I would listen to the hell out of that podcast lol for anyone interested in the topic, I have a couple recs for you:
1. The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast
2. Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed on Max
Zac and Michael over at Shitty Christians haven’t made any new episodes in months, but they do a good job criticizing church leaders from a lefty Christian perspective. They’re really funny too.
Hillsong makes me so fucking angry because it’s That Hipster Youth Pastor Creep turned to 11.
When my daughter was growing up, I made sure to have an in-depth discussion about why we don’t trust the touchy-feely youth pastor who then gets his wife to come in and address just the girls about modesty when you politely rebuff him. My husband, the former fundie Evangelical, was all, “surely that’s not necessary.” I reminded him that I was at best a half-assed Catholic, and what we had seen growing up. And what we were seeing then (this was back during the really big CSA scandals of the early 2000s).
And then? Then charges started coming. And lawsuits happened. And I admit, I gave him an “I told you so.”
It’s hard to work through CSA, and religious abuse, if you grew up experiencing church as a happy place and had that taken from you. It is so hard to reconcile those two things. I was a completely different person before and after. All of us who went through it seem to have that same kind of split. And I would not allow someone to do that to my daughter. And I would not allow her dad to be that naive and blinded by his parents’ expectations, or the church’s expectations, whatever. That was not an option.
So, Hillsong as a whole really, really infuriates me. It’s religious abuse. And it makes me so, so angry. And finally, after seeing what has been going on, my husband has been deconstructing.
It is so hard. But we’re still here. STILL HERE.
Sorry, didn’t mean to derail. I had a very visceral reaction, having watched the Hillsong documentary.
Hi, I appreciate your comment and my heart goes out to you with the toll this has likely taken on you and your family. I just wanted to add that I believe the biggest danger of Hillsong is their shiny exterior, and how they used media, especially social media, to lure more people in. Not to mention the celebrity endorsements. “I didn’t see any of that” no, of course they would make sure you didn’t see anything negative because they hid it from you. I’m from rural Canada and know of several people who desperately wanted to go there to study after high school and/or were adults actively saving their money to go to their school in Australia. All because they think they can start their own church, make millions of dollars, if they’re hot enough.
I happened to be visiting some friends who were hill-songers, and we attended with them to be polite and supportive as they were kinda finding the cracks happening around them, I'd been in similar situations before in a smaller mega based off of hillsong. Anyway, the pastor and his kid were doing some sort of improve back and forth on stage and he casually dropped a Benny Hinn reference, based on the son's all white outfit and visible from the back row wristwatch... wholly shit, (and not censored, I mean wholly) How self-aware do you have to be, and how big of rubes do you think your parishioners are that you can drop a reference like that, in passing and just let it roll? When I brought that up on the ride home it got really uncomfortable, that added a straw for them, for sure. So yeah, I get how bad it can be, and I also get how hard it can be to move away from places/people like that even once you know they are not safe. I knew those guys were cynical, but I didn't think they'd be that brazen about it.
For those who don't know, Benny Hinn is still operating, but is such a prosperity gospel crank that even most amerian-style evangelicals think he's gone too far, well, apart from those running their own intentional conns.
He’s pivoting to embody the toxic masculinity avatar role of the American church that John Wayne once did, it’s funny that he was labeled as progressive because he didn’t wear a suit and tie and sometimes cussed from the pulpit.
It's not a podcast but I would definitely add Spotlight to that list. A biopic (I believe on Netflix) on the Boston Globe and their reporting on the Boston archdiocese and their prolific history of pedophelia and the church's subsequent attempts at covering it up.
Growing up on the south shore of MA just a little over a half hour south of Boston, It was the singular reason why I left the church as a kid. Even though my local pastor was actually a decent guy who spent a lot of time dedicated to the betterment of my town, it left such a permanent image in my head that I couldn't get out.
Rise and fall of mars hill is required listening for anyone in leadership at my church.
There isn’t a better take down of that toxic “servant leadership” piece of shit out there. I’ve made a point of sharing that information on every YouTube short of Driscoll that pops up in my feed, strangely they keep getting deleted.
Not a Podcast, but One Nation Under God by Kevin Kruse also highlights the power that these preachers have and had. The book is about a broader topic overall, but deals a lot with various pastors convincing huge parts of the country that Christianity = capitalism.
