A Moment To Reddit, Silly Christians & Fake Love | Ep 81 | Moral Combat

In episode 81 of the Moral Combat Podcast, hosts Nathaniel Blaustone Faust and Zachary Blaustone dive into a wide-ranging conversation that blends personal reflections with broader discussions on religious trauma, relationships, and healing. They explore how their podcast has been a therapeutic tool for working through issues rooted in their hyper-evangelical upbringing, even as they rebuild their relationship as brothers. A particularly moving segment includes Nathan sharing his son's fear of hell for not being Christian, underscoring the importance of unconditional love and open communication. The episode also touches on more challenging topics, such as the long-term impacts of sexual assault in religious settings and the role of psychedelics in spiritual awakening and healing from trauma. With humor and sincerity, they discuss listener stories and controversial Reddit posts, from the missteps of trying to convert others to navigating family dynamics after leaving religion. As they wrap up, they announce their plans to start streaming on Twitch, expressing their deep appreciation for their audience's support and encouraging everyone to stay strong on their own healing journeys.

Moral Combat, hosted by siblings Nathan and Zach Blaustone, is a heartfelt exploration of life's complexities, with a primary focus on healing from religious trauma. Step into their world as they navigate the realms of music production, confront the lingering echoes of religious trauma, and embrace laughter as a universal healer. With each episode, Nathan and Zach weave together their unique perspectives, seasoned with dynamic personalities that make every discussion an engaging adventure. From unraveling the complexities of personal growth to fostering open communication, healing the scars of religious indoctrination, and embracing the unfiltered authenticity of siblinghood, Moral Combat is your passport to thought-provoking conversations, heartfelt insights, and the pure joy of shared moments. Join us in the combat for morality, one conversation at a time.

Moral Combat:
Youtube
Tiktok
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook

More Zach
SYNZ

More Nathan
(They are a secret...)

Transcript

0:11

What's up, Moral Combat fans? Here we are. Here we are again. And here we are back in the studio. Yeah, we're back in the studio with like tables and upright chairs. Welcome to the Moral Combat podcast. I am one of your hosts, Nathaniel Blaustone Faust. And I am your other host, Zachary Blaustone. Right, yes. We are brothers, but I recently got married and took my wife's last name. You're welcome. Here on the Moral Combat podcast, we really like to talk about religious trauma. Why do we talk about religious trauma, Zachary? Well, we talk about religious trauma because we come from a hyper evangelical background with a father as a pastor in the non-denominational church of Calvary Chapel. And we are both definitely no longer followers of the faith, but we have suffered quite a bit of trauma coming out of it and finding ourselves in this podcast allowed us to heal quite a bit. Yeah. Radical. We were raised radical Christian. There's a lot of religions in this world that people become radicalized by or cults. We find that topic quite interesting coming out of it in our teenage years, early adult years for you. And mainly we started this podcast as a way for Zach and I just to do something during the pandemic and mainly to rekindle our relationship, which was our relationship had a lot of issues kind of connected to the way we were raised in that religious trauma and the radicalism. We had a lot of anger, a lot of fear, a lot of narcissism, pent up shit that we have really worked through a lot over therapy. And then this show has really opened the door for you and I to be good brothers once again. And so it's always wonderful doing this, you man. But just to let you all know right now for episode 81, both Zachary and I have been the lucky ones too, which so many others have gone through this, but we are in recovery from COVID. Yes. Good old COVID-19. We went to a fantastic wedding. Yeah. We performed at a wedding last weekend or week and a half ago. Oh my God. It was last weekend. It feels like yesterday. Yeah. It was like seven days ago. Yeah. Eight days ago. And a great performance. We did absolutely great for two very close friends of ours. One of one of them was on our first guest ever on this podcast. It was well, a second guest ever Austin's first true Austin. Yes. We'll never forget. Yeah. Jonathan Garza recently got married. Congratulations, Jonathan. We were so happy to celebrate that party with you. And Isaac. Congratulations. And but I guess, you know, there's always the possibility of getting COVID. Yeah. That fun party three days later really became a party. Yeah. And and so with this episode, we were so close to canceling just because the last week has been super brutal for the both of us. Zachary's had COVID like two more times than I have. So him and his lady got through it pretty quickly or a couple days. And you're feeling a lot better. This is day six or seven for me. And dear God. Is there a God? That's why we're here. I my nervous system's fucked up. My mental health. I've been anxious and depressed. The muscle aches. If you're if you have COVID right now and you're listening to this, I am with you. I'm so sorry. I know that our whole world has gone through this for years now and this whole last time with COVID really felt like we don't know what the fuck to do. We don't know what's going on. I have like five vaccines and I've had the worst case of COVID in my life this last time. So I still believe in the vaccines. The CDC is saying, get the vaccine if you haven't had COVID this year yet. But if you've had COVID this year, well, you're good. So there you go. So if we feel a little drowned out or just please give us some space, we are recovering from COVID. Zach starts school tomorrow. No. I started school. Oh, that's right. When you started last week, which was really tough, but we're both back in the I'm going back to work tomorrow. I'm up at 4 a.m. You're up at like 5 a.m. And so we we really wanted to cancel today, but at the same time we really wanted to spend some time together. So this is like the first major event that I've done in the last seven days. And I'm already feeling like, oh, yeah. So here we go. Here we go. Let's jump in. Let's get into it. Again, we're trying to figure out what we want to do for you all on these solo podcasts. And if you have any opinions, thoughts or desires, feel free to message us. Feel free to comment. Feel free to let us know because we want to know. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we have been doing this for two and a half years. We have a lot of great aspects to our show that we can jump into solo. That's what me and Zach did for two years together, was doing the solo. But at times, him and I get pretty discouraged, right, after having so many awesome interviews and then trying to build out our show, which is specifically around religious trauma. Not one that really, you know, the capitalistic YouTube world and, I don't know, showmanship and podcasting world, it's a tougher topic to like explode. So we're not necessarily trying to do that. We're trying to create a good show here that's talking about the issues that come from being raised radical, ways to heal, what we're going through personally in our own lives. And then also creating a show that talks on these topics in different ways that are exciting and informative. And so, yeah, if you have suggestions, send us a message. We're going to be adding more to our show. We could go on and on about this, but let's get into it. Let's get into it. Did we ever have an intro for? Oh, yeah. You know, I don't remember it. You do it. What's today's episode, Zachary? What do we do today? You started. Oh, I'm sorry. Here we go. Ready? Yeah. If you've been a fan of our show for a long time, you know what's coming next. It's about to happen. Welcome back to another episode of A Moment To Reddit, that was a more iconic podcast. That was great. Good job. Wow. I forgot about that. We came up with that on the spot the first time. We did it. First year. And if anyone here thinks we don't deserve success, that alone is enough. Yeah, dude. We have theme songs. We have theme songs on the spot. I think I even created a theme graphic for this back in the day. Oh, you did. But anyways, A Moment To Reddit was a moment to Reddit many, many times in the past. And we've done this plenty. I think the last time we did A Moment To Reddit was episode 64. This is episode 81. Basically, what we do is me and Zach both hop on Reddit and we go to like the ex-Christian form. We go to religious trauma form. We go to the atheist form. We go to ex-Catholic. We go to ex-Mormonism. There's all these amazing forums on Reddit that you can go. And there's just great dialogue, conversation, random memes and questions and posts and comment that have everything to do with what we talk about a lot in our podcast. So we grab funny memes or insane things that people say or topics