I’m about ¾ of the way through Season 2 of Chapel Probation, and it has been quite a ride. In addition to people who have left APU, we expanded the conversation to include Biola, an Unnamed Bible School in the South, Bob Jones, Northwest College, Vanguard, Moody-Spokane, Seattle Pacific, and Grace University, with more to come. Each of the brave souls who have come on to talk about evangelical schools is a hero to me. It’s often a difficult decision to publicly critique an experience and a belief system like those inside evangelical culture, especially when that belief still has tendrils connecting us to those experiences. Several people have wanted to come on to tell their story only to back out because of the potential blowback from family and community. There can be a great cost to taking a stand to point out the dangers of evangelical culture, and I don’t fault anyone who does not want to publicly talk about their experiences.
Most of America still assumes evangelicals are the “good” people in our country. Evangelicals are assumed to be the “family values” people or the “good sumaritans.” Each episode pushes back at those notions, gently at times, and forcefully at others. We may laugh through the pain, but the pain is always there, right beneath the surface.
I started doing sketches with friends and family in most of the episodes, as I satirize the topics at hand. I realized while recording the “southern belle” part of a bit in Episode 4 with Nate Nakao talking about the bizarre rules of Bob Jones University that I needed to take advantage of my creative community. Some highlights have been traci kato-kiriyama playing an oversexed administrator defending the strict rules of the dorms at Northwest University, Naomi Ko (Dear White People) playing an APU staff person equipping Hispanic students with weapons to deal with racist White classmates, to Meghan Crozier (Thereafter Podcast) playing a woman visited by a misogynistic angel to talk about marriage.
We’ve also done a couple more musical parodies, including a White Supremacist re-write of “Ebony and Ivory” called, “Ivory and Ivory,” with guest John Verner singing along. And we had our first original song with Zach Malm writing a half-assed “worship” song with the verses in A-minor, which we decided had never been done. It’s good that I don’t believe in hell because next week, we’re morphing a beloved Hillsong worship song into a gay anthem with guest, Eugene Hui.
A side “narrative” has also developed with Brad Onishi (Straight White American Jesus and Nate Nakao (Full Mutuality) where we have a gag going called, “Asian American Secret Society (AASS). We play up the notion that Asians look a lot younger than we actually are, and we are actually in our 80’s/90’s. But still smokin’ hot. So we tell ourselves. Does it make any sense? Of course not. But I love bringing together the people in this Ex-Evangelical world to make…well make fools of ourselves.
So, the fun helps us deal with the heavy topics. It helps me, anyway.
The final element of this season is a slight wrinkle on the usual format. As it has become crystal clear the mission and message of Chapel Probation, namely that evangelical colleges and universities are greenhouses for racism, sexism, anti-LGBTQIA hate, and harmful views of sex and sexuality, I’m bringing in voices from outside to respond to the episodes and give their perspectives on it all. From people who are therapists dealing with religious trauma and grief to my friends who did not experience evangelical culture, we’ll get a range of perspectives as we push back at evangelical Christianity.
As I begin to wrap this second season, the focus goes back to my book. I just turned in “final” edits, and the manuscript is off to the copy editor. I can’t wait finally have this book out in the world. The target release is now March, 2023, but stay tuned. Paper shortages and a printing backlog from the pandemic have everyone guestimating the releases of all books these days.
I know I haven’t posted here to my followers, but I am constantly feeling grateful for you all who have signed up to track the book and podcast. Y’all are always on my mind. Thank you for the support.
I haven’t forgotten that a lot of you signed up with promise of a preview of the book. I’ll be posting a chunk of the first chapter once it’s closer to being edited.
As we head into the “holiday” season, may you have peace and love, within or without religion.
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