Lindsay, Meg, Sarai & friends - a bunch of former church kids who came of age in 80s and 90s American Evangelicalism - are Holy Ghosting. In each episode, we share our youthful experiences and stories of the harm we endured and perpetrated as American Evangelicals and we laugh, we're sarcastic ladies.All three of our hosts grew up in different cities and didn’t meet until recently - and yet…the culture of Evangelicalism is strong and chock full of harm and quizzical quirks everywhere. But no ...
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We Stan A Woke Queen, Our Love Letter to Amy Grant
1:09:19
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Hi Ghosties! What's your summer been like? Ours were wild! Your hosts, Lindsay, Meg and Sarai start this episode by sharing our summer experiences, personal growth and big news about the podcast. AND THEN!!!! Ekkk! We celebrate Amy Grant. We talk about her legacy and her influence on our lives, discussing our favorite album art, our desert island s…
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It's Good To Feel Good: The Sexvangelicals Talk Sex & Purity Culture
1:16:05
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Welcome, Ghosties! This episode, "It's Good To Feel Good," brings the amazing duo of Julia and Jeremiah from the Sexvangelicals podcast to talk with Meg & Sarai about the journey from sexual repression to liberation, shedding light on how purity culture has shaped our views on intimacy and desire. We get INTO IT today, sharing personal stories and …
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We’re here. We’re queer. And we’re finally out! Our Late in Life Queer Stories
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Have you ever known some hetero Christian married couple who were together a real long time and then one of them is like, “oops, I’m gay!” and they break up? A lot of us have known folks in this position. And we also remember the fallout and the “prayer chain” (read: gossip train) buzz when these woes befell our brethren. By the way, is there such …
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Just when you thought your hellacious heroines, Lindsay, Meg & Sarai, couldn't possibly have more to say about YWAM, BAM! A fourth episode! This time, the call is coming from inside the house, so to speak, because Ghosties like you are sharing their YWAM experiences. Hang out with us as your Ghostie compatriots get brave and tell us the wild tales …
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The Cult of YWAM Part 3: Navigating the Seas of Deconstruction with Karen Alea
1:09:52
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Ahoy, Ghosties! Set sail with us on the turbulent waters of YWAM's Mercy Ships as Karen Alea, from the Deconversion Therapy podcast, joins us for a deep-sea adventure into religious deconstruction. From the highs of missionary zeal to the lows of financial strain and the choppy waves of communal living, Karen shares her journey of finding land afte…
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Unveiling Shadows: Challenging Stigmas and Seeking Healing Beyond the Church with Anna Gazmarian
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Protect your peace: CW: Suicide, Depression, dark thoughts, religious ocd Anna Gazmarian shares her spiritual and mental health journey with Lindsay and Meg. Get Anna's book, out now! Devout: A Memoir of Doubt Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/holy-ghosting/exclusive-content Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy …
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The Cult of YWAM Part 2: Meg's Horror Story
51:47
51:47
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Meg opens up about her experiences in YWAM. You don't want to miss this episode in our Youth With A Mission series. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/holy-ghosting/exclusive-content Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacyBy Lindsay, Meg & Sarai
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The Cult of YWAM Part 1 with DL Mayfield
1:10:18
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In this episode, we dive into the not-so-wonderful world of Youth With a Mission, aka YWAM. We chat with our pal (and Lindsay’s sister), D.L. Mayfield about the history and horrors of the cult-like organization that began with one white guy's vision of young people sweeping the globe for Jesus. (Totally not creepy, right?) Fast forward a few decade…
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Pure or Lure: How to NOT Cause a Guy to Stumble in Ten Thousand Easy Steps
1:06:23
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In our latest episode we jump into the turbulent waters of gendered messages and purity culture with a critical eye on the Christian advice book, 'For Young Women Only'—or as we like to call it, “How to NOT Cause a Guy to Stumble.” Published in the early 2000s, this book perpetuates harmful beliefs about gender, sexuality, and the role of women in …
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Hi, I’m the Problem, It’s Me: Savior Complex & the White Woman Problem (Recap Pt.2)
