Spirit Outspoken - Spirit Outspoken

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Taught to Question Everything Except Your Faith: A Baptist Preacher on Deconstruction w/ Kristian A. Smith Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

What happens when you're taught to think critically about everything except your faith? Kristian A. Smith, a pastor, author, public theologian and fifth-generation Baptist preacher, found out on day one of seminary, when a professor told his class the Bible is not the word of God.

In this episode, Jaisa and Rachael sit down with Kristian to talk deconstruction, fear-based religion and what changes when hell is no longer the thing keeping you in line. He shares why Jesus has become a mascot for Christian nationalism, why even Jesus had to evolve, and how honoring lived experience guides the faith community he pastors.

They also dig into his greatest commandment theology, the idea that loving God, loving your neighbor and loving yourself are a package deal, and sit with the big question underneath it all: who is Jesus beyond the way institutions have defined him?

If you've ever been told your questions were dangerous, this one is for you.

Our guest: Kristian A. Smith is a pastor, public theologian, and digital pastor of The Faith Community Virtual, an inclusive, justice-rooted online community where people from all backgrounds can gather, connect, learn, ask big questions, and explore faith together.

He is the author of Question Your Answers: A Deconstruction Survival Guide, a resource for anyone navigating the kinds of questions and shifts this episode explores, as well as his latest book, Breaking All the Rules: An Ancient Framework for Modern Faith, available on Audible and Amazon.

Kristian is also the host (and resident heretic) of Holy Smokes: Cigars & Spirituality, where cigars, laughter, theology, and honest conversation come together to deconstruct harmful beliefs and build beloved community, one cigar at a time.

Faith Community Website
Faith Community You Tube Channel
E-book Link - Question your Answers
Amazon link for Breaking All the Rules
Patreon - Kristian A Smith
Patreon the Faith Community

Instagram @theKristianASmith
TikTok @theKristianASmith

If you enjoyed this episode be sure to check out:

Episode 92 - The 5 Stages of Deconstruction: What Happens When Faith Falls Apart and Comes Back Together

Episode 55 - Decolonizing the Church: The Justice of Jesus w/ Joash Thomas
If this conversation opened something up for you, give it a like, subscribe and share it with a friend who's asking big questions too.

#deconstruction #christianity #spirituality #exvangelical #progressivechristian #lgbtqchristian #christianmysticism

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Episode 100: Is Jesus Bigger Than Christianity? Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

If God isn't limited to Jesus, why is Jesus limited to Christianity? In the 100th episode, Jaisa and Rachael wrestle with the question that has shaped two years of Spirit Outspoken: can Jesus exist beyond the boundaries of Christianity?
They go back to the receipts. The light that existed before the sun in Genesis. John 1 and the true light that enlightens everyone. Theosis, and a goal of transformation, not just salvation. Justin Martyr calling Socrates a Christian before Christ. Paul and the altar to an unknown God. The Good Samaritan, theologically wrong and still the hero.
This isn't a finished answer. It's a working thesis, built out loud, and you're invited into it: Christ did not begin at Bethlehem, and wherever love is, God is there.
One hundred episodes in, and it feels like they're just getting started.
If you enjoyed this episode be sure to check out:
Episode 32 - The Voice They Tried to Bury: Mary Magdalene, the Hidden Apostle
Episode 34 - Power, Politics and the Bible
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Episode 99: The Gospel According to Dolly Parton: Love, Judgment, and the God Spark Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

The flags are at half mast for a woman who never held office. That alone tells you something about who Dolly Parton was.
Jaisa and Rachael honor her, and sit with the thing that keeps surfacing as the tributes come in. Conservative Christians and drag queens. The LGBTQ community, the Black community, and the Pentecostal church that raised her. Almost nobody gets claimed by all of those rooms, and she managed it without softening who she was.
They walk through the one room cabin, the eleven siblings, the father who never learned to read. Then the part this show cares about most. Dolly believed there was a God spark in every person and made it her job to go looking for it. She called herself spiritual rather than religious, and refused, repeatedly and on the record, to judge anybody.
Hard to argue with love.
If you enjoyed this episode be sure to check out:
Episode 82: How to Love and Care for Every Enneagram Type w/ Abbey Howe
Episode 70: From Pews to Pines: God in the Wild w/ Pete Nunnally
Follow the show and leave a review if this one landed for you. It is the single easiest way to help us reach more people.

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Episode 98: Who Am I Now? Identity, Surrender and the End of an Eclipse Cycle Sep 09, 2026

Show notes

Jaisa and Rachael hit record on this one at the kitchen table, mid mental breakdown, on the theory that they could not possibly be the only ones.

August 27 was the lunar eclipse in Pisces, and it closed an eclipse cycle that opened in September 2024. Which happens to be the exact month Spirit Outspoken launched. Two years of the Virgo Pisces axis doing its work, and neither of them came out the other side as the same person.

In this episode they get into what that cycle has actually been asking. Virgo wants order and analysis and the reassurance that if you just get everything right, you will be safe. Pisces wants surrender, and faith in what cannot be proven or controlled. Sitting between those two is deeply uncomfortable, and this is an honest account of that discomfort from inside it.

