Latest / We Are More: Sisters Talk Faith & Feminism / Ep. 127: We Believed the Veggies

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Ep. 127: We Believed the Veggies · We Are More: Sisters Talk Faith & Feminism

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: To the We Are More Pod cast. My name is Alyssa. And my
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: name is Bree. We're two sisters passionate about all things faith and feminism. We believe
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: that Jesus trusted, respected, and encouraged women to teach and preach his word. And apparently, that's controversial. Get comfy.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Hello, world. Welcome to the Weirmore
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: podcast. Is this like a jumbotron situation?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh. Or like a ghost. Welcome to fall, y'all. Oh, I have something to talk about.
• 0:49
  When the heck is the first official day of fall?
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: It's not till, like, mid October. It's something stupid. That's not true. Really?
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: See, everybody has a different idea. I always thought it was September 21 because that's, like, the the solstice or something like that.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Uh-huh.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: And then someone else today, this morning, in our morning meeting was like, no, it's the twenty second. And then my calendar says that it's the twenty third. So I made a Facebook post about happy first official day of fall, and I was like, well, when the heck day is it? And then one of the girls was like, well, goes based on the moon, like the lunar calendar. And I was like, listen.
• 1:29
  The moon told me. I spoke to her
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: this morning.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Then the other girl said, did you get your calendar from Walmart? Oh. I said, Amazon, basically the same thing.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: That's mildly hurtful, but a good burn.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: It was. So when the heck is fall? It feels fall.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: It feels fall. I just noticed today that the trees are starting to change colors. And that's like, I mean, I know that it's late September, and we're in Michigan. So, like, it makes sense that we're headed to fall. But I was cold last night.
• 2:03
  I was, like, under all the blankets.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: I feel like it was just so hot. It was. And then it switched. Mhmm. There was no in between y.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: There was no ween y. There was just hot and cold. It's really messing with my my sinuses and everything. I noticed today that I was starting to feel something because
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I had change
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the seasons. Yeah. I should. A lot of times, it's when the kids go back to school. But right now, it's it is just jumping from hot straight to cold.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: I will say I kind of enjoy it because I'm so ready to wear a sweater.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: I love a sweater.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: But I don't want to jump fully into so so cold. I don't wanna pull out a jacket. I don't even know where they are.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: If there was a world that was just fall, if there was a country where it was like, you know, it pretty much always stays between 50 degrees and 65. Even 40. 40 degrees and 65.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Fifty five and seventy, I think.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: No. No. No. Colder than that.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: No. I don't think so.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Alright. We'll go 45 to 70. 45 is cool. What are you talking about? Because then I can wear a sweater.
• 3:14
  You can wear a sweater when it's fifty five. Yeah. But I can also wear a sweater when it's forty five, and then I can drink hot cocoa.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: You can drink hot cocoa whenever you want.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: So people out there of the world, I know there's a lot of you listening, kind of people of the world in much better countries than I'm in right now. And I need to know if you have a climate like that, and can I come live with you? Because I don't have the means to move to a new country.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: I'm imagining the lands, like, in the nightmare before Christmas Mhmm. Where there's those doors in all those different trees. Maybe there's just a fall land.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Maybe. And it's full of pumpkins and apples and leaves. Yeah. Has this been stimulating for you guys?
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Are you
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: really enjoying this conversation?
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: You're like, where are they going?
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: There's never a way to know.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: What are they talking about? I'm here for it,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: but I'm confused. We are also confused. That that could be a title. We are also confused. And we are more.
• 4:21
  And we are more. And we are tired. Yeah. Great news, though, before we launch into the actual episode. So we have a cousin who is just a really amazing speaker.
• 4:35
  She does a lot of work with trauma and women going through trauma, and she teaches classes. She's actually teaching a class tomorrow, so keep her in your prayers. And we we don't do a lot of guests on the show just because recording logistics wise, it's kind of difficult. But we asked her if she would be willing to be on an episode, and she said, well, meh, maybe. She said, I hate you.