we find interesting. We clip them, bring them to the podcast, and we talk about them here and just discuss it. And that's it. And that's what you're going to get today. So welcome to another episode of A Moment To Reddit. Let's jump in. Zach picked three posts. I picked three posts and some comments. And so I'm going to start. And we technically we technically both don't know what the other person is going to talk about. Technically. I briefly looked through his. We get to see it kind of because we use the same document. But other than that, it's like I have not read what he's going to talk about and it'll be a surprise to both of us. And if you're listening to this podcast, thank you. But if you want to pause it and hop on YouTube and watch this in 4K, you're going to see right to the right of me and to the left of Zach these posts in beautiful graphic format. So come on. There's a lot of editing that's going into this. Get on that 4K. Come look at our beautiful faces. It is also the number one best way to support us is by watching the YouTube channel. Yeah, because we want you to watch us. If we had a million people listening to us on the podcasting app, it would be amazing. Don't get me wrong. It'd be amazing. It would be amazing. There'd be nothing capitalistic. If you want to support us, watch us. Watch us. Watch my face. Yes. Watch me move my lips to the moving picture. Yes. And the more you watch it, the more you like it. Yeah, right. Because it's us. It's us. Yeah. And look at this great studio that we're about to change. It's going to be the same ever again. Because our ADHD kicks in and we get bored. And dopamine is not being released. Yeah. Dopamine is not being released. We're suffering from related trauma, damn it. No, not really. Listen to us. All right. Let's jump in here. This comes from first post I found. Normally the posts that we like to find are like hot topics, you know, the trigger warning things and all of that. This one just caught me right away. This is from the ex-Christian forum. The post comes from user Black Panther Dies. Aww. That's sad because the actor of Black Panther did die from colon cancer. That also sounds a little racist. Black Panther Dies. I don't know if it's racist as much as it's just weird. Anyways. From Black Panther Dies, they say, found this beautiful pamphlet on the bus. Right. We know about like, what do they call the pamphlet that Christian, they're called, um... Oh my God. Oh, I know what you're talking about. Those horrific... Yeah, yeah, yeah. They used to have the one that was like a thousand dollar bill. Do you not want to burn in hell? Yeah. You know, all this. Um, but this one says, so you find this like on a bus or anywhere, right? You're assuming it's like a Christian or Catholic card or whatever. It says, God, God's love is universal and unconditional. You do not need to be saved. It's like, oh, that's interesting, right? Because they're always like, you're going to die. Interesting approach. You're going to die. You're going to die. For sure. You open up the pamphlet and it says, no organization or denomination has authority over your connection to God or the love of the universe. Mic drop. Love is all around you from the moment you wake up into the darkest hours of night and youth and old age and community and solitude and your laughter and despair. One who speaks from hate does not speak from God. One has hate or what has hate done for you? Done for us? What has it done for you? Love is not governed by the rules of hate. It will always find you. Give love and receive love freely and widely to all you can and whenever you can. Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in the grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrases each other doesn't make any sense. The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the door sill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep. Roomie. And then the third page reads, have questions? Flip and reread. Feel free to pause this. Rewind it and listen to me read it again if you'd like. So it's a tract. There you go. They're tracts. Tracts. But this is a tract on the universal, you know, like, love that is love. So it's- Not Christian. Technically a play on Christian tracts. Exactly. Because I thought this was going to be a triggering- Right. Let's convert you to Jesus. No, this is the opposite. But this is actually preaching the actual good news that all God is is love and we are all love. We are all God. And I think like the Christian religion says that God is love. It's not, I don't even like to like, I won't read into it too much besides the fact that anything that isn't unconditional love is not God is basically what it's saying. And the Christian God is 100% conditioned love. And so I love about this tract is exactly right. You read it and you're like, that's why it caught me off guard just online. I like the, you do not need to be saved. Yeah. And plus like everything that they're like this whole idea of, it says, out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field, I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. It's like just letting it all, let all of the concerns, let all of your words, let all your questions, even each other, just all of it goes away when you're in that place of serenity. And I think that's what this tract is talking about, which is not a Christian tract. Yeah, I love that. There used to be a tract that was very prevalent in our lives, which it was, I think it was a hundred dollar bill and it looked like a hundred dollar bill. And then what you would do is you would print it on paper, you'd cut it and you crumple it up a bunch of times so it looks like a used hundred dollar bill and you just leave it on the street. Oh, I remember that one. And when you'd pick it up, the front side would be a hundred dollar bill and the back side would be John 3.16, Good News of Jesus. And I just, I remember being like, what a good way to get people to know the good news. And looking back at it now, I'm like, what a scumbag. Yeah, what a cheap way. What a con artist way. Here's a hundred bucks, not fake money. Oh, are you struggling? Most likely you're homeless. You need Jesus, not money. What? Yeah, no, I'll take the hundred dollars. Yeah. If only it was like a real hundred dollar bill with like Sharpie written on it. So it's like at least you get the hundred. Yeah. But no. I mean, I think most people would be Christians. If tithing was the opposite, it was like, what do you make for a year? We're going to give you like every month, whatever you make for a month, we're going to give you 10% if you come to our church. Yeah. I'm giving my life to that Christ. I would have never left church. Wow. Yeah. That sounds like the true love of Jesus. Some comments of this, the sin of the tin is the user commenting on that not Christian tract. They say a breath of fresh air compared to the death cult style ones. Yeah. Like we just talked about. Yeah. And when they say death cult, they're talking about Christianity because it's a death cult. And if you don't think it's a death cult, you're probably. Read your Bible. Yeah. You're probably a Christian. Read your Bible. Okay. It's founded on death. Yeah. It is very refreshing. I've never found a track like this. I was going to bring a track I found in the public, the track I found recently, which is like years ago. And I kept it because it was the most horrific Jesus loving abortion track where it was like the picture of a little child and the child was dead. Yeah. And it was like, what? Yeah. And it was all about against abortion. But here's Jesus's love. It's like, no, thank you. Critical Fan 3760 says, very nice. After listening to a bunch of NDEs or near death experiences, one thing stuck out to me. True unconditional love doesn't require forgiveness. If it did, it wouldn't be unconditional truths like this are so simple. The average person misses it completely. So like Christian tracks are like, give your life to Christ so that you can enter. This track's like, you're already in heaven. So stop questioning and just accept the love. What is this? Gwen Queen of Shadows says, do you think I care for you so little that betrayal would make a difference? Dr. Who. I'm going to read that one more time. One more time. Do you think I care for you so little that betrayal would make a difference? Meaning the true love of the universe, true unconditional love is even above betrayal. So even if you were to be like, stab me in the back and screw me over with this podcast, true unconditional love would be like, even though you burned me and hurt me and lied to me, I still love you. That's unconditional love. And that's like a Dr. Who quote, which I thought was brilliant. It is brilliant. They say it's so obvious, but sometimes the simplest truths are the hardest to see. It's also a hard truth to like wrap your hand around in our society, right? Like I think if someone stabs you in the back or turns against you, our first inclination out of survival is to be like, fuck off, get out of here. The true unconditional love is like. Yeah. And the fucking real shitty thing is we were raised with that true unconditional love technically and it