"Whenever I see someone, and they're super detached from reality and their solution to their problems are to add to someone else's problems...I see Republican." - Taylor Nelson
"The way people view politics is changing. Ideas and what we find most important are fracturing." - Taylor Nelson
Warning! Anyone who listens to this will have their IQ drop but their life enhanced. You may thow-up...(But laugh historically). You should probably be drinking with us to enjoy it fully.
Seriously! Life happens in moments not plans. Taylor and I love each others company and sit down to more drinks, ridiculous drunk conversation, and random laughter at the stuff of the world. These feel good episodes, full of life, full of booze, full of fun.
We try to avoid any depth to the conversation, but in the end, we fail miserably.
We Chat with Taylor About:
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"I have all the defects of other people, yet everything they do seems to me inconceivable."
- Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher, The Trouble With Being Born (1973)
This episode is the roots of the Losing Our Religion podcast. It's conversations like this that led to the idea of recording and sharing the beautiful coming together of humans with humans.
When Taylor and I first met, we had nothing in common. I had just resigned the pastorate, left everything I had known, and given up on the idea of Christianity as I knew it, and certainly institutional religion as a whole.
Taylor did a great job of skeptically welcoming me into his world and life. At first with a handshake, then with a smile, then one night with a philosophical barraging of the denial of God and how stupid I was for believing in it. (He probably doesn't remember this event, or want me sharing about it.) But it happened, and I knew that night, that we'd be long time friends.
Part Deux of the post-Live Podcast Recording from West Hollywood, Los Angeles. Jonathan, Taylor, and I spend time transparently talking about how much we loved the experience of the live show while ironically I was shitting bricks the whole time.
A wrap-up episode where the guests of the podcast sit down with and talk out our therapeutic process of losing our religion along with audience participating in the conversation. We discuss the experience and play some clips from the live show.
We get into some things here that we didn't address in the show. Do we regret our past ministry days? Do we feel it was a total waste of our lives?
You'll enjoy listening to this laughter, tears, and transparent honesty of three ex-pastors finding their way in this world after leaving the ministry, going back to childhood dreams, becoming stand up comics, selling underwear, and starting podcasts.
Therapeutic Hilarity will be released in its' full, transparent, unedited entirety as a bonus episode directly after this one.
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What happens when you get three ex-pastors together for a night of comedy and conversation? Well, you're about to find out.
In March of 2016, we set out to have a fun little live podcast recording in West Hollywood, Los Angeles California. We had no idea what the response would be, but we sold out of tickets and embarked on a full Open Space LA Theater came together, and it was wonderful.
This is a wrap-up show of the live podcast recording event from West Hollywood California. A sit down with Jonathan Bowles, Taylor Hughes, and myself as we talk out our therapeutic process of losing our religion while playing some clips from the live show.
We get into some things here that we didn't address in the show. Do we regret our past ministry days? Do we feel it was a total waste of our lives?
You'll enjoy listening to this laughter, tears, and transparent honesty of three ex-pastors finding their way in this world after leaving the ministry, going back to childhood dreams, becoming stand up comics, selling underwear, and starting podcasts.
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"None of us can ever know if there is a God, but we do know there is an us. None of us can ever know if there is wrong or right. But we do know there is an us."
- Russell Brand
"The question is not is there a God but is there suffering?"
- Amma, The Hugging Saint
"Yes there is suffering and what can we do about our suffering? We can help one another and we can love one another. Now if you can do that through atheism then do it through atheism."
- Russell Brand
You all know by now that Losing Our Religion is not a church bashing free for all...
...although the church deserves to be bashed.
It's not a political bashing brawl...
...although politics deserve to be dismantled.
Nor is it a show exposing corporations and slay them for their greed...
...although many deserve to exposes and taxed out of business.
Losing Our Religion is a show about joining together not tearing apart. Knowing full well that to rebuild something else has to be torn down, or at least dismantled to the core and renovated from within. However we choose the tearing down begins inside of us, not others.
The things we desire to be torn down is Religions, Ideologies, and Beliefs that drive a wedge between humanity. That begin wars and fights among us. I believe in world peace, but I am unsure of its reality in my lifetime. But if we all can become peacemakers, and begin to see eye to eye, then I believe ripples will spread through generations.
I hope we continue to conversate around the cosmos and the things we can't prove or validate. But I hope we leave them as such, unprovable conversations.
Do you need religion or something divine, or bigger than yourself to live a life of loving others and taking care of one another, especially those that are suffering?
After listening to this episode, give your thoughts and answer this question for yourself in the comments below, on Facebook, or on the Loser Hotline: 206-395-5608.