1:11:29
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What happens when a homeschooled horse girl feels “god put Africa on her heart?” Well. It could be a lot of things. In fact, your own fave Ghostie Hostie, Lindsay, was exactly this kind of girlie. And yet! Just as two paths diverge in a yellow wood, so do our choices take us to different places. Lindsay, for one, went on a medical mission to Uganda…
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Maybe God SHOULD Call the Qualified: Our Review of Savior Complex Part One
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Just when you think you’ve had your fill of problematic white women, Renee Bach comes along. Look, your Murder of MILFs (hey! It stands for “Mom I’d Like to Friend,” get your head out of the gutter!) watched “Savior Complex,” a documentary detailing the ascent of a young missionary, Renee Bach and Serving His Children, the organization she founded …
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The Five Love Languages are Garbage & Other Spicy Takes with Crystal Britt
1:03:38
1:03:38
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In this episode, Meg and Lindsay chat with Crystal Britt, a licensed clinical social worker and actual therapist about the famed book, ‘The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts’ by pastor (NOT therapist) Gary Chapman. We talk about how the Five Love Languages are reductive, gendered, and heteronormative and how there are many better r…
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Less of Them, More of Me: Taking Our Power Back with Meredith Holley
1:09:38
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Have you ever felt like you didn't have a voice? Or that you didn't feel safe to talk about your needs or interests in your relationships, workplaces, your home -- uh, church, maybe? Well, today your favorite Apostolic Apostates, Lindsay, Meg, and Sarai join forces with Meredith Holley of Eris Resolution to dig into the basics of Empowered Communic…
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Best Of: Losing My Religion with DL Mayfield
1:20:13
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Happy New Year Ghosties! We're back with an update and then we're sharing one of our favorite episodes where we talk to DL Mayfield in the midst of their deconversion from Christianity and we reflect on what the impact is on kids like us raised in high control religion. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/holy-ghosting/exclusive-content…
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More of Me, Less of Him: Making Space for Our Messy Human Selves After High Control Religion
1:04:54
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What happens when you're deconstructing with your middle-aged mom friends...and you get to a point where you're like, cool, I'm no longer a part of this religion, but how do I live now? Short answer: Howsoever you fucking want; but more specifically, it's something you get to work out with fear and trembling, just like you probably did with your ow…
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War On Xmas with the Original Sinfluencer
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It's beginning to look a lot like X-mas - you know, with the silver bells, the Santa at the mall, the carnage left behind when people utter the phrase "Happy Holidays..." Your Bible Busting Besties, Lindsay, Meg, and Sarai are joined by the man behind the myth, the legend, The Original Sinfluencer, Joshua Colburn. Get in on the delightful hangout a…
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In honor of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and All the Buying Things Days from now until approximately December 25th, your Queen Ghosties, Lindsay, Meg, & Sarai bring you a deep dive into all things Christian bookstores, products, and marketing. They also take a perplexing look at why Christians are such brilliant capitalists whilst claiming they foll…
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No, Mom, That’s Not How Boundaries Work and Other Fun Tips with Dr. Laura Anderson to Survive the Holidays With Your Family
1:15:21
1:15:21
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Just when you thought we were done with ghouls and horrors for the year, we're here to point out that the holidays are just around the corner...so beware! Because they love you, your terrific trio of hosts asked Dr. Laura Anderson back to give us all some tools to use at the dinner table and beyond. Dr. Laura has an array of ways to handle family c…
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Tales From the Purity Culture Crypt
1:23:21
1:23:21
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Don't get spooked! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/holy-ghosting/exclusive-content Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacyBy Lindsay, Meg & Sarai