Rachael talks about the chameleon years and what it costs to finally have a voice. Jaisa talks about grieving an identity she spent a career building, and the strange experience of feeling something in your body long before your mind catches up.

If you have mutable placements, or you have just felt unrecognizable to yourself lately, you are not alone. Come lament in the comments.

If you enjoyed this episode be sure to check out:

Episode 65: Created with Purpose - Faith & Astrology w/ Debra Silverman

Episode 80: Finding Her Voice: How Songwriting & Healing Led to True Faith w/ Alana Springsteen

Like and subscribe if you want more conversations like this one. It puts the show in front of people who have been waiting to hear it.

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Episode 97: Is It Our Job to Point Out Sin? Judgment, Grace and LGBTQ Inclusion w/ Joash P. Thomas Sep 02, 2026

Show notes

Every time we talk about loving our LGBTQ neighbors, the same question shows up in our comments: isn't it our job as Christians to point out sin?
In this bonus episode, priest and public theologian Joash P. Thomas answers it. The only people Jesus talks about judgment with are religious leaders abusing their power. Everyone else gets grace. Joash argues the pressure to correct other people never came from Jesus, it came from colonizers and the western church that learned its theology from them, and he makes his case for LGBTQ inclusion straight from the book of Acts, where the Spirit is always out ahead and the church struggles to keep up.
He also answers the question a family member really asked him, "would you ever marry the gays," with a sacramental answer we did not see coming.
Short episode, big exhale. It brings the whole thing back to love, which was always the point.
Our guest: Joash P. Thomas is a priest, public theologian, and the author of The Justice of Jesus.
Follow Joash: Instagram @joashpthomas TikTok: @joashpthomas
Substack: https://substack.com/@joashpthomas
Website: https://www.joashpthomas.com/
Order his book, The Justice of Jesus, on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4yvcKmI
If you enjoyed this episode be sure to check out:
Episode 58: The 1946 Mistake That Changed Christianity: How “Homosexual” Entered the Bible
Episode 59: What We Got Wrong About Homosexuality: Culture, Politis & The Church (Part 2)
If this one landed, follow the show and leave us a review. It genuinely helps more people find us.

Support the show

Join the Spirit 360! Online Community

Spirit Outspoken Website for Events, Resources, and More Info

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Episode 96: What a Psychic Medium Came to Understand About Jesus w/ Kathleen Ives Aug 26, 2026

Show notes

If you’ve ever wondered whether there’s more happening around you than what you can see, this conversation is for you.

Kathleen Ives spent kindergarten through 12th grade in Catholic school, eventually swung about as close to atheism as you can get, and today works as a psychic medium and intuitive guide. Somewhere along the way, Jesus reentered the picture unexpectedly. She didn’t go looking for him, and for a long time, she resisted what she was experiencing.

In this conversation, Jaisa and Rachael talk with Kathleen about what it actually means to connect with spirit, how she experiences the unseen world, and why ideas that can sound “woo woo” begin to feel very different when viewed through the lens of energy, frequency, and curiosity rather than fear.

They explore signs, synchronicities, intuition, and the possibility that there may be far more happening around us than we typically notice.

And then the conversation goes somewhere Kathleen never expected: back to Jesus. Not as a figure we’re meant to hand our power over to, but as a healer whose life and teachings may have been pointing toward what is possible within all of us. For Kathleen, Mary Magdalene became an unexpected doorway back to understanding him - and that opens up an entirely different conversation about faith, power, and spirituality.

This episode is an invitation to stay curious about the unseen, loosen our certainty, and consider what might become possible when we stop being afraid of what we don’t yet understand.

Our guest: Kathleen Ives is a spirit medium, intuitive coach, death educator and author who walks women through life's most tender seasons of change, grief and growth. Her work is a reminder that even in the heaviest chapters, it is safe to feel good again.

Book A Session/Discount Code: Visit KathleenIves.com to book your session. Enter “SPIRITOUTSPOKEN” at checkout to receive 10% off.

Purchase Kathleen’s Book: Order your copy of “7 Ways to Live In-JOY Today” on Amazon

Follow Kathleen: Instagram: @kathleenives_

If you enjoyed this episode be sure to check out:

Episode 64: Loved Ones Never Leave Us – A Psychic Medium on the Afterlife w/ Sean Collyns

Episode 79: Journey Beyond the Veil – Finding Healing Through Mediumship w/ Camille McConnell

Follow the show and leave a review if this one landed for you. It is the single easiest way to help us reach more people.

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Episode 95: Jesus, Krishna and the Illusion of Separation w/ Taylor Perkins Aug 19, 2026

Show notes

What if the fear, chaos and searching all come from one belief, that we're separate from God, from one another, and from the parts of ourselves we were taught to reject? Taylor Perkins joins Jaisa and Rachael for a conversation about union, faith, and the illusion of separation.

