We’re talking about how one of the characteristics of a cult is that they often present as a really good thing. A lot of times, they are doing really good things on the surface. If this weren’t the case, people wouldn’t be joining them.  Additionally, not every cult starts as a cult. Sometimes it starts as on organization with really good intentions to help people. We’ll discuss all of that, in this episode. https://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_edmondson_how_to_spot_a_cult Sarah Edmondson is a...

One of our Most Loved episodes from Season Three, exploring common misguided perspectives of anger and how befriending our anger can help us heal. Dr. Laura Anderson is the cofounder of the Religious Trauma Institute, and founder of Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery she’s a licensed therapist, and professor of psychology. Instagram//Facebook: @drlauraeanderson Support Groups https://www.tearsofeden.org/support-groups Podcast Collaboration Form https://www.tearsofeden.org/form Listen...

This episode is with Ashley Love Richards and Fallon Morey, cohosts of TSFU the Podcast Katherine and Fallon play a game with Ashley asking her Christian Clichés to see if she knows what they mean. We also discuss the perspectives Catholics and protestants have of one another, the origin of Alcoholics Anonymous (spoiler, it’s Christian), and whether or not AA is a cult. This conversation is comical and fun—and borderline irreverent. Shoot Christians Say YouTube Video is the video we watch in...

Shannon Payton (https://shannypantsshow.com/), known as Shanny Pants by many, is a content creator and podcaster living in Rocklin, California. Although Shannon has a successful career as a Realtor, she has equally enjoyed her hobby of sharing her humor through Instagram with friends and family. In 2020 her video about making school lunches went viral, it opened a whole new world for her. She now has many viral videos and hundreds of thousands of social media followers. Her podcast, The...

Marie Griffith, PhD, John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis. She served for 12 years (2011-2023) as the director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics and the editor of the Center’s journal, Religion & Politics. Her research focuses on American Christianity, including the changing profile of American evangelicals and ongoing conflicts over gender, sexuality, and marriage. Author of several books, including Moral...

Brian Lee, from Through Cohort and Broken to Beloved Summit interviews Tears of Eden’s Founder Katherine Spearing about the Church’s harmful teachings on marriage that can result in very real trauma—for single and married people. Transcript (Unedited for Typos and Misspellings) Brian: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, welcome to our session. I'm here with Katherine Spearing. Katherine is the founder of Tears of Eden, a non profit supporting survivors of spiritual abuse, and the host of Tears...

Connie Baker, LPC author of Traumatized by Religious Abuse and a therapist who works with survivors of religious trauma, joins Uncertain to discuss what thriving might look like after Spiritual Abuse. This is a nuanced subject, intended to provide hope (not pressure!). Thank you for joining us for Spiritual Abuse Awareness Month in 2024! Transcript is unedited for typos or misspellings [00:00:00] I'm Katherine Spearing, and this is Uncertain. It's...

Julia and Jeremiah from the Sexvangelicals podcast (a podcast for providing the sex education the church didn’t want you to have) join Uncertain podcast to discuss how Purity Culture can impact men.Some topics addressed in this episode:  Erectile Disfunction Shame around sex Sexual Agression  Gender Binaries  Check out two of the Sexvangelicals' episodes featuring Uncertain’s host Katherine Spearing: Episode #53: Kicking Off the New Year with Spiritual Abuse: How to Leave a Controlling Family...

Rachel Bernstein LMFT, MSEd from the IndoctriNation podcast discusses what it’s like working with survivors from high-control groups. This episode is for survivors looking for a mental health professional or for mental health professionals looking to work with the demographic of survivors of cults, high-control groups, and spiritual abuse. University of Salford Transcript (Transcript is unedited for typos and misspellings) Katherine: Hello. How are you doing today? Rachel: I am doing really...

Brian Lee shares his personal story of experiencing spiritual abuse and what led him to start Broken to Beloved, an online summit and support resource for survivors. Register for the Broken to Beloved Summit January 23-26, 2024 HERE Brian Lee is a pastor, coach, and speaker. As a survivor of spiritual abuse and religious trauma, he has spent his time since leaving vocational ministry in 2021 working to provide recovery and resources for fellow victims and survivors. In 2023, he created and...

Forgiveness has often been used in the church to sideline and silence victims, either by perpetrators intent on controlling their victims or by systems of people who believe they’re doing the right thing. Connie Baker, author of Traumatized by Religious Abuse and a therapist who works with survivors of religious trauma, joins Katherine for this important discussion on a topic that is nuance, personal, and definitely emotionally charged. REGISTER FOR RETREATCON Uncertain is a podcast of...

This episode discusses the brutal murder of Elizabeth Mackintosh on the campus of Covenant Theological Seminary in 1990. It also discusses an entire denomination’s apparent erasure of women. Karl Saint Lucy is a songwriter, composer, and vocalist living in The Bronx. Karl is the songwriter, a co-composer (with music producer Marius de Vries), and a co-producer of A24's first movie musical, F**king Identical Twins, directed by Larry Charles, which stars Megan Thee Stallion in her first...