• 5:01
  That's not true. She was really excited about it. So hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, we will have her on. And we thought we'd call the episode We Are Cousins.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Because talk Faith
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: and Feminism. Because we are out of ideas.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: You know what? With every new episode that we come out with, I think there couldn't be one more thing
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: to say. There's always more to say.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: And here we are, a billion episodes
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: It happened. It's it's a large body of work.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: And we are the body of Christ. And we are more. And we are more.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Okay. So today, after all of that ridiculousness, we are talking about things from our childhood faith, things that we learned when we were kids that have remained true and continue to be part of our faith even through deconstruction. Cause I think a lot of times Christian people look at those who say they've deconstructed or who are going through a deconstruction process, and they'll say, well, you just don't want to believe anymore. You just want an excuse for your sin.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: I was listening to a YouTube video today from a woman in ministry. I don't actually know her name. I was, like, scrolling through deconstruction videos. Talk to me more about that, and I skipped all of the men and found
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the first woman that I could find.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: And she started out by being like, God is big enough for your questions. But she almost was like, I want to say I'm so, so sorry for you if you feel like you've gotten to the point where you have to go through deconstruction. And I don't feel that way. I think if you are going through deconstruction, and there is a generation of people going through a quote unquote deconstruction of their faith right now. I think it means that you're taking your faith really seriously.
• 7:06
  Yeah. And I think one thing that she said that really resonated with me was that people going through deconstruction often aren't questioning their faith in God necessarily, but questioning the God that they see through people. Mhmm. And unfortunately, how people have failed over and over and over again who claim to represent your faith.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Mhmm. Well, what I hear all the time because a lot of the churches Brie and I have left has probably all of them have been because of people. Right? Not because of God, not because of our faith, but because people suck. And every time that happens, and I'm sure you guys have heard this too, someone will say, probably in a well meaning way, well, the church is full of broken people.
• 7:56
  But you're also a broken person, so basically suck it up and deal with it.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: I feel like it's a big, big excuse. Mhmm. I think it's an excuse to perpetuate abuse Yeah. Within the church and excuse a lot of bad behavior. And I think that ultimately, faith lately has come down to power over love.
• 8:25
  And I think that's one thing that has held true. Kind of. From childhood faith is God is love. Mhmm. And as I've gone through a deconstruction process, I am realizing more and more how much God loves his people because I'm learning more about the character of God.
• 8:46
  Yeah.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: I think if you read the Bible just just to read the words, you're often gonna miss that. You're gonna miss the love of God. And you can repeat it a million times like, oh, God is love. Jesus is love. You know, we teach that in Sunday school, whatever.
• 9:01
  But until you read the Bible looking for God's character, you miss what that really means, like how deep that is. And I think we can our relationships with other people are supposed to show us what love looks like. Right? What the love of God looks like. And maybe that's with a sibling.
• 9:24
  Maybe that's with a partner. Maybe that's with a kid. But those relationships are what show us the love of God. And when the church, who's supposed to exemplify that, who's supposed to be that relationship, fails on such a spectacular level over and over and over again. Even if you tell me the church is full of broken people, there's a line of brokenness I'm not gonna sit through anymore.
• 9:53
  And if that's what God's love looks like, then I think that's why we have a generation of people who've been like, oh, nope. See you.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: Bye. Yeah. Because your people the body of Christ. Right? We're some of us are the butt.
• 10:09
  We've discussed this before. But we are supposed to represent Jesus here today in the year of our Lord 2026. We're supposed to show radical compassion, radical love, radical kindness, giving, because that's what Jesus did. Mhmm. And as you look back through the Bible and read the stories about Jesus, there was no end to how compassionate and how loving and how giving He was.
• 10:37
  Mhmm. But I think the stereotypical Christian person Mhmm. Today, or the church, I'll say the church, is very
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: closed off
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Mhmm. And very into power and very into politics. And I think that's where people are are starting to lose their faith or question their faith or deconstruct their faith. Mhmm. Because the Jesus that they saw growing up doesn't match the Jesus that they're seeing in people today.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah. One of the things that people will tell you often, if you believe in the way that we and probably you also do, is you're showing too much love. You're showing How
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: dare you?
