Bonnie and Karen shepherd you through the religious obstacles of Thanksgiving dinner. We throw in a history lesson, sprinkle it with some rat urine, and then send you into the lion's den. Good luck, Champ.
How did this story of violent death and floating babies turn into the cutest story in the Bible, with cute toys being given to children at Christmas? Bonne and Karen tackle the issues that float to the top with this fantastical story they both thought was real growing up.
Kanye's back with more of his Christian humility and putting others first. We've got Paula White receiving an official White House position. And it all wraps up with the bombshell accusations about sexual misconduct of comedian John Crist. Never a week off around here. We get Kanye out of the way by talking about how upset he is that he can't do math for Forbes. Paula, Paula, Paula. Paula White is in the news again because Trump gave her an official posting. NowThis made a video of her clips. Am...
Have you NOT subscribed? Really? Tapping that button is just too much of a strain on the digits? Come on, help a poddy mouth out. This month’s Lettersode went sidewayyyyys. It wasn’t the letter writers’ fault. We recorded in the morning and were much more chipper, and sometimes things in our path get destroyed. Our letters from Bethany, Fred, and Brad were awesome. We have curse words, Gary Smalley, and more Multi-level marketing fun. If you’ve braved coming to see show notes, your reward is the...
No, we did not make that word up. But sadly, someone else did. This week Karen and Bonnie share their memories of Halloweens past, when the church hadn't upped the ante on hijacking it for Fall Festivals and Hallelujah Nights. Or JesusWeens , a concept that didn't make it far out of the gate, but far enough for it to still be out there. There are two great letters from listeners who had to celebrate Halloween at church, hints on how to survive waterboarding, and these tacky Christian-themed Hall...
Bonnie and Karen were ready to skewer everything and everyone connected to hateful Westboro Baptist, with their God Hates Fags picket lines. But then they read Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roper who left the church (her entire family) and has now come out with the book. Despicable? Yes. Hurtful? Of course. But with hearing and reading from the granddaughter of the founder of the church, we understand the psychology more. We also highlight the Equality House, a home purchased across the street form W...
It's just a little fun on the side. Sell some oils or woven baskets, make some pocket money. Of course, that's not how it ends up at all. Multi-Level marketing companies are mainly Christian/Mormon run--Mary Kay, DoTerra Oils, Pampered Chef, Advocare, and many more. The secret hidden in plain sight is that 75% of people (ok, women) who join MLMs don't make money. And about 50% LOSE money. Bonnie and Karen discuss which MLMs are religious-based, why, and what the hell is going on. They try to kee...
Listener letter time. Weird, quirky, and hilarious. Bonnie and Karen read from their virtual stack. If you've been holding onto a humorous story to do with religion or church, send it in HERE.
Karen and Bonnie discuss Kanye West’s Sunday Services going on around the country. Find us on Instagram , Twitter , and Facebook Page And please SUBSCRIBE. Thank you. We Have a SHOP . Check it out and help support our podcast. Karen and Bonnie begin by trying to figure out what a Wonderwall is, reminisce about Saturday Night Live’s Shweddy Balls skit, and discuss writings on bathroom walls before getting down to professionally analyzing Kanye West. Kanye’s new church services are in Calabasas, C...
The Quiverfull Movement is all about letting God give you as many babies as possible to build up the Army of God. Think, the Duggars. We want to make 2 things clear at the get-go: Having a lot of kids is not bad, no matter how much we laugh at it. All big families aren’t quiverfull either. Many women have been hurt by this movement, so rest assured we understand the gravity of the hurt that women and kids, especially have experienced with this. Just like our episodes on cults or conmen preachers...
Danny McBride, Adam Devine, Edi Patterson, John Goodman, and a guy playing a keytar. The Righteous Gemstones is heaven. This week we discuss the HBO show and how familiar Bonnie and Karen are with the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker-type family that drives two-hundred thousand dollar SUVs, has a shooting range on their compound, and a Christian project named Keefe living with them. There are celibacy promises! Bible heroes wax museum. Chicken references. Mullets. Pants with pleats. Tee shirts with you...
