(RNS) — “My iPhone began capitalizing the G in God all yet again without asking me,” Taylor Tomlinson says in her most stylish Netflix stand-up special, challenging a mic below the ornate ceiling of Fountain Toll road Church in Colossal Rapids, Michigan. “The robots are coming, and they esteem the Lord.”
Wearing a unsuitable on her necklace and a lengthy leather jacket, Tomlinson regarded correct at dwelling in the vaulted sanctuary. But the comedian’s enviornment, filmed in November and released on Feb. 24 with the title “Prodigal Daughter,” may presumably be thought about irreverent at excellent by most nondenominational Christian congregations. Filled with sexual issues, f-bombs and jokes about all the pieces from foreskins to the crucifixion — “I’m hoping I die in a mode that appears to be like to be simply on jewelry,” she quips — it may presumably price as blasphemous in many.
But Tomlinson’s edgy protest is precisely what made Fountain Toll road the excellent venue, church leaders state. The historic congregation is known for its toughen of abortion receive correct of entry to, free speech and LGBTQ+ rights. It’s also an interreligious community that rejects particular doctrines.
“The associated price that has been leveled against fountain Toll road Church for the rationale that Eighteen Nineties is that it’s no longer truly a church,” acknowledged Fountain Toll road’s leader, the Rev. Nathan Dannison.
Founded in 1869 through the merger of two Baptist congregations, Fountain Toll road has cultivated a repute as a thorough liberal outpost; girls relish continuously been balloting participants, Dannison acknowledged, and the church’s historic stained-glass windows relish an even time humanists such as Charles Darwin and Erasmus. That repute is especially distinguished in Colossal Rapids. Whereas town’s non secular panorama has change into increasingly extra diverse, it’s known for its historic ties to theologically conservative Dutch Reformed Christian traditions.
The congregation dropped its Baptist affiliation in the 1960s below the leadership of the Rev. Duncan E. Littlefair, its longtime, College of Chicago-knowledgeable pastor, and solidified its non-creedal id. Native chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood were organized at the church at some level of Littlefair’s tenure, as became the establishment of the church’s Risk Fund, which equipped funds for emergency abortion care in Michigan; Now not too lengthy ago, the church has made headlines as a hub for immigrant rights activism.
Fountain Toll road’s 1,507-seat auditorium has welcomed speakers such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Angela Davis, Winston Churchill and Malcolm X. The church has been webhosting comedians since a minimal of 2011, when it welcomed acts that were segment of Gilda’s LaughFest, a community comedy pageant. So when Tomlinson’s workforce reached out to Fountain Toll road in spring of 2024 because the set to sage her fourth Netflix special, the church leadership listened.
Folks aid “Soften the Ice,” an event that raised $40,000 for immigrant-supporting organizations, at Fountain Toll road Church on Feb. 15, 2026, in Colossal Rapids, Michigan. (Photo © Dan Terpstra)
“This display that she became hanging collectively became heavily making an allowance for her conservative Christian upbringing and her strive against with what it method to be non secular,” acknowledged Kayle Clements, director of audio and visual expertise at Fountain Toll road. “She became taking a watch for a church environment the set she may presumably movie this.”
Tomlinson has made comedic and severe aspects about her non secular upbringing in her enviornment for years. Her uncle is a progressive Christian pastor — “We’re every out right here on weekends changing lives,” she joked in her new special — and he or she obtained her start up in comedy on the evangelical church circuit.
But this display day she’s now no longer non secular and is upfront regarding the destructive experiences she says she suffered in her childhood. “I relish non secular trauma. Anybody else relish non secular trauma?” she requested the workforce. “It simply strategy you grew up in church, you’re no longer non secular anymore, nonetheless now for these who extra or less truly feel simply, it’s doubtless you’ll very well be feeling extra or less execrable about it.”
The Rev. Nathan Dannison. (Photo courtesy of Fountain Toll road Church)
The critique didn’t faze Fountain Toll road. “We relish a critical inhabitants of reconstructing Christians, refugees from the poisonous theologies of Christian nationalism or correct-cruise Christian fundamentalism,” acknowledged Dannison. “They hear in Taylor’s comedy lots of the identical frustrations and values and radicalism that has been a segment of Fountain Streeters’ lives rising up in this segment of the nation.”
Once Tomlinson’s workforce settled on Fountain Toll road, it took months of preparation to tape the Netflix special. The church became still at some level of of restoring its historic bell tower and scrambled to finish it in time. The week of the recording, the church became beset with manufacturing assistants, security, Netflix workers and cases of AV tools.
“They landed with, like, 12 folk, and by the time they were done, we had 135 folk there,” acknowledged the church’s governing board chair, J. Spalding Wall. “It became a critical endeavor.”
Tomlinson performed four shows the week of Nov. 1, 2025 — the Netflix special is an amalgam of the correct moments. Clements acknowledged he labored almost around the clock to pull it off. “I maintain my shortest day became a 17-hour day. My longest became 23. But I could enact it all yet again the following day,” he acknowledged.
The special entails exterior photos of Fountain Toll road’s neo-Romanesque structure and begins with Tomlinson exiting the church’s choir room onto the stage.
About a of the realm works in her bygone church basement routines. She jokes regarding the “decaf” Christians who excellent aid church on Easter and Christmas, and he or she will be able to get an unlimited response from the workforce when she mentions Veggie Tales, a cartoon display that has been a staple of evangelical Christian childhoods. But she soon will get step by step edgier, riffing on why the display by no strategy depicted Jesus’ death on the unsuitable — VeggieTales characters keep no longer need any arms, she aspects out. She questions how the fable of Noah’s Ark, which she calls “dismal as hell,” ever grew to change into the Bible’s most well-liked adolescents’s fable.
She says her biggest issue with church is that it “wouldn’t make it simpler to make a simply level.” Sophisticated questions, she adds, were met with the unhelpful response, “We can ask God that after we receive to heaven.”
Fountain Toll road Church in Colossal Rapids, Michigan. (Photo courtesy of Fountain Toll road Church)
No topic rising up in a “scary Christian condo,” she credit her loving grandparents for modeling Christianity done correct. “There are lots of these which are utilizing religion accurately, folk like my aunt and uncle, my grandparents, the folk at this church,” says Tomlinson. “There are lots of these which are utilizing religion as a tool for community and connection and comfort.”
The night time of the special’s liberate, dozens of Fountain Toll road participants gathered at the church for a celebratory viewing birthday party, including a “thanks” video from Tomlinson.
“This is Fountain Toll road Church at its very excellent,” acknowledged Dannison, “living out its values of liberalism, free speech, progressive values, sanctuary, freedom to portion your fable, freedom to portion your distress without alarm of censorship.”
Comedian Taylor Tomlinson in her Netflix special “Prodigal Daughter.” (Photo by Todd Rosenberg/Netflix)
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