was consistently preached to us in the churches that we were raised in, in the facade of Jesus and God. Of the crucifixion. And that's how it was preached is you can do anything and I'll still love you except deny me. Also, you can't be gay. Also you can't do this. Also if you're a woman, there's so much that it's like, oh, so it isn't unconditional. Yeah. Just not. Yeah. That when you get out of it and you read something like that, do you think I care for you so little that betrayal would make a difference is like, well, the God I was raised on did. And not only that, not even just the God, but the leaders of that God, of those churches, right? Like the parental figures, our own parents, leaders, youth pastors, these were people that we looked up to, bands, like there's so much in this Christian culture that is proclaiming this unconditional love and yet all of the leaders in it are conditioned. So it's all this facade of unconditional love, but the entire religion is based on condition of how you treat it. Whereas that whole track is being like, it doesn't fucking matter what you do. You're a good person regardless and you're filled with love. It's up to you to accept that. You don't have to accept a white man that died on a cross, right? Who, you know, I don't know. Exactly. I don't know. It's like, you don't have to do that. Yeah. That's not the rule. That's not the life's rule. There you have it. Read a post number one. That was good, man. Thank you. Moment to read. It's not as, you know, it was a different type of trigger. I mean, I thought you were going to trigger me and you didn't. No. No, no, no. That was a wonderful post. The old switcheroo. I'm definitely going to trigger you. Yeah. All of my posts are definitely going to trigger you. Yeah. And your posts are a little bit longer. So. I felt like taking the story route. Are we, you're going to give me a story, right? I have three stories. Okay. But you do one to start. I'm going to, I'm going to do one. And this is, this is from a text thread. I got this from mildly infuriating, the Reddit thread. It's a very, very well known thread that normally doesn't have religious trauma. Oh yeah. That's interesting. But it did. Because religious trauma is mildly infuriating. Massively infuriating. Massively infuriating. We should start a new form. It's massive. Massively infuriating. And this comes from xloth91. Best, best name yet. And just to preface this, because underneath it is a whole description prefacing it. So I'm just going to preface it. This is basically like a, they are the office manager for a private contractor company in a major city and they're interviewing someone to get them onboarded for the job process. And so the first image you'll see, the person who wrote this post introduced it as, the text I receive from a religious potential new hire. And the text says, hey, got the truck back. After some prayer and consideration, I believe the Lord is leading me away from taking this job. I appreciate your time getting me onboarded, but I will not be proceeding any further. Thanks again. And the person responds saying, totally understandable. It was nice to meet you. But then it goes on, goes on quite a bit. This person who got the job. Which by the way, that's such, I said that so much in my life. Not like when I was younger. Not for a job. Not for a job. No, no, no. But like, I really want to move to Hawaii. Yeah. I think God's calling me to move to Hawaii so I can learn how to serve for the Lord. For the Lord. For the Lord. This one's like, we're going to give you 19 an hour. Jesus is saying, I don't deserve that. Now, on just even more backstory, the person who is interviewing this religious person, in their pre-job screening, they had like an intimate conversation or just a more personal conversation about like who they were as people. And the interviewer let the other person know that they're homosexual, part of the LGBTQ AI plus community. And the person who's like offering the job. Who's onboarding them. Onboarding them. And they basically hired them. And that person was talking about how involved they are in their church. And they were basically saying, I used to be involved in the church too until I moved out. My parents don't accept me anymore because I'm gay. And so I don't go to church anymore. So all the conversation was, you know, after that it was a great interview. Because these two people are texting back and forth. No, this was actually them sitting in front of each other. Oh, okay. During the interview. And this person supposedly lost their truck and so they couldn't get onboarded right away. That's why he starts with, got my truck back. I'm not taking the job. And then they had a conversation with each other in the interview where the person that's being interviewed was like, hey, what's your, are you a Christian? Which is crazy. You're the one being interviewed and you're going to be like, it's like the stepbrothers. And then takes control. Like, I'm actually not going to take your job. The Lord is telling me not to. And then we learn why. But we'll learn why right now. So now he, that whole text you just heard where it's like, I'm not going to take the job. Totally understandable. It was nice to meet you. Conversation should end. You don't know this person. You're not friends with them. You should have no comment on their sexuality. You should have no comment on who they are as a person. Of course not. But Christians don't think that way. Christians believe that they're supposed to save you because you are choosing to burn in hell forever. So now, again, this is the next text, which is, as the person said, a five paragraph text. And they say this, on a separate note, I thought a bit about what you said when you told me that you felt you were born gay. And I wish I could have shared this with you in person, but the only thing that separates humans from animals is that we can process our desires and choose to withhold from them. If we didn't do that, we would just be like the animals. I'm just going to pause there real quick because this person is comparing homosexuality to that of an animal. I'll continue. That conscious resistance of giving into the desires of our flesh is what makes us human, what gives us the ability to grow and flourish in life. We are able to do that more and more when we submit to what God says is right and wrong instead of what we think or feel. There's more. Deny yourself. Yeah, you are not a person. Please know that this is because I care for you and want you to have eternal life, that I'm sharing this with you. Not to be harsh or judgmental. I'm an extremely wicked person in many ways, and in no way am I condemning you. But as someone who truly cares for another should. They will warn them if they see that something has potential to destroy their life and steal their peace. Oof. Oof. Here are a few scriptures that might help you. I'm not going to read those. Please don't. Please don't. Don't do Galatians. Don't do Galatians. Yeah. It's one of the harshest books in the Bible, too. So they quote two verses. From Galatians. We're going to not say those. So when we give into our flesh, when we give into the flesh, we resist the Spirit and forfeit all the fruits He has to offer. But we can always repent and turn from sin, submit to God and seek His will. Eternal life is a free gift God offers you putting your faith in Jesus Christ and living according to His will, not your own. The temporary pleasures of sin are fleeting. They bring satisfaction for a time, but eventually they lead to death. Choose life. Love you, man. Oof. Big woof, dude. Big woof. Too familiar. That's very familiar, by the way. So familiar. Plus, like, when was the last, like, even reading this idea, just pointing this out, the word flesh? Yeah. Like, I hear that in the hospital very, very rarely. We don't even use that word. It's Christians love this word. Flesh. The ways of the flesh. It's like, that's all we are. Yeah. That's my way. This is the way. It's the way of the flesh is the way. Be in the world, but not of the world. Yeah, seriously. There's a lot here that this person said. Did they even respond, the contractor? Not that they said. Which, I mean, this is work. This is business. Why would you respond? Yeah, I would be like, ooh, I'm going to let all of my superiors know that we are never going to hire you in any of my establishments. But there is one comment that I did say from snowflakebabe22. snowflakebabe22. I would reply with, I'm still going to be gay, but thanks anyway. And I honestly think that would be the best reply. Well, yeah, because it's just honest and, like, especially somebody sending, like, 25 texts to share Christ with you. And they're like, you're an animal. The way you're living your life is horrible. You're not living for God. It's like, yeah, bye. Also, like, a little advice. I'm going to live my life. Telling someone that they're just living in sin is not sharing Christ with anybody. You're just telling them that you're better than them. Yeah. And, like, you think you're better than them. It's the same, the way I like to think of it is, like, if you and I were to go up to a Christian, right? Like, I know this