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The Skeptic Pastor Podcast

Jeremy Steele

Join me for a drink and an unpopular opinion, uncomfortable truth, or something pastors probably aren't supposed to say out loud. Expect irreverent humor, unfiltered language, and honest conversations about religion, sex, relationships, culture, and whatever else gets me in trouble.

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22 episodes
Avg 37 min
English

Episodes 22

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#129
October 18 · 34 min
Raised in a Single-Family Cult: Stella McCormick on Deliver Us From Mother
Stella McCormick talks with Jeremy about being raised in a single family cult, her memoir Deliver Us From Mother, and how she got out.
#132
September 27 · 42 min
Love Is Patient. It Is Also Pissed About Injustice.
1 Corinthians 13 is probably embroidered on more wedding pillows than any other chapter of the Bible. Which is funny, because Paul was not writing a wedding toast. He was confronting a dysfunctional church divided by money, status, ego, and people convinced their spirituality made them better than everybody else. In this episode, we put the “love chapter” back into context and discover that biblical love is not passive niceness. It tells the truth, refuses to protect injustice, challenges privil
#131
August 27 · 33 min
God Told Him to Check the Yellow Pages
Long before LinkedIn, Indeed, or even Google, John Doyle says a voice told him to go open the Yellow Pages and God would find him a job. Somehow, that ended with a former industrial painter landing a writing career he kept for six years. That is only one of the mystical experiences John shares in this episode. We talk about hearing voices, visions, physical spiritual experiences, and why he has built his understanding of God more from those encounters than from religious doctrine. Is it God? Psy
#130
August 14 · 45 min
Horse Manure, Hospital Trips, and Other Youth Group Activities
Youth ministry was apparently what happened when churches handed a 24-year-old a microphone, a van full of teenagers, and absolutely no adult supervision. Jubilee Dawns from Healed-ish joins me for a podcast takeover and tour through some spectacularly terrible youth pastor stories: games that sent kids to the ER, teenagers digging through buckets of horse manure for cash, sexually suggestive banana activities, and so much more. We laugh because therapy is expensive, but underneath the absurdity
#129
August 10 · 41 min
What If Communion Passes the Turing Test?
Chris' computer-science brain dragged Alan Turing into the Eucharist, and things got weird in the best possible way. Catholics say bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ, which is an interesting place for a very logical theological system to suddenly ask everyone to stop asking follow-up questions. Chris Young couldn’t buy it either. In this episode, we talk about powerful symbols, the Body of Christ, disability, biblical scholarship, skepticism, and how an idea Chris once
#128
July 26 · 37 min
The Rapture, the Closet, and the Organ
Nothing says “healthy childhood spirituality” quite like waking up from a nap, finding an empty house, and assuming Jesus took everyone except you. Tim Schram grew up as the golden-boy organist in the Assemblies of God, trapped between rapture panic, relentless anti-gay preaching, and the growing realization that the person his church condemned was him. In this episode, Tim talks about marriage, coming out, being threatened by his own brother, losing lifelong friendships, and rebuilding a spirit
#127
July 21 · 22 min
The Bible's Biggest Skeptic Might Be Its Best Disciple
Some churches silence doubt. Some shame it. Some hand you a Josh McDowell book and hope you stop asking. This episode looks at the real story of Thomas, why skepticism can be spiritually healthy, and why communities that make room for questions look a lot more like Jesus than communities that demand certainty.
#126
July 6 · 28 min
33 Churches Later... He Actually Wanted to Go Back
Most people leave church with religious trauma. This guy visited 33 of them on purpose. We talk about why some faith communities become culty, why others become family, what surprised him most about Black churches, LGBTQ churches, and other faith traditions, and why community might still be worth risking... if you find the right people.
#125
June 29 · 38 min
When the Pastor Was the Predator: One Woman's Deconstruction Story
What happens when the person teaching you about God becomes the source of your deepest wounds? This episode explores the collision of evangelical culture, purity culture, child sexual abuse, and family loyalty through one survivor's story. We talk about why churches rush people toward forgiveness, why grief matters, how trauma lives in the body, and what healing can look like after a lifetime of being told to stay silent.
#124
June 22 · 57 min
Conversion Therapy Droupout
Some churches told queer kids there were only two choices: keep your faith or keep yourself. They were wrong. Author Tim Schraeder Rodriguez joins the podcast to talk about his journey through conversion therapy, working behind the scenes with some of the biggest churches in America, and finally realizing that healing didn’t mean changing who he was. It meant letting go of the shame he was taught to carry. We talk about the hidden harm behind “loving” attempts to change LGBTQ people, what happe
#123
June 7 · 29 min
Sen. Chris Coons on Christian nationalism, China, bipartisan conversations, and clean energy