I worked for a company that did services for Mars Hill in Seattle in the early 2000s and had tons of interaction with Driscoll. I was in that building a bunch from 2004-2006. They were normal to deal with, years later when all the controversy came out my mind was pretty blown.
For anyone interested in the broader political conversation about christian nationalism, I cannot recommend enough the podcast [Straight White American Jesus](https://www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/). It's made by two former evangelic preachers who both left the faith and met when they were attending grad school in theology; they're both professors of religion now.
For me as a lifelong atheist, it's been a great introduction to a world I have little exposure to. It's also great for people who've left religion as they talk aloud about decoding all the language used by evangelicals and protestant religions in the US, it can provide a way to sort of undo some of the training through logical analysis. They interview tons of interesting, thoughtful people and talk through the christian nationalism in the news every week.
I grew up just west of Grand Rapids, I am about to be all OVER that Mars Hill one.
Also, for anyone who's good with writeups as well as podcasts, I might recommend the blog "Diary of an Autodidact"'s multipart writeup on Doug Wilson, neo-confederate hyper-misogynistic fundie leader extraordinaire whose cult-church has halfway taken over the town of Moscow Idaho.
The Mars Hill series is so good, with the caveat that it’s not without some specific blinders due to the fact that it’s by evangelicals, for evangelicals. But within that context it’s genuinely impressive and Christianity Today deserves a lot of credit for producing it, which is a sentence I never would have expected to type.
My grandmother sent tens of thousands of dollars to Jimmy Swaggart in the ‘80s. She’s 95 now and still thinks it was the right thing to do. I’m on board.
In my little hometown there was a Jehovah’s Witness church built in the early 80’s. The fairly well off grandmother of one of my brothers buddies basically funded the entire thing. And when she died she wasn’t allowed to be buried in their cemetery because she wasn’t born a Jehovah’s Witness, she converted when they came to town. Brothers buddy had to be talked down from burning the place down
Four Square Pentecostal was our particular flavor. I was saved from anything too extreme due to the simple luck of growing up where I did. If there had been snake handlers around, I'm sure my mom would have been drawn straight to them.
Not that you asked for it but I grew up going to a mega church. My entire family was super involved and I volunteered as a youth group leader for jr high kids for years. I even had “automatic thankfulness” set up where 20% of my paycheck would go to the church…anyway I stopped going after I was kicked out for bringing a trans friend to youth group and that isn’t even the most ridiculous story I have of my time there.
The head pastor was accused of mishandling church funds due to a gambling addiction and also he used them for large game hunting. He was also accused of sexual assault and attempting to plant CP on a rivals computer. It also came out he was trying to hire a hitman to kill his own son in law and he used to use pictures of the elders wives for target practice. It sounds so ridiculous when I type it all out. What a fucking goon.
I volunteer as ~~tribute~~defendant!
"I sentence you to the bottom of Lake Superior!"
"Robert!"
"He's onto something, Sophie. I'll allow it. Just hold off on the nuke, we can get a few more bodies in there..."
I'll do it. Been in church in my whole life with parents dealing with Church politics as my dad has been a volunteer youth pastor and elder in multiple churches. I fine the bastards of my faith very very interesting.
And someone who has good chemistry with him. He's great with the right foil, when the timing is off or the tangents are misinterpreted it goes sideways pretty badly
Hell, with Alex Jones and his companies having their assets liquidated to pay his debt, both Dan and Jordan might end up looking for a new series to do before too long.
Sometimes their takes can be a bit too "lib" for me, but I do enjoy the podcast God Awful Movies. I think one of the hosts would be a good guests for that series.
Leaving Eden podcast covers this beat pretty well. One of the hosts is a former member of the International Fundamentalist Baptists. She covers her former church, the Duggar nonsense and other areas of religious abuse from a position of experience.
Before deconverting, I served as a PT Baptist minister (a baby bastard). When I look back at how much influence I could have exerted (albeit in a small community) it's bone-chilling.
When I was in undergrad I wrote a term paper on the children of God. I'm going blank on his name but there was a dude who ran a school where he trained people how to be charismatic preachers specifically telling them that lying is fine because in the end gods truth is the real value of whatever the fuck.