podcast is hot. We're clearly not for the Christian-related, like, we don't think it's, like, healthy and safe. But if, like, a Christian walked up to us and we were just immediately like, you're living the wrong life. Yeah, yeah. Right? They'd probably be like, yeah, I expect you to say that. And it would never have any connection. But, like, what we learned from who was our recent guest, right? Our one and only X Mormon that we've had on. She said, you know, how are we supposed to talk about what you consider sacred, I consider traumatic. Yeah. Right? That's never going to work. No. And so this never works. Like, this person legitimately probably believes that this person who's homosexual is going to hell. Right? Like, if that person actually believed that, then it's their duty to save the human being. It's like if they actually believed that, that's super sad. Right? Like, what a crazy way. And destructive. So they are obligated to save lives. Yeah. And the other person's like, you're unstable. Yeah. Or just reverse the picture. What if this person hiring them, then they were a Christian devoted to going to church five times a week. Oh, yeah. And instead of them texting them, they texted the person being interviewed and said, Satan told me I needed to let you know that the belief you're following is oppressive and hurtful and is not preaching love. And it is my duty as a human to tell the animal that they are following the wrong belief. It's just my duty. I'm just trying to help you. It would be like, oh, my gosh, like that person on fire. Did you say, like, if Satan told them? Yeah. I mean, Jesus is telling, God's telling them to do this. God's telling me to save you. Well, Satan's telling me to save you. Yeah. You can't do that. Plus, if Satan were to hit us up and be like, you need to tell Christians that they're living a lie, it'd be like, sup, bro? Sup, bro? You already know. Last weekend. That was last weekend. I'll let them know. I'll talk to you later. By the way, you're living in sin. Yeah. By the way, Satan told me you're living in sin. You know what? Like, the thing about this post, I love that you chose it because it's really hard for me to remember doing this because I walked away from Christianity when I was like 15. And I think there were cell phones, but it wasn't like texting. But this is what I believed. This is what I thought as a child. Yeah. Child. Child. Preface that. Child. Not an adult. Not like a 35-year-old adult, 40-year-old adult, but thank goodness. But one of the things that this podcast has helped me to stretch out and to heal and learn from is that, like, if somebody really believes this, it's really heartbreaking to me. Like, you really think I'm going to just suffer an internal fire and brimstone for eternity because I don't believe what you believe? What a sad and limited life. Tunnel visioned life. Like, how much anxiety and stress you must have thinking that everyone else that isn't your way is going to suffer for eternity. Like, no wonder why you're out here trying to save lives. No wonder you're telling the person who's interviewing you in a job that they're a sinner. Like, how hard is it to get a job these days? So hard. Yeah, you got the job, too. You got the job. They hired you. They're like, thank you, I've been wanting a job for years, but unfortunately, Jesus said I can't take it. I just want to let you know, God's telling me not to take this job. Jesus is saying, don't take the wheel. It's not because I'm homophobic. It's not that. Yeah, and honestly, what did they say? I have to point this out again because this is absurd. They say, on a separate note, I thought a bit about what you said when you told me that you felt you were born gay. Felt you were born gay. I know you feel that way. It's not the truth. Immediately denying somebody truth that they identify as. I'm telling you, Christians, ain't going to work. Yeah. Ain't going to work. Not too long ago, we shared how there was one post on our Instagram where somebody said, you know what, you guys have the right to believe whatever you want and that's okay. Yeah. And I was like, that's the type of Christian that I, I'll listen to what you have to say now. Yeah, totally. This doesn't work, man. You can't, you can't literally obliterate people's identity and then assume we're ever going to trust what you believe is the way. Well, and that's like the biggest fallacy right there that all Christians seem to believe. At least if you're a Christian, you don't believe this, please comment and tell us. But in my life, all Christians believe that gayness is a choice, that you aren't born with these feelings. It's your choosing sins. Stop it. It's a way of the flesh, literally. Stop choosing sin. It's like, no, that is not at all what it is. It is your identity. So if someone were to say your identity is flawed, you're basically saying everything you are as a person is not loved by God. Come change who you are as a person so God will love you, doesn't sound like a God of love. Sounds like a God with a lot of fucking rules. A lot of rules. A lot of rules and regulations on who you're supposed to be as a human and who, how you're supposed to identify. And I don't want anyone telling me who I want to be me. And on top of that, the most horrific punishment ever. So, like, there's all of that and then also the fear of hell. And that's not a choice. Oh, hey, do what I say or I'm going to burn you for eternity. Yeah. Who in this world, in a fair society, we'll just use America, got married in a situation where they said marry me or I'll burn you alive? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of that's happened. It's probably not the best marriage. I mean, I think that happens in a lot of Christian marriages, you know, women just submitting to the man their whole lives, like, and men subconsciously reproducing this culture that women are extremely lower than all of other society. I mean, this is also prolific in most of Hollywood forever until maybe the last 10 to 15 years. And even now it's still brought into our psyches of this male leading culture. So not good guys. Not good ladies. Not good thems. Not good anybody. Yeah. Let's go ahead and go to the next post. Hopefully it's a little lighthearted. It is. I know that you chose the heavy hearted. I had to choose some more fun stuff. All right. This next post comes from KF Clover 96. I wonder if the numbers are the year they were born. So yours was like 91. Right. Or 90. So they're like, they're like 33. That would make the most sense. Okay. So they're millennials. Maybe a little. Yeah. Here we go. Delusional Christian influencers on my Instagram reels. Okay. This is just just this stuff is so cringe to me. I have to share it. I know. Because I don't use social media. I don't use TikTok like this. So when I see them, I'm like, I can't believe this is real. But of course it's real. This is Instagram too. Oh, this is Instagram. Oh yeah. Because it says reels. Of course, dude. If anyone who posts to social media, you know that if you're a Christian, you'll be way more successful on Instagram than you'll be on TikTok. We've learned that. Yeah. And if you're like us, where you talk about religious trauma, you're gonna be way more successful on TikTok than you will on Instagram. We've gotten the most amount of comments on any post ever from Christians on Instagram. Which they're probably all bots. From Christians? Bots are everywhere now. Oh, on Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. Say crisis lord now. Say crisis lord now. Let's not forget. Um, we see, yeah, whatever. This was delusional Christian influencers on my Instagram reels. All right. This one is this lady standing there like all, you know, cute wearing a long skirt because she's Christian. What's with the spaghetti straps, dude? Cover that up. Oh my gosh. Cover your shoulders. Cover the spaghetti straps at PDA. You're gonna make men sway. Yeah, dude. You're gonna make men sway. Yeah. Don't do that. You're lusting in the flesh. They say the ultimate faith is never getting health insurance because you know that God will always protect you. Do not undermine him. Do not undermine him. Don't do it. It's like, oh shit. That's okay. So, um, I guess Christians don't have health insurance. Someone needs to tell her that if she keeps standing like that, her back's gonna start hurting pretty bad. No, that's, she has scoliosis. Yeah, for sure. Uh, the next one on here is another interesting white person who looks like they're pulling chalk out of their mouth. Oranges are literally pre-sliced and y'all don't believe in God. Dude, what the fuck? That's why I had to share these because I know, and like I, I didn't show the whole picture of these, but there's like thousands of likes. Right? All of these posts, like, I don't think this one's just 270 comments on these posts blow up. Christian, Christian posts are huge. With Christians agreeing with them, not, not, not like, oh, what an idiot thing to choose. There's no logic there, but more of like, oh my gosh, praise be praise him. Yeah. It's right. It's kind of like, there is a creator. If you get COVID-19, don't go to an urgent care. Just believe in Jesus. This one's