Almost Heretical – A Podcast for Believers and/or Doubters (Both Like Me)

About a year ago, an acquaintance told me a story about his life that was dumbfounding and true. I won’t repeat it here, but certain events happened to him that were not within the set realms of life that we normally expect nature to follow. It set me on a path of questioning a lot about God and the narrow box we can put him in.

Actually, COVID times got me started. Trump got Christians into lots of in-fighting, and being in a pandemic worsened all of it because it was online. We didn’t get to see each other, hug each other, celebrate with each other, or console each other. People just opined. All over the place.

And just the other day, a different acquaintance and I were talking. She made a comment that I’d never thought of after I asked her why she hangs out with people that harm her. She said, “I can’t turn my back on people, even if they hurt me. Think about the devil. All through time, people have hated him. He can’t change his reputation even if he wants to. He doesn’t have a friend. Maybe he needs a friend. I want to be the devil’s friend and show him what love is.” Wow. What a comment.

Then I read some books on energy, light, and matter. On how it has been shown statistically that with our thoughts, we can change matter in its smallest (quantifiable) form. Positive thoughts can create certain results while negative thoughts can create other results. In short, our thoughts and beliefs can change our life for good or bad, whether they are true or not. That has a lot of different applications and ramifications.

With all of this swirling in my head, I had to call my brother Jack. Certainly he, a born-theologian-type, has thought what I have, exponentially so. He had. And he recommended a podcast that articulates and addresses so many of the the same kinds of things I’ve been ruminating on for a long time called Almost Heretical: Deconstructing Christianity. It was conceived by two ex-pastors who believe in God and the bible, but have not appreciated the ways in which the stories have been misinterpreted and passed down. Eureka! Here is what their website says:

Join Nate, a former pastor, missionary, and worship leader, and Shelby, a bible scholar and language nerd, as they rethink fundamentalist reformed evangelical theology. Together, we’re here to help you navigate your own deconstruction journey and find a way forward built on honesty and authenticity. Never stop asking the hard questions and not settling for easy answers.

If it sounds interesting to you, click here to go to the first six episodes, which look like this (the bottom-right one is the first one, called “Ex-pastors in a shed”:

If you are or have been questioning Christianity and crave to go a lot deeper in the bible but no study or sermon or church is taking you there (and you aren’t getting there on your own), I highly recommend listening to this podcast. I love digging deep, learning fascinating facts about the original language and context, and having repeated aha! moments. If you’ve ever done one of the 9-month Bible Study Fellowship studies (which are studies accessible to any person globally, and they are happening right now, in a rotation of themes each 9 months), you will probably appreciate this podcast for its information alone. Both dig deep and reveal information you rarely get in church.

Speaking of BSF, it provides the best studies I’ve ever done of the bible. They are in-depth and require about an hour or more each day. Since being in BSF, every other bible study (except for some by Beth Moore) has felt like a comedown. Click here for more information, and this is what you’ll see:

You’re basically given a packet each week, and a page or two of the packet is each day’s study. You meet in person once a week locally or online internationally with your group for a few hours to hear a talk and discuss what you’ve studied. It’s solid. I constantly think about joining a BSF study again because of its depth, regardless of the fact that I’m questioning a lot of things.

Happy podcasting, learning, and aha!ing…

If you are new to podcasts, you’re not alone, I’m new too. I don’t even own earbuds. I’m using the old yellow walkman earphones from decades ago. I’ve never listened to podcasts until now. I’ve tended to be a read-a-book or think-in-quietness type until listening to this.

Photo from almostheretical.com