"Eucontamination: Disgust Theology and the Christian Life" with Paul Hoard, PhD, and Billie Hoard
The Allender Center Podcast
The Allender Center
4.7 • 648 Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How often do we think about disgust? Yet it shapes our choices, relationships, and even our faith every day in ways we rarely notice.
In this episode of the Allender Center Podcast, Dr. Paul Hoard and Billie Hoard discuss their new book, "Eucontamination: Disgust Theology and the Christian Life," exploring how this powerful, often overlooked force influences us.
Drawing from theology and psychology, they examine how disgust—originally designed to protect us—can become a tool for exclusion when applied to people rather than pathogens. From purity culture to nationalism to everyday relational divides, they consider how "contamination logic" forms the world around us.
But the heart of their work is hopeful: Jesus doesn't abolish disgust—he inverts it. In Christ, holiness is not fragile. Love is stronger than sin. What looks contaminating does not defile him; instead, his presence transforms from within.
This conversation invites us to reflect on where disgust may be shaping our reactions, relationships, and theology—and to imagine a discipleship formed by more courageous, more transformative love.
About the Allender Center Podcast:
For over a decade, the Allender Center Podcast has offered honest, thoughtful conversations about the deep work of healing and transformation. Hosted by Dr. Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen, MDiv, this weekly podcast explores the complexities of trauma, abuse recovery, story, relationships, and spiritual formation. Through questions submitted by listeners, stories, interviews, and conversations, we engage the deep places of heartache and hope that are rarely addressed so candidly in our culture today. Join the Allender Center Podcast to uncover meaningful perspectives and support for your path to healing and growth.
At the Allender Center, we value thoughtful dialogue across a wide range of voices, stories, and lived experiences. In that spirit, our podcast features guests and hosts who may hold differing perspectives. The perspectives shared on this podcast by guests and hosts reflect their own experiences and viewpoints and do not necessarily represent the views, positions, or endorsements of the Allender Center and/or The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology.
Stream each episode, plus find transcripts, additional resources, and more at:
theallendercenter.org/podcast
To become a supporter of the Allender Center Podcast, visit:
https://theallendercenter.org/2025/11/podcast-support/
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Spiritual abuse leaves profound wounds. |
| 0:11.0 | It shapes how you trust, how you connect with others, and how you perceive yourself and the world around you. |
| 0:17.0 | At the Allender Center, we are committed to creating spaces where your stories of religious |
| 0:22.2 | harm can not only be heard and understood, but met with the kind of care that leads towards healing. |
| 0:28.2 | I'm Rachel Clinton Chen, and I wanted to personally extend an invitation for you to join me |
| 0:33.5 | for the upcoming story workshop for spiritual abuse and healing. This story workshop was designed |
| 0:39.1 | in response to the countless emails and DMs we've received, expressing a need for more resources |
| 0:44.5 | to navigate past spiritual abuse. Whether the spiritual abuse is rooted in your family of origin, a church |
| 0:50.8 | setting, or a youth or campus ministry, this story workshop is designed to guide you through your stories of harm. |
| 0:57.9 | Our hope is that over this transformative three-day experience, you'll not only find strength in a support of community that truly understands, |
| 1:06.3 | but also learn to reconnect with yourself and rediscover the goodness of God. |
| 1:11.4 | If you're ready to reclaim your story, your sense of self, and your faith, |
| 1:16.1 | I invite you to join us for the next story workshop for spiritual abuse and healing. |
| 1:20.6 | You can find dates and details at the allender center.org slash workshops. |
| 1:50.4 | Thank you. Allander Center.org slash workshops. Before we dive in, a quick note, |
| 1:53.9 | today's conversation explores the concept of disgust and how it shapes our ability to love and relate to others. |
| 1:57.8 | We touch on conversations about identity and sexuality, |
| 2:01.5 | and we recognize that listeners may approach these conversations differently. |
| 2:05.7 | Our goal isn't to settle debates, but to invite reflection, with dignity and honor. |
| 2:11.0 | We hope that as you listen, you take what speaks to you, leave what doesn't, |
| 2:15.1 | and join us in sitting with the ideas that challenge all of our |
| 2:18.2 | hearts and minds. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Allender Center, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Allender Center and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.