The Heart Burn, with Doug Harrison

In this episode, Derin bravely goes in to greater detail about life inside the cult and his opportunities to leave.  Listen first to the original episode about Derin joining this cult here.  Derin articulately expresses, not just his own journey, but the narrative of those who were in the cult right alongside him.  Derin's vulnerability and courage help us to hold our own experiences up to the light of his experience and see the extent to which we might be participating in similar social dynamics.  Derin concludes with a beautiful poem by David Waggoner, "Lost." Warning: This episode contains stories of manipulation and abuse.  Doug Recommends the following book: Robert J. Lifton's Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism The following links are not endorsements.   If you have a need please contact local resources. Directory of Cult Recovery Services and Warning Signs of a Cult Steve Hasaan's "Freedom of Mind" center Books by James Davison Hunter to help you question yourself.  The Culture Wars (the book that coined the phrase) The Death of Character: Moral Education in an Age Without Good or Evil To Change the World: Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility Visit us at www.etsy.com/shop/DougThyNeighbor Please your wardrobe and support the podcast.  You can also donate at ko-fi.com/dougharrison

For two decades Kim has been Skipping the Life Fantastic. She has some exuberant ideas and advice on how we can find ourselves moving from lou to lou rather than from drudgery to dirge. This doesn’t mean mindless skipping past the hard stuff but freely skipping through it. Intrigued? Please also know she comes to Austin each year for https://www.austinskipfest.com and Raises money for the Foster Angeles of Central Texas : https://fosterangelsctx.org You can skip to Kim’s website at iSkip.com

Abraham Burickson is the Artistic Director of Odyssey Works, a unique art collaboration that produces transformational artistic experiences for the one person on whom they are based.  Abe has passionate and thoughtful words on the primacy of experience over form, the vocation of an Artist, and experiencing "Flow" Abe Burickson and his Asst. Director will be in Austin October 12-13 More info Here:   Odyssey Works Design Intensive Austin  http://www.odysseyworks.org. and. http://www.abrahamburickson.com Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird By Wallace Stevens Robert Haas Of Being Numerous, George Oppen Abe Burickson’s TEDx Talk on Designing Experiences, not things. Abe Burickson's Artist Portfolio It’s All About you - WYPR

It is not so much that Jon Fortenbury likes you to laugh with him, he just happens to be perfectly fine with you laughing at him.   Jon has a unique self-deprecating humor, but what stands out even more is how he leverages his art forms to help people connect or experience a sense of connection.   His films and writings are unafraid to name the loneliness that plagues so many of us.  His courage, however, far outweighs the sense of disconnection.  Jon speaks honestly in this interview about his prolonged decision to not identify as a Christian, and why it may reopening new possibilities for him and others now.   Listen with empathy, look for the Heart Burn.   Jon's comic is available at  BetaMaleComic.com His Short film "Tattoos"  https://vimeo.com/jonfortenbury NeuroProgress Articles by Jon in Psychology Today Jon's Article on Non-Verbal Learning Disability

Laurie Eiserloh is a lawyer and Activist and as it happens, was a key player in some of the work that furthered LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Episcopal church, which consequentially impacted other national issues of inclusion.  This might tell you about some of her accomplishments, but what most people will tell you about her has more to do with her character and her genuine sense of neighborliness, love, and good citizenship than any single claim to influence. Listen to this for the knowledge of recent important historical events, but listen with your heart for the good of your soul. IN part two Laurie talks about he own spirituality and what it is like to get through the uncertain times.  Austin Shambhala center https://austin.shambhala.org LGRLA / Equality Texas https://www.equalitytexas.org Integrity / Rainbow Episcopalians http://www.Integrityusa.org  Integrity newsletter after 2003 convention "Finding A Way Forward,"  the Honorable James Bakers piece in VTS communications  Act Up New York 

Laurie Eiserloh is a lawyer and Activist and as it happens, was a key player in some of the work that furthered LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Episcopal church, which consequentially impacted other national issues of inclusion.  This might tell you about some of her accomplishments, but what most people will tell you about her has more to do with her character and her genuine sense of neighborliness, love, and good citizenship than any single claim to influence. Listen to this for the knowledge of recent important historical events, but listen with your heart for the good of your soul.   In this Episode Laurie particularly emphasizes the importance of remaining in her community and in her church, with the threat of leaving, to be part of lasting change.  Austin Shambhala center https://austin.shambhala.org LGRLA / Equality Texas https://www.equalitytexas.org Integrity / Rainbow Episcopalians http://www.Integrityusa.org  Integrity newsletter after 2003 convention "Finding A Way Forward,"  the Honorable James Bakers piece in VTS communications 

You thought it was the heart burn, but it was actually the Reflux.  Join the panel for post-episode discussion of, well, whatever comes up about the episode.  This week we reflect on "Derin Finds Himself in a Cult"  This week's cohosts are Spiritual Director, Kirsten Harrison, and Experience Design Artist, Anna Bretch.  ...oh dear...  