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Too much compassion. And that there does need to be guardrails on your love and compassion. There do need to be limits to your love and compassion. There do need to be limits on who you allow into the doors of your church. And yet I don't see Jesus doing that ever.
• 11:41
  They taught us Jesus is love. And the issue is that we believed them. And now we sit here and we're like, no, Jesus is love. And they're like, no. You got it wrong.
• 11:54
  I promise. The flannelgraph told me. And it's just one of those things that I struggle now I know we're not supposed to judge anybody else's faith. Okay? We can look.
• 12:09
  But I struggle to look at people who say things like that, look at people who don't show compassion and love to those outside of their bubble. And I struggle to believe that they have faith. Because I think if you knew my god the way that you say you do, there would be nothing stopping you from showing that love.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: You know? Yeah. I think something beautiful about deconstructing your faith is deepening my faith to more than a performative level. Mhmm. So people told you in church all the time, read your Bible, be in your Bible.
• 12:54
  Don't just go to Sunday and listen to your preacher. Be in your Bible throughout the week. Okay. Mhmm. Be in your Bible, yes, and.
• 13:02
  Mhmm. Be in your Bible, yes, and be in your history books. Be in your Bible, and also listen to people who have studied the sociological aspect of that time. And what do these stories really mean? And what was really happening?
• 13:21
  Because I'm reading a translation of a translation of a translation. So what would this story have meant to the people back then? Mhmm. I think the problem I'm calling out a lot of problems. I
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: think that's the point of the I heard
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: a quote the other day that said, you can have a mouth and a head full of scripture and a heart full of hate. Mhmm. So you can be in your Bible all the time. You can be doing your devotionals because that's something you have to check off your list. But do you know the character of God?
• 13:53
  Do you have a relationship with God? Because I think if you truly had a real relationship and you knew the character of God, you wouldn't be acting this way. Mhmm. And you should not be acting this way.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I had a small group leader once that told me that he liked to read out of a physical bible. Not because, like, oh, this is just a preference, you know, whatever. But because he wanted his son to see him reading a physical bible as opposed to, like, reading verses on his phone or something like that. Performative. That's the thing.
• 14:24
  Mhmm. Now, I'm not saying that there's no benefit to, like, showing your child a good habit. But couldn't your child come up to you like, if you wanna read out of a physical bible, do your thing. But if that's the only reason, like, you're inconveniencing yourself just so that your kid, like, sees you with an open Bible in your lap, that's performative.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: I also feel that way about prayer.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Mhmm.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh. Yes. So prayer should be like we we talked about this the other day on the podcast, but like, the deepest yearning of your heart, communicating with God. Mhmm. Right?
• 15:00
  That's time where you're like, you're closing your eyes, and now you're in the presence of the divine. But how often do we sit there and we say, dear Jesus, thank you for this day. Thank you for this food. Bless the food to our bodies. In Jesus name, amen.
• 15:14
  Mhmm.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Or alternatively, there's, like, a white man standing up there and Going on.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Talking for an hour. And really, it's just preaching,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: but we're pretending it's prayer. Mhmm.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Or a one up you again. You're at a restaurant. And now we all need to pray before we get our meal, even though the waitress is coming up or the waiter is coming up and they're feeling a little awkward. I also feel like how much more of a witness than a testimony is it, Rather than doing a performative prayer at a restaurant, instead, you could give a massive tip.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Mhmm.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: And say, Jesus loves you. Here's a $100.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: If you can. If you can. Which most of us right now can.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: No. No. We can't. But or you can just be, like, really kind or really nice to the person serving you. Like you know?
• 16:10
  Yeah. Well, it's
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I remember watching when we're gonna do a lot of back to our past memories here. But in with our youth group at one of our churches, we went to the youth group leader's house and watched some movie, and I could not begin to tell you what it was. But I know that one of the conversations that was had was like, oh, these people have the basically, the concepts of God, goodness, love, kindness, but someone took out the Jesus message. They just think goodness, kind, love, whatever, and they don't think about Jesus. And it was turning that into a negative thing.
