Jesus After Christianity

In Episode 9 of Jesus After Christianity, we explore Sabbath as far more than a spiritual self-care practice. Sabbath is a direct confrontation with power.In a world that trains us to measure worth by output, Sabbath says you are not a machine. You are not what you produce. You don’t have to earn your right to rest. And that message isn’t neutral—it threatens every system built on extraction, burnout, and endless consumption. When rest is treated like a reward for the “deserving,” the powerful stay powerful. But when rest becomes a shared, protected practice—especially for the exhausted, the overlooked, and the overworked—it starts to look like liberation.This episode traces how Sabbath disrupts the empire logic of scarcity and control. We talk about why constant productivity keeps people compliant, why exhaustion makes solidarity harder, and how intentional rest can become a kind of rebellion. Not escapism. Not disengagement. But a refusal to let the system define what’s normal, what’s valuable, and what’s possible.Because Sabbath isn’t just a pause. It’s a protest. And it just might be one of the most powerful practices we’ve forgotten how to keep.

In Episode 8 of Jesus After Christianity, we pull back the curtain on one of the most effective tools of control: division dressed up as “truth.” The political divide can feel inevitable—like it’s natural, permanent, and impossible to cross. But what if much of its power is perceived? What if the lines are intentionally reinforced because they keep us isolated, reactive, and easier to manage?This episode is an invitation to cross the barrier with us. Not by erasing differences or pretending everything is fine, but by refusing the script that says our differences must make us enemies. We talk about what it actually means to bridge the political divide—how to stay grounded, how to stay human, and how to build relationships that don’t collapse under disagreement.We also zoom out across history to remember something we’re often made to forget: revolutionary moments exist across the timeline, and they’re rarely powered by perfection. They’re powered by people. Community. Inclusion. The slow, stubborn work of choosing each other anyway. These aren’t soft ideals—they’re practical tools that change what’s possible.Episode 8 explores how to expose the false power of “us vs. them,” rebel against the made-up frameworks that keep us separate, and practice a love big enough to hold complexity. Because our differences shouldn’t be weapons. They should connect us.

In Episode 7 of Jesus After Christianity, we sit with one of the most quoted teachings of Jesus—and one of the most avoided in practice: love your neighbor. Not the easy neighbor. Not the neighbor who votes like you, looks like you, or makes you feel safe. Even the one you were taught to fear.This episode pushes past definitions and into the uncomfortable territory of action. Because “neighbor” isn’t a label you assign—it’s a way you show up. And loving your neighbor gets complicated when your neighbor has been framed as an enemy, a threat, a problem to manage. We explore how that framing doesn’t happen by accident: every system built on “us vs. them” depends on the boundary staying in place. The moment that line blurs, the system loses its favorite tool—division.So what does love do in a world that runs on separation? It doesn’t ignore harm or pretend conflict isn’t real. It refuses dehumanization. It interrupts the scripts we’ve inherited. It makes room for courage, accountability, and connection where fear wants distance.Because love—real love—doesn’t just feel warm. It dissolves the boundary.

In Episode 6 of Jesus After Christianity, we bring “the kingdom of God” down from the clouds and back into real life. The kingdom isn’t far away. It happens wherever people practice goodness together—where grace plants the seed, and shared practice helps it grow.This episode explores a faith that doesn’t start with scarcity, fear, or competition. Instead, it dares to say: there is enough to share. And it reframes the kingdom as more than something God delivers from above—it’s also something we build with our hands, our choices, and our communities.We talk about what it looks like to stop waiting for the system to fix itself and start practicing the kingdom now. Not someday. Not somewhere else. Among us—whenever people choose sharing over hoarding, inclusion over exclusion, and solidarity over isolation.

In Episode 5 of Jesus After Christianity, we challenge the assumption that what matters most can be measured. Some of the most meaningful things—healing, therapy, liberation—don’t fit neatly into metrics, profit, or productivity.This episode reframes restoration as more than comfort. Restoration is about creating space where people can be fully themselves—safe, dignified, and unafraid. And it forces a sober question: when systems consistently fail the most vulnerable, what does that reveal about what those systems are designed to do?We talk about the cost of “normal” life in an extractive economy—when sickness becomes bankruptcy, groceries become debt, and participation requires sacrificing your freedom and future. If survival demands that kind of trade, is it really freedom?Episode 5 follows that line all the way to a simple, disruptive claim: freedom begins where repayment ends.

In Episode 4 of Jesus After Christianity, we explore a different starting point for faith—one that isn’t about escaping the world, but changing it. Not everything meaningful can be proven, and sometimes faith looks less like certainty and more like trust—especially when hope feels thin.We talk about why trust is contagious, and how practicing it together can transform more than belief ever could. When you meet people with different lived realities—really meet them—your assumptions shift, your empathy deepens, and what “faith” even means can get rewritten.This episode reframes spirituality away from purity and perfection and toward something more grounded and honest: faith isn’t unlocked by correct belief. It’s awakened through solidarity, belonging, and lived practice. In the end, spirituality is revealed not in what we claim, but in how we treat people.

In Episode 3 of Jesus After Christianity, we take on a hard truth: compassion isn’t a brand—it’s a practice. And real compassion doesn’t just comfort people; it confronts the systems that keep harming them. If faith is meant to be good news, it should lighten burdens, not add to them. People deserve to be seen, supported, and not further weighed down.This episode draws a clear line between sympathy and solidarity. Solidarity isn’t performative kindness or distant concern—it’s shared struggle and shared hope. We unpack how we’ve often been taught to offer aid without questioning the system that keeps creating the need. Charity can treat the symptoms; justice asks why the wound exists in the first place.Along the way, we name the deeper divides that shape our world—beyond left vs. right—and explore how economics influences far more than we’re told. Solidarity tells the truth about power, exposes what it tries to conceal, and—when practiced—can actually change what’s possible. Another way is possible.

In Episode 2 of Jesus After Christianity, we zoom out to the world Jesus actually lived in: a society shaped by empire, surveillance, and state terror designed to crush hope and collective resistance. If you want to understand what Jesus was saying, you have to understand Rome—and what it did to ordinary people.This episode asks a provocative question: what if Jesus wasn’t offering an escape route, but a way through? Not a promise to leave the world behind, but a practice of liberation and belonging in the middle of it. We explore “the kingdom of God” not as a distant destination, but as a lived alternative—an embodied way of being where everyone belongs, where extraction isn’t inevitable, and where solidarity is a choice we make together.

In this first episode of Jesus After Christianity, cohost Jo Collins joins host Ben Collins for an honest, wide-angle conversation about what it means to keep (or rediscover) the heart of community after leaving traditional faith spaces. Together, they explore the kind of humanity that isn’t gated by doctrine—how people find belonging, rebuild trust, and stay connected to what’s good and life-giving. Along the way, they dig into inclusivity as a lived practice, not a buzzword: who gets centered, who gets left out, and what it looks like to create spaces where more people can exhale and be fully seen.

In this first teaser video, Ben shares a little bit of his evangelical Christian background and how Albert Nolan's book Jesus Before Christianity changed his life and faith with an introduction to the historical Jesus. Get a taste for what's coming in the Jesus after Christianity podcast.

In this first Jesus after Christianity teaser, cohost Jo Collins talks to host Ben Collins about community, humanity and inclusivity.