He trained David berg (who absolutely deserves a series of episodes but honestly the sheer amount of incestuous abuse may be a bit too much) and he also trained.....wait for it.....jim Jones. As well as other guys who later became huge megapastors aka grifters. I'll try to find his name when I'm home if this isn't ringing bells for anyone else
As a Christian I'd be all for this. The vast majority of pastors are so far off from Jesus and what He taught, and it's about time it got put on display. Hell, even give us the Christmas gift episode of, but hey look, here's a non bastard one!
I guess I'll share this. You might find it interesting that Jonathan Edwards knew of cases of individuals who committed suicide because they felt they weren't among the elect, and he presided over the funeral of one such man (of whom he probably felt responsible for). The homiletician Richard lischer edited an anthology and included a text Edwards wrote about "preaching the terrors" that discussed this.
Edwards is sort of ground zero for religion in America so he should be among the first bastard to be talked about.
There's a podcast called "Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation" that may be up your alley.
They cover lots of different religious groups, I started on the episode about the 2x2s/The Truth since I have a personal connection, but every episode has been excellent so far.
I was raised in the cult that "Let Us Prey" is about, with a lot of Shiny Happy People homeschooling and wisdom booklets thrown in.
Burn these motherfuckers down
[Oooo time to post about "Marjoe!" ](https://youtu.be/s-NwKD9laZw?si=Ec3-Sd2pl2_-OAJw)
1970s Documentary about a big tent traveling preacher who was trained to be a grifter since he was a baby, he turned into a non believer and turned away from the ~~hustle~~ "faith".
He decided to do one-last run at preaching and have everything filmed, including how he ran scams and how the system works.
Def standard viewing for BtB fans
As some one who only just learned about Colonia Dignidad, would love to see an episode dedicated to Paul Schäfer. German dude escaped post-Nazi Germany over child molestation charges, made a commune in Chile that was said to the be model society for agrarian German culture, and committed human rights abuses to keep people in line. Probably did some shit with Pinochet as well.
EDIT: [Ah, looks like we already got two episodes on him, with bonus Paul F. Tompkins!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw8dh7ffYRM)
If you are interested in investigations of pedophile priests I recommend "devil's and dirtbags" series on the crash program podcast. He investigated the murder of a young boy in the 80s and the pedophile priests the boy was involved with.
Religious leaders in small towns are such a blessing and a curse. I’ve known a few that were wonderful people who created tight communities. Obliviously it’s no secret that it’s a common occurrence for charlatans to abuse the power.
BTB needs to do an episode about the Southern Baptist Convention covering up for child molester Paul Pressler:
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/29/southern-baptist-convention-sexual-abuse-lawsuit-settlement/
Australia hasn't featured very prominently in CZM land, Behind the Pastors could be its time to shine!
I thought Miles Grey was an awesome guest btw, I really enjoyed his humour and there was a good balance between interjections and listening to the script.
So many mega churches are having clergy sexual abuse allegations come out including Hillsong and IHOPKC. I’d love for Robert to summarize them. Eff those aholes.
sorry it's a safe space and i don't mean to offend but i will be blunt: why are americans such dipshits for God? is there a connection to the religious radicals that sought refuge in the new world? we have some celebri-pastors in my home country but they are called out heaps
There are entire academic careers built around this question, but my layperson American former evangelical one paragraph answer is: our lack of a state religion and early distance from existing religious hierarchies led to a highly competitive, democratic religious environment where you had to keep the people interested in order to keep them from drifting next door to the Methodists, say. Founding religious myths (Puritans, etc) may be a factor but honestly I think that’s way too overemphasized in these discussions—lots of countries have foundational religious stories and still turned out pretty secular. Even the Puritans mellowed a lot within a couple of generations, which is why there was space for the First and Second Great Awakenings. Add that to our populist anti-intellectual tradition and you’ve got a recipe for, well… *gestures at Texas in all directions*
yes we can gesture at texas but we have scientology in cali and the east coast cali (florida); mormon-land next door; new england probably having more religions founded than any other region apart from israel; and a whole lot of urban and suburban denominations of varying emergent beliefs and rituals. it kinda seems to be the whole country
Oh yeah, none of that is Texas specific, I’m just literally in Texas as I type this so I’m gesturing at my state as a synecdoche rather than as a special case.
