Send Jeromy a Message or Voicemail

Purity culture didn’t just teach rules about sex — it reshaped how we see ourselves.

In this episode of Slutty Grace, we explore the lasting impact of evangelical purity culture — from sexual shame and fear-based teaching to the deeper loss of self-trust and identity.

Jeromy sits down with Mattie Jo Cowsert for an honest, unfiltered conversation about what purity culture took: self-worth, agency, and the ability to trust your own body. Together, they unpack how teachings around “purity” shaped relationships, distorted desire, and left many feeling disconnected from themselves long after leaving the system.

This isn’t just about sex.

It’s about shame, identity, and the long process of healing.

If you’ve ever felt like your worth was tied to your behavior…or struggled to trust yourself after deconstructing your faith…this conversation will likely hit close to home.

Topics include:

• purity culture and evangelical sexual teaching
• sex, shame, and self-worth
• losing and rebuilding self-trust
• deconstruction and healing after toxic religion
• relationships shaped by religious conditioning

If this episode resonates, you might also connect with:

• The Death of Pastor Dave — on shame, addiction, and identity
• You Don’t Deserve Love—the lie that shaped me and the God who never agreed.
• Did I Fail as a Youth Pastor? — deconstructing inherited beliefs

Mattie Jo Cowsert's Website

Buy Mattie Jo’s Book, Sex, God, and Rich People

Support the show

_______________________________________________________

Grace doesn’t hold back. She breaks the rules, softens hearts, and loves without apology. The open, universal, unapologetic love of God. Together we’re building a braver, more honest space. Thanks for your support and for listening.

1. Got a story, question, guest suggestions, or topic idea? Email me.
2. Please share if you believe this show and its message of grace is important in our time—keep it spreading!
3. Be sure to follow on whichever podcast platform you use.

Slutty Grace Facebook Group

Episode written, hosted, edited and produced by Jeromy Johnson.

Send Jeromy a Message or Voicemail

Maybe the problem wasn’t God… maybe it was my theology.

This episode is part of a short journey we’re exploring on the podcast — moving from fear-based faith toward freedom. Enjoy the series!

In this episode of Slutty Grace, Jeromy Johnson sits down with Del Burnett for a conversation about what happens when the beliefs you once defended with certainty begin to fall apart.

For Jeromy, Del became one of the unexpected voices who helped unravel the theology he inherited from evangelical Christianity—a framework shaped by fear, control, and rigid doctrine. But what felt like losing faith turned out to be something very different.

It was the beginning of discovering a bigger gospel, a deeper grace, and a kinder vision of God.

Together they explore the tension many people face during faith deconstruction: what happens when the version of Christianity you were taught no longer holds up? Is questioning your theology the same thing as losing God?

This conversation dives into religious deconstruction, grace-centered theology, and spiritual reconstruction, examining how fear-based beliefs about hell, judgment, and salvation have shaped modern Christianity—and how the message of Jesus might point us toward something far more hopeful.

If you’ve ever wrestled with losing your faith, rebuilding your spirituality, or healing from toxic theology, this episode offers an honest reminder that sometimes faith doesn’t die when theology collapses.

Sometimes it finally begins.

Because sometimes the most important discovery on the spiritual journey is this:

God was never the problem.

Our theology might have been.

Next week we continue the journey…

Support the show

_______________________________________________________

Grace doesn’t hold back. She breaks the rules, softens hearts, and loves without apology. The open, universal, unapologetic love of God. Together we’re building a braver, more honest space. Thanks for your support and for listening.

1. Got a story, question, guest suggestions, or topic idea? Email me.
2. Please share if you believe this show and its message of grace is important in our time—keep it spreading!
3. Be sure to follow on whichever podcast platform you use.

Slutty Grace Facebook Group

Episode written, hosted, edited and produced by Jeromy Johnson.

Send Jeromy a Message or Voicemail

Before Slutty Grace was a podcast, it was a journey. My journey.

In this special episode, Jeromy Johnson shares the story behind his own faith shift as a guest on Leslie Nease’s podcast, Honoring the Journey. Many listeners have asked how Jeromy moved from evangelical ministry and certainty into the world of faith deconstruction, progressive Christianity, and radical grace—and this conversation explores that road honestly.

Jeromy and Leslie talk about the questions that began to surface inside traditional theology, the struggle with fear-based beliefs about hell, salvation, and God’s judgment, and the slow discovery that grace might be far bigger than he was taught to believe.

If you’re navigating faith deconstruction, spiritual doubt, or life after evangelical Christianity, this episode will feel like sitting down with a fellow traveler who understands the tension between holding onto God while letting go of certainty.

Because sometimes the journey of faith isn’t about finding all the answers.
It’s about discovering that grace was bigger than the questions all along.

Support the show

_______________________________________________________

Grace doesn’t hold back. She breaks the rules, softens hearts, and loves without apology. The open, universal, unapologetic love of God. Together we’re building a braver, more honest space. Thanks for your support and for listening.