As Derin was preparing to leave college he wanted to do more than he felt he had necessarily prepared for with a double major in Spanish and Philosophy.  So the clever pleas of one of the graduate students appealed to his sense fo giftedness as well as his sense of purpose.  They also led hi down a path that ended up being wildly off course from the truest sense of his self.  Now, years later, Derin shares his story again with me here at the Heart Burn.     Doug Recommends the following book: Robert J. Lifton's Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism The following links are not endorsements.   If you have a need please contact local resources.  Directory of Cult Recovery Services and Warning Signs of a Cult What is "Love Bombing"  Steve Hasaan's "Freedom of Mind" center

Lori Stein used to work in documentary films and television, among other things.   One of her jobs had its stressful moments that Lori filled with perusing the want ads -including some of the personal ads where she found men who were making big mistakes.  Eventually she was spending so much time being thanked for helping men rework their approach to women that she finally figured it was time to just go ahead and write the book.   It is aptly named, “Charm School For Men,” and you can buy a copy of it at www.IDoWhatIWant.org . We have a lot of fun in this episode and I think it will be good times for straight men, gay women, questioning adolescents, and even the non-binary tortoise from my friend's novel.   Enjoy the episode and visit Lori's blog, because she does what she wants .......dot org.   www.IDoWhatIWant.org Also visit Sojourn Services for women and youth where Lori has worked 

Sarah Kapostasy is widely respected for her work with Out Youth in Austin TX, and the Central Texas Transgender Health Coalition. I was not too surprised when her kindness and eloquence helped me to understand the experience of queer youth and, even though she emphasizes that she is cisgendered (that is her gender identity matches that assigned to her at birth) and that she is not speaking for the trans community she creates a welcoming and informative space to learn and cultivate empathy.  What I did not expect to the same degree was the depth of her passion and the strength of her spirituality and what role it plays in her work. I did very little editing of our conversation but rather, turned it in to two episodes.  It is crucial to listen to them both to understand the exact nature of her precarity and how her passion and faith drives her through each day.  I left. this conversation inspired and quite frankly...changed.  Do not miss the second episode part 2 with Sarah.  OutYouth.org Central Texas Transgender Health coalition St David's Episcopal Church in Austin Queer Virtue Human Rights Campaign: Violence against the Transgender Community in 2019 The Trevor Project facts about suicide with LGBTQ+ youth

Queer Virtue, it is not just a book, it’s something Sarah exudes. With grace and vulnerability, Sarah speaks plainly about the spirituality that sustains her work with queer youth and the trans community. She addresses the gross misrepresentations of Jesus as well as the crucial role of having a Church community in her perceivably radical vocation.  Far from being a simple expression of her spirituality, Sarah’s faith guides her who life and calls her to the queer and trans youth community, and empowers and sustains her in loving people, and dancing relationally with both brokenness and healing. Right now her greatest gift is her presence. I think you will experience that as you listen.   The Velvet Rage Book  OutYouth.org Central Texas Transgender Health coalition St David's Episcopal Church in Austin Queer Virtue Human Rights Campaign: Violence against the Transgender Community in 2019 The Trevor Project facts about suicide with LGBTQ+ youth

It is not a popular choice to be part of organized religion right now, but for Melissa, it is a powerful one. Just her existence as an ordained pastor in a conservative denomination is an important part of her impact. But it barely scratches the surface or the real impact this woman has on people’s lives. Best of all she manages to shape how upper middle class white people see immigration by hosting opportunities to serve and meet immigrants. While she literally has a pulpit, she actually makes the biggest different because of who she is.   She pastors at San Diego First Church of the Nazarene Healing Waters Vision trips (mentioned) An immigration event Melisa has helped to guide and lead.  La Posada Sin Fronteras Emboldened, by Tara Beth Leach.  A Book for women. 

Mike used to love Rush Limbaugh. Now he is a co-founder of an innovative, inter-spiritual, Music, Arts, and Cultural event, called the New Story Festival. It is designed to welcome everyone on any kind of spiritual journey…or none at all. What he believes has changed significantly and keeps changing (so does they way he actually lives his life). But according to Mike, It wasn’t liberal or progressive influence that changed his mind or pulled him away from the Church. It’s Jesus and the Christian tradition itself that transformed him from being a far right conservative to a man who wants to build a stage for the purpose of having lesser-represented people groups use it to speak their message and sing their songs… and he’s doing it. What changed him? Isn’t there an easier way?  He is also a scholar and an expert on the “Emerging Church” Movement and he will help us understand that movement and help us understand what happened to it and why.   Here are links to Mike’s work relevant or mentioned Authors New Story Festival  www.SpiritualTransformationProject.com Joshua Packard's  book on “dones” called,  Church Refugees Brian McClaren  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/87664.A_Generous_Orthodoxy Tony Campolo https://www.tonycampolo.org Spencer Burke https://www.spencerburke.com G.K. Chesterton https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/87665.Orthodoxy

Welcome to The Heart Burn with Doug Harrison If you have ever been reading a post on social media and thought, “Actually it’s way more complex than that,” or if you found yourself disappointed with what the voices on both sides of an argument seem to be shouting, then you know at least a sliver of what brought this podcast in to being. I have become quite certain that there is a lot of stuff meant to make us angry, furious and even red in the face. I also think it seems we are even expected to channel that anger into furthering the hopes and agenda of people already in position, ...that benefit them well enough. Meanwhile what I know about us is that the stuff that makes our faces really hot is usually entirely different than the stuff that makes our hearts really burn. Its the stuff that makes hearts burn that interests me. I don’t believe that deep down we are all the same or that somehow we basically agree. What makes us most interesting in either our differences or our similarities is that whatever people are passionate about they are passionate about for reasons. I also think that engaging people at the level of their passion and the reasons that go with it can serve all of us to figure out what makes our own hearts burn, and what we might be able to do to become good at being human. Maybe we just end up asking what humans are for...and what it means to be a good one. I don’t intend to try to answer that question here as much as make you want to do your best to be the best human you can imagine, and to imagine being a better human than you can right now. I promise I’ll be right alongside you on that journey- and that alone makes this whole thing more interesting than most of what one can download. In one way this is a very strange kind of reality show, about one guy doing his best to be a god human, and learning to love other humans as much as possible along the way. Don’t be afraid, and don’t miss out on this journey