ExcommuniDate: Life & Love After Religion
You left the faith. The baggage stayed.
Ex-Mormon Jessa and former Presbyterian Austin get real about dating after religion: purity culture damage, mismatched values, and building relationships on your own terms. Honest, hilarious, and judgment-free.
For the deconstructed, the questioning, and anyone dating outside the lines they were raised in.
New episodes every two weeks.
ExcommuniDate: Life & Love After Religion
21. From Faith to Fiction: A Story of Love, Horror and Deconstruction
What happens when the faith you’ve built your life around becomes the very thing that breaks it apart? In this episode, Jessa and Austin sit down with Rip and Steph Graven to explore their journey from leading ministry to walking away from the church they were asked to help create in the Bay Area.
Rip and Steph open up about the heartbreak of spiritual disillusionment, the strain it placed on their marriage and community, and what it means to lose your faith in public. From late-night doubts to watching their church unravel, they share the raw, often untold side of deconstruction: the grief, the guilt, and the quiet courage it takes to start over.
Ultimately, their story is one of resilience and rediscovery. Leaving organized religion made space for something unexpected: creativity, honesty, and a new sense of purpose that didn’t require permission to exist.
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