"All you can do is be somebody that you love and turn yourself into somebody that you love."
- Maggie Young
Maggie has admittedly had sex with over 50 men, and she has authored a memoir about the first 23. Her Sex-Positive ideology has her free as a bird, and able to openly talk about her sex life and more. Including growing up in abuse, rape, and even a recent sexual harassment incident while driving for UBER.
Maggie Young is a military veteran, UC Berkeley graduate, and author of her gritty sex memoir, Just Another Number. Her voice is a form of investigative reporting with a memoir’s emotional authenticity. While her work covers a wide array of topics, her primary focus is rape culture, patriarchy in Millennial dating, sex, and masculinity. Her goal is to expose corruption with exploitative literature. She writes for several publications, including Thrillist, Bust, Bustle, and YourTango. Maggie’s sex-positive feminist podcast, The Harlot, is set to release this summer.
Her story littered with hypocritical Christians, brainwashed warriors, deadbeat band guys, and the spoiled, cocaine snorting trust fund offspring of California’s elite. It also entails eating disorders, drug cultures, social media, and of course, military corruption.
She's been through a lot. I admire her life tenacity and sexual freedom. I am notoriously anxious when conversating about sex and sexuality. Even with my wife, whom I've been married to for 15 years.
Growing up religious - sex, and sexuality was always shunned and never discussed. At the very least it was ignored or embarrassingly passed off. I first learned about sex from the scrambled cable channels and 4th Grade Sex-Ed.
Isn't sex and sexuality something we should all feel free to discuss? No matter what your background sex is supposed to be awesome. Right? Shouldn't it be enjoyed, and experienced and experimented within each of out desired comfort zone?
She's a fan of Dan Savage and Sex Nerd Sandra. We discuss her thoughts about the Guys We Fucked podcast.
Stephen grew up Greek...Orthodox, in the American South, Atlanta Georgia.
I love how he has gone through changes in his faith, all while being true to himself and remembering the beautiful parts of religion. He does a fantastic job reminding us of the things religion can offer that exude beauty and humanity. The community, the rituals, the family atmospheres, the food, the holidays.
We chat about our hopes in who God is as well as how we all have different forms of how we connect spiritually to the divine, the universe, and humanity.
I love Stephens' belief that religion is like a big puzzle that we will never see the full picture of until then end, and then realize that we're really just all the same.
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Find Out More: http://www.losingourreligion.org
This Episode's Landing Page: http://www.losingourreligion.org/episodes/2016/4/12/lgbtq-038-growing-up-greek-orthodox-stephen-p
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Best-selling author Joshua Becker joins me for a chat on minimalism and learning to live life with less.
Joshua has shared his story on top podcasts like Entrepreneur On Fire as well as, CBS Evening News, NPR, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal and countless media interviews around the world.
I've wanted to have Joshua on since we begin the Loser journey in August 2015. Ever since we met, his words and story stuck with me.
We're both former pastors, so we may get a little more "churchy" sounding than some of you are used to. But don't let that stop you from hearing the quality stuff he shares here.
In a world of consumerism and lust of continual accumulation we've learned that there's nothing to find in it. I love the lyrics of the Crass song, Pay As You Go...
You can put a mortgage on your life
To enter Shoppers' Paradise.
A trade-in for your dignity.
A lovely colour console TV.
To watch and cherish as the days slip by,
And dream of the things that money can buy.
Brushed chrome shit, plastic crap,
My life and my vision is worth more than that.
Plate glass ghetto, shopping spree,
I'm no fucking commodity.
I've battled with an addiction of wanting more, better car, bigger house, more electronics. But after losing the big dollars of corporate, institutional religion in America, I've now seen the beauty of having less. But don't assume this episode is about money, cause it's not.
"I was always frustrated that I continued to have significant pay increases but never seemed to be able to get ahead financially." - @Joshua_Becker on @LosingRReligion
"Minimalism and frugality are not the same things." - @Joshua_Becker on @LosingRReligion
"It's almost like society highjacks our passions and redirects them towards things that they what our lives to matter for." - @Joshua_Becker on @LosingRReligion
"My goal has always been that my possessions would not be a burden to me whether in excess or in lack." - @Joshua_Becker on @LosingRReligion
"The goal of minimalism is to free yourself up to focus on the things in life that are most important to you." - @Joshua_Becker on @LosingRReligion
"Minimalism isn't about money; it's about intentionality." - @Joshua_Becker on @LosingRReligion
Join the CounterCulture Society: http://eepurl.com/bwqMWT
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Find Out More: http://www.losingourreligion.org
This Episode's Landing Page: http://www.losingourreligion.org/episodes/2016/4/5/episode-037-losing-stuff-a-minimalist-journey-joshua-becker-becoming-minimalism-crass
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LosingRReligion
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Call 'Losers Anonymous' Hotline: 206-395-5608
This is a pun-filled joy ride of laughter and conversation about how we grew up in Jewish and Christian religious homes. Our first Losing Our Religion episode with Tequila, well, mezcal. In cocktail form of course, since we were recording at the posh Hotel Vintage in downtown Portland Oregon. The cocktail was called Up In Smoke, and we had the best time.