1. Got a story, question, guest suggestions, or topic idea? Email me.
2. Please share if you believe this show and its message of grace is important in our time—keep it spreading!
3. Be sure to follow on whichever podcast platform you use.

Slutty Grace Facebook Group

Episode written, hosted, edited and produced by Jeromy Johnson.

Send Jeromy a Message or Voicemail

What happens when religious trauma collides with mental health crisis—and your old faith doesn’t survive the fall?

In this raw and deeply honest conversation, Kristi Williams shares her journey from high-control Christianity to psych ward hospitalization—and into real mental health recovery.

Together, they unpack religious trauma, psych ward hospitalization, nervous system dysregulation, and the long road of mental health recovery after high-control Christianity.

Raised inside Seventh-day Adventism, Kristi shares how years of fear-based theology, end-times anxiety, perfectionism, and spiritual pressure shaped her nervous system long before she realized it. After postpartum stress, insomnia, pandemic fear, and accumulated trauma pushed her into psychiatric crisis, she found herself in a psych ward—terrified, unraveling, and unexpectedly encountering radical, judgment-free love.

What followed wasn’t a tidy testimony. Her faith collapsed. Theology stopped making sense. Attempts to “CPR” her old belief system failed. But something deeper began to emerge.

We explore:

• Religious trauma and its impact on the nervous system
• Why changing theology alone doesn’t heal trauma
• Body-based trauma healing and daily regulation practices
• Cognitive belief shifts vs. subconscious integration
• Insomnia, fight-or-flight, and nervous system burnout
• Deconstruction after mental health crisis
• Rebuilding faith after psychiatric hospitalization

Kristi explains why trauma isn’t just a belief problem—it’s stored in the body. And why real recovery requires working with the subconscious, grief, and nervous system patterns shaped by high-control religion.

If you’ve experienced church hurt, deconstruction, spiritual abuse, anxiety around hell or the end times, or mental health struggles connected to faith, this conversation offers language, tools, and hope.

This is not theology from a distance.
This is trauma work in the aftermath.
This is grace that meets you at rock bottom.

Support the show

_______________________________________________________

Grace doesn’t hold back. She breaks the rules, softens hearts, and loves without apology. The open, universal, unapologetic love of God. Together we’re building a braver, more honest space. Thanks for your support and for listening.

1. Got a story, question, guest suggestions, or topic idea? Email me.
2. Please share if you believe this show and its message of grace is important in our time—keep it spreading!
3. Be sure to follow on whichever podcast platform you use.

Slutty Grace Facebook Group

Episode written, hosted, edited and produced by Jeromy Johnson.

Send Jeromy a Message or Voicemail

What if God isn’t changing your circumstances… because He’s changing you?

In this deeply personal episode of Slutty Grace, Jeromy sits down with Chris Jones, host of the podcast Spiritual Hot Sauce, for a raw conversation about suffering, pride, fear-based faith, and spiritual transformation.

What begins as a discussion about fear-based religion and confusing church with God quickly becomes something much more intimate.

Chris shares the story of a traumatic workplace tragedy that shattered his career trajectory, identity, and sense of control. What followed were years of striving, ego, loss, PTSD, divorce, financial collapse, and finally — surrender.

At the center of his story is one haunting verse:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

A verse he didn’t want. A message he resisted. A truth that eventually transformed him.

In this episode, we explore:

• Fear-based faith vs. faith rooted in love
• The difference between church culture and the heart of God
• Pride, identity, and losing everything you thought defined you
• Spiritual deconstruction and reconstruction
• The “dark night of the soul” and post-traumatic growth
• Suffering as transformation, not punishment
• What it means to deny yourself without self-abuse
• Discipleship vs. religious performance
• Finding God outside institutional religion

Chris unpacks a powerful metaphor of the “garden, cross, cave, and resurrection” — a spiritual journey of dying to ego and emerging transformed rather than restored.

If you’ve ever:

– Lost a career
– Walked through divorce
– Questioned church
– Wrestled with pride
– Experienced spiritual burnout
– Or wondered why God feels silent in suffering

This conversation is for you.

Because grace doesn’t always give you your old life back.
Sometimes it gives you a new one.

Support the show

_______________________________________________________

Grace doesn’t hold back. She breaks the rules, softens hearts, and loves without apology. The open, universal, unapologetic love of God. Together we’re building a braver, more honest space. Thanks for your support and for listening.

1. Got a story, question, guest suggestions, or topic idea? Email me.
2. Please share if you believe this show and its message of grace is important in our time—keep it spreading!
3. Be sure to follow on whichever podcast platform you use.

Slutty Grace Facebook Group

Episode written, hosted, edited and produced by Jeromy Johnson.

Send Jeromy a Message or Voicemail

If love is the measure of theology, what does that mean for LGBTQ+ people in the Church?

In this powerful episode of Slutty Grace, Jeromy Johnson sits down with renowned theologian Dr. Thomas Jay Oord to confront one of the most urgent questions facing Christianity today: Are LGBTQ+ people fully embraced by God—and should they be fully included in the Church?