• 16:50
  It's like, oh, this is horrible because they have Jesus' teachings and know Jesus. Now I'm not saying that we don't want them to also know Jesus, but it doesn't make their actions bad. And when we show them love through acts instead of throwing Jesus at their faces, That's a good thing. That's what we're supposed to be doing.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: That's what sets people apart. It's not dressing up modestly and praying before your meals and doing your devotions before you get going for your day. I'm not saying those things are bad.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: I am
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: not. If you feel called and led to do those things, then do those things. But also, you should be showing love and grace and in your day to day life, because that's how people are noticing and seeing you, and your actions speak louder than your words.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: And a lot of people or not a lot of people. I was saying the same things that you were saying. Mhmm. And one of the things that the Bible says about all of those things is they're supposed to be done in private. I'm not saying you can never pray in public, but I do think it's hilarious that you go into church and your pastor is up there saying this big long eloquent prayer.
• 18:05
  When the Bible really says, like, don't do that. You're not here to perform. You're here to love God and love others. And we all know people in our lives that are like that, that are like the church person who, you know, makes sure their bible comes in its case every week, and they've got their name monogrammed onto it and whatever. We know those performative people.
• 18:28
  And I think most of us are blessed to also know someone who's just full of love and joy. Me. Well. Minus the joy. And the love.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: Kidding. That's hurtful. That's not the message here.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: But we all we know both of those kinds of people. And who do you gravitate towards? Who would you listen to if they said, hey, I'd love to tell you about why I'm this way? Would you listen to the joyful person? Or would you listen to the person who's thumping their Bible everywhere they go?
• 19:07
  You would trust the joyful, loving person. When you know they are this way because they know God, that's what you wanna be. Mhmm. Not I wanna be this because if I don't, people will think I suck.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh my gosh. I had a thought, and then it
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: left my body. Before we move past praying too, one of the things that did stick for me and I don't remember exactly when we were taught this, but there's a verse. And I don't know the reference, but it's in there. That says pray without ceasing. And I remember hearing that and just not really being able to understand.
• 19:51
  Understand. Because I was like, my gosh, if I have to talk to God all the time, nothing's going to get done. And so I just sort of ignored that and whatever. And I think So I blew past that. It's stuck in my head though.
• 20:07
  And as I got older, I did start to question more. What does that mean? Because we like to condense our conversations with God between dear Jesus and amen. And then stop. We stopped talking to God.
• 20:24
  And I think pray without ceasing doesn't mean literally never stop praying. And that's how it
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: was presented when we were kids,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: which is not possible. Or that's
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: how a kid understands.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Right. You cannot never stop talking to God, but you cannot end the conversation. It's like a a texting chain you have with your sister. And you're kind of always texting. Sometimes you're texting more, but you're always in a conversation.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Or maybe you have that one person in your life that you can just pick up the phone, and it doesn't matter how long it's been. You're just picking right back up where you left off. And you're like, and anyways, I lost my mind today. Oop. All my words left my body.
• 21:14
  You're just picking up right where you left off, even though no matter how much time or space there is. Mhmm. And I also think about how you're supposed to have a relationship with God, and you're supposed to I think about that with a parent. Would your parent love it if you just called them once a day or once a week or whenever it is and just said, hi, thanks for giving birth to me. Bye.
• 21:39
  Hi, bless my food. Bye. Hi, love you. Bye. I mean, maybe they would like that.
• 21:44
  I don't know. But a relationship is more than that. It's, you know, two way communication. We had to take a
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: pause because the longest train that has ever existed went through our town. It was very loud. Think
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: it might still be going.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: It might be. So if you hear a train, that's just how life goes.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: That's none of your business. Move on by. So
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: let's talk about how, I think, how we were taught about God. Like, Awana and junior church and stuff. When I was a child. Okay. My
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: first memory of faith would probably be getting saved. Yeah. So Alyssa and I both got saved very young.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Like, four and five.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: I remember being in the backseat of our minivan. Mhmm. And me and our our mom went through the prayer and everything, what does that mean? But I think the struggle that comes with getting saved so young Mhmm. Is that your faith doesn't ever really feel your own.