What if the loudest Christians in politics aren’t actually the only Christians in politics? Weird idea, I know. Senator Chris Coons joins the podcast to talk about the faith that drives his work, the danger of Christian nationalism, the importance of building relationships across political divides, and why progressive Christians might need to stop letting other people define what Christianity looks like. Also: China, clean energy, democracy, and doomscrolling our way into becoming the worst vers
#122
May 24 · 32 min
The Hidden Meanings (and Trauma) Behind Evangelical Church Language
This is about the weird moment when you leave evangelicalism and suddenly realize half the language you grew up with was coded ideology pretending to be theology. Or when you hear an evangelical pastor talking on the news and aren't sure how scary what they are saying is. We talk about spiritual warfare, purity culture, Christian nationalism, demon language, fear conditioning, and how churches train people to distrust their own instincts while calling it faith. Basically: the sermon was never ju
#120
May 3 · 26 min
What If God Shows Up More in Art Than in Sermons?
If you’ve ever felt more alive listening to a song than sitting through a sermon, you’re not broken—you might just be paying attention. In this conversation, we unpack why art has always been one of the most honest spiritual experiences humans have, and why so many of us were trained to ignore it.
#119
April 26 · 47 min
Criminalizing Ejaculation, Tarrifs, Bonhoeffer, The Neverending Story and the new book, Saints Sinners and Clickers
What do you get when you mix apocalyptic politics, zombie video games, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and a bill that basically criminalizes ejaculation? Apparently… this episode. We talk about Matthew Di Stefano’s new book Saints, Sinners, and Clickers, why The Last of Us might be more honest than most theology, and what happens when your moral convictions meet a world that’s actively on fire. Also, yes, the news has officially become satire.
#118
April 19 · 32 min
The Bible Doesn’t Have One Jesus. It Has Four
Most of us were handed a “cookie cutter Jesus”—a single, polished version that conveniently fits our theology. The problem? That Jesus doesn’t actually exist in the text. In this conversation with Dr. David Orman, we break down how Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are telling very different stories for very different reasons—and why flattening them might be the thing that’s been holding you back from actually understanding them.
#117
April 12 · 41 min
The Tea: Queer Pastor Cancelled by a Christian Podcast and Her Story of Coming Out and Getting Ordained
What happens when a lesbian pastor gets invited onto a Christian podcast? Apparently… they panic, cancel the interview, and call it “opposing views.” In this episode, Jeremy talks with Anne Marie Zanzel about coming out later in life, doing real ministry with real people, and what it looks like when evangelical spaces decide your existence is “too controversial.” This isn’t a theology debate. It’s about harm, power, and who gets to belong.
#116
April 6 · 29 min
Interviews on Faith from the No Kings Protest in DC
If you think protests are just angry mobs, you might want to actually listen to the people in them. In this episode, I’m on the ground at the No Kings protest in DC talking to Christians, ex-Christians, and people who still believe in something—but not what they were handed. We talk Christian nationalism, why so many people are walking away from church, and why the loudest “Christian” voices in America look nothing like Jesus. This isn’t theory. It’s real people trying to make sense of faith in
#115
March 29 · 41 min
Being "Slain in the Spirit" and the Science Behind It
Ever watched someone fall over in church in person or on TV and thought, “There’s no way that’s real?” You’re half right—and half very wrong. In this episode, Jeremy tells his story of actually having that experience as a teen, and then unpacks the psychology behind being slain in the spirit and why it feels completely real for the people experiencing it. From music and crowd dynamics to brain prediction models and nervous system responses, this isn’t about calling people fake. It’s about finall
#114
March 23 · 54 min
Evangelical Camp Drama: How a Spotify Post Became a Faith Crisis
A teenager posts about a queer artist—and suddenly his faith, his job, and his community are all on the line. That’s not an overreaction. That’s evangelical culture working exactly as designed. In this episode, we follow one family's story to expose how fear, theology, and social pressure collide to keep people in line—and what it costs when someone refuses to play along. This is about more than one camp. It’s about a system that teaches people to choose belonging over honesty.
#113
March 8 · 35 min
Brainwashing Techniques Used by Evangelicals to Teach Hell
Evangelicals did not need to take a masterclass in brainwashing. They just built a culture where fear, shame, and thought-stopping clichés do the job for them. In this episode, we unpack how teachings about hell get wired into people through sacred science, loaded language, purity culture logic, fear-based altar calls, and the constant demand to distrust your own gut. We also dig into the Bible passages they love to weaponize and why those verses do not actually support the modern evangelical ve

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