Joshua Harris, Marty Sampson, and Mckrae Game. They've done some thinking and the church is not happy about it. We say "welcome to the beginning of feeling okay about looking for answers." Y'all ballers. Joshua Harris renounced Christianity close to the time the author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye announced his separation from his wife. Since then, he looks like he's living life and staying away from doing much other than concentrating on his kids, work, and loving those he no longer judges. Marty...
A full episode of kooky letters. We've got ones from Fredzo, Racheal, David, and Bethany. Plus, a surprise one up top. When you're deep into the church, or being homeschooled, you learn a lot of things too important for your basic historians. They're saved for God's chosen people to know. Like...who really shot JFK or why slavery was fantastic. For the musicians out there, we hear from a bloody singer as well as Queen. These episodes are our favorites. Please send us your letters !...
Once you build a 73 million dollar sanctuary, what could go wrong? Willow Creek church in Chicago was the first mainstream mega-church.From keytars and dry ice machines in the 80s to megatrons and coffee shops now, Willow Creek has been rocked by a...wait for it...sex scandal. Bill Hybels founded the church in 1975. The church has 7 locations and averages 24,000 attendees. Yes, we get most of this from Wikipedia. So do people like to go to large churches to hide and blend in? In 2018 the whole l...
Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, is now the self-proclaimed Son of Hope. Karen tries to get David to come to the studio, but he’s too shy. And imprisoned. We should have gotten the actor who portrays him on Mindhunter on Netflix. He's amazing! Bonnie joins the rank of 22 year-old guys who live on Reddit by putting a Bible in the Historical Fiction category at a Barnes and Noble. And Karen admits to saving up her money one year to buy her husband a Zune for allll his music. Holds 50 songs! We were th...
Letters and letters! Thanks for writing in. You can send us yours via our website www.deconversiontherapypodcast.com . Our first one is from Heather, a kick-ass deconvert who’s been through it. She’s still healing from losing sword drills. Then she tells us about the universal kids’ musical/dancing controversies we all lived through growing up. We read a letter from a Christian college “bad boy,” as well as hear about a JW vs Mormon turf war. Come laugh at yourselves with us. As always, we reall...
Karen and Bonnie discuss the book, and soon-to be-released Netflix documentary “The Family: An enigmatic conservative Christian group known as the Family wields enormous influence in Washington, D.C., in pursuit of its global ambitions.” The secret group in DC laid low for a long time and only insiders knew of them. Until the shtooping. Always the shtooping. In 2008, when senator Mark Sanford disappeared to go “hiking” but was found out to be hiking on his mistress, people learned he lived in a ...
That's right, it's time for your favorite group of pumped guys who've been traveling from church to church for over 40 years doing feats of strength, The Power Team! Bonnie missed the huge event at church where they came and blew. us. tweens. away. The ripping of phone books, the lifting of heavy weights, the bending of fry pans. And then a testimony of how they serve Christ? These were our super heroes. They're still around 40 years later with dozens of break-off groups. Vice does it again with...
Karen and Bonnie go through the lives and miracle healing powers of Kathrine Kuhlman and Benny Hill, no, Hinn. Are people really getting cured of cancer and broken backs and whatnot and various sundries? Why are all the people falling backwards when they get healed? And how in the world are these wheeler healers getting their own television shows when we don't have one? Karen starts out with one of the best-known faith healers, Katherine Kuhlman. You might have never heard of her, but she birthe...
Bonnie and Karen talk about the sex cult called the Rajneesh this week. If you haven’t watched the Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country , Bonnie goes over it while trying to capture the insanity. Bagwan Shree Rajneesh, the guru, gathers up well-educated Western followers in Pune, India. They then all move, with his Rolls Royces, to Antelope, Oregon. That’s when they take over the small town and things go to hell. This story has orgies, robes, beavers in blenders and on women, bombs, poison, sal...