• 22:56
  Mhmm. Which you hear all these salvation stories, especially when you're in church, about people finding God later in life. And there's a transformation.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: But when you get saved so young, you're like, well, I never had a transformation. I've just always been this way. Right. What the heck? So I think as I've gotten older and decided to make my faith my own through different stages of my life, that's faith is a weird journey.
• 23:28
  It's like a wave. Because I feel like, at least in my faith journey, my faith feels really, really strong.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: And then I was like, is is God real? And then it would build itself back up, then I'd be like, I must be going to hell. I'm an awful person.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: I think with the getting saved part of things, there's the part of the bible that says, essentially, there's a certain age. And it it's different for everyone, but there's a certain age at which you become, like, accountable to your own sins, like the age of understanding. Right? And so parents assume, well, the moment they can understand a full sentence. It's a critical thing for them because they could go if one day passes past the age of understanding and then Jesus comes back, they'll go to hell.
• 24:25
  Now, I don't believe that that would be the case. That seems like a really awful god. Maybe the age of understanding isn't for
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think that's that's hard to say because you want what's best for your child. You want your child Yeah. To share your And it makes sense as soon as you're able to have that conversation.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Every parent that I know that has done that has done it because they love their kid and because yeah. Because they want Jesus in their kid's life. And I understand it because I felt the same way with my daughter who's taller than me now. I really, really do. I just think probably it's unnecessary.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: I think we need to start to reframe our brain and think, why are we doing this? Is it the safety and security away from hell?
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: Or is it because I want my child to live a better life here on Earth while they're here as well? Mhmm. And I think it should be a combination of both. Yeah. I don't think your faith should be built on fear.
• 25:31
  Mhmm. And I just feel like we should we should bring heaven down.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Mhmm.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: Have you heard that song? I think there's a song there. There is a song. But rather than just working towards, like, making my way into heaven Mhmm. Let's let's make this world as as it's not gonna be perfect and it's not gonna be heaven, but as close to heaven as we can make it as much as our bodies can allow.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Mhmm. Well, and really, I don't get to decide what saved means. That being said, the Bible does not contain the sinner's prayer. The Bible doesn't say this is what you need for God to bring you to heaven. So parents out there who do feel this stress and this pressure of, well, my child isn't saved.
• 26:21
  My child isn't saved. I think I mean, Jesus himself said, follow my follow my words, follow my steps, follow my path. And I think that as long as you are raising your kids to do that, I don't think you have to worry so much about health.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: I think something interesting that's happening in the world today too, that I saw a TikTok about, was some of our fearless leaders in government saying, well, if I need to bring on the end times to to have our our people live more like Christ, then I guess so be it.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't laugh at that.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: It's just so ridiculous. And I think it's devastating that you're like, you know what? Let me the end times, quote unquote, are supposedly supposed to be so so bad. Mhmm. So you know what?
• 27:21
  Mhmm. I'm gonna make this world a living hell. Because I think that's what will bring people closer to God. Right. What a messed up way of thinking.
• 27:31
  I know that this whole episode is supposed to be on what held true after we deconstructed. But man, did that make me angry.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Alright. Well, I'll go back to one that is true. So if you were a good little Baptist child, you probably went to Owana as a kid or Sparky's if you were littler. A weenie. And it was basically if you if this was not an experience that you had, it was usually Wednesday night church.
• 27:59
  Because apparently, back in
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: the day, they used to
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: go to church all day Sunday and Wednesday nights. A lot of church.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: There are still churches that do this. Not a lot, though. But some.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: I remember as a kid this is we're getting very off topic. But I remember very occasionally, we didn't usually go to Sunday night church. But sometimes if we did, we'd, like, go to church in the morning, come home, eat, go back to church.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Iwana and Sparky's were that's kind of where it's like a club. Mhmm. You learn verses. And each week, you're supposed to have, like, a a memory verse.
