Episode 51: Joshua Harris on Kissing Punishment Programming Goodbye
“There can even be a beauty and a goodness in parts of your story that you now look back on and realize were wrong but if you just try to make it disappear you're not able to see that.”
-Joshua Harris, The Everything Belongs Podcast
Today on the Everything Belongs Podcast, Madison is in conversation with Joshua Harris. Joshua spent the first 40 years of his life promoting what he now describes as narrow, controlling, fear-based religion. Today he advocates for people’s freedom to change, grow, and walk away from systems and beliefs that no longer fit them. He wants to see religious and non-religious communities healthier. Drawing from his background as an author, a TEDx speaker, and a documentary filmmaker he runs the creative agency, Clear & Loud, which creates marketing content and websites for businesses. Josh also provides message-clarity coaching for thought-leaders and personal brands who want to spread their ideas to the world. In this episode, Madison and Joshua speak on his unhooking from and becoming accountable around his past as an Evangelical author, (one of his books including the famous “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”) coming to terms with his past beliefs, how to navigate self-righteousness and not erasing our past and more...
Listen —
In this episode we have a conversation about:
Joshua's history as an Evangelical author
His experience around unhooking from identities that brought community approval and success
Accountability, shame and grace with our past
Coming to terms with our own self-righteousness
The process of un-publishing his book and shifting his new beliefs
A case for not denying or erasing parts of your past
Holding everyone's humanity with grace
Cancel culture in Evangelicalism
Our obsession with self growth and fixing our shadows
How we carry punishment programming into our new beliefs
