

Welcome to Side Crafts! Coming in September 2022, Jocelyn Hallman talks to actors, musicians, and other performers about the crafting, artmaking, building and creating that they do on the side.By Jocelyn

At some point in your deconstruction journey, you are probably going to be faced with the question, "Do I stay Christian or do I walk away from this movement altogether?" If that is where you are today, this episode is for you. It's been a minute since Western Christianity has looked anything like Jesus. For the last 1,700 years Christianity has be…

The vast majority of Americans worship the white god—the god of Christian nationalism, white supremacy, domination, patriarchy, wealth, power, and colonization. The god of guns and empire, the god that exists to make white men great again. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that powerful white people created a god in their own image, in the image of whit…

CW: We discuss abortion and other topics that may be triggering. Please listen at your own discretion. The majority of Americans have consistently held nuanced views about abortion. However, in the early 1980’s white evangelicals suddenly discovered that the abortion debate could unify their movement and thereby secure political power for decades t…

In the 1960's, Jesuit priest Karl Rahner made a bold claim about the future of faith. "The Christian of the future will either be a mystic, or nothing at all." Who could have guessed that sixty years later the deconstruction community would turn his statement into reality through the modern pursuit of mysticism. Apologetic, rational, belief-based C…

People have been sounding the alarm for climate change for generations. The earth is permanently altered by human hands. But if we have the power to hurt the earth, we share the power to heal her. Drawing on our spiritual tradition, Dr. Debra Rienstra encourages us to adapt our spiritual practices and faith to life on an altered planet. From consum…

Those of us in the deconstruction community have been accused of many things over the last few years by individuals and institutions in the evangelical establishment. We've been accused of deconstructing our faith because we want to sin more, or that we have a rebellious nature, or we just want to have sex with anything and anyone, or that we've be…

It's really hard to call yourself a Christian these days. But when you are a minister in conservative Oklahoma and call yourself a kind of “atheist,” well that’s a whole other issue! Reverend Dr. Robin Meyers is one of many progressive voices that laid the groundwork for the deconstruction movement. And for him, it all started by asking one questio…

When bad things happen, I often hear people say "Well, God's still on the throne," as if that is some kind of balm or solution for the pain, evil, and uncertainty the world is facing. But here's the problem: God was on the throne during the Holocaust. God was on the throne during segregation and Jim Crow. God is on the throne as thousands of innoce…

Episode Summary Men are in charge and women submit. Men lead and women follow. Men have a biblical mandate from God to lead the Church and the home while women are ordained by God to be silent and submissive not only to their husbands, but every other male leader they encounter in the Church. These are the lies many of us grew up believing. These a…

Leaving white evangelicalism is one thing. Leaving white spaces and white theology is quite another. Writer and activist Dante Stewart joins us today to discuss his new book Shoutin In the Fire: An American Epistle. and how he escaped slaveholder religion in his quest to uncover the heart of Christianity. His journey as a black, Christian, American…

Throughout this country’s history, the hallmarks of American democracy – opportunity, freedom, and prosperity – have been largely reserved for white people through the intentional exclusion and oppression of people of color. America’s original sin is white supremacy, born and bred into the first laws of our land and fully endorsed by the church. Am…

“Few people can teach you the Enneagram with the genuine insight, humor, and potential for real growth and change better than Suzanne Stabile, writes Father Richard Rohr. And after this incredible episode, we agree! Stabile is one of the world’s most sought-after gurus when it comes to all things Enneagram. Today, she joins us to discuss what it me…

There are some episodes that defy description, that cover so much ground that it is difficult to describe. This conversation with theologian, poet, activist, and historian Randy Woodley is one such episode. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again for those in the back: evangelicalism is a dominator religion. It seeks to dominate the earth, wome…