oranges are literally pre-sliced and y'all don't believe in God. Literally pre-sliced. The crazy thing is that both of these people, what they're posting is my way or the highway. That's it. Like oranges were made for me. Yeah. Right. That's what this person is saying. Oranges are literally pre-sliced. For who? You? Oranges just grew on the planet for you to easily eat them. It's absurdity. One of who is eating the oranges before humans were here. Not us. Not us. Yeah. So yeah. No, not us. Yeah. It's almost like, yeah. More ramen, please. Great name. They say, Jesus, take the co-pay. Jesus, take the co-pay. Yeah. And the last post you were sharing, it's Jesus, do not take the wheel because they can't take the job. No, no, no, no. Don't drive the truck. This one is Jesus, take the co-pay. Sweet Diet, 8733, the non-theistic Quaker, they say, well, first of all, oranges aren't exactly natural. They're a human bread cross between a mandarin and a pomelo. So this is another banana-grade apologetics here. But today I learned that the pre-slicing is just how the fruit develops with slightly thicker scaffolding around several evenly spaced clusters of seeds. Okay. Period. Oranges, unfortunately, aren't being... I just had to share them, man. It's just like... And you know what? These posts are all over the... And they're just... I see them all the time, and they're so cringe, and I know they blow up. So I can't make this shit up. One of the reasons for there being a God that I remember being told to me so much by pastors... I'll leave any names out, because I don't want to make anyone feel stupid. No, bring the names in. No, it's okay. But they would say something verbatim, so Zach, if the house is being built, who built it? What? And then you'll be like, oh, well, a builder, like a contractor. Someone had to build it. How did you get here? There has to be a creator. Oh, God. Go get your coffee and donuts, everyone. That's logic. Yeah. Who was here before you? There has to be a creator. There has to be. That's the answer. It does. It needs that fucking Twilight Zone soundtrack. It's the same thing as what this person is saying. Oranges were sliced for me. No, I have proof of that. God obviously made a banana for me to peel and eat. What if God made bananas to be frozen and put up your butt? All right, let's move on. That's not why he made that. I just had to pull the cringe. Sorry. I've been eating bananas wrong this whole time. When you're a Christian, you have to find your own ways to get pleasure. Yeah, don't freeze it and peel it before you use it. If you leave the peel on, you can use it after. We're going to get canceled. I don't care. We're already canceled. Cancel this. Cancel us, cancel people. Cancel this. How about you cancel that? All right. Let's take another... All right, Zach's up. Another essay here. Nathan, let me trigger you a little further. Oh, God. I chose this one because it feels like we're talking to home. We're talking to what? Our home. Our home. It's an hour home. This hits home for me and Nate a little bit. Let's hear it. Let's see what we got. Let's see how Nate likes this one. Okay. This is on X Christian, a wonderful form, and this is posted by longjumpinglovesix... So it might be longer. It's a long name. It's a longer name, but longjumpinglovesix. So it's like an ex-Baptist or something. Love it. My mom is offended by my parenting choices is the title of this. I already know where this is going. Yes. You got this, dude. You can take it. I read it. You can take it. You read this one and you were like, oh, this is great for Nathan. Oh, I was... Go for it. I almost cried. Okay. No, I'm kidding. I don't know what's going on. I, 28, female, told my parents a few months ago that me and my family are no longer religious. Now my mom gets easily offended by anything I say in her presence. We had a barbecue the other night, and the next day, out of nowhere, she confronts me and tells me that every single thing I said to her was offending her, but couldn't really back that up with any examples. I had fun at the barbecue, and I'm upset that she took our interactions this way. Every time I see her, she talks about whether or not I'm going to homeschool my kids for years and one year like she did. And she asks them if she can take... And she asks them... I think she meant me. No, she's talking about the kids. Okay. And she asks them if she can take them to church on Sundays so my husband and I can have a break. The reason why I know that's what they're saying is because this has happened to me. Yeah, that's why I chose her. Sunday mornings are apparently the only time she is available to help with the kids, which feels manipulative to me. I've come to the conclusion that it is not what I'm saying to her that offends her, it's that I'm making different life parenting choices than her and thriving. And she sees that as a personal insult to how she raised me. I also feel like Christians feel threatened when non-Christians are happy and content with their life. Yeah, that last statement's so true. And then she posted this at the end. I don't know what to do because I love my parents and want them to be involved with the kids and in my life, but I don't want to walk on eggshells every time I'm in their presence. Yeah, it's like looking in a mirror. It's like looking in a mirror, baby. I feel like I should just comment on this one right away because my son's 13 now. And so a lot has changed from when he was like one and four years old, like primal innocent years, just like everything before 13. And my son is not innocent anymore. This is a small little man, or however he'll identify as he gets older. So things change a lot when eighth grade, ninth grade, you started having your own self-awareness and you choose what you want. You're just not obligated. But yeah, when your nephew, when my son was three, four years old, I was going to church a lot. I know. And I know you know because you'd go with me. No, I mean, not as much as you. I know, I would go by myself, yeah. Different place, different time. There's a lot to that background that isn't being said. Yeah, for sure. So it wasn't like you were going to church to see Jesus. You were trying to keep your son around his grandparents. That's it. That's exactly this person. And having pastors as parents, we don't have parents that are just like, you should bring your kids to church with me. It's more of like, they need to be taught by us. They need to become, it's a different type, a little bit different, but yeah, I dealt with so much fucking guilt for years and just suppress that shit thinking, oh no, if I raise my own son to not go to church, then he'll miss out on his grandparents, like how I missed out on my parents because I stopped going to church and I don't have a relationship with my parents the way that I would dream of. And it's like, you know, but, and so yeah, there was like many years where it was tough and then I grew and healed and started to learn like how corrupt and manipulative that really that idea was. It's like multiple layers too when you've all even ostracized from your parents' house and your family and then you have a child where they're like, finally, another opportunity. Don't, hopefully your father doesn't, you don't happen the same thing that happens to your father. Yeah, let us try this time again. We'll try again. We'll try again with you. And it works. I decided. He's 13. I decided to not keep my son away from our parents. Yeah. And I would tell this person too, I'd say, why don't you let the child choose for themselves what they believe? Because it didn't seem like you had that option. And if you limit your kid to having a relationship with their grandparents, you don't think they're going to have some deep seated issue with you in the future when they're 14, 15, being like, why didn't you let me have a relationship with my... And then they become Christians because they just realized that everybody that's not a Christian holds back, you know, what they, you know, and I got a lot of advice in my life during this time from you, you know, like we went through this together, like trying to figure it out. My wife too, like figuring it out, other friends, therapists and stuff. And I guess I could ask you, like, what does a child really need? Like you have, maybe their parents aren't Christians, but their grandparents are like hyper, hyper radical Christians. What does a child need to be healthy? Done. Yeah. Go back to that first not Christian track I read. Unconditional love. So what I learned was I'm going to go to church with my kid so he can have a relationship with his grandparents. So even when I look back on it, I don't think I ever made a dumb decision going to church. I just had to put myself in some pretty triggering anxious positions and just suppressed it for years. And that's not healthy because I wasn't addressing, I didn't even know religious trauma was hurting me at that time. I was just putting myself back into the fire for the sake of my kid. And then I learned, like, whatever, like, I don't have to be going to church. And if my son really wants to go to church, then he can go to church, right? And he does. Because