Bridget Eileen Rivera is a sociologist completing her Ph.D. at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Her first book, Heavy Burdens (Brazos Press, fall 2021), is a Foreward INDIES 2022 Finalist for religion. Providing an honest account of seven ways LGBTQ people experience discrimination in the church, Heavy Burdens helps Christians across the theological spectrum to grapple with hard realities and navigate a better approach to LGBTQ issues. You can follow Bridget's work on social...

Armed with data from an all-new survey of more than 7,000 women, the authors of The Great Sex Rescue, Sheila Wray Gregoire, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Joanna Sawatsky, reveal how experiences in church as teens affect women's self-esteem and relationships today in their new book She Deserves Better: Raising Girls to Resist Toxic Teachings on Sex, Self, and Speaking Up. They expose common evangelical teachings that can backfire: the purity emphasis that can cause shame rather than good...

Two ex-cult members discuss the healing power of art through the creation of a musical. Teruyo (they/them) is a racialized queer, mentally disabled, non-binary theatre artist, anti-oppression activist and graduate student in theatre. Teruyo's encounter with cults and the aftermath of manipulative mind games has fueled their drive to delve into healing and reclaiming identity through anti-colonial and anti-racist cult recovery. Through their academic research and the creation and production...

Second Wave Fundamentalism is a term acknowledging that we can leave fundamentalist spaces, but they do not always leave us. How do we recognize when we are creating the same pattern—and the same spaces—we tried to leave behind? And how do we care for ourselves, and our own trauma healing, so we don’t migrate toward, and recreate, the unsafe communities we fought so hard to escape? Dr. Laura Anderson is the cofounder of the Religious Trauma Institute, and founder of Center for Trauma...

Anna Beahm is a Journalist with Reckon.News who has been covering the intersection of faith, s*x and politics since December 2020. In this episode, we discuss the complexity of covering these typically emotionally charged subjects. We also discuss how Anna’s story of growing up in conservative evangelicalism informs her reporting. Sign up for Anna’s newsletter HERE Anna Beahm is a North Alabama native now living in Nashville with her husband, Ty. Anna draws on her experience growing up in a...

When Megan Kenyon’s niece was born it propelled her on a journey of exploring the messages she received from the church about being a woman, culminating in an art showcase featuring the church experiences of 22 women across generations and denominations. The findings were remarkable (but probably not surprising). Find photos of the showcase mentioned in this episode on our Instagram HERE. Megan Kenyon is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in St. Louis. Her practice focuses on...

  One of our Most Loved episodes - This is one of our most loved episodes, with Kody Purcell, sharing her story of abuse at the hands of a pastor, but also the church system that actively sought to cover it up. Reach out to Kody at [email protected] Content Warning for this episode: contains details of sexual abuse, systemic coverup of abuse, attempted suicide, and explicit language.   — REGISTER FOR RETREATCON Uncertain is a podcast of  Tears of Eden, a community and resource for...

Celebrating Three Years of Uncertainty: 3rd Anniversary Episode (On May 30th, 2023, Seasons 1 & 2 will be archived) Transcript: I’m Katherine Spearing and welcome to Uncertain, an affiliate podcast of Tears of Eden, a nonprofit supporting survivors of Spiritual Abuse, if you’d like to support this podcast and the work of Tears of Eden, consider giving a donation at TearsofEden.org/support. You can also support the podcast by liking, subscribing, and leaving a review.  Here now is a very...

In this episode with therapist Catherine Quiring, we discuss how teaching in the church might set us up for anxious attachment to God, and the implications of this in our recovery from religious trauma. Helpful links from Catherine:  https://www.cqcounseling.com/freebies  https://www.cqcounseling.com/courses REGISTER FOR RETREATCON Uncertain is a podcast of  Tears of Eden, a community and resource for those in the aftermath of Spiritual Abuse. If you’re enjoying this podcast, please take a...

In this Episode with comedian Kristina Hart, we discuss the hilarity of learning how to date as an adult after you’ve grown up swimming in the waters of Purity Culture. Kristina is a faith-informed writer, speaker, comic, host, and popular online persona. The spirited voice behind The DTR Blog and now the That’s Super Weird Podcast, and Harts Breaking News podcast, this Persian-American woman is unafraid to break barriers and raise tough questions related to topics like trauma, emotional...

In this episode with Rebecca Davis we unpack the teachings that are used in churches to make all sins equal force us to “err on the side of grace” when it comes to abuse elevate loyalty above all else and much more!   Rebecca Davis is a writer, book coach, speaker, wife, mother, grandmother, compassionate witness, prayer minister, advocate for the oppressed, and lover of Jesus who lives in Greenville, South Carolina.See her work as a trauma-informed book coach, book doctor, and ghostwriter at...

Francina Kahl is the founder and CEO of Be Still Tea, a tea company that encourages stillness, creating space for our stories, and connecting with others and ourselves.  In this episode we discuss: Invisibility and otherness in the church The importance of being able to sit with our own stories so we can sit with the stories of others Racial trauma and what it’s like to be a black body in a white space REGISTER FOR RETREATCON Uncertain is a podcast of  Tears of Eden, a community and resource...