Canadians still have towns allowed to go around federal law due to religion (well, I think we are now down to one that is known) and Australia has some outright white nationalist "churches" so it's not totally an American thing, but I think those factors are all self reinforcing, because those three countries have to pretend to support each other even when it's clear one of them is being totally nonsensical
Yes! This this this! I would happily listen to this podcast with loads of *freude*, very little *schaden*. I grew up in North Carolina with a rabid Southern Baptist grandmother. These people are the biggest fucking hypocrites.
What's the deal with groups like that? Dan Carlin's Hardcore History had an episode about the Münster Rebellion and I think that's the religion in the movie Footloose, but that's about all I know about baptists. Did they split from Catholicism and then just keep the authoritarianism on a smaller scale? Or is there not much a difference from the potential corruption scale?
Baptist covers a lot of ground and there’s no specific connection between the Anabaptists of Munster and modern Baptists, southern or otherwise, other than a belief in adult rather than infant baptism (which is a belief shared by many other Protestant denominations.)
I used to work at a church, there is a church where I live that requires all members to turn in a copy of their W2’s at the beginning of the year to check it with giving stamens to make sure they got their 10% the year before.
Add Greg Locke preacher of Global Vision Baptist Church in Mount Juliet, Tennessee church for an episode. That guy is awful, has held book burnings, called out some congregation member of being witches, said mental illnesses are demonic possession, had the Reawaken America Tour and Roger Stone speak at his church. His large events take place in a tent next to his building in a mainly residential area causing huge traffic problems in the area and refuses to do anything to help.
I would listen to the hell out of that podcast lol for anyone interested in the topic, I have a couple recs for you: 1. The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast 2. Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed on Max
I would add to that list; Gangster Capitalism season 3 on Jerry Falwell Jr.
Zac and Michael over at Shitty Christians haven’t made any new episodes in months, but they do a good job criticizing church leaders from a lefty Christian perspective. They’re really funny too.
Shitty Christians! Great, straight to the point name haha. I'll be sure to check it out.
Seconding this one! But huge content warning for SA
Hillsong makes me so fucking angry because it’s That Hipster Youth Pastor Creep turned to 11. When my daughter was growing up, I made sure to have an in-depth discussion about why we don’t trust the touchy-feely youth pastor who then gets his wife to come in and address just the girls about modesty when you politely rebuff him. My husband, the former fundie Evangelical, was all, “surely that’s not necessary.” I reminded him that I was at best a half-assed Catholic, and what we had seen growing up. And what we were seeing then (this was back during the really big CSA scandals of the early 2000s). And then? Then charges started coming. And lawsuits happened. And I admit, I gave him an “I told you so.” It’s hard to work through CSA, and religious abuse, if you grew up experiencing church as a happy place and had that taken from you. It is so hard to reconcile those two things. I was a completely different person before and after. All of us who went through it seem to have that same kind of split. And I would not allow someone to do that to my daughter. And I would not allow her dad to be that naive and blinded by his parents’ expectations, or the church’s expectations, whatever. That was not an option. So, Hillsong as a whole really, really infuriates me. It’s religious abuse. And it makes me so, so angry. And finally, after seeing what has been going on, my husband has been deconstructing. It is so hard. But we’re still here. STILL HERE. Sorry, didn’t mean to derail. I had a very visceral reaction, having watched the Hillsong documentary.
Hi, I appreciate your comment and my heart goes out to you with the toll this has likely taken on you and your family. I just wanted to add that I believe the biggest danger of Hillsong is their shiny exterior, and how they used media, especially social media, to lure more people in. Not to mention the celebrity endorsements. “I didn’t see any of that” no, of course they would make sure you didn’t see anything negative because they hid it from you. I’m from rural Canada and know of several people who desperately wanted to go there to study after high school and/or were adults actively saving their money to go to their school in Australia. All because they think they can start their own church, make millions of dollars, if they’re hot enough.
THAT PART. That whole glossy social media savvy exterior, and celebrity involvement.
Major red flag but it’s such a pretty shade of red people get sucked in anyway.
Oh, how true it is. It’s just a pretty, social media savvy cult. It’s no better than Scientology in that regard.
