FAITH NO more By Sarah Halfpenny Photos Gary Sissons
B
rian McDowell never expected to become a voice for thousands of people escaping the grip of fundamentalist Christianity. The Frankston resident was simply looking for something to fill his time during lockdowns in 2021, when his friend Troy Waller suggested they start a podcast together. Four years later, I Was a Teenage Fundamentalist has grown into a global phenomenon that’s helping people worldwide process their experiences with religious trauma. “Some people who have never experienced it [fundamentalist Christianity] have said to us that it’s like watching a show about prison, because it’s a world they don’t know anything about,” Brian explains. Brian’s own path to fundamentalist Christianity had its roots in his family dynamics. Growing up as the youngest of eight children in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, he lived in a household that was “spiritual, but certainly not exposed to any brand of Christianity.” His parents had stopped attending their local Catholic church after experiencing “a priest who was very drunk one day at the pulpit.” However, several of his older siblings had converted to fundamentalist Christianity. At age 17, Brian decided to visit two of his older brothers on the Gold Coast. Despite laying down strict conditions “I didn’t want to hear any preaching. I didn’t want them to even have a Bible around me” — curiosity eventually got the better of him. “Next thing, you know, I was going to church and I’d converted to this thing that I had no idea about.” For the next five or six years, Brian was “completely immersed” in fundamentalist Christianity. He studied for ministry, attended theological college, and married at 23. But doubts began to creep in on multiple fronts. The Toronto Blessing movement, started in Canada, was one catalyst. “It was basically this movement of strange stuff, like church services that would go for six or eight hours of this thing they called ‘holy laughter’. People would be laughing hysterically. continued page 22 ...
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20 | PENINSULA
August 2025