204 episodes
The Deconstructionists John Williamson
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- Religion & Spirituality
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4.5 • 772 Ratings
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A podcast about building new faith. Its all about construction, but sometimes that means you have to deconstruct a little. Questions, exploration, mystery...
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Doug Smith "Growing up in a cult"
Guest Info/Bio:
This week’s guest is comedian Doug Smith. Doug is a former Jehovah’s Witness who is searching for silver lining in growing up inside a doomsday cult. We talk about how his family got involved with the Jehovah’s Witnesses and what it was like to walk away.
Check out Doug’s podcast: Jehovah Boy with Doug Smith
Guest Website/Social Media:
www.dougsmithcomedy.com
Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, & YouTube: @whodougsmith
Special Theme Music by: Forrest Clay
Instagram: @forrestclaymusic
Twitter: @clay_k
YouTube: www.youtube.com/claykmusic
Songs featured on this episode were from the Recover EP
You can find Clay’s music on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere good music is found!
This episode of the Deconstructionists Podcast was edited, mixed, and produced by John Williamson
Stay on top of all of the latest at www.thedeconstructionists.com Go there to check out our blog, snag a t-shirt, or follow us on social media
Join our Patreon family here: www.patreon.com/deconstructionists
Website by Ryan Battles
All photos by Jared Hevron
Logos designed by Joseph Ernst & Stephen Pfluig
T-shirt designs by Joseph Ernst, Chad Flannigan, Colin Rigsby, and Jason Turner.
Starting your own podcast? Try Riverside! https://riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_1&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=john-williamson
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-deconstructionists/donations
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy -
Sarah Stankorb "Disobedient Women" pt. 2
Guest Info/Bio:
This week’s guest is Sarah Stankorb! Sarah is the author of the book Disobedient Women, which is a culmination of years reporting on women who used the internet to call out abuse within their evangelical communities. It is a book for and about people of faith and those who have walked away. The deeply researched work gives long-overdue recognition to the women who upturned their lives to speak out boldly, even as they were expected to submit and remain silent.
Sarah’s articles and essays have appeared in publications including The Washington Post Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vogue, Marie Claire, Glamour, O Magazine, Longreads, Catapult, Slate, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Atavist, CNNMoney, GOOD Magazine, Salon, KIWI, Babble, Geez, The Morning News, DAME Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, Brain, Child Magazine, Proto, Skirt, Bethesda Magazine, and Cincinnati Magazine.
Her beat spans politics, the environment, health, technology, religion and cultural commentary.
Guest (select) publications: Disobedient Women: How a Small Group of Faithful Women Exposed Abuse, Brought Down Powerful Pastors, and Ignited an Evangelical Reckoning.
Guest Website/Social Media:
www.sarahstankorb.com
Twitter: @sarahstankorb
Instagram: @sarahstankorb
TikTok: @sarahstankorb
Special Theme Music by: Forrest Clay
Instagram: @forrestclaymusic
Twitter: @clay_k
YouTube: www.youtube.com/claykmusic
Songs featured on this episode were from the Recover EP
You can find Clay’s music on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere good music is found!
This episode of the Deconstructionists Podcast was edited, mixed, and produced by John Williamson
Stay on top of all of the latest at www.thedeconstructionists.com Go there to check out our blog, snag a t-shirt, or follow us on social media. We have a brand new webstore with faster shipping, new products, new designs, and international shipping!
Join our Patreon family here: www.patreon.com/deconstructionists
Website by Ryan Battles
All photos by Jared Hevron
Logos designed by Joseph Ernst & Stephen Pfluig
T-shirt designs by Joseph Ernst, Chad Flannigan, Colin Rigsby, and Jason Turner.
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-deconstructionists/donations
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy -
Sarah Stankorb "Disobedient Women" pt. 1
Guest Info/Bio:
This week’s guest is Sarah Stankorb! Sarah is the author of the book Disobedient Women, which is a culmination of years reporting on women who used the internet to call out abuse within their evangelical communities. It is a book for and about people of faith and those who have walked away. The deeply researched work gives long-overdue recognition to the women who upturned their lives to speak out boldly, even as they were expected to submit and remain silent.
Sarah’s articles and essays have appeared in publications including The Washington Post Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vogue, Marie Claire, Glamour, O Magazine, Longreads, Catapult, Slate, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Atavist, CNNMoney, GOOD Magazine, Salon, KIWI, Babble, Geez, The Morning News, DAME Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, Brain, Child Magazine, Proto, Skirt, Bethesda Magazine, and Cincinnati Magazine.
Her beat spans politics, the environment, health, technology, religion and cultural commentary.
Guest (select) publications: Disobedient Women: How a Small Group of Faithful Women Exposed Abuse, Brought Down Powerful Pastors, and Ignited an Evangelical Reckoning.
