Episode Details

50. Same Faith. Different Beliefs. Still Christian. (Part 1) – Rev. Gerlyn Henry (Anglican, Canada), Pastor Paul Drees (ELCA Lutheran, USA) & Pastor Joe Smith (Raised Evangelical, USA)

What if something you were taught you had to believe to be Christian was something millions of other Christians were never taught at all?

That question exploded after a Sacred Slope “Put Your Finger Down: Christian Edition” video reached more than a million views across platforms. The comments were filled with Christians from different traditions essentially asking one another: Wait…you were taught WHAT?

So Alexis Rice reunites with Rev. Gerlyn Henry, Pastor Paul Drees, and Pastor Joe Smith for the conversation a two-minute video couldn’t hold.

Alexis and Joe were formed in American evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity. Gerlyn is an Anglican priest in Canada. Paul is an ELCA Lutheran pastor in the U.S. They share a faith - but they were formed with remarkably different assumptions about what Christians must believe.

In Part One, they compare notes on Genesis and the talking snake, biblical literalism, evolution, the sinner’s prayer, salvation, hell, baptism, confession, grace, and universalism.

For Alexis and Joe, some of these beliefs once carried enormous stakes: Believe this. Pray this. Get this right. Your salvation may depend on it. For Gerlyn and Paul, some were never requirements at all.

The result isn’t a debate over who is the “right” Christian. It’s an honest, funny, sometimes painful conversation about what happens when we become curious about the Christianity outside the one that formed us - and discover that questioning something we inherited doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning Jesus.

Same faith. Different beliefs. Still Christian.

💬 In This Episode

• “Wait - you weren’t taught that?”
• Genesis, talking snakes & biblical literalism
• Creation, evolution & reading Scripture differently
• Is the sinner’s prayer required for salvation?
• Hell, baptism, confession & grace
• Universalism & hopeful universalism
• Religious trauma & the fear of questioning
• Deconstructing certainty without abandoning Jesus
• Saving people from hell vs. bringing heaven to earth
• Discovering Christianity beyond the version you inherited

⛪ Meet the Pastors

• Rev. Gerlyn Henry - @gerlynhenry - Anglican priest, Canada
 • Pastor Paul Drees - @pastorpauldrees - ELCA Lutheran pastor, USA
 • Pastor Joe Smith - @therealjoe.smith raised Free Will Baptist/evangelical; Disciples of Christ pastor, USA

📚 People & Resources Mentioned

• Pete Enns - @peteenns - The Sin of Certainty
• Pastor Meredith Anne Miller - @meredithannemiller - Wonder & Woven
• Brian Recker - @berecker - Hell Bent
• Bradley Jersak - @bradley.jersak - A More Christlike God
• C.S. Lewis - “true myth”
• Nadia Bolz-Weber - @sarcasticlutheran
• Dolores Williams
• Brené Brown - @brenebrown
• Church Clarity - @churchclarity
• AllianceQ

🎧 Part One of a special two-part Sacred Slope conversation.

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About The Sacred Slope
Where the slippery slope becomes sacred ground.
For the spiritually tender—raised in or rooted in Christianity.
Come explore our global, diverse, inclusive Christian faith, deconstruction, and spiritual identity in a rapidly changing world. Through conversations with clergy, scholars, and cultural voices, the show creates space for people navigating faith after certainty, church harm, or political co-option of religion.

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