044 – Interview with Ex-Evangelist Marie D’Elephant
Marie was raised in an evangelical household in Minnesota, USA. She began to have doubts at the age of 13 but didn’t pursue her doubts. She doubled down, again and again, to prove herself to god, resulting in her serving as an evangelical missionary in Mexico for two years with Youth With a Mission. After leaving Mexico, she began a gradual deconstruction and departure from her faith. Her life after that shift has not been easy.
The YouTube version of this podcast can be found here: https://youtu.be/aTmOPL0Va2s
Here are the timestamps for the podcast:
0:00 Introductions.
1:24 Marie’s religious background.
5:52 How Marie ended up having doubts despite living in a “religious bubble”.
8:18 Scientific explanation for skepticism.
12:14 Transactional/ incentivized charity work and other religious deeds by religious organizations. Is there Altruism?
18:48 Doubting. Being an atheist at seminary and mission.
24:50 Treatment of women by fundamentalist regions. Purity culture.
34:00 Parallels between Christian version of purity culture and Islamic version. Social skills.
39:20 Arranged marriages. Priorities for choosing a partner. Attractions between partners.
47:00 Homosexuality, Religious morality, and its main objectives
50:11 Objectivity and the need to be agnostic on many topics.
54:04 Apathy for this life because we are promised the next life and believing God will take care of our problems.
55:52 Is America a white supremacist country? Systemic racism in America.
58:40 Abdullah’s perspective on racism in the west and the treatment of native Canadians.
1:09:40 The gun problem in America.
1:14:50 Channel announcements.
1:16:33 Marie’s podcast and other social media handles.
1:19:25 The need to train de-escalation tactics (Police violence)
1:20:00 Segregation. Are white people inherently evil? Hiring quotas.
1:28:20 Framing in the racism discussion. What does racism mean? is a person racist or just has racist tendencies?
1:37:10 Marie and Abdullah’s closing remarks.
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