Category Archives: Uncategorized

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Barbara Symons on How She Escaped Christianity and Found Christ


Author of “Escaping Christianity-Finding Christ,” Barbara Symons joins Michael for a lively conversation on her journey out of evangelical/charismatic/fundamentalist Christianity into a mystic awareness of Jesus. Learn how she was indoctrinated over decades into a “schizophrenic Christianity” and ultimately went through a sometimes painful, but an incredibly freeing deprogramming process.

Barbara and Michael discuss her largely experiential breakthroughs that led her to expose and overcome the cognitive dissonance within the modern conservative Christian movement and how her experiences dovetail with and validate Michael’s largely historical studies on Christianity.

Hear how Barbara came to recognize the Spirit behind her past experiences is cross cultural and not limited to one religious sect. She shares how she uncovered and discovered the metaphorical messages in scripture and how they advanced her understanding of Spiritual truth as it pertains to who we are, why we are here, and where we are going. Barbara helps us “embrace the Divine” outside debilitating and abusive religious systems.

Visit www.barbarasymons.com to learn more.
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12 Fake Claims of Western Christianity – Part 2

What if we turned the concept of “fake news” on politics to examining fake claims about religion? What would we discover? 

We’d find the DNA of ancient Christianity (i.e., Jesus’ teaching and peace movement) has suffered grave mutations that the Western Reformation never completely corrected, and in some cases, made worse. How can we know this? Through careful historical, biblical, and linguistic study. And how can the Jesus of history be authentic and much of this religion called Christianity be a scam? By an historical sleight of hand.

In this episode (Part 2), we discuss the remaining 7-12 major fake claims or scams that have been fostered by Western Christianity and ignorant or unsuspecting adherents about popular views of the meaning of the cross, the end times, women in the church, morality for the LGBT community, spiritual exchange, and justifying violence and war. (For fake claims #1-6, see Part 1). 

Authors cited or quoted include, James Bernstein, Mark Heim, Marcus Borg, N.T. Wright, Josephus (first century), Ann Nyland, Jacque Ellul, Michael Hardin, Rene Girard, and Robin Meyers. 

Interview Announcement: Michael announces the next episode will be an interview of Barbara Symons! Barbara is the author of “Escaping Christianity – Finding Christ” and has a lot of overlap with Michael on many experiences coming out of fundamentalism/evangelicalism. 

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The Sick Faith and Fake News of Those Who Warn People to Stay Outside The Shack

Blasphemous. Dangerous. Heresy. Unbiblical. These are the words religious purists use to describe the book The Shack and the recently released movie by the same name. Despite seeing a few good things in it, they are overwhelmingly critical.

But what horrors are in it that could possibly merit these warnings? Is it a bit too hokey? (It is. In his vision, the protagonist has meals and conversations with the holy Trinity and walks on water with Jesus). But no, nothing like that according to these hair-splitting legalists. To them, the big sins of The Shack, are that it makes God out to be too loving, overly forgiving, remarkably understanding, naively inclusive, irresponsibly lax on biblical/church authority, and nowhere near sectarian, religious, angry, and punishing enough to reflect the God of the Bible!

“If the God found in The Shack is the one people choose to follow, I fear they face grave eternal danger,” states evangelical critic Roger Patterson. “In the film, Papa [God] expresses only love and has no room for wrath, justice, or holiness… The God of The Shack is not interested in justice in an ultimate sense,” he adds in Staying Outside The Shack. Randy Alcorn also voiced concerns about the scriptural basis of The Shack in his similar review, Reflections on The Shack. Seattle pastor Mark Driscoll used to warn his congregation not to read it. Albert Mohler thinks the book’s popularity is due to a lack of “evangelical discernment.”

Hmm… let’s deconstruct this.

Wait, there’s more! »