everyone else in his family besides a few bit of us and you and auntie Natalie and the kids, they're all radical Christians. Both of his grandparents on both sides, not my wife's side. But are pastors. My wife's parents are not pastors. And so, and different relationship learning. What's wild, dude, just you bring that up. It's reminding me of just like the place you were in in that time when your son was that age and how far we were out of the church for a while after that. Yeah, like over 12 years. My experience leaving the church was already after I stopped going. The church didn't really treat me bad. My parents didn't necessarily treat me bad. I always make up my own thoughts. And then it kind of came to a point where it was like, yeah, I'm not Christian anymore. Whereas like you leaving the church was such a young age where the church exiled you, made you an enemy, and so did your parents at the age of like 15. And to the point of where you were like, fuck the church, fuck this place, at like 17, 18, got kicked out and your life changed, whatever. And then you come back to like 27 and you're more like 23. Was that when you were 11? My son came into my life 23, 22 years old, I found out, started seeing him right about my 23rd birthday. Are you sure? I found out about him two days after my 23rd birthday. I thought I was like 22. The lady from the Child Protective Services and Support Office called me and said, happy birthday, Nathan, you're a father. I was like, doesn't feel like a great birthday present. She was like, not yet. It's a present that will sit for a while and it'll grow over time. They were right. So I was 25, about 25 years old. This culture who abused you, but like more than me, I'll just say, you were like cast... I would say in a different way. I wouldn't have to categorize abuse. I don't want to use... I don't want to... I hear what you're saying. The hierarchy, anyone's trauma. You were the number one witness of what happened to me in the church. It was more of like you were stoned in front of everybody and cast out, and here you are, a suffering, newly parent to a kid you didn't know you had, and you're bringing him back to your abusers, to the women who raised you, not just our parents, like the youth leaders and the women that taught you the same poisonous messages and then also stoned you when you denied them. And you're like, here's my youngest. How do you think we should love him? There was literally a woman that I remember that would actively, when I'd bring my son to church, she would come to me and see him and look at me and be like, isn't God so good? And meanwhile, I was in one of the most horrific court battles of my life. I was like, no, what are you talking about? God is confusing. Nothing is happening well right now. So far, being a son and a parent isn't great. I'm being stoned on both ends of it, yeah. But all like, no, what's the term? I'm not asking for any sympathy. It's more of I really do, I think there's a lot of parents in these situations where their parents are radical believers in Christ and they have these innocent children. And as a parent and meeting so many grandparents as a nurse and just in my own experience with our parents is I can't even imagine, I can only imagine what it's like to be a grandparent and to see your grandchild. It's a totally different type of love, it's just a different connection. You don't have nearly as much obligation, you're not parenting, you're just giving them all the goodness, like here's the candy, here's the fun and back to your parents. And radical Christians are exactly like their grandparents or grandparents. One of the things I learned is my son literally has chosen to go stay a weekend at our parents' house than to go to an amusement park, because that was way... And I remember that for our grandparents, it was like, that was Disneyland, that was the amusement park, was being able to see your grandparents. And so the love is just, it's there, it's so beautiful. But all of that fun and all of the gifts and that super fun shit that comes from grandparents, when you have radical Christian pastors as parents, you know, they're also trickling in God's love. And also teaching them that when they die, they might burn in hell. All of the same shit that we were taught, the difference is this, and this is what I've always said, and I'm not perfect, and neither, I don't think long jumping love six is perfect. But my encouragement, my thing that I believe, what I said to myself was, yo, if I can learn now immediately how to actually unconditionally love my child and confess when I fail immediately in the moment, then I might actually figure this out, where I can allow my son to... He can be whoever, I won't hold him back from these beautiful relationships, but I know he's gonna be a little bit tormented, and it's gonna be confusing, and he's gonna have some weird ass logic forced down into his brain, but he has me, he has you. He has people that are gonna give him all the space in the world to be themselves with unconditional love. And I've said this on the podcast before, that it was only about two years ago that I was in the car, and we were on the way to go camping for my birthday, and my son in the car told me he had to tell me something, he was 11 years old, and he said, Dad, I need to tell you that I know you're not a Christian, and I know I am, because of course he identifies as a Christian, right? And he goes, I really do believe you're going to burn in hell, which is why we need to spend as much time as we can in this life together. And I teared up right away, and I was like, that is the most painful and sweetest thing the heart of a child could ever share. They're just regurgitating, right? It's just like, Dad, blah, and I'm like, that hurt, I love you too. I'm sorry the death toll has gotten to you. And I remember I called, I think I called you that day maybe, and I called my wife right after, and I was just like, when we got out of gas station, and I was like, I'm freaking out, I'm so angry, I don't know what to say, I'm so sad. And it simply is like, dude, he's like, they're a child. What do you expect from them? This is what you said this to the same way. And I was like, oh my God, I said this too. The difference was I didn't have me as a father. And I'm not perfect. I just didn't, I never had a father that was like, didn't make me feel bad for what I believed. And I just remember in that time, I just used that as an opportunity. I was like, Evan, you can believe whatever you want. I still love you no matter what, bro. I was like, do you really believe I'm going to burn in hell? And he was like, yeah. And I was like, I love you, dude. You're right, we got to spend as much time as possible if that's what you believe. What a great hack with your kid. That's why now you have to be my best friend forever. If a person that can respond that way, that's like, oh, if you believe that, that's okay, man. I believe, I agree with you. We should spend the most time together because I love you. And then you die and you do burn in hell for eternity. There's no heaven I want to go to that allows that. That's bullshit, dude. That's not love. That's not love at all. And anyone that's like, well, you had the choices. It's like, and you should go fuck yourself. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I have one comment that I just think will be funny to say and we'll move right on. From the original Adam West, whoever Adam West is, this is the original. Please do not leave your kids with said parents. Yes. And I think that's a lot of X Christians, a lot of X radical people. And I am so, I get it. I'm with you. Lived that. But unless the original Adam West, I'm not here to judge, I don't know who you are. But unless you have a child who's in the exact same situation as long jumping love sixes, I don't think you get it. Yeah, you don't. And that's not your fault. That's not anyone's fault. I wouldn't wish this on any parent. You know, like, but when my son said that to me, I did have racing thoughts. I was like, I've did it wrong. I should have kept him away from his grandparents. I should have done this or that. And like under choked tears and like swallowed. Yeah. Well dude, you believe I love you the same. Yeah. Because the truth is it hurts. So to the parents that are going through this, get yourself a fucking therapist. Yeah. Start talking about this shit, dude. It's not going to be easy. No, you got to get through it, though. And you got to love that kid no matter what. And if you want to limit if you really believe like not every parent's the same, you know, our parents. Literally, they're doing their best. Yeah, I love them for doing their best with our podcast. However, they're evolving through this with my with my son, with the conflict, whatever they are conflicted with in life. I do appreciate that they are. We still have a relationship with them. We're not like cutting each other off. My son has a great relationship with them, but I'm not here to judge. I know there's a lot of shitty, shitty, shitty grandparents out there. And if it's in your heart and soul, you really do believe it's probably best for the sake of you and your children. And mind you, you maybe have had such an abusive relationship with your parents that you don't have a relationship with them. So that kind of cuts out the ability of your own children to have a relationship with their grandparents. And we've interviewed people that have that going on. Yeah. And honestly, the people that we've interviewed that they don't have a relationship with their parents anymore, it seems to come through a situation where the parents also choose that. