Blessed Are the Canceled

In today’s episode, “Appease: Why Good Leaders Fail,” we go behind the scenes as Josh reflects on leadership failures he and others made in an attempt to appease a small group of leaders.Along the way, we explore how anxiety can infect a church or organization, and why being a non-anxious presence matters in moments of crisis. We’ll also dig into the tensions that arise when you’re both a pastor and an author, a shepherd and a public figure. And we’ll see why appeasement doesn’t work, theologically or practically, and what healthier ways of leading through crisis can look like. Jesus doesn’t die to appease the mob. He dies to atone for your sin, to fight for you and bring you back. You are not discarded; he will not let you go.-- Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God.  Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts📬 Read along on Substack🎧 Season One Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify Edited by Ryan Biermann Theme music by Tents Intro music by Orchid Rainbow  If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it.  #BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering

In today’s episode, “Betrayal: When a Friend Wields the Knife,” you’ll hear Josh reflect on those who retracted their endorsements during the firestorm, and we’ll go behind the scenes of how one close friend leveraged the firestorm in ways that fractured his church community. We’ll move from the national to the local: it’s one thing to be attacked by people who don’t know you. It’s another when the wound comes from friends you trusted.We’ll explore a theology of betrayal: How do you grapple with friends who turn on you? Who gossip about you or misrepresent your story? How do you recover from broken trust without becoming cynical or jaded?Jesus knows the sting of betrayal firsthand, and he can help you rise beyond it toward healing and hope.--Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God.  Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts📬 Read along on Substack🎧 Season One Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify Edited by Ryan Biermann Theme music by Tents Intro music by Orchid Rainbow  If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it.  #BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering

In today’s episode, “Outrage: How to Feed the Machine,” you’ll get an inside look at how the attack on Josh was more organized than it first appeared, driven by a particular tribe with a pattern of misrepresenting and digitally swarming dozens of Christian leaders.We’ll explore how social media got hijacked by outrage marketing, how online bullies learned to weaponize anger to build a platform, and why mobs are a terrible vehicle for justice. And we’ll dig into a theology of anger. Why does God get angry? When is anger good–and when does it become destructive? How do we learn to use it well?Your anger can become fuel to build up God’s world rather than to burn it down.-- Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God.  Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts📬 Read along on Substack🎧 Season One Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify Edited by Ryan Biermann Theme music by Tents Intro music by Orchid Rainbow  If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it.  #BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering

In today’s episode, "Underwater: When God Lets You Drown," you’ll get an inside look at the most hidden, and most painful, part of Josh’s story: a seven-year dream he believed God had given him, and how it came crashing down in the firestorm.We’ll explore what the Christian tradition calls the dark night of the soul—what it is, what it isn’t, and how we navigate seasons when it feels like God is absent.And we’ll discover how God can do some of his deepest formation in the very places that feel God-forsaken.There is hope when you feel hopeless. It may be that God is most powerfully present precisely where he feels most absent.-- Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God.  Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts📬 Read along on Substack🎧 Season One Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify Edited by Ryan Biermann Theme music by Tents Intro music by Orchid Rainbow  If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it.  #BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering

In today’s episode, “Scapegoat: How We Try to Save the Ones We Love,”  we’ll take you behind the scenes of Josh’s resignation from his church, and explore how internal leadership fractures can surface when an organization comes under the pressure of a firestorm. We’ll unpack a theology of scapegoating and discover it’s far more complex than the way the word is usually used. (Spoiler alert: Josh didn’t just experience scapegoating, he participated in it himself.)We’ll see how Jesus meets us in unique and powerful ways when following him becomes costly.-- Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God.  Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts📬 Read along on Substack🎧 Season One Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify Edited by Ryan Biermann Theme music by Tents Intro music by Orchid Rainbow  If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it.  #BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering

What happens when people pull away? In today’s episode, “Contagious: Why No One Wants to Be Around You,” we take you behind the scenes of Josh’s exit from The Keller Center at The Gospel Coalition, then zoom out to explore a theology of disgust. In Leviticus, the Bible uses language like clean and unclean—categories that can feel strange, even offensive to modern ears. But they turn out to reveal something unsettling and surprisingly helpful about the social mechanics of cancel culture. We’ll name four marks of contagiousness from the psychology of disgust, so you can understand why public shame doesn’t just wound you. It isolates you. But there’s good news: You are not contagious to Jesus. He moves toward you. You can’t make him dirty. He can only make you clean. Several of the insights and illustrations in this episode were inspired by Richard Beck’s book Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality.-- Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God. Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation. 🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts📬 Read along on Substack🎧 Season One Soundtrack Playlist on SpotifyEdited by Ryan Biermann Theme music by Tents Intro music by Orchid Rainbow If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it. #BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering

What happens when your world falls apart?In today’s episode, “Storm,” you’ll hear a behind-the-scenes account of the moment Josh’s world unraveled—the experience of being canceled, and what it actually felt like from the inside.This episode explores what we mean by “canceling,” why it’s more complex than we often assume, and how Scripture reframes these moments—not just as loss, but as a potential pathway into the presence of God.Your storm doesn’t have to be the end of your story.It can become a place where God meets you.--Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God.Through personal stories, Scripture, and theology, the show explores shame, betrayal, forgiveness, exile, and spiritual formation.🎧 Listen:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033hheN3Kko4W76zRWXqxv?si=nX1kLMUKSMSokNVUDBp3bg Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blessed-are-the-canceled/id1896762098📬 Substack:Brenna Blain: https://brennablain.substack.com/  Josh Butler: https://joshuabutlerpdx.substack.com/  📚 Books:Brenna Blain: https://brenna-blain.vercel.app/  Josh Butler: https://joshuaryanbutler.com/books/  🎧 Soundtrack:Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/24mOo6kVrgnOlKCJBnKvEj?si=1-wnL72_SJ-VwnobCa8sIg&pi=XLyMtzbvTfmqhEdited by Ryan Biermann  Theme music by TentsIntro music by Orchid RainbowIf you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it.#BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering

What happens when your world falls apart?Blessed are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can actually become a pathway into the presence of God.Hosted by Brenna Blain and Josh Butler.Launching May 26.New episodes every Tuesday.Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.🎧 Listen:Spotify: Coming soonApple Podcasts: Coming soon📬 Substack:Brenna Blain: https://brennablain.substack.com/Josh Butler: https://joshuabutlerpdx.substack.com/📚 Books:Brenna Blain: https://brenna-blain.vercel.app/Josh Butler: https://joshuaryanbutler.com/books/📱 Instagram:Brenna Blain: https://www.instagram.com/bunonmyhead/Josh Butler: https://www.instagram.com/joshuabutlerpdx/🎧 Soundtrack:Spotify Playlist: Coming soonEdited by Ryan BiermannMusic by Orchid Rainbow