Content Warning: This episode discusses obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
It might be unexpected for someone to be both an atheist and a professor of religion but that seeming contradiction makes perfect sense for Chris Stedman, best selling author and professor at Augsburg University in Minneapolis. Chris is the author of the book Faithiest, which, like so much of the work he’s done over the years, is about connecting communities of faith with atheists. That work, along with Chris’s story of joining and leaving fundamentalist Christianity amid his parents’ separation, is indicative of the search for order that Chris has been on his whole life. Chris deals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and has from an early age, which he says is very much connected to trying to understand and manage an overwhelming world. Chris joins us to talk about his mom’s kindness in finding him a therapist and a church that was accepting of his queer identity. He also tells us how the OCD never really went away, just transformed, and there’s a lot to manage now that he just got married.