• 28:35
  And you play games, and you hear a bible story, that kind of thing. But there were uniforms
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: There were.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: By way of vests for Sparkies. For Sparkies. I remember when Awana changed the uniform. Yeah. Because I had just finished Sparkies, and as a younger sister, I always saw the Awana shirts, I thought they were so, so cool because they were, like, button up.
• 28:56
  Mhmm.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: I had one for, like, one or two years.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: Short sleeve button ups that were gray and had a red collar. Yep. And by the time I started Awana, they had changed to a green polo shirt. And I was devastated. Because nobody works looks worse
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: It was not
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: cute. In a polo shirt
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: than me. Well, it's also bright green.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: It was awful.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: You would earn for when you would learn your memory verse each week, you could earn little for the Sparkies, they had a crown, and you could push in little gems. And then for Owana, it changed at one point, but they the first one had a bar and you got little charms to put through the bar. And it was like it is really fun for kids. It's a great encouragement to learn bible verses. And what I found as an adult is that even when I could like, if you said, okay, Alyssa, what's I don't know.
• 29:57
  Psalm thirty nine eight. I don't know. But I do like, I have the words of God in me, even if I don't remember them all verbatim. You know? I have that message in me.
• 30:12
  I have so many of those words in my head that God can rearrange the words, you know, and he can talk to me through knowing all of that. And so I think that was a really good thing. I think they I I don't know anything about the organization. So like, the organization itself could be terrible. Have no idea.
• 30:30
  But the concept of it, I think, was just really good because it it made learning the Bible fun. It made learning about God fun. It was a little bit before we hit the fire and brimstone pastor, you know, as adults. And I don't know. So that's held true for me is, like, the importance of knowing the Bible, whether that's knowing verses verbatim or understanding the concepts.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: In that same vein, I think music is really Just to me as an individual, I love music. Really? The people couldn't tell. I love knowing all
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: of the songs. I don't really necessarily know the artists,
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: but I do know the songs. And that has helped me understand scripture as well. Because a lot of worship songs Mhmm. Are based on scripture. So that, I feel like, also brings me closer to God in some ways.
• 31:27
  On days when I'm really stressed out. Now, don't love Christian music all the time. Yeah. But I do have a special playlist on my YouTube music full of many playlists. Where I just go and I just feel very close to God in that moment because I feel like it's by myself in my car.
• 31:47
  I'm not surrounded by people trying to listen to me sing. Mhmm. I can lift my hand up if I want to, even though I feel really weird about it having grown up at the Baptist church. Like, it it does make me feel closer to God, and I appreciate that. Yeah.
• 32:03
  Music
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: is one of those things. And it changes as you become an adult because so many adults at church stand perfectly still. And or at least
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: the churches we go to. Mhmm.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: And they don't get to experience God anymore through that, I don't think. Because they're just so scared. That's the thing is the
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: rigidness. Everything that I'm saying is like, these are things I actually love taking away. Okay. Hold
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: on. Oh, so on the same vein of, like, programming when we were kids, VeggieTales, man. So VeggieTales, which we talk about probably every single episode, is if if you didn't have the blessing of growing up with Veggie Tales, can I recommend looking it up on YouTube? Because it was primarily a tomato and a cucumber, but many a vegetable was featured.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: And a fruit. And a fruit. Madame Blueberry Watcher bacon in the new series.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: And they they told bible stories. They told the stories of Jesus. They told about the love of Jesus. It taught you not the exact story.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Not always. Sometimes it taught you, like, a good portion of the story or even, like, real names. Mhmm. But I think sometimes they replace, you know, people with ducky. I don't know.