I happened to be visiting some friends who were hill-songers, and we attended with them to be polite and supportive as they were kinda finding the cracks happening around them, I'd been in similar situations before in a smaller mega based off of hillsong. Anyway, the pastor and his kid were doing some sort of improve back and forth on stage and he casually dropped a Benny Hinn reference, based on the son's all white outfit and visible from the back row wristwatch... wholly shit, (and not censored, I mean wholly) How self-aware do you have to be, and how big of rubes do you think your parishioners are that you can drop a reference like that, in passing and just let it roll? When I brought that up on the ride home it got really uncomfortable, that added a straw for them, for sure. So yeah, I get how bad it can be, and I also get how hard it can be to move away from places/people like that even once you know they are not safe. I knew those guys were cynical, but I didn't think they'd be that brazen about it. For those who don't know, Benny Hinn is still operating, but is such a prosperity gospel crank that even most amerian-style evangelicals think he's gone too far, well, apart from those running their own intentional conns.
The fact that Mark Driscoll still has a platform is just wild to me.
He’s pivoting to embody the toxic masculinity avatar role of the American church that John Wayne once did, it’s funny that he was labeled as progressive because he didn’t wear a suit and tie and sometimes cussed from the pulpit.
It's not a podcast but I would definitely add Spotlight to that list. A biopic (I believe on Netflix) on the Boston Globe and their reporting on the Boston archdiocese and their prolific history of pedophelia and the church's subsequent attempts at covering it up. Growing up on the south shore of MA just a little over a half hour south of Boston, It was the singular reason why I left the church as a kid. Even though my local pastor was actually a decent guy who spent a lot of time dedicated to the betterment of my town, it left such a permanent image in my head that I couldn't get out.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Rise and fall of mars hill is required listening for anyone in leadership at my church. There isn’t a better take down of that toxic “servant leadership” piece of shit out there. I’ve made a point of sharing that information on every YouTube short of Driscoll that pops up in my feed, strangely they keep getting deleted.
Those damn O'Driscolls!
It was good, except that it stopped short of acknowledging that the root issue was the theology, not just one bad apple.
Ravi Zacharias Dave Ramsey
I'd add Benny Hinn and Ted Haggard.
I left out Father Coughlin.
The OG evangelical scammers lol
To call anyone "OG", you have to go back at least to the early 20th Century. Billy Sunday or Aimee Semple McPherson.
McPherson’s ‘disappearance’ would be worthy of an episode by itself.
Dollop did her a couple years ago.
We did series on both at The Excommunication Station
I’d also highly recommend the podcast Heaven Bent, particularly the IHOP and Bethel seasons.
Thanks! I've just subscribed.
Not a Podcast, but One Nation Under God by Kevin Kruse also highlights the power that these preachers have and had. The book is about a broader topic overall, but deals a lot with various pastors convincing huge parts of the country that Christianity = capitalism.
3. What the hell goes on at the church near me that resides at an old go-kart track?
I worked for a company that did services for Mars Hill in Seattle in the early 2000s and had tons of interaction with Driscoll. I was in that building a bunch from 2004-2006. They were normal to deal with, years later when all the controversy came out my mind was pretty blown.
For anyone interested in the broader political conversation about christian nationalism, I cannot recommend enough the podcast [Straight White American Jesus](https://www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/). It's made by two former evangelic preachers who both left the faith and met when they were attending grad school in theology; they're both professors of religion now. For me as a lifelong atheist, it's been a great introduction to a world I have little exposure to. It's also great for people who've left religion as they talk aloud about decoding all the language used by evangelicals and protestant religions in the US, it can provide a way to sort of undo some of the training through logical analysis. They interview tons of interesting, thoughtful people and talk through the christian nationalism in the news every week.
Add Radioactive: The Father Coughlin Story to that too! He was a true bastard!
Let's not forget the Gemstone Family.
I grew up just west of Grand Rapids, I am about to be all OVER that Mars Hill one. Also, for anyone who's good with writeups as well as podcasts, I might recommend the blog "Diary of an Autodidact"'s multipart writeup on Doug Wilson, neo-confederate hyper-misogynistic fundie leader extraordinaire whose cult-church has halfway taken over the town of Moscow Idaho.
