Hi, this is Against Everyone with Connor Habib.

Friends, this is episode two in a series of episodes on occult and esoteric Christianity,

an evolving tradition that offers vitalizing insights on how to move forward in our world.

Across these episodes, I'll be talking about various streams and fruits of occult and esoteric Christianity,

as well as about some of its key figures.

Rather than presenting the typically dogmatic, dominating, and totalizing Christianity,

which is always in danger of being seized by people, especially conservatives with power,

this series will present a different and truer form,

open, wounded, individuated, and powerless, a tradition that relates to other spiritual paths without

seeking to control or diminish them. The first episode in this series featured Reverend Jonah Evans,

and with this episode, I'll

continue on with questions for the Christian community, one of the only religious streams

of esoteric Christianity, with Jonah's close colleague and the co-host of the Light and Everything

podcast, Reverend Patrick Kennedy. Patrick was on the show last on episode 181, and he's a reverend in the Christian community,

a seminary director, and frankly, I just love talking with him.

Before we start, I just want to talk about religion's role in my life.

You might have heard me talk about this before. It's played a bit of a strange role in my life. I was raised basically without religion.

My mom was raised by religious fundamentalists, Gideons, you know, the people who placed those

little Bibles in the dresser next to your bed in a motel room.

So she rejected a lot of religion, basically, because she was raised so poorly with it.

I mean, it was just so violating to her in many ways.

She was told she was going to go to hell.

...