It’s a short, summery episode of listeners’ letters! We’ve got Michelle telling about an insanely long revival that includes a hot evangelist and modesty blankets. Justin writes in about being THAT 13-year-old Christian kid who thinks they’ve cracked the code on when Jesus will return. And, finally, Rachel gives insight into her charismatic church that sparks a painfully embarrassing memory for Karen. Send your funny, true letters to us at www.deconversiontherapypodcast.com...
Please Subscribe, rate, and review . We’d appreciate it. Who's kookier, or old cootier, Jim Bakker or Pat Robertson. We make them go head-to-head on this episode. We'll post polls on our social media things so you can vote. The winner will get nothing but their already deserved disgrace. Who's kookier, or old cootier, Jim Bakker or Pat Robertson? We make them go head-to-head on this episode. We'll post polls on our social media things ( Facebook , Instagram , and Twitter ) so you can vote. The w...
Please Subscribe, rate, and review . We’d appreciate it. Bonnie fills Karen in on Jerry Falwell Jr., and the news that something is afoot in his world. The players are a pool boy, Jerry, Jerry’s wife, Michael Cohen and his plaid jacket, and Tom Arnold. Of course, Trump always shows up in anything we discuss when it comes to sketchy “Christians.” Falwell has the sanpaku, an eyeball thing Bonnie is obsessed with. Supposedly, he’s either an addict or crazzzzy. The story’s still coming out, but ther...
We are back! Please help us out by subscribing, rating, and reviewing us. In fact, although we don’t think we put out anything worthy, we’re asking you to share this episode because these preachers asking for LGBT people to be killed need eyes on them. By everyone! We give a shout-out to Maggie who said she not only noticed we were gone for two weeks but that she missed us. She’s going to get a crown in our heaven one day. Bonnie gets after the Google doodle on Father’s Day because it depicts du...
Bonnie and Karen discuss the Love Family cult, also known as The Church of Jesus Christ at Armageddon. They have first names like Logic and Submission and Smooth--what's not to love? And although they went a bit off the rails, the concept is pretty familiar. And it sounds a lot like the church with a capital C.
Can Bonnie and Karen find something funny about the Abortion ban that just passed in Alabama? We’re gonna try! Bonnie found some great articles from satire at The Reductress to Noam Chomsky’s great video of why the Southern states and evangelicals grabbed on to the abortion issue. Cory Doctorow gave a lovely recap that included our new favorite term “musketf*ckers.” Karen and Bonnie both learned about sex in strange ways, from grandmothers to toilet notes. The Bible never mentions “Do not Abort,...
This week, Karen and Bonnie poke at Franklin Graham, one of the most misrable-seeming men to be filled with the joy of salvation. Graham tweeted a happy birthday to Melania Trump, calling her the classiest first lady AMERICA HAS EVER HAD. Eat it, Mary Washington and Jackie Kennedy! Twitter did their thing and went after him. We’re sure he has to ask for repentance after seeing all the photos people responded with. Bonnie can’t help thinking of Franklin, the puppet from Arrested Development. Our ...
This week Karen and Bonnie do something a little different by honoring exvangelical author and thinker Rachel Held Evans who passed away a few days ago at the age of 37. Rachel wrote the satirical book "A Year of Biblical Womanhood," where she tried to live as the Bible instructs women to be as a way to point out how ridiculous it is to follow the Bible to a T, but to follow the spirit of it. B and K take a swat at Franklin Graham's tweet wishing Melania trump a happy birthday, and calling her t...
Bonnie and Karen has a few false starts this week as they talk about church lock-ins. Join us as we tell you about them in real time. Horny kids, pizza, one bathroom, what could go wrong? Lock-ins have evolved since we were teens, and now there are bouncy castles and kids suing the church for stupid youth minister pranks. They get bands, go to Walmart, go to malls, jump at one of those trampoline places for exxxactly 90 minutes. Karen tells about her kids have gone to church lock-ins. They were ...
Karen tells Bonnie about Paula White, an evangelist who "led Trump to Christ," and has continued to be a big influence on him. It's a story few know about, but everything becomes clear once you do. Pics and more at https://deconversiontherapypodcast.com/2019/04/24/13-stop-believin-the-story-of-trump-and-paula-white/