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The specter of Halloween is upon us yet again! And so is this Best Of episode - To Hell with the Devil's Holiday or: Suck it Harvest Parties! Learn about Lindsay's quest to become Queen of Halloween, and hear some spooky stories of youth group shenanigans gone awry. Joyous references include: Hell Houses, Heaven's Gates/Hell's Flames, and other com…
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For kids who grew up during the Satanic Panic - especially those of us raised in Good Christian Homes - talking about, thinking about, worrying about, or wondering about demons was just an everyday thing. Join your Unwholesome Homeschoolers (and Meg) as they remember their personal demonologies and the way we really did think we always had demons s…
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Wake Up Sheeple! Christians, Conspiracies and Qanon: with Cynane Shay
1:26:02
1:26:02
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(Ultimate Spoiler: Oops, All White Supremacy - AGAIN?) Have you lost some people you love to an internet conspiracy theory? Is your weird aunt saying wild shit about Jewish space lasers at family dinners? If so, you might be a human being who still believes the earth is a globe that orbits the sun, or, say, that gravity exists...and your friends an…
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The Homeschool of Hard Knocks: Our Plea for You to Not Brainwash Your Child
1:05:50
1:05:50
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CW: child abuse Of your three Holy Hosts, two of them were homeschooled. Both take a perverse kind of pride in being not like other homeschoolers, but if you really think about it, that may be the most homeschool thing about them. All that said, homeschooling has been on a meteoric rise since the 1980’s (coincidentally, when the Christian Evangelic…
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Born Into A Cult: Chad Harris from Shiny Happy People
1:17:01
1:17:01
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CW: Child Abuse, IBLP and Bill Gothard Abuse If you're a survivor of IBLP please find support at: Recovering Grace Shiny Happy People gave us a tiny glimpse into the realities of the IBLP (Institute in Basic Life Principles) cult. *Sidebar: be sure to listen to the Too Many Cults mini-series on this feed if you want to deep dive with our very own L…
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Extraction, Exploitation, and Ego: An Interview with Fina on Capitalism and the Church
1:21:55
1:21:55
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Content heads up: rape, sexual assault, and institutional irresponsibility. The Evangelical church has quite an interesting relationship with capitalism and exploitation, and guess who cares about that? We do! And bonus: Fina of the Mindful Minds podcast cares about this too, so buckle up as she joins the Unfaithful Few, Lindsay, Meg, and Sarai, on…
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Hey, Ghosties! Whether you rocked a camp t-shirt with a punny camp theme or wore one to cover your already modest AF bathing suit, you're going to enjoy our encore visit to Evangelical Christian summer camp! Gird your loins for some jarring admissions of life-long devotion to the very concept of summer camp, including our own Sarai admitting she'd …
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Best Of: Travel The World On God's Dime
1:12:06
1:12:06
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Ahoy, Ghosties! While we're still on break until we launch our next episodes starting in September, we missed you too much to stay all the way away. Give a listen to a classic episode from our first season and cringe at the stories of white saviorism, poverty tourism, and otherwise ghastly evangelizing activities Lindsay, Meg, and Sarai performed i…
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Age to Age She’s Still Aflame: Queer Joy with Flamy Grant
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Y’all. Flamy Grant is this podcast’s favorite Drag Queen, and today’s episode is glorious because we get to talk with her! Join Meg and an ailing Sarai, as well as Lindsay, in spirit, as they chat with Flamy about queer joy and how we can all make more room to be more compassionate to ourselves and others. Pride month is full of celebration and joy…
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Join your bestie ghostie trifecta, Lindsay, Meg, and Sarai as we have an amazing conversation with a particularly rad human being. Val is one of Meg's longtime dear friends, raised the same funky way we were in the Evangelical church. Listen as Val shares her journey of coming out in her 30's. Y'all, repression is REAL! She has a beautiful story to…
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Image Management Strategies & More (Recap of Ep 4 Shiny Happy People)
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This is the last of our four-episode series "Too Many Cults", where Lindsay and Krispin (from the Prophetic Imagination Station and Linds' BIL) recap the docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets.TW: religious abuse, sexual abuse, family cover-up of abuse, psychological abuse, harsh punishment of children), controlling parenting, groomin…
