S2.E15: Blake Chastain- The ExVangelical Forefather (Indiana Wesleyan)

Blake Chastain created the ExVangelical hashtag and helped start a movement that has grown into what is now known as the "deconstruction" movement. Through this community on both twitter and in real life, I've met so many super cool people, including Blake, who I consider a friend today. Someday we'll hang in person, but this episode actually has me wondering if we might BE the same person in some sort of mishap with the space/time continuum. Until we get that sorted out, this episode has Blake talking his time at Indiana Wesleyan University where he began deconstructing from evangelical christianity. He had some great professors who challenge him and inspired him, and he had the typical professors who seemed as interested in fundamentalist indoctrination as teaching their subjects. But Blake has forged his own path of not just deconstruction, but decolonization, as he speaks often about his recognition of privilege as a White man and pushes back at White supremacy and complimentarianism.

This episode begins with another meeting of the Asian American Secret Society with Brad Onishi and Nate Nakao and I discussing whether or not to let a new member into the group, Veterans of Culture Wars co-host, Zach Malm. I should have probably written a script for this one, but we had fun just vamping improv-style.

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Music by Scott Okamoto, Jenyi, and Shin Kawasaki and Wingo Shackleford

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