My name is Dan Koch. Like many of you, I've been on a complicated faith journey for a number of years now.

And while I tend to find myself on the progressive side of Christianity, my goal is not to make liberal converts.

I want this show to be a resource for Christians to my right and to my left, as well as

former Christians and non-religious folks, anyone who finds themselves asking difficult questions

about God, science, prayer, fate, suffering, evangelism, and more. So many of us have been given bad answers to those good questions, often by people with

pure intentions.

I want to say that you have permission to take both Christianity and the modern world very

seriously.

And I hope to facilitate that by introducing you to people seeking God across

the Christian spectrum, engaging hard questions in a multitude of ways. Thanks for listening.

Today I'm talking with my old college buddy Sam Morgan, who plays a kind of classic form of country music under the moniker Sam Outlaw.

Outlaw is actually his late mother's maiden name.

We talk about her a little bit today.

If you'd like to hear a sample, I would recommend the song Ghost Town, which Josh will put a link in the show notes to that song on Spotify.

But this episode is not

about music. It's about how Sam, who grew up similarly evangelical to me, also in California,

has found a new application of some of the elements of his younger faith, namely utilizing

some kind of spirituality in the service of maintaining sobriety from alcoholism.

We also hear his overall story, which includes some pretty rough interactions with a

parish church organization in college and a Southern California evangelical church after

college. Now, 12-step abstinence-focused approaches to alcohol and other substance use issues are not the only

game in town. For instance, there's also medication-assisted programs and other programs that

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