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Coming Out: Stories of Living Your Truth Under Christian Scrutiny
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Content Heads-Up: this episode contains mentions of attempted suicide, mental health challenges, and sexuality and gender dysphoria. Listen with care and call your bestie if you need support. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts about taking their own lives, please dial the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. Hey, Ghostie…
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Fascism in Plain Sight: A Recap of Ep. 3 of Shiny Happy People
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Fascism in Plain Sight is the third episode of our mini-series "Too Many Cults", where Lindsay and Krispin (from the Prophetic Imagination Station and Linds' BIL) recap the docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets. In this episode we talk about how IBLP and Jim Bob Duggar hold onto money while those with less power do unpaid work. We al…
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Our Pride and Joy: Gender Affirming Parenting
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Imagine, giving birth to a beautiful baby…assigning them a gender, and just a few years later finding out they already know themselves better than we ever could. Hearing “I’m a girl” from a kiddo you assumed was a boy can elicit a lot of reactions. Today we talk to two moms who heard their kids when their children told them who they really are and …
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An Environment Where Abuse Thrives (Recap of Ep 2 Shiny Happy People)
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TW: religious abuse, sexual abuse, family cover-up of abuse, emotional neglect, psychological abuse, physical abuse (and violent punishment of children), intimate partner abuse. In this episode we talk about Bill Gothard’s teachings, women's gender roles, and parenting ideals that create environments where abuse could occur with impunity. This is t…
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God, Gays, and Getting Your Spiritual Groove Back with Kevin Garcia
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Ghosties! Get ready for a month of amazing interviews celebrating PRIDE. Our first episode of this 4-Part Mini Series is a conversation with Kevin Garcia, author (of many things and most recently), “What Makes You Bloom: Cultivating a Practice for Connecting with Your Divine Self.” Kevin is a mystic who has discovered a path back to himself and his…
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19 Cults and Counting: A Recap of Ep. 1 of Shiny Happy People
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This is the first in a special four-episode series: Too Many Cults, hosted by Lindsay and Krispin (from the Prophetic Imagination Station). They recap the docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets [Amazon Prime] TW: religious abuse, sexual abuse, family cover-up of abuse We’re recapping the episodes, talking about what stands out to us, …
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I Don't Want It: The Pain of Purity Culture with Dr. Laura Anderson, PHD
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Imagine a world, where you could admit that you were interested - nay, desirous of - sex. What?? That's nuts - ladies don't want that shit, right?? Get ready to think again: it's ok to want sex (contrary to popular DC Talk lyrics). Join your triumphant trio as they talk with Dr. Laura Anderson about the literal pain and trauma that purity culture l…
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Be Anything. Do Anyone. Feminism, Motherhood, and the ERA
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It's an episode about motherhood! It's an episode about feminism! It's an episode about feminism and motherhood and all of the fun messages we were taught about being a Good Christian Girl™! In this episode we get into all the nitty gritty of what it means to identify as a woman in The United States of Evangelical America. Here are just a few of th…
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Being Black in White Churches: Where Belonging is Actually Just Conformity
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Your fave middle-aged mom apostates connect with their friend Shaunea, a black woman who grew up in almost exclusively white spaces when her white mother converted to Christianity in the 1980’s. Sha’s mom had the kind of testimony Evangelicals went batshit crazy for back then (and still now!) Sha’s story about growing up black in a white Evangelica…
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We Don’t Need No (Public) Education: Schooling for Evangelicals
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If you grew up with Creationism instead of Science or had odd electives like Lapidary or Little House on the Prairie Curriculum then you may have been schooled by Christian Education! Our three hosts share all about their sheltered education from unschooling, homeschooling, and private education …so you know there are some pretty wild stories from …