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it's... Well, they chose it first. To be the one that has the child and you're like, you don't get a relationship with them anymore because I'm choosing that, that is really damaging to the child. And like you said, also from experience being a child, when you're told you can't have something and you'll never be able to have that one thing, and it doesn't feel right why that's being withheld from you, you're going to find a time to go get that thing. And then it's probably going to become really extreme that you get that thing. And so if you tell them they can't go to church and that Christianity is never going to be in their life, they're probably going to become a radical at some point. Yeah, it's psychology, man. Same thing, it's like what happened to us, you know? It's like you walk away from Christianity and you're like, oh, they lied to us about everything, now I want everything. Now I want everything. Now I have to try everything. And you do, and then you're like, there's a lot of things that are really destructive you shouldn't have tried. Yeah, 50% was really bad. Yeah. The other 50% was fine. I got some shit to work through now. All right, let's move on to your next post. That was a good post. Thanks, man. It's very close to home. It's very real, all of that. This is my last post and Zach has the last post and we did it. We're doing it. We're doing it. You did it, Peter. You're doing it, Peter. You're doing it. Hook. Oh, I got to watch that movie now. That movie is so good. Which, by the way, remember that post that you were... I brought this up and didn't want to get distracted, but the contractor and the Christian's like, I'm going to ask the questions now. Don't you remember that scene in Step Brothers where they're being interviewed and they're like... Pam? Pam? Pam? Pam? Where they're like, you know what, we're going to be the ones asking the questions now. So classic. I think I can help with the whole Pam, Pam situation. Is that two Ns? Is that an M? Two Ms? Or an N? No, no, shut your mouth. Yeah, shut your mouth. Shut your mouth. Step Brothers. Great film. All right, here we go. Mine, this was the last one I found. Definitely heavy. Wait, so Nate's bringing in a heavy one, everyone. Buckle in. Bringing in a heavy one. It's only heavy from here on out. But these are posted publicly. God, we connect with them. Yeah, we do. From X Christian, Reddit post form. This is user Eli804. Here we go. Found this on my childhood email, and it broke my heart. Trigger warning, sexual abuse. Oh, boy. Right, and if you watched our most recent episode underneath the fig tree, then you would have heard that sexual abuse and sexual assault, especially in this Christian church culture, is wildly rampant. Oh, yeah. God damn it. And so not too far from home here. Trigger warning, okay? When I, now 23-year-old female, was 13, I was assaulted by a guy at church. It broke me in more ways than one, but my family continued to force me to go to that church until I was 21. Financially stable and able to move across the country. Anyways, today I had to go on my childhood email to get information for an old gaming account and found an email to a suicide hotline that said, With all due respect, why are you calling a suicide helpline if you can't help me? After I told them about my assault and how much I was struggling and felt unsupported by my family, it hurts my heart to know that I was saying and thinking about things like that so young, all because of the church not protecting me and my family ignoring me and my needs. It's frustrating also because every time I feel like I'm getting better, I just finished EMDR therapy and PTSD for PTSD and can start forgiving, letting go of the past. I get angry all over again, and the reason always comes down to religion. Anyways, I just needed to rant. I'm sorry. Don't be sorry. Don't be sorry. We've had a podcast for two and a half years ranting about this shit. You're fine. Rant away, baby. Eli, 804, you are fine. We had somebody on our podcast, Sorsha Porter, who very vulnerably and authentically shared, also about the same age, their sexual assault stories that happened at Calvary Chapel Petaluma. And so I commend you on sharing this publicly. It's something cathartic. We talk about this all the time. It's therapeutic. Just saying it out loud, just getting it out there, talking about this trauma out there. Yeah, I don't really have too much to even say about this besides the fact that this post is just... There's always posts on X Christian on religious trauma forums of sexual assault happening to women and men, mostly women that we're hearing about, right? Because men don't share their shit. Unless you're like me and have a podcast. Yeah. I think... I think men should be sharing. I think there'll be a rise at some point. Well, it's happening. Yeah, not only women are sexually assaulted, but humans are sexually assaulted. Humans do this to humans, right? And this culture in the church does this. This is like in the culture of the Christian church. It provides a space for this type of activity and trauma to occur. And I think the very sad part of this was similar to my experience. I didn't tell my parents about my sexual abuse. Of course not. You got in trouble. No, I didn't even think twice about how to... I didn't think about sharing trauma like that, right? It's like you just... No, you do not share that with your parents. You don't share with anybody in the church. You just put that away. And that got closed up for like 10 years. It's a long time. And I developed an autoimmune hive disorder during that month, extreme suicidal thoughts, and nobody knew about it. And I was just... Yeah, I was put into a box that I was the problem. It was like, well, it's your fault for hanging out with that type of person or being around that person. The church loves to defend the abuser. Or it's not even... They defend the abuser by being completely ignorant that there's abuse at all. Totally. But even they defend the abuser. In Catholicism, the priests always get saved or move to a different church, and pastors always move to a different church. It's the same way the police department protects the violence that police do against people of color. It's the same shit, dude. It's no surprise that this same institution doesn't care that a running president was involved with Jeffrey Epstein at all, and was on court documents, multiple of them, because they protect abusers. And to those who have been abused, thank you for speaking your peace. Because the more stories that come out about it, the more truth that comes out about what this religion and beliefs really back. And then you also share these when we post our episode. Do you sometimes share the shorts to the post sometimes? Do you still do that? Share the shorts? What do you mean? Like if we make video content for this, and then you'll share the podcast to this person and be like, hey, we- I try to. Dude, every time I've posted like, oh, here is a short, or we mentioned your comment, we mentioned your thing, Certain Forms, X Christian will let us do it, but the mildly infuriating one, they will ban us immediately. And then, dude, I did it for the atheism forum, and it was a really good post, too. And we gave the person who wrote it so much credit, and I wanted them to see that we represented them on our podcast, and the atheism people banned me immediately for posting a link. And then when I messaged them, because I was like, oh, that's a great form, I don't want to ban from them. And I have a pretty well-known Reddit account with a lot of points, so I don't want to make a new account. They were like, you're an idiot, legit. They're like, you're an idiot, you should know the rules. Oh, yeah, that's how Reddit mods are. I know. Well, the reason why I ask you about that is because, you know, anyways, I just need to rant, I'm sorry. I just really wish Eli804, if for some reason you come across this video and you hear us talking about that, I just wanted to say thank you so much for sharing your story, even anonymously, even the little bit that you did. I'm so sorry you've been through what you've been through, you're not alone. And if you ever want to share your story on our podcast, you have a place to even do this a little bit louder. If the ranting helps, you're welcome to rant here. Open form rant here. We got one more for you all. Last one. That's good because it's hot in here. Oh, this is a good one. My long COVID's kicking in. This is a good one to end on. All right, so this is from the religious trauma form. Another paper here. It is, it's- Go for it. This is posted from the user- You see how it reads, how it