Drawing from his groundbreaking work on uncontrolling love, Oord explains why God’s love is never coercive, never second-class, and never withdrawn. Together, they explore the so-called “clobber passages,” the phrase “love the sinner, hate the sin,” and the real-world consequences of non-affirming theology for queer Christians and their families

Oord shares his personal journey from conservative evangelicalism to full LGBTQ+ affirmation, including the denominational trials that ultimately led to his removal for advocating inclusion. This isn’t abstract theology—it’s about people, flourishing, trauma, and whether our understanding of Scripture produces love or harm.

They also dive into:

• Biblical interpretation and hermeneutics
• The “theology of yuck” and cultural bias
• Relational theology and why God cannot coerce
• Healing spiritual trauma
• Hope beyond fear-based faith

For those who have deconstructed over this issue, for parents wrestling with what they’ve been taught, and for LGBTQ+ listeners wondering if God truly welcomes them—this conversation is an invitation to rediscover a God whose love does not control, does not shame, and does not give up.

Because if God is love, then love must be the final word.

Support the show

_______________________________________________________

Grace doesn’t hold back. She breaks the rules, softens hearts, and loves without apology. The open, universal, unapologetic love of God. Together we’re building a braver, more honest space. Thanks for your support and for listening.

1. Got a story, question, guest suggestions, or topic idea? Email me.
2. Please share if you believe this show and its message of grace is important in our time—keep it spreading!
3. Be sure to follow on whichever podcast platform you use.

Slutty Grace Facebook Group

Episode written, hosted, edited and produced by Jeromy Johnson.

Send Jeromy a Message or Voicemail

What happens when a former youth pastor sits down—not to defend his past—but to listen?

In this episode of Slutty Grace, Jeromy Johnson reconnects with Autumn Lindsey, a former middle-school student from his youth ministry who has since deconstructed evangelical Christianity and now identifies as a None—someone no longer affiliated with organized religion. What unfolds is not an argument, a conversion attempt, or a tidy testimony, but an honest, compassionate conversation shaped by curiosity, accountability, and grace.

Together, they explore what it was like to grow up in evangelical youth group culture, how inherited beliefs around fear, certainty, and belonging quietly formed—and fractured—faith, and what it means to step away without shame. Jeromy names the uncomfortable question many leaders avoid: Did I fail? Autumn responds with clarity, nuance, and generosity, offering insight into what helped, what harmed, and what healing looks like now.

This episode centers faith deconstruction, not as rebellion or loss, but as a developmental and deeply human process. It examines power dynamics in youth ministry, the cost of certainty, and the quiet courage it takes to leave systems that no longer feel true. Most of all, it models what repair can look like when listening replaces defensiveness.

If you’ve ever questioned your upbringing in church, wondered whether leaving evangelicalism means losing yourself—or asked hard questions about the impact of faith leadership—this conversation offers space to breathe.

Support the show

_______________________________________________________

Grace doesn’t hold back. She breaks the rules, softens hearts, and loves without apology. The open, universal, unapologetic love of God. Together we’re building a braver, more honest space. Thanks for your support and for listening.

1. Got a story, question, guest suggestions, or topic idea? Email me.
2. Please share if you believe this show and its message of grace is important in our time—keep it spreading!
3. Be sure to follow on whichever podcast platform you use.

Slutty Grace Facebook Group

Episode written, hosted, edited and produced by Jeromy Johnson.

Send Jeromy a Message or Voicemail

What happens when you take Jesus seriously—but can’t take American Christianity at face value anymore?

In this episode, Jeromy sits down with Stuart Delony—pastor-turned-satirist, writer, and host of Snarky Faith—for a conversation that’s as honest as it is disarming. Together, they explore faith deconstruction not as a phase to survive, but as an ongoing human process that invites humility, curiosity, and compassion.

Stuart brings sharp insight and humor to the table as they unpack why certainty can be more dangerous than doubt, how American Christianity often traded empathy for control, and why satire might be one of the most faithful responses left. This conversation holds space for grief, laughter, and the tension of loving Jesus while questioning the systems built in his name.

Recorded before recent events that continue to shape our political and religious landscape, this episode stands as a reminder that the deeper questions of faith—about power, truth, and grace—are always timely.

If you’ve ever felt too human for church,
If your questions were treated like threats,
If you suspect Jesus wouldn’t be welcome in many modern congregations—

This conversation is for you.

Support the show

_______________________________________________________

Grace doesn’t hold back. She breaks the rules, softens hearts, and loves without apology. The open, universal, unapologetic love of God. Together we’re building a braver, more honest space. Thanks for your support and for listening.

1. Got a story, question, guest suggestions, or topic idea? Email me.
2. Please share if you believe this show and its message of grace is important in our time—keep it spreading!
3. Be sure to follow on whichever podcast platform you use.

Slutty Grace Facebook Group

Episode written, hosted, edited and produced by Jeromy Johnson.