Guest Website/Social Media:
www.sarahstankorb.com
Twitter: @sarahstankorb
Instagram: @sarahstankorb
TikTok: @sarahstankorb
Special Theme Music by: Forrest Clay
Instagram: @forrestclaymusic
Twitter: @clay_k
YouTube: www.youtube.com/claykmusic
Songs featured on this episode were from the Recover EP
You can find Clay’s music on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere good music is found!
This episode of the Deconstructionists Podcast was edited, mixed, and produced by John Williamson
Stay on top of all of the latest at www.thedeconstructionists.com Go there to check out our blog, snag a t-shirt, or follow us on social media. We have a brand new webstore with faster shipping, new products, new designs, and international shipping!
Join our Patreon family here: www.patreon.com/deconstructionists
Website by Ryan Battles
All photos by Jared Hevron
Logos designed by Joseph Ernst & Stephen Pfluig
T-shirt designs by Joseph Ernst, Chad Flannigan, Colin Rigsby, and Jason Turner.
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-deconstructionists/donations
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy -
Dr. Greg Garrett "The Gospel According to James Baldwin" pt. 2
Guest Info/Bio:
This week’s guest is Dr. Greg Garrett! Greg is a writer, speaker, musician, and professor. He’s the critically acclaimed author of over two dozen books of fiction and nonfiction including his latest, “The Gospel According to James Baldwin: What America’s Great Prophet Can Teach Us about Life, Love, and Identity.”
Greg studied at Oklahoma State University where he received his PhD in English. He then continued his education with post-doctoral studies in Holocaust Studies at the University of Oregon and later received his Masters in Divinity from the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas.
Guest (select) publications: My Church is NOT Dying: Episopalians in the 21st Century; Crossing Myself: A Story of Spiritual Rebirth; We Get To Carry Each Other: The Gospel According to U2; Holy Superheroes; The Gospel According to Hollywood; The Other Jesus: Rejecting a Religion of Fear for the God of Love; Stories From The Edge: A Theology of Grief; Living With The Living Dead: The Wisdom of the Zombie Apocalypse; Entertaining Judgement: The Afterlife in Popular Imagination; The Gospel According to James Baldwin: What America’s Great Prophet Can Teach Us about Life, Love, and Identity
James Baldwin (select) publications: The Fire Next Time; Giovanni’s Room; Go Tell It on the Mountain; Notes of a Native Son; Another Country; If Beale Street Could Talk; Nobody Knows My Name
Guest Website/Social Media:
Twitter: @Greg1Garrett
Special Theme Music by: Forrest Clay
Instagram: @forrestclaymusic
Twitter: @clay_k
YouTube: www.youtube.com/claykmusic
Songs featured on this episode were from the Recover EP
You can find Clay’s music on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere good music is found!
Check out Factor 75 and use my code deconstruct50 for a great deal: https://www.factor75.com/
This episode of the Deconstructionists Podcast was edited, mixed, and produced by John Williamson
Stay on top of all of the latest at www.thedeconstructionists.com Go there to check out our blog, snag a t-shirt, or follow us on social media. We have a brand new webstore with faster shipping, new products, new designs, and international shipping!
Join our Patreon family here: www.patreon.com/deconstructionists
Website by Ryan Battles
All photos by Jared Hevron
Logos designed by Joseph Ernst & Stephen Pfluig
T-shirt designs by Joseph Ernst, Chad Flannigan, Colin Rigsby, and Jason Turner.
Starting your own podcast? Try Riverside! https://riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_1&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=john-williamson
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-deconstructionists/donations
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy -
Dr. Greg Garrett "The Gospel According to James Baldwin" pt. 1
Guest Info/Bio:
This week’s guest is Dr. Greg Garrett! Greg is a writer, speaker, musician, and professor. He’s the critically acclaimed author of over two dozen books of fiction and nonfiction including his latest, “The Gospel According to James Baldwin: What America’s Great Prophet Can Teach Us about Life, Love, and Identity.”
Greg studied at Oklahoma State University where he received his PhD in English. He then continued his education with post-doctoral studies in Holocaust Studies at the University of Oregon and later received his Masters in Divinity from the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas.
Guest (select) publications: My Church is NOT Dying: Episopalians in the 21st Century; Crossing Myself: A Story of Spiritual Rebirth; We Get To Carry Each Other: The Gospel According to U2; Holy Superheroes; The Gospel According to Hollywood; The Other Jesus: Rejecting a Religion of Fear for the God of Love; Stories From The Edge: A Theology of Grief; Living With The Living Dead: The Wisdom of the Zombie Apocalypse; Entertaining Judgement: The Afterlife in Popular Imagination; The Gospel According to James Baldwin: What America’s Great Prophet Can Teach Us about Life, Love, and Identity
James Baldwin (select) publications: The Fire Next Time; Giovanni’s Room; Go Tell It on the Mountain; Notes of a Native Son; Another Country; If Beale Street Could Talk; Nobody Knows My Name
Guest Website/Social Media:
Twitter: @Greg1Garrett
Special Theme Music by: Forrest Clay
Instagram: @forrestclaymusic
Twitter: @clay_k
YouTube: www.youtube.com/claykmusic
Songs featured on this episode were from the Recover EP
You can find Clay’s music on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere good music is found!