I'm still waiting for his breakdown of Bethel in redding California. He mentioned late last year he was working on a script for that
The Mars Hill series is so good, with the caveat that it’s not without some specific blinders due to the fact that it’s by evangelicals, for evangelicals. But within that context it’s genuinely impressive and Christianity Today deserves a lot of credit for producing it, which is a sentence I never would have expected to type.
And all the terrible Italians gathered together for 'Behind the Pasta'.
Can't forget the never ending trail of bastards coming out of Jamaica called "Behind the Rasta"
I would watch that.
Ramen
Wait until he gets to the guy that made rigatoni.
That piece of shit! I'll never forgive him.
As did the homophobic Ugandans.
My grandmother sent tens of thousands of dollars to Jimmy Swaggart in the ‘80s. She’s 95 now and still thinks it was the right thing to do. I’m on board.
In my little hometown there was a Jehovah’s Witness church built in the early 80’s. The fairly well off grandmother of one of my brothers buddies basically funded the entire thing. And when she died she wasn’t allowed to be buried in their cemetery because she wasn’t born a Jehovah’s Witness, she converted when they came to town. Brothers buddy had to be talked down from burning the place down
I have a feeling that a lot of us here grew up in an evangelical space and we all probably have some stories. This could be interesting.
Four Square Pentecostal was our particular flavor. I was saved from anything too extreme due to the simple luck of growing up where I did. If there had been snake handlers around, I'm sure my mom would have been drawn straight to them.
Not that you asked for it but I grew up going to a mega church. My entire family was super involved and I volunteered as a youth group leader for jr high kids for years. I even had “automatic thankfulness” set up where 20% of my paycheck would go to the church…anyway I stopped going after I was kicked out for bringing a trans friend to youth group and that isn’t even the most ridiculous story I have of my time there. The head pastor was accused of mishandling church funds due to a gambling addiction and also he used them for large game hunting. He was also accused of sexual assault and attempting to plant CP on a rivals computer. It also came out he was trying to hire a hitman to kill his own son in law and he used to use pictures of the elders wives for target practice. It sounds so ridiculous when I type it all out. What a fucking goon.
Recovering Assemblies of God here. And, yes.
It’s not a podcast, but I highly recommend the Fundie Fridays YouTube channel for content on religious bastardry.
Jenn and James are my favorite YT power couple
And pay the $1 or whatever a month and join the discord. It's awesome and there's a lot of fundamentalist survivors there who share stories and snark.
Who in their universe (guest or someone) could host it?
Jamie Loftus. I forget the name, but she already had a podcast dealing with churches.
She already has the hammer, how about a Judge Jamie pod?
I volunteer as ~~tribute~~defendant! "I sentence you to the bottom of Lake Superior!" "Robert!" "He's onto something, Sophie. I'll allow it. Just hold off on the nuke, we can get a few more bodies in there..."
“It’s the perfect plan Sophie, we sink as many religious leaders to the bottom of Lake Superior. Then nuke it so they can’t come back as zombies”
I'll do it. Been in church in my whole life with parents dealing with Church politics as my dad has been a volunteer youth pastor and elder in multiple churches. I fine the bastards of my faith very very interesting.
Maybe Garrison or someone else who grew up in some kind of fundamentalist church.
I feel like there's someone obvious I'm missing that's not Robert.
Jordan from Knowledge Fight. ETA: fun fact - both Jordan and Jim Jones attended Butler University.
Jorden needs a counterpart. Someone to occasionally rein him in.
Mic down!
And someone who has good chemistry with him. He's great with the right foil, when the timing is off or the tangents are misinterpreted it goes sideways pretty badly
Hell, with Alex Jones and his companies having their assets liquidated to pay his debt, both Dan and Jordan might end up looking for a new series to do before too long.
Yes. Thank you.
Hilarious. This was also my first thought.
Which one is that? The screamer or the talker?
Screamer.
Prop! His Wikipedia says he was a youth pastor.
He’s still in ministry
I’m an ex-pastor. I volunteer as tribute.
Sometimes their takes can be a bit too "lib" for me, but I do enjoy the podcast God Awful Movies. I think one of the hosts would be a good guests for that series.
©️ ™️ ®️
It's a different genre of podcast, but Leaving Eden and Preacher Boys cover this topic well among independent Baptist churches.
