Mental Illness, Honest Faith, and Deconstructing Legalism - w/ Joey Svendsen

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2016

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How honest is too honest when it comes to faith, mental illness, and ministry? In this revealing conversation, Mike Erre and Tim Stafford sit down with Joey Svenson—pastor, podcaster (Bad Christian, Pastor With No Answers), and author of the raw and unflinching memoir “Fundamentalist”—to explore how extreme fundamentalism and OCD collided in his early faith journey, how he found healing, and why he believes radical vulnerability is essential to authentic Christianity.

Mike and Tim reflect on their own experiences with mental health, church trauma, and spiritual deconstruction, sharing laughs, cringes, and powerful insights as Joey opens up about his struggles and hopes for the church.

This is a permission-granting episode—for those wrestling with faith or mental health, for those bearing secrets under the pressure to perform holiness, and for anyone hungering for a church that welcomes honest questions and raw humanity.

Key Takeaways:
• Mental Illness in the Church – Joey unpacks his journey with OCD and anxiety in the context of rigid, legalistic doctrine that turned prayer into a panic-inducing obligation.
• The Cost of Pretending – Why the performance of "clean and holy" leadership does spiritual harm and how honesty about struggle builds real community and healing.
• Parenting with Permission – How Joey’s evolving faith has reshaped his approach to parenting, focusing on humility, honesty, and theological curiosity.
• The Role of Vulnerability in Public Ministry – Why Joey chooses transparency—even when it could cost him—and how his church leadership surprisingly embraced it.
• Disrupting the Christian Status Quo – How Joey's podcasts and book challenge evangelical norms while creating safe spaces for those wounded by the system.

Guest Highlight:
Joey Svenson – Co-host of Bad Christian and Pastor With No Answers, Joey brings humor, grit, and honesty as he shares his personal experience of wrestling with mental illness, fundamentalism, and ministry expectations—all laid bare in his bold new book.

Resources Mentioned:
• Joey Svenson’s Book – Fundamentalist – A brutally honest memoir about OCD, fundamentalism, and faith. Preorder now at fundamentalistpastor.com
• Bad Christian Podcast – badchristian.com
• Pastor With No Answers Podcast – pwnapodcast.com
• BC Words Publishing – DIY publishing platform for disruptive voices in Christian spaces

Join the conversation with us as we challenge the norms, share our stories, and rediscover Jesus in places we least expect. Subscribe, leave a review, and follow Voxology Podcast to continue the journey.

As always, we encourage and welcome discussion. Email your thoughts to [email protected] and engage with us on Facebook and Instagram.

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Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford (@GoneTimothy)

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Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh, yeah, you betcha. We're back. After two weeks of solid absence, we are back with year two you had a nice sabbatical
0:22.3	of the yeah seriously of the box podcast oh my goodness you've missed this i can i can just hear i can hear
0:28.4	it all across the country groaning because there was nothing on monday morning so we are back
0:34.7	and uh we're kicking off year two um with a with a bit of a treat. So a year ago,
0:41.9	this is 2016, fall of 2016. In fall of 2015, I'd resigned from a church and didn't quite
0:49.8	know what to do with myself. And so I approached my friend Andy and I said, hey, how do you do a podcast?
0:54.1	I think that'd be interesting. And so I approached my friend Andy and I said, hey, how do you do a podcast? I think that'd be interesting. And he's, and so he was talking to me about what, what's true of
1:02.0	the podcast space that's different for maybe a sermon or a book or, you know, just what, what,
1:07.7	what, what, what, what can you do in a podcast that you can't do other places? And he said, you know, you what, what are the expectations? Like, what, what can you do in a podcast that you
1:12.6	can't do other places? And he said, you know, you got to listen to a podcast called Bad Christian.
1:19.2	And I immediately loved the name. And so I went and listened to several episodes of the Bad Christian
1:26.0	podcast. And then there was an extension of that called The Pastor with No Answers, which if you listen to several episodes of the Bad Christian podcast. And then there was an extension of that called The Pastor with No Answers,
1:30.8	which if you listen to Bad Christian, it's perfectly titled.
1:34.3	Yeah.
1:35.2	And one of the guys that hosts both is a guy named Joey Svensson,
1:39.9	who is a actual pastor in South Carolina.
1:44.7	And so we actually were able to get an interview with him in the same way we did with Science Mike.
1:52.6	And Godless, they're all kind of in these really great spaces.
1:56.3	So we were super excited to talk to him.
1:58.2	So we're going to present the interview.
2:00.1	A couple of disclaimers first.
2:02.2	He's got a book coming out called Fundamentalist,
	...

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