About "The Mythical Jesus" Podcast

My name is Bill Reel. I joined the a Church as a teenager and from day one I took the my religious walk very seriously. I strived to be a good member of my Church and wanting to know all there was to know about my faith, I began reading all I could on my faith and religion in general. I encountered critical thinking early on and weaved my way through difficult issues. Then while serving as a Pastor of my church in my early 30’s I hit a major crisis of faith. I woke one day and nothing fit anymore. I almost left the Church and my faith community. Instead, I dove further into the issues, opened myself up to changing my beliefs, assumptions, and expectations….. what I found was a renewed faith. A real Faith. But one based in our ability to grow past binary thinking and develop our own authority and to develop mast Ethno-centricity as our center ground. It was one that let go of literalness or historicity and focused on the power of Myth and the deep importance of Faith development. This woke me up to a beautiful and expansive faith that was once again new and open to reconstruction. I created this podcast to help others like you to find their way to the other side of that fracture. My main piece of advice is to stop forcing the facts to fit your assumptions and instead allow your assumptions to change. Question everything and be willing to adopt new information and paradigms even if it compels you to throw off old paradigms that were deeply comfortable. Many of us were taught a religious paradigm that simply is unrealistic, too simplistic, and too black and white. Open up to all the possibilities and leave room for a new you to come forth.

Episodes

 Nov 20 2021 Mythical Jesus: 038: Margaret Placentra Johnston – Moving Beyond Being a Spiritual Child Today we sit down with Margaret Placentra Johnston, author of Faith Beyond Belief, as well as her newest book Overcoming Spiritual Myopia.   We talk about the spiritual journey hitting on concepts like leaving binary thinking and ethnocentricity, developing an inner authority, and the battle b... Show more
 1:02:19

 Jun 24 2021 Mythical Jesus Podcast: 037: Elise Brown – Refinding Jesus for the First Time I sit down with a dear friend, Elise Brown, to discuss her deconstruction of the unhealthy spiritual system she was raised in seemingly letting go of Jesus.  As she embarks on the Human Journey and get curious about science, Buddhism, Witchcraft, as well as other spiritual and secular systems, sh... Show more
 1:32:07

 Nov 27 2020 Mythical Jesus Podcast: 036: Mark 9 – Be Last and Serve Others Today we dive into Mark 9 and discuss Jesus announcing that some who are alive will not taste death.   And we talk about how Jesus and his peers contemporary in time are always seeing demonic possessions rather than scientifically and medically explained health disorders like epilepsy and ment... Show more
 17:58

 Nov 14 2020 Mythical Jesus Podcast: 035: Mark 7 What Comes Out Defiles You Mark 7 Today we address Jesus Teaching that what goes into a man does not defile him but rather what comes out of a man.  That what goes in goes into his stomach but what comes out comes from his heart. The post Mythical Jesus Podcast: 035: Mark 7 What Comes Out Defiles You appeared first on Chri... Show more
 9:01

 Sep 26 2019 Mythical Jesus: 034: Walking on Water Today we are in Mark 6:45-52 and exploring the first instance in the scriptural timeline where Jesus walks on water.  The main take away is to reinforce one of the points of the previous episode , which is that the Christ narrative seems to utilize Christ as symbolic of “the way” or l... Show more
 10:32

 Aug 07 2019 Mythical Jesus: 033: Five Loaves & Two Fishes Today we are in Mark 6:30-44 and the feeding of the 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fishes.  We discuss the balance between self care and serving others and how even Jesus was being pushed and pulled in his navigation of such.  We then discuss the feeding of the 5000 as a symbolic of the… ... Show more
 26:14

 Jul 22 2019 Mythical Jesus: 032: Baptist Head on a Platter Today we are in Mark 6:14-29 dealing with the beheading of John the Baptist.  In this episode we deal with the inability to pin down Herod as a good or bad man, our flaw as humans to over-promise, and also speak briefly about the criterion of embarrassment as a scholarly tool to pin down a…... Show more
 14:48

 Jun 05 2019 Mythical Jesus: 031: Ego and the Formless Ego needs to create nice clean boxes for everything to fit in.  It ties itself to forms to identify you and all around you.  Today we discuss that and use Mark 6:7-13 to discuss this.  We also borrow a section from Oprah Winfrey’s podcast SuperSoul Conversations where she sits with Ec... Show more
 20:43

 May 29 2019 Mythical Jesus: 030: Back To Our Hometowns Mark 6:1-6 Jesus teaches that a prophet in his own hometown is without honor in Mark 6:1-6.  What the Christ is really saying is that those who know us most intimately before we awakened will struggle to hear the wisdom that comes from us once we awaken.   The ego is always looking to make sense of th... Show more
 13:39

 Apr 24 2019 Mythical Jesus: 029: Empathy For Another’s Experience Mark 5:21-43 Jesus in Mark 5:21-43 is faced with having to choose between rushing off to help the daughter of Jairus or stopping to interact with the woman whose issue of bleeding had just been healed by touching the garment of the Christ.  We in our minds prioritize these events but the Christ seems to recog... Show more
 14:11