Taylor's argument is that the divine was never something outside of us we're straining to reach. We get into Jesus and Krishna, why Jesus kept talking about weddings and bridal chambers, and what "I and the Father are one" actually claims.

Then it gets personal. Reality is a mirror, so the pieces of ourselves we bury keep showing up outside of us. Taylor shares what finally moved a 20 year struggle, and it wasn't fighting harder.

Our guest: Taylor Perkins is a spiritual teacher weaving the Gnostic gospels, the Bhagavad Gita and eastern contemplative traditions into one thesis about union. Follow Taylor: Instagram @iamtaylorperkins TikTok: @iamtaylorperkins.backup

If you enjoyed this episode be sure to check out:

Episode 73: The Language of Energy - Intuition, Vibration & Spiritual Guidance w/ Sonia Choquette

Episode 68: Do Souls Evolve? Soul Levels, Reincarnation & Compassion w/ Ainslie MacLeod

If this one landed, follow the show and leave a review. It genuinely helps more people find us.

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Episode 94: Parenting by Moon Sign: What Every Child Needs to Feel Safe Aug 12, 2026

Show notes

What if your child isn't giving you a hard time, but telling you exactly what they need? In this episode Jaisa and Rachael use each child's moon sign as a map to what makes them feel safe, what makes them feel threatened, and how they process big emotions.

They open with Proverbs 22:6 and the Hebrew scholarship that reframes "train up a child" as parenting toward a child's natural bend, not forcing them straight, and how the birth chart illustrates that every child is divinely and uniquely made. Then they walk through all 12 moon signs, what each child needs, what to avoid, and the God given design in each, with real stories from their own homes, and close with a simple way to teach kids their own charts.

If you enjoyed this episode be sure to check out:
Episode 90 Your Moon Sign Is Your Emotional Blueprint
Episode 82: How to Love and Care for Every Enneagram Type w/ Abbey Howe

Support the show

Join the Spirit 360! Online Community

Spirit Outspoken Website for Events, Resources, and More Info

Follow Spirit Outspoken on Instagram

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Episode 93: "No Sex Before Marriage" Isn't Biblical: Rethinking Purity Culture and Sexual Immorality w/ Mattie Mae Motl Aug 05, 2026

Show notes

"No sex before marriage" isn't actually in the Bible, and neither is the single "biblical marriage" purity culture sold us. Jaisa and Rachael sit down with Bible scholar Mattie Mae Motl to ask what scripture really says about sex, gender, and sexuality once you strip away the rules we inherited.

They dig into what "sexual immorality" actually meant (exploitative sex, not premarital sex), how religion has long been used to control women's bodies, and why the body is an access to the divine, not an obstacle to it. Mattie shares her own purity culture upbringing, why "praying the gay away" is harmful, why sexuality is a spectrum, and what the Trevor Project data says about affirming homes. It closes on reading the Bible through love of God and neighbor, raising kids around sex without shame, and a little astrology to send us off.

About our guest: Mattie Mae Motl is a Bible scholar and PhD candidate at the University of St Andrews, a writer, creator, mother, and an openly queer voice in this space.

Follow X: @mattiemaemotl (Instagram) / @mattiemaemotl (TikTok)
Follow her Substack

If you enjoyed this episode be sure to check out:
Episode 59 - What We Got Wrong About Homosexuality: Culture, Politics & The Church (Part 2)

Episode 58 - The 1946 Mistake that Changed Christianity: How "Homosexual" Entered the Bible
If this resonated, follow the show and leave us a rating and review, it genuinely helps.

Support the show

Join the Spirit 360! Online Community

Spirit Outspoken Website for Events, Resources, and More Info

Follow Spirit Outspoken on Instagram

Follow Spirit Outspoken on TikTok

Watch Episodes on YouTube

Subscribe to Spirit Outspoken Apple Podcast

Subscribe to Spirit Outspoken Spotify Podcast

Episode 92: The 5 Stages of Deconstruction: What Happens When Faith Falls Apart and Comes Back Together Jul 29, 2026

Show notes

Deconstruction isn't a crisis of faith, it's a process, and it turns out that process has stages. this week jaisa and rachael walk through the five researched stages of faith deconstruction and reconstruction, and share where they've each landed.

It starts with the catalyst, the wound or question or piece of biblical history that first makes you pause. then questioning and research, where the anxiety of "is any of this true?" lives. then grief, because deconstruction really does cost you certainty, community, and the version of god you were handed. then deconstruction proper, where you decide what stays and read scripture through the fourfold lens the early church used. and finally reconstruction or release, and the question underneath all of it: what does faith look like when it's chosen, not inherited?

Wherever you are in it, you're exactly where you're supposed to be.

Go deeper on the fourfold lens: we break it down through the hot-button Christian topics in our ebook.

If you enjoyed this episode be sure to check out:

Episode 80: Finding Her Voice: How Songwriting & Healing Led to True Faith w/ Alana Springsteen

Episode 63: How Studying Buddhism Can Deepen a Jesus Centered Faith w/ Zach Helton