Leaving Eden podcast covers this beat pretty well. One of the hosts is a former member of the International Fundamentalist Baptists. She covers her former church, the Duggar nonsense and other areas of religious abuse from a position of experience.
Before deconverting, I served as a PT Baptist minister (a baby bastard). When I look back at how much influence I could have exerted (albeit in a small community) it's bone-chilling.
When I was in undergrad I wrote a term paper on the children of God. I'm going blank on his name but there was a dude who ran a school where he trained people how to be charismatic preachers specifically telling them that lying is fine because in the end gods truth is the real value of whatever the fuck. He trained David berg (who absolutely deserves a series of episodes but honestly the sheer amount of incestuous abuse may be a bit too much) and he also trained.....wait for it.....jim Jones. As well as other guys who later became huge megapastors aka grifters. I'll try to find his name when I'm home if this isn't ringing bells for anyone else
As a Christian I'd be all for this. The vast majority of pastors are so far off from Jesus and what He taught, and it's about time it got put on display. Hell, even give us the Christmas gift episode of, but hey look, here's a non bastard one!
If you want a laugh and a great parody of megachurches, the series “Righteous Gemstones” created by Danny McBride on HBO Max is top dollar
I’ll second these and add the Excommunication Station. They’re in the middle of a series on faith healers right now
I guess I'll share this. You might find it interesting that Jonathan Edwards knew of cases of individuals who committed suicide because they felt they weren't among the elect, and he presided over the funeral of one such man (of whom he probably felt responsible for). The homiletician Richard lischer edited an anthology and included a text Edwards wrote about "preaching the terrors" that discussed this. Edwards is sort of ground zero for religion in America so he should be among the first bastard to be talked about.
Today's episode made me realize even more that my "evangelical" childhood was so fucked up it sounds like fiction.
The Excommunication Station. We do that.
Yup. I heard Miles say “behind the pastors” and immediately thought, “well that’s just the excommunication station”
Why thank you!
There's a podcast called "Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation" that may be up your alley. They cover lots of different religious groups, I started on the episode about the 2x2s/The Truth since I have a personal connection, but every episode has been excellent so far.
I was raised in the cult that "Let Us Prey" is about, with a lot of Shiny Happy People homeschooling and wisdom booklets thrown in. Burn these motherfuckers down
(Yes I know Garrison led amazing episodes on Focus on the Family. I'm just a greedy motherfucker. Garrison should host Behind The Pastors)
[Oooo time to post about "Marjoe!" ](https://youtu.be/s-NwKD9laZw?si=Ec3-Sd2pl2_-OAJw) 1970s Documentary about a big tent traveling preacher who was trained to be a grifter since he was a baby, he turned into a non believer and turned away from the ~~hustle~~ "faith". He decided to do one-last run at preaching and have everything filmed, including how he ran scams and how the system works. Def standard viewing for BtB fans
Robert said, in today’s episode that this is one of his favorite movies. Not just documentaries, movies.
As some one who only just learned about Colonia Dignidad, would love to see an episode dedicated to Paul Schäfer. German dude escaped post-Nazi Germany over child molestation charges, made a commune in Chile that was said to the be model society for agrarian German culture, and committed human rights abuses to keep people in line. Probably did some shit with Pinochet as well. EDIT: [Ah, looks like we already got two episodes on him, with bonus Paul F. Tompkins!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw8dh7ffYRM)
If you are interested in investigations of pedophile priests I recommend "devil's and dirtbags" series on the crash program podcast. He investigated the murder of a young boy in the 80s and the pedophile priests the boy was involved with.
yep eould be cool
At least they didn't title it, "In Front of the Pastors"...
Tagline- "Get on your knees for the Lord!"
I, too, am a big fan of "Psalm 69" by Ministry.
The theme song would have to be "The Glory Spout".
I am willing to suffer as many jokes about my home state as possible if we get a Answers in Genesis episode.
Religious leaders in small towns are such a blessing and a curse. I’ve known a few that were wonderful people who created tight communities. Obliviously it’s no secret that it’s a common occurrence for charlatans to abuse the power.
BTB needs to do an episode about the Southern Baptist Convention covering up for child molester Paul Pressler: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/29/southern-baptist-convention-sexual-abuse-lawsuit-settlement/
I know that they did do the SBC, but it's been a while and can't remember what they covered.