Check out Factor 75 and use my code deconstruct50 for a great deal: https://www.factor75.com/
This episode of the Deconstructionists Podcast was edited, mixed, and produced by John Williamson
Stay on top of all of the latest at www.thedeconstructionists.com Go there to check out our blog, snag a t-shirt, or follow us on social media. We have a brand new webstore with faster shipping, new products, new designs, and international shipping!
Join our Patreon family here: www.patreon.com/deconstructionists
Website by Ryan Battles
All photos by Jared Hevron
Logos designed by Joseph Ernst & Stephen Pfluig
T-shirt designs by Joseph Ernst, Chad Flannigan, Colin Rigsby, and Jason Turner.
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-deconstructionists/donations
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy -
Rabbi Brad Hirschfield "Stories From The Old Testament: The Flood" pt. 4
Guest Info/Bio:
This week’s guest is the return of the amazing Rabbi Brad Hirschfield! We continue our discussion on stories from what we refer to as the Old Testament from the Christian and Jewish perspectives. This episode we cover the story of the great flood.
Listed for many years in Newsweek as one of America’s “50 Most Influential Rabbis,” and recognized as one of our nation’s leading “Preachers & Teachers,” by Beliefnet.com, Fox News regular contributor, Washington Post blogger, and think tank President Brad Hirschfield is the author of You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism (Harmony, 2008). He also conceived and hosted two groundbreaking series for Bridges TV—American Muslim TV Network, Building Bridges: Abrahamic Perspectives on the World Today (three seasons), and American Pilgrimage. He is also the Co-founder and Executive Editor of The Wisdom Daily.
An expert on religion and public life, Hirschfield offers a unique perspective on the American spiritual landscape and political and social trends to audiences nationwide. A regular on Lou Dobbs Tonight on the Fox Business Network, and The Washington Post’s Conversations: Live Q & A, he’s been a contributor on ethical issues for Tru-TV, co-hosted the weekly radio show Hirschfield and Kula and is frequently quoted in the press. A popular guest on such shows as The Dennis Miller Show, Lars Larson, and Fox News.com Live, he has appeared on CNN, PBS, MTV and NPR, among others, and was featured on PBS’s “Frontline: Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero,” and the acclaimed documentary, Freaks Like Me. A regular commentator for The Huffington Post and one of Patheos.com’s Experts, he contributes frequently to Fox News Opinion, writes a column, For God’s Sake, for the WashingtonPost.com’s “On Faith.” His blog, Windows & Doors, appears on Beliefnet.com (the net’s largest site for spirituality and inspiration), and was featured on the homepage of Digg.com.
Rabbi Hirschfield is also an interfaith activist, he has inspired audiences from the Aspen Institute and the Washington National Cathedral, to the Islamic Society of North America and many leading universities and religious institutions. A featured speaker at Parliament of the World’s Religions in both Barcelona and Melbourne, he was recently invited by the Governments of the United States and the Republic of Indonesia to speak at the Jakarta Interfaith Dialogue
Guest (select) publications: You Don’t Have to Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism
Guest Website/Social Media:
www.clal.org
Twitter: @BradHirschfield
Special Theme Music by: Forrest Clay
Instagram: @forrestclaymusic
Twitter: @clay_k
YouTube: www.youtube.com/claykmusic
Songs featured on this episode were from the Recover EP
You can find Clay’s music on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere good music is found!
This episode of the Deconstructionists Podcast was edited, mixed, and produced by John Williamson
Stay on top of all of the latest at www.thedeconstructionists.com Go there to check out our blog, snag a t-shirt, or follow us on social media. Check out our brand new print to order page with new international shipping and brand new designs and products!
Join our Patreon family here: www.patreon.com/deconstructionists
Website by Ryan Battles
All photos by Jared Hevron
Logos designed by Joseph Ernst & Stephen Pfluig
T-shirt designs by Joseph Ernst, Chad Flannigan, Colin Rigsby, and Jason Turner.
Starting your own podcast? Try Riverside! https://riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_1&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=john-williamson
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-deconstructionists/donations
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Customer Reviews
I love the new 2 part podcasts
This is an intelligent and thought provoking podcast that keeps expanding my heart and my horizons! The God I know is so much bigger than the box that most churches try to stuff Him into…and this podcast of love stretches me each time! I appreciate the 2 part podcasts…allows for the discussions to not be rushed and I am able to be thoughtfully more engaged.