My wife Jen joins us again in this episode and uses her Peanut Gallery powers to draw us back into more important things rather than our happy rabbit trails. Grace's story of being Jewish but not Jewish enough to be accepted by some Jews is a story relatable to many of us.
We spend some time trying to talk out what we're going to do when each of us has kids. Cause both our parents made us go to the church building and synagog, and we learned some great life lessons there.
Grace and I share an affection for Daniel Johnston, so we highlight some of his work in this episode. As well as Slayer, which is hilarious to me that Grace likes Slayer.
We finish this episode hoping to do a part 2, but I got swamped with work and Grace moved to Chicago before we could make it happen. We will have to set up another time to have Grace on the show again to talk about the different Messiah's of Judaism and Christianity.
True Love Will Find You In The End By Daniel Johnston
True love will find you in the end
You'll find out just who was your friend
Don't be sad, I know you will,
But don't give up until
True love will find you in the end
This is a promise with a catch
Only if you're looking can it find you
'Cause true love is searching too
But how can it recognize you
Unless you step out into the light?
Don't be sad I know you will
But don't give up until
True love finds you in the end.
Join the CounterCulture Society: http://eepurl.com/bwqMWT
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Find Out More: http://www.losingourreligion.org
This Episode's Landing Page: http://www.losingourreligion.org/episodes/2016/3/28/036-hyperdrive-jew-grace-strachman-hilarious-mezcal
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LosingRReligion
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In this episode, we take our first phone call from a loser, discuss middle America, and whether losing hell is a good idea or not.
I don't know if there is a heaven or hell. I used to be certain there was, but these days I am not so sure. After reading the scriptures in context more than ten times, I don't see it speak of a heaven, but of a recreated earth, and there doesn't seem to be a hell, but more of an existence apart from God. Which for many of us reading this post, probably sounds pretty good.
I don't claim to be a theologian, but I used to. I don't claim to be well educated, but I used to think I was. I have already been labeled a heretic by my old church, received hate mail and fighting messages from pastors, all while joyfully accepted my apostate reality, but am I going to hell? I don't think I should care anymore. At least, I don't want to.
I have recently come to the conclusion that trying to live like there is a hell is of no help to the fulfillment or joy to be found in my life. It only makes me wonder who is in and who is out. So fuck it.
A fellow Loser sent me this to me after his therapy session he just finished,
"I had an insane therapy breakthrough today. We talked about the podcast and my time at Mars Hill the whole time. The two mind-blowing bullet points: 1 - Literally no one has authority over you, there are only people who try to exert power over you, and 2 - It’s perfectly acceptable to be pissed off, and I quote my therapist, 'to tell all those motherfuckers to fuck off forever.' "
One place we know the doctrine of heaven and hell works to control and manipulate is in religion. It keeps people, contained, controlled, and pliable to the institutions needs and desires. It keeps people coming to church and inviting others with them. The more and more distance my life has from "church" the freer I feel, and the more clarity I feel I have. I am free to explore, to live life on a journey of discovery, and to enjoy the journey's of others, without judgment.
Hell as an Invention of the Church
John Shelby Spong retired Episcopal bishop from Newark, N.J., interviewed by Keith Morrison on Dateline, NBC, August 12, 2006.
DATELINE NBC: To Hell and Back, Parts 1-4
After learning Greek and Hebrew to read the original manuscripts of the scripture, then famous evangelical megachurch pastor Carlton Pearson began to find discrepancies. He soon became to disbelieve in the doctrine of hell and began speaking about, what he called, "The Gospel of Inclusion." He lost everything because of it.
Join the CounterCulture Society: http://eepurl.com/bwqMWT
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Find Out More: http://www.losingourreligion.org
This Episode's Landing Page: http://www.losingourreligion.org/episodes/2016/3/24/im-a-loser-middle-america-losing-hell-living-life-loser-keith-john-shelby-spong-carlton-pearson
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