goes, this, this, then that. It's going left, okay. This is from user KeyLettuce4741. And I'm guessing the 4741 is the last four of your social? Yes, exactly. Thank you for that. Here we go. I unlearned the Christian God during a shroom trip. Ooh. That's the title of this post. In the last year, I've been doing therapy, healing my inner child in traumas. I have had extreme people-pleasing tendencies, which I'm still healing from and masked due to my upbringing and wants to please everyone around me. My therapist was a spiritual person, and of course didn't push me to this, but led me to not only find the answer to my inner peace, but also find myself spiritually. Over some time, I practiced mindfulness and grounding and educating myself with spiritual awakening. I had recently left my life-sucking job for a more freedom to learn myself, and man, did I. It was the week of my birthday, and I decided that I was going to fast and break my fast with psilocybin, which, religious background, that's an intense way to do psilocybin, so good for you. I had set great intentions for messages and understanding. I had been questioning my faith in the Christian God because all my life, the God I've known was nowhere near the Christian God we've learned Him to be, but I was too afraid to ever question it because the Scriptures say you'll burn in hell for even being lukewarm. Love that they use that term. As I was journaling on my Shroom trip, everything that I've worked on and knew clicked. The Christian God does not exist. God is literally in and is everything, genderless and amazing in literally everything. I started loving everything from the pillow I laid on to the covers I pulled over me at night to the walls being so neat and square and that God existed in every fiber of everything and that it should never be feared or made into a weapon to force people to do things because we are God. I heard people saying this before, and as a sheltered Christian, I thought it was blasphemy for saying this, but it's because I didn't understand what was being said. God is everything, and everyone is God. That sounds familiar. That's so familiar. But just because I came to this realization doesn't mean that my religious trauma went away completely. I joined threads like this to help heal with others in their journey with religious traumas, and even I still get the what-ifs, especially being the only spiritual non-Christian in my family. It's nice to come back to spaces like this when I feel alone in my journey. I'm not saying to do shrooms or any recreational drugs, but I'm saying definitely focus on your spiritual journey outside of religion because at the end of the day, we're all spiritual beings. That is a face of ourselves that need practiced on religious or not. You're not alone, and I appreciate your bravery to speak up and share your stories because they really help. That was on the religious trauma forum. It was. Ah, we gotta get key lettuce on the podcast. I know. Share that story more. Share that story. Tell us about it. I mean, that's just beautiful. That's just beautiful. I love how they addressed that post that we recently went over of us saying the same thing and having them even quote on how that used to be triggering to them until they knew what it meant, until you felt what it meant, and I think doing a spiritual dose of shrooms will teach you what that means because honestly, man, in my shroom journeys or psychedelic journeys, I've never come to a place where there is not a God. I've never been like, oh, there's not a spiritual being bigger than me. It's always been more of like, oh, this is bigger than we could ever know, and it is everything, and I'm a big part of it, and we should just love each other, and it always ends there of just like love everything. You are privileged. This is a great life. Life is beautiful. Have you, like in connection to this, what this person said, this idea of, which we've said a lot of this, you know, I am God, you are God, everything and everyone is God. That's sort of like extreme clarity that psychedelics can bring, meditation can bring it to. Have you had this sort of oneness awareness with all things? Because what you just said there was that you've always had the feeling that there's a God of some sorts, right? Is that what you're saying? Well, it was more of, we were raised to always believe the second you do acid or shrooms, you're gonna fall away from God because you're not gonna think it's real. You're not gonna think God exists. You're gonna think you're God, right? At least that's what we were told, and it's kind of true, but it's not that egotistical. It's not I'm God. I can do anything I want. Well, it's the opposite. It's ego death. It's ego death. It's literally ego death. And so you realize that it's like, no, like the human species is all interconnected. The same thing with animals, the same thing with this planet. It's all bigger than just our humanness. And it feels like, at least from an understanding of that we are all part of the same God entity, which is just communal societal base of love, of just like what transcends everything and it's loving others and loving yourself. And that statement of like we are all God scares Christians so much because they believe in just this one powerful God that has all the rules and the rights and the staff that's gonna keep you from entering heaven if you do anything wrong, when in reality it's like you have these trips and these experiences and you understand that that just like, if love is true, that's not it. You just feel it. It's like whatever this Bible is, it might have some scriptures that touch on good forms of love, but that's about it. The rest of it is like humanistic ways of controlling ego. And you do these psychedelic journeys and that ego dissipates and you realize that you don't really matter. We matter. That can happen. And if that does happen, it's scary and enlightening and freeing because I think like what we're doing right now is we're like having an analytical conversation about that experience. But like what this person is sharing and I think what you just shared is like it's not something that's easily conversed about. It's like this awareness. It's like this clarity that you can have. And it's not just like, it's not just based on psychedelics, right? But this is obviously the planet has brought forth some cheat codes to help access these things. And it's just like I've really had that clarity and then you backtrack and life is over consuming and then you're like, that's right. Like I just need to like let go and surrender and everything's okay. I'm okay. I'm a good person. And that sort of like universal awareness to feel that is so comforting and takes so much pressure off Christianity to have that awareness to be like this person being like, oh my God, I love my pillow. I am the pillow. And it's so hard for somebody to understand like you're crazy. You must be a psychotic person. And it's like, no, I think that we in American society and this Western culture, we like to like stigmatize and say like universal awareness, like that sort of universe awareness is psychosis. I am God. You are God. Everything and everyone is God. That person's psychotic. It's like, no, that person's clear. And I think that like that's, I know that feels like, I've said that on this podcast and it pissed off a lot of Christians. So I totally, yeah, good for you, key lettuce. Plus the way that they're doing the psilocybin in such a medicinal, like I am journaling, questioning written down. Like that is the way, like how do you want to benefit from plant medicine? That's the way. Intention, the work, do the work. Go into it with intention. And then when you do that and you come out of it and you have this story, come on our podcast and share it. There you go, folks. I'm not going to lie. I am winded. I'm also like burning up. It's pretty hot in here. I wonder how shiny we look. That's a wrap. Thank you everybody for joining us for a moment to write episode 81. No game cam today. No game cam. Because you know what? We're changing shit up. And if you have a problem with that, it is your job to tell us. And as ex-Christians and radical ex-radical people, we started with perfectionism. And so we feel like we have to always do the same thing because that's what we're doing. We want to fail. And if we stop the algorithm. Not the algorithm. The holy algo. We're not doing game cam because we're done. It's been 71 minutes. That's a wrap. We love you all. We're going to start streaming on Twitch. That's it. So if you're at the end of our podcast, there's your little sneak peek. It's going to happen probably sooner than later. Yeah. Well, we're going to be unfiltered and just talking to you guys. Just hanging out online. Most likely going over articles and planning the podcast for the next week. Yeah. And people are like, why would you live stream? You already have a podcast. I'd be like, exactly. We always need a little more. And we also want to interact with people more. Good luck this week. Good luck, dude. Thank you. Just another one. All right, everybody. Thank you. We love you. Bye. Love you, everyone. Bye. Stay strong. We'll see you next time.