• 33:30
  But Yeah.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: That that's not a great concept.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: But it teaches you enough about that story so that when you then open your bible
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: Mhmm.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: And you're reading through it, you're like, I remember this story. Yeah. I remember kind of what was important about it.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: And it makes so much more sense if you have that background knowledge. If you've studied it and you don't have to be a kid. You can be an adult. But as you study more and more and learn, now you have
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: this
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: background. And, hey, I remember when that concept was so simple. And, again, they did they did use ducky's in one.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: I do think it generally taught you good value too and good morals. I was talking to a girl I work with today who did not grow up religious one iota. Mhmm. But she watched VeggieTales.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And I loved that. I think that was kind of the point of it was to take Christian concepts and spread them out of your circle.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: Mhmm.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Because there was not as much kids programming back in the day. Yeah. Especially not if a parent wanted something that wasn't like Disney or Nickelodeon.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: Not compared to what we have today. Today, I just feel like
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: there is so much media for children.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: You have music. And now you have YouTube. Then you have shorts. Then you have movies.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Then you have TV shows. That was many a thing. I could continue. I'd love for you to do it. Yeah.
• 34:56
  There's so many options now that I think it would be hard for a VeggieTales to get out of the Christian bubble Mhmm. Anymore. Now, they were a little controversial at the end. Like and there were some concepts that I didn't love that they did. But those stories stayed with me.
• 35:15
  Or did you
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: see on TikTok a while back maybe it was just my algorithm because I'm always talking about deconstruction and, like, politics. And I don't know. TikTok is a Wild West
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: for me.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: But they would play that bit of the song that says like, Jesus loves all people, all different shapes and sizes. Yeah. Something something. And you need to realize this. Whatever.
• 35:36
  They say, yeah, I listened to VeggieTales.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: And I believed them. And I it says, can be your friend. So I took that seriously. So sorry about that. Yeah.
• 35:48
  I loved watching it. It didn't feel like overtly I know I know it was obviously bible stories, but it didn't feel like it was trying to teach you something. It was just fun. Mhmm. And we absolutely loved in church on the days when the teacher was on vacation or didn't want to deal with us.
• 36:09
  And we would watch VeggieTales. And whatever bad things happened in in that group of people, I understand, but they did something very good.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: Mhmm.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: One of the ones that I remember hearing a lot as a kid because they like to teach you verses that are that have fun words in them. And this one is just like, you will know them by their fruit. And it seems like a pretty easy concept to teach to kids, so it was definitely something that I heard about in Sunday school. And it's that's one of the probably verses that we quote the most on this podcast. Because like we said at the beginning where you've got one person that is joyful and kind and loving, and you've got one person that sits there with a bible in their lap, but doesn't ever actually interact or help or do anything for anyone, you will know them.
• 37:12
  God tells us. You will know them by their fruit. There won't be a question. You're gonna look and you're gonna be able to say, I wanna be that person. Like the church says, I want what they have.
• 37:25
  They always say someone will approach you because they want what you have, and they will. But it's not the bible in the little case. It's the joy and the love and the kindness. Okay. So we know today was a little bit of a shorter episode, and that might make you think, not a lot of things held in their faith.
• 37:44
  That is not true. There are many others, but those were some of the big ones that we talked about that were similar for both of us and that we thought maybe you guys might relate to. But we would love to hear from you what has held for you. I have a post up on our TikTok, but feel free to comment anywhere on TikTok or Instagram And let us know, like, what things remained true? What was good then and is still good now?
• 38:10
  And I also wanna just put out the message. Deconstructing is kind of a taboo word. Mhmm.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: Today, in our culture, especially if you grew up as a childhood Christian. But deconstructing, I think, is really powerful and empowering. And it means that you're taking your faith seriously. And at the end of it, it doesn't mean that you have to come out without your faith. Mhmm.
• 38:37
  And what I hope we are left with at the end of the day is so, so much love. In a world surrounded by people who are not very nice, try to be the light.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: Mhmm. So on that note, next week, we are on a little we are going on a little mini girls trip this weekend. So I think we don't quite know what we're gonna talk about next week yet, but we will be back, of course, because we've only taken one week off in the last two years. And you're welcome. So tune in, and we'd love to see you there.
• 39:14
  Make sure you follow us on TikTok and Instagram at the hashtag we are more. Amen. Okay. Love you. Bye.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: Bye bye. Love you.