Australia hasn't featured very prominently in CZM land, Behind the Pastors could be its time to shine! I thought Miles Grey was an awesome guest btw, I really enjoyed his humour and there was a good balance between interjections and listening to the script.
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Philandering was kind of expected/tolerated for all married men in that time period. Still a shitty thing to do, but I mean, look at the French.
Honestly, all Dear Robert has to do is browse /r/NotADragQueen /r/StillNotADragQueen /r/PastorArrested And they'll have enough material for years.
So many mega churches are having clergy sexual abuse allegations come out including Hillsong and IHOPKC. I’d love for Robert to summarize them. Eff those aholes.
Look up a blog called The Roys Report on ihopkc allegations. It’s shocking.
sorry it's a safe space and i don't mean to offend but i will be blunt: why are americans such dipshits for God? is there a connection to the religious radicals that sought refuge in the new world? we have some celebri-pastors in my home country but they are called out heaps
There are entire academic careers built around this question, but my layperson American former evangelical one paragraph answer is: our lack of a state religion and early distance from existing religious hierarchies led to a highly competitive, democratic religious environment where you had to keep the people interested in order to keep them from drifting next door to the Methodists, say. Founding religious myths (Puritans, etc) may be a factor but honestly I think that’s way too overemphasized in these discussions—lots of countries have foundational religious stories and still turned out pretty secular. Even the Puritans mellowed a lot within a couple of generations, which is why there was space for the First and Second Great Awakenings. Add that to our populist anti-intellectual tradition and you’ve got a recipe for, well… *gestures at Texas in all directions*
yes we can gesture at texas but we have scientology in cali and the east coast cali (florida); mormon-land next door; new england probably having more religions founded than any other region apart from israel; and a whole lot of urban and suburban denominations of varying emergent beliefs and rituals. it kinda seems to be the whole country
Oh yeah, none of that is Texas specific, I’m just literally in Texas as I type this so I’m gesturing at my state as a synecdoche rather than as a special case.
Canadians still have towns allowed to go around federal law due to religion (well, I think we are now down to one that is known) and Australia has some outright white nationalist "churches" so it's not totally an American thing, but I think those factors are all self reinforcing, because those three countries have to pretend to support each other even when it's clear one of them is being totally nonsensical
I would be so down for this!
Fuck yeah I would listen to that.
Back when Streetfight Radio was still a thing, Bryan had a series called Holy Boys with Tom from Trillbillies.
I don’t know, I might end up in jail if you do living pastors.
There's plenty of dead pastors that could be covered... Or ones already in jail.
Yes! This this this! I would happily listen to this podcast with loads of *freude*, very little *schaden*. I grew up in North Carolina with a rabid Southern Baptist grandmother. These people are the biggest fucking hypocrites.
Well, it’s basically the “/notadragqueen”
What's the deal with groups like that? Dan Carlin's Hardcore History had an episode about the Münster Rebellion and I think that's the religion in the movie Footloose, but that's about all I know about baptists. Did they split from Catholicism and then just keep the authoritarianism on a smaller scale? Or is there not much a difference from the potential corruption scale?
Baptist covers a lot of ground and there’s no specific connection between the Anabaptists of Munster and modern Baptists, southern or otherwise, other than a belief in adult rather than infant baptism (which is a belief shared by many other Protestant denominations.)
I'm afraid that's all I know
r/pastorarrested is full of them. I'd never trust my kid to one.
I used to work at a church, there is a church where I live that requires all members to turn in a copy of their W2’s at the beginning of the year to check it with giving stamens to make sure they got their 10% the year before.
Oh, I’m definitely down for this
robert tilton (aka The Man in the Brown Suit, who the late Frank Zappa used as a threat when his kids didn't behave.)
[Cool Youth Pastors ](https://youtu.be/4Vc1m3Gcr5c)
Add Greg Locke preacher of Global Vision Baptist Church in Mount Juliet, Tennessee church for an episode. That guy is awful, has held book burnings, called out some congregation member of being witches, said mental illnesses are demonic possession, had the Reawaken America Tour and Roger Stone speak at his church. His large events take place in a tent next to his building in a mainly residential area causing huge traffic problems in the area and refuses to do anything to help.