{"id":350269,"date":"2026-03-21T04:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/350269\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T04:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:33:08","slug":"taylor-tomlinsons-netflix-special-is-too-ungodly-for-many-churches-this-one-welcomed-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/350269\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Tomlinson\u2019s Netflix special is too ungodly for many churches. This one welcomed her."},"content":{"rendered":"

(RNS) \u2014 \u201cMy iPhone started capitalizing the G in God again without asking me,\u201d Taylor Tomlinson says in her latest Netflix stand-up special, gripping a mic beneath the ornate ceiling of Fountain Street Church<\/a> in Grand Rapids, Michigan. \u201cThe robots are coming, and they love the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wearing a cross on her necklace and a long leather jacket, Tomlinson looked right at home in the vaulted sanctuary. But the comedian\u2019s set, filmed in November and released on Feb. 24 with the title \u201cProdigal Daughter,\u201d would be regarded as irreverent at best by most nondenominational Christian congregations. Filled with sexual themes, f-bombs and jokes about everything from foreskins to the crucifixion \u2014 \u201cI hope I die in a way that looks good on jewelry,\u201d she quips \u2014 it would rate as blasphemous in many.<\/p>\n

But Tomlinson\u2019s edgy content is exactly what made Fountain Street the perfect venue, church leaders say. The historic congregation is known for its support of abortion access, free speech and LGBTQ+ rights. It\u2019s also an interreligious community that rejects specific doctrines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charge that has been leveled against Fountain Street Church since the 1890s is that it\u2019s not really a church,\u201d said Fountain Street\u2019s leader, the Rev. Nathan Dannison.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Founded in 1869 through the merger of two Baptist congregations, Fountain Street has cultivated a reputation as a radical liberal outpost; women have always been voting members, Dannison said, and the church\u2019s historic stained-glass windows celebrate humanists such as Charles Darwin and Erasmus. That reputation is especially noteworthy in Grand Rapids. While the city\u2019s religious landscape has become increasingly diverse, it\u2019s known for its historic ties to theologically conservative Dutch Reformed Christian traditions.<\/p>\n

The congregation dropped its Baptist affiliation in the 1960s under the leadership of the Rev. Duncan E. Littlefair, its longtime, University of Chicago-trained pastor, and solidified its non-creedal identity. Local chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood were organized at the church during Littlefair\u2019s tenure, as was the establishment of the church\u2019s Choice Fund, which provided funds for emergency abortion care in Michigan; Recently, the church has made headlines as a hub for immigrant rights activism.<\/p>\n

Fountain Street\u2019s 1,507-seat auditorium has welcomed speakers such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Angela Davis, Winston Churchill and Malcolm X. The church has been hosting comedians since at least 2011, when it welcomed acts that were part of Gilda\u2019s LaughFest, a community comedy festival. So when Tomlinson\u2019s team reached out to Fountain Street in spring of 2024 as the place to record her fourth Netflix<\/a> special, the church leadership listened.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis show that she was putting together was heavily focused on her conservative Christian upbringing and her struggle with what it means to be religious,\u201d said Kayle Clements, director of audio and visual technology at Fountain Street. \u201cShe was looking for a church setting where she could film this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomlinson has made comedic and serious points about her religious upbringing in her set for years. Her uncle is a progressive Christian pastor \u2014 \u201cWe\u2019re both out here on weekends changing lives,\u201d she joked in her recent special \u2014 and she got her start in comedy on the evangelical church circuit.<\/p>\n

But these days she\u2019s no longer religious and is upfront about the negative experiences she says she suffered in her childhood. \u201cI have religious trauma. Anybody else have religious trauma?\u201d she asked the crowd. \u201cIt just means you grew up in church, you\u2019re not religious anymore, but now when you kind of feel good, you feel kind of bad about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The critique didn\u2019t faze Fountain Street. \u201cWe have a significant population of reconstructing Christians, refugees from the toxic theologies of Christian nationalism or right-wing Christian fundamentalism,\u201d said Dannison. \u201cThey hear in Taylor\u2019s comedy a lot of the same frustrations and values and radicalism that has been a part of Fountain Streeters\u2019 lives growing up in this part of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once Tomlinson\u2019s team settled on Fountain Street, it took months of preparation to tape the Netflix special. The church was still in the process of restoring its historic bell tower and scrambled to finish it in time. The week of the recording, the church was beset with production assistants, security, Netflix employees and cases of AV equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey landed with, like, 12 people, and by the time they were done, we had 135 people there,\u201d said the church\u2019s governing board chair, J. Spalding Wall. \u201cIt was a major undertaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomlinson performed four shows the week of Nov. 1, 2025 \u2014 the Netflix special is an amalgam of the best moments. Clements said he worked nearly around the clock to pull it off. \u201cI think my shortest day was a 17-hour day. My longest was 23. But I would do it again tomorrow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The special includes exterior shots of Fountain Street\u2019s neo-Romanesque structure and begins with Tomlinson exiting the church\u2019s choir room onto the stage.<\/p>\n

Some of the set works in her bygone church basement routines. She jokes about the \u201cdecaf\u201d Christians who only attend church on Easter and Christmas, and she gets a big response from the crowd when she mentions Veggie Tales, a cartoon show that has been a staple of evangelical Christian childhoods. But she soon gets progressively edgier, riffing on why the show never depicted Jesus\u2019 death on the cross \u2014 VeggieTales characters have no arms, she points out. She questions how the story of Noah\u2019s Ark, which she calls \u201cdark as hell,\u201d ever became the Bible\u2019s most popular children\u2019s story.<\/p>\n

She says her biggest issue with church is that it \u201cwouldn\u2019t let you make a good point.\u201d Difficult questions, she adds, were met with the unhelpful response, \u201cWe can ask God that when we get to heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite growing up in a \u201cscary Christian house,\u201d she credits her loving grandparents for modeling Christianity done right. \u201cThere are a lot of people who are using religion correctly, people like my aunt and uncle, my grandparents, the people at this church,\u201d says Tomlinson. \u201cThere are a lot of people who are using religion as a tool for community and connection and comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n

The night of the special\u2019s release, dozens of Fountain Street members gathered at the church for a celebratory viewing party, including a \u201cthank you\u201d video from Tomlinson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Fountain Street Church at its very best,\u201d said Dannison, \u201cliving out its values of liberalism, free speech, progressive values, sanctuary, freedom to share your story, freedom to share your hurt without fear of censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(RNS) \u2014 \u201cMy iPhone started capitalizing the G in God again without asking me,\u201d Taylor Tomlinson says in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,170457,170456,85,46,170458,400,170455],"class_list":["post-350269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-fountain-street","tag-fountain-street-church","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-nathan-dannison","tag-netflix","tag-taylor-tomlinson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}