Disappointing interview with Dale Allison
This is a review of two older episodes (4/02/23 and 4/07/23) featuring an interview with Dale Allison about the resurrection. I am hesitant to give a podcast a low rating because of a disingenuous or misleading guest because I know a host cannot really keep a guest from blowing smoke and blurring the line between facts and beliefs. At the same time, a host can ask tough questions and ask a guest to provide evidence for their claims. The host of this podcast did neither in the two-part interview with Dale Allison.
Allison misrepresented the ‘evidence’ for the resurrection. Allison is not a fundamentalist or an apologist, but he employed the same sleight of hand used by many fundamentalists and apologists by equating Christian claims about the resurrection with objective evidence for the historical truth of the the resurrection.
The New Testament is a record of early Christian claims about the resurrection; it is NOT evidence that the resurrection actually took place. The NT is full of claims which Allison freely rejects as historical, and there are other claims he believes are true. The problem is he does not offer any objective criteria for determining what he thinks is true and what he thinks is false. How does he sort the true claims in the NT from the false claims in the NT without engaging in circular reasoning or appealing to other parts of the NT? He is conspicuously silent on this matter, and the host doesn’t seem interested in asking Allison to justify his claims with objective evidence.
There is no verifiable proof that any of the events surrounding Jesus’ death happened as described in the gospels or that they even happened at all. The four gospel accounts are wildly contradictory and the later three are hard at work correcting the errors they found in earlier accounts.
We know early Christians made up all kinds of claims about Jesus. Both the canonical and non-canonical gospels are stuffed with fictional and legendary material. Allison admits this freely, but he still thinks he can isolate a few bits of historically reliable information in the four canonical gospels (and maybe the Gospel of Thomas). However, he seems unwilling to entertain the idea that the very earliest followers of Jesus could have made up all the details related to his death, burial, and subsequent missing body (empty tomb). We cannot know for certain they did not invent such claims since we know they invented other claims. There is no reliable, objective way to determine what’s fiction and what’s historical.
Allison leans heavily on Paul’s writing about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. But what if Paul is simply repeating earlier claims about the death, burial, and resurrection? Paul’s repetition of oral tradition and hearsay does not establish the veracity of the claims. Paul wrote before the composition of the gospels, so he’s not corroborating their stories. And if the gospel stories are simply narrative expositions of the death, burial, and resurrection based on the same legends that Paul knows about, we are no closer to determining what really happened. Dale Allison seems unwilling to acknowledge this.
There is no evidence that Jesus made post-mortem appearances to anyone. All we have are claims that he did. Paul’s account in 1 Corinthians leaves out some of the most famous post-mortem appearances found in the contradictory gospel accounts. Paul doesn’t mention any appearance to Jesus’ female followers or to doubting Thomas or to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Paul says Jesus appeared to the twelve, but this doesn’t make sense since the disciples were down to eleven after Judas’ suicide. The appearance to 500 people at once is just hearsay. We don’t know when it happened, where it happened, or who was there. There is no independent, eyewitness testimony from any of these 500 people regarding what they saw. All we have is second/third/fourth-hand hearsay that Jesus appeared to this large group.
We have no way of knowing anything about Jesus’ alleged post-mortem appearances to Paul. All we have are Paul’s claims. Acts repeats these claims without any evidence of fact-checking. Acts states other people were with Paul when Jesus appeared to him (although Acts gives multiple, contradictory versions of this event), but we don’t know who these people were nor do we have shred of testimony from them.
It’s simply impossible to objectively verify any of the Bible’s claims regarding the life and death of Jesus - much less what may have happened to his body after he died. Dale Allison seems unable to state this plainly and succinctly. Instead he tries to stake out a middle ground between the apologists and the skeptics in order to appear reasonable and open-minded. This is perhaps his most dishonest tactic because legitimate historians only go so far as the evidence allows. They do not conflate religiously motivated claims with multiply-attested, independent historical data. Skepticism regarding the resurrection is not the opposite of the positions taken by fundamentalist Christians like William Craig and liberal Christians like Dale Allison. Rather, it is the only objective and logical stance to take with respect to miraculous events lacking evidential support beyond the claims of religious believers who have staked their very lives and careers on the truth of these claims.
And the host simply sat there, never bothering to ask any tough questions to ask for objective evidence regarding anything Allison said. I appreciate what the host is trying to do with the overall thrust of his podcast, but I think he’d better serve his listeners by taking a more no-nonsense approach to his guests.
Affirming and Growth oriented
So glad I found this podcast a few months ago. I’m working my way through the older episodes and listening to the new ones as they drop as well. I’ve been on this journey for so long and am exponentially comforted to find community to learn and grow with.