Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Blessed Are the Canceled
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blessed are the Canceled — Official Trailer | 15 May 2026 | 00:01:05 | |
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.
🎧 Listen: 📬 Substack: 📚 Books: 📱 Instagram: 🎧 Soundtrack:
| |||
| STORM: When Your World Falls Apart | 26 May 2026 | 01:04:49 | |
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. -- 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: 📬 Substack: 📚 Books: 🎧 Soundtrack: Edited by Ryan Biermann If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it. #BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering | |||
| CATHOLIC: Where My Wife Found Peace | 28 Jul 2026 | 01:05:39 | |
In today’s episode, “Catholic: Where My Wife Found Peace,” you’ll hear Josh share a part of his family’s story that he hasn’t told publicly until now. It’s the story of his wife Holly’s entrance into the Catholic Church, a journey that culminated in the year following his cancellation. This wasn’t a reaction to the firestorm, and it wasn’t a sudden change of direction. It was the fruit of a long, quiet pull, more than a decade of prayer, formation, and a growing love for the liturgy, the sacraments, and the life of the Church. Josh and I will reflect on Holly’s experience, how she lived through the firestorm alongside him, what it was like to watch it unfold from the inside, and how, in the year that followed, she found a deep sense of peace within the Catholic tradition. We’ll also speak honestly about the challenges and gifts of being a Protestant pastor and a Catholic spouse: how Josh and Holly have learned to navigate family life, church life, and shared faith across real differences. This episode is about celebrating faithfulness, honoring conscience, and living into Christ’s unifying love for marriage and for the church. -- Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God. 🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts | |||
| CONTAGIOUS: Why No One Wants to Be Around You | 02 Jun 2026 | 01:00:47 | |
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 Edited by Ryan Biermann If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it. #BlessedAreTheCanceled #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering | |||
| SCAPEGOAT: How We Try to Save the People We Love | 09 Jun 2026 | 00:49:53 | |
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. 🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts | |||
| UNDERWATER: When God Lets You Drown | 16 Jun 2026 | 00:58:46 | |
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.
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. 🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts | |||
| OUTRAGE: How to Feed the Machine | 23 Jun 2026 | 01:09:56 | |
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. -- 🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts | |||
| BETRAYAL: When a Friend Wields the Knife | 30 Jun 2026 | 01:00:25 | |
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.
Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God. 🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts | |||
| APPEASE: Why Good Leaders Fail | 07 Jul 2026 | 01:03:38 | |
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. 🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts | |||
| TRAUMA: How Your Body Keeps the Score | 14 Jul 2026 | 01:01:08 | |
In today’s episode, “Trauma: How Your Body Keeps the Score,” you’ll hear Josh reflect vulnerably on the tremors, sleeplessness, and suicidal ideation he experienced in the year following his cancellation, and the painful childhood memories it brought to the surface, memories God gradually began to heal. We’ll explore a theology of trauma and the body: How are the body and mind connected? What does a biblical, holistic approach to mental health look like? How do we heal from painful memories and cultivate resilience?
We’ll also reflect on the role trauma played in the firestorm itself, and the unique ways it can surface in the life of a leader. And we’ll discover how facing the pain of your past can become a pathway to a deeper layer of belonging than you’ve ever known.
Jesus is out to heal the whole you–not just part of you--body and soul, heart, mind, and strength.
Blessed Are the Canceled is a podcast about how being rejected, mocked, and discarded can become a pathway into the presence of God. 🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts | |||
| INHERITANCE: When God Is All You Need | 21 Jul 2026 | 00:57:17 | |
In today’s episode, “Inheritance: When God Is All You Need,” Josh reflects on how he began to reconcile the haunting sense that God had moved on–that he had been discarded, and his future handed to someone else. We’ll explore a theology of inheritance: What is our inheritance in Christ? Can it be taken away? How does God form and provide for us in seasons when it feels like we’ve lost everything? Discover what it means to say, “the Lord is my inheritance.” Because when you have him, you truly have it all. -- 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 📬 Substack: 📚 Books: 🎧 Soundtrack Playlist on Spotify Edited by Ryan Biermann If you found this episode meaningful, consider subscribing and sharing it with someone who might need it. #ChristianPodcast #FaithInSuffering #CancelCulture #spiritualformation #ChurchHurt #TheologyPodcast | |||