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This Hurts Me More Than it Hurts You: And Other Lies from the Cult of Dobson Discipline
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Growing up in American Christianity in the 80’s and 90’s meant we were smack dab in the height of Dobson Domination. That is, Dr. James Dobson and his Focus on the Family ubiquity in the realm of parenting and child rearing advice, children’s entertainment (and, behind the scenes, lobbying and more exciting political dealings)… If your parents “dar…
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That’s Me In The Corner: DL Mayfield on Neurodivergence, Evangelicalism, and Losing Her Religion
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Growing up neurodivergent and in the throes of evangelicalism, a high control and fear-based religion, offered DL Mayfield one choice...to be the best darn good girl she could be, the bestest christian and martyr for the lord, and to do it with perfection and grace. And so she did. FOR YEARS, DECADES even! Come along on a wild ride as we hear how D…
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Are you there, God? It's me. I left this performance fleece outside for you
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When we were kids, we were told to listen to “the voice of God” which was usually something someone else told us, and rarely, if ever, something we actually “heard” with our ears. Even our own intuition couldn’t possibly be right, so we spent our childhoods and young adulthoods under the impression that we couldn’t make a decision lest we be out of…
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Rolling with My Holies: Revival in the Land
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Not since Carman personally slayed the DEVIL himself when he called for Revival in the Land has there ever been such a meaningful movement of the awakening of the Christian spirit's openness to the Holy Ghost. Not until now. Asbury University has experienced a celebrity-level Revival in the Land amongst its student body. But, REVIVAL...what is it g…
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God Hates Divorce But Sarai Loves It
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It’s no surprise “God Hates Divorce” or at least “God Hates Divorce for Women” in evangelical christianity. There’s only one thing that will end a marriage in God’s eyes…ADULTERY. But even then, sometimes it’s best to forgive (the man) and stay married! We’re all big fans of personal choice over here, even if you signed a legal (gasp!) document one…
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A lot of things were considered real bad in the 80’s and 90’s - especially for evangelical kids like your fave trio, Lindsay, Meg, and Sarai. The devil, yikes! Having boobs, terrible! Even thinking about or knowing anybody who drank any kind of alcohol?? NO! And especially…DRUGS. Then again, in the 80’s and 90’s, drugs were bad for everyone, becaus…
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Fat & Faithful: Finding Freedom through Fat Liberation
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In this season of the podcast, we’re talkin all about taboos. The people, places, things, and beliefs that never really quite fit into the narrow scope of evangelicalism. You know, all the things you couldn’t/shouldn’t/wouldn’t talk about because you were a Good Christian Girl™. Things like BODIES. Thanks to our ole friend Purity Culture, talking a…
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We’re All From a Long Line of Leavers: an Interview with Derek Webb
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In this very special episode of Holy Ghosting, we got to chat with everyone’s favorite rogue CCM songwriter, Derek Webb of Caedmon’s Call! If you were an evangelical Christian in the 90’s/2000’s, you know who we’re talkin about. Caedmon’s Call was THE band of youth groups and Bible colleges. And as it turns out, Derek is quite literally from a Long…
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Burn It Down: the Evangelical Environmental Agenda
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As Evangelical children in the 80’s and 90’s, we had plenty of Big Terrible Things to fear. Satanic Panic was in full swing, stranger danger lurked in every darkened doorway, and America’s Most Wanted sailed into our living rooms on the reg. One of the most fearful things, of course, was the rise of Environmentalism. (BUT WHY?!) Seriously, though, …
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One afternoon, months and months ago, three loudmouth Type-A women gathered in Meg’s living room to record the inaugural episode of Holy Ghosting (“Panic at the Altar”). And if that weren’t enough sharing for one day, we decided to share our Testimonies and catch each other up on our walks, because that’s what fellowship is, we supposed. So if you’…
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