This week we will be talking to a notorious former pastor about their experience growing up inside high control religion, becoming a poster child for purity culture, being set up to take over for a large church and ultimately giving it all up, deconstructing his faith and leaving the church. If you grew up in evangelicalism, and likely even if you didn’t, you’re sure to be familiar with Joshua Harris, author of the wildly popular Christian dating, ahem, courting, book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye. He’s here to share with us about his time inside of high control religion, what opened his eyes to the unhealthy dynamics inside the church and his process of healing after leaving. It’s an episode that all of our younger selves never saw coming and definitely one you won’t want to miss!

We’ll also be squeezing in some prayer requests as Andrew is back to lift up those “unspokens” and you may have heard Laura say a couple weeks ago that our last episode of season 1 would be after this episode, but fear not, we’ll be back in a couple weeks with a new episode and are excited to share the fun things we have coming in store for you this summer…because what’s a Sunday School Dropout without Vacation Bible School?

This podcast is brought to you by the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery: an online trauma coaching company whose practitioners are trauma informed and trauma trained to work with individuals, couples and families who have experienced high control religion, cults, and religious trauma. For more information on the support that CTRR provides, for resources–including courses, workshops, and more–head to traumaresolutionandrecovery.com or follow us on Instagram: @traumaresolutionandrecovery

The views and opinions expressed by Sunday School Dropouts are those of the hosts and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery. Any of the content provided by our guests, sponsors, authors, or bloggers are their own ideas and opinions.

The Sunday School Dropouts podcast is not anti-religion but it is anti -harm, -power and control, -oppression and, -abuse and will speak to the harmful practices and messaging of fundamentalist groups.

Follow Andrew on Instagram and TikTok @deconstruct_everything

Follow Laura on Instagram and TikTok @drlauraeanderson or on her website: www.drlauraeanderson.com

Hosts:

Laura Anderson and Andrew Kerbs

Music by Benjamin Faye Music @heytherebenji

Editing and Production by Kevin Crowe and can be found at www.kevincrowe.co

How do you heal from religious trauma when you were both the victim and perpetrator of high control religion? Dan Miller joins us today to discuss his work with clients who are healing from religious trauma and adverse religious experiences that were in positions of ministry leadership, including the unpaid labor of volunteers (which many of us called: servants). In this episode we talk about some of the unique aspects of healing that former ministry leaders face, steps to re-build your life after leaving ministry positions, feeling burned out after volunteering, and building self-compassion.

Guest: Dan Miller

Website: www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.com

Work with Dan: dan@traumaresolutionandrecovery.com

This podcast is brought to you by the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery: an online trauma coaching company whose practitioners are trauma informed and trauma trained to work with individuals, couples and families who have experienced high control religion, cults, and religious trauma. For more information on the support that CTRR provides, for resources–including courses, workshops, and more–head to traumaresolutionandrecovery.com or follow us on Instagram: @traumaresolutionandrecovery

The views and opinions expressed by Sunday School Dropouts are those of the hosts and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery. Any of the content provided by our guests, sponsors, authors, or bloggers are their own ideas and opinions.

The Sunday School Dropouts podcast is not anti-religion but it is anti -harm, -power and control, -oppression and, -abuse and will speak to the harmful practices and messaging of fundamentalist groups.

Follow Andrew on Instagram and TikTok @deconstruct_everything

Follow Laura on Instagram and TikTok @drlauraeanderson or on her website: www.drlauraeanderson.com

Hosts:

Laura Anderson and Andrew Kerbs

Music by Benjamin Faye Music @heytherebenji

Editing and Production by Kevin Crowe and can be found at www.kevincrowe.co

We are excited to be talking today with April Ajoy and Beecher Reuning! They are sharing with the Sunday School Dropouts crew their story of growing up in fundamentalism and purity culture, meeting and getting married under those systems and then navigating their way through discarding those doctrines and theology to find their way into the relationship they have today. It’s an episode you won’t want to miss!

Religious Trauma + the Elections Course - use code ELECTIONS for $15 off

Guests:

April Ajoy can be found on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook @aprilajoy and on X at @aprilajoyr

Beecher Reuning can be found Instagram, TikTok and X @hellobeecher and on Facebook @beecher

Their podcast "The Non-Binary Marriage" can be found here.

Buzzfeed article about April can be found here

This podcast is brought to you by the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery: an online trauma coaching company whose practitioners are trauma informed and trauma trained to work with individuals, couples and families who have experienced high control religion, cults, and religious trauma. For more information on the support that CTRR provides, for resources–including courses, workshops, and more–head to traumaresolutionandrecovery.com or follow us on Instagram: @traumaresolutionandrecovery

The views and opinions expressed by Sunday School Dropouts are those of the hosts and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery. Any of the content provided by our guests, sponsors, authors, or bloggers are their own ideas and opinions.

The Sunday School Dropouts podcast is not anti-religion but it is anti -harm, -power and control, -oppression and, -abuse and will speak to the harmful practices and messaging of fundamentalist groups.

Follow Andrew on Instagram and TikTok @deconstruct_everything

Follow Laura on Instagram and TikTok @drlauraeanderson or on her website: www.drlauraeanderson.com

Hosts:

Laura Anderson and Andrew Kerbs

Music by Benjamin Faye Music @heytherebenji

Editing and Production by Kevin Crowe and can be found at www.kevincrowe.co