A belated happy new year. We’re finally showing up here. As the year begins, we look at the upcoming Super Bowl, and will be focusing on the Academy Awards. And just because Craig was feeling nostalgic, the transition music is all from Five Iron Frenzy’s musical search for Reese Roper’s pants . And, as we recognize Lent is coming soon, we are looking for suggested acronyms for Lent. We try out a few and are looking for some more! Send us your LENTen acronyms!...
Feb 09, 2024
After getting it figured out what time of the year it is (year’s end - Gregorian calendar, year’s beginning - lectionary calendar), we agree it is Christmastide. Odd word, “Christmastide”, but as of this recording, it is the 4th Day of Christmas, so the Christmas tide is still rising. As always we begin with random talk about bagels and smoothly segue into hefty theological discussions and conversations about lists. This is the season of lists. The best of the year, the worst of the year, and mo...
Dec 28, 2023
Cody and Craig discussed the process of deconstructing theological assumptions by thinking about coconut macaroons, letting go of beliefs that are no longer true or beneficial, and the potential for reconstructing beliefs to align with a deeper truth. We’ve been using Sesh.com (Dear Sesh, sponsorship?) to guide our conversations. It’s a great app that can work with Zoom. By providing a shareable agenda, with timers, meetings can stay on topic and on time. As an added bonus, we’ve been using the ...
Dec 21, 2023
Zoom AI Companion has been helping to write up the summaries of our conversations. So here’s what Zoom said, in part, edited (a little) for accuracy (sort of). Cody and craig discussed a variety of topics, including the new control interface, their podcast which covers a range of topics, household chores, and the societal assumptions about gender roles in household chores. They also engaged in a theological conversation about the historical context of Jesus, the Christmas story, and the concept ...
Dec 13, 2023
As we open up, we’re watching the new captioning tools on Zoom and noticing a few errors, or might they be more correct than we know? To quote Zoom captions: “profound things will be sad…” Craig and Cody talked about sports, with a focus on volleyball and hockey , and a look at the ranking of sports based on player salaries. Cody talked about Advent music, focusing largely on nontraditional (i.e. not in hymnals) songs. Follow the NCAA Volleyball tournament at: Where to watch: https://www.espn.co...
Dec 05, 2023
We continue talking about the nature of assumptions we carry in our theology, with a slight nod to James Fowler’s stages of faith. What would your present theological understanding say to your 20-yr old theological self? What makes it change? Fowler noted that there are some folks who don’t get beyond their early faith, and then live on with assumptions that resist maturing. Here’s a little cheat-sheet on Fowler’s ideas: https://www.ngumc.org/files/fileslibrary/james+fowlers+stages+of+faith.pdf ...
Nov 29, 2023
ATHBCP Episode 86 After walking down memory lane and thinking about favorite holiday traditions of the past, Cody and Craig move into some more difficult topics. As pastors, how do we talk about, or pray, and lead our congregations to think about the news emerging from Gaza and Israel. Craig talks about going way back to the children of Noah and opening up the notion of “Semitic” culture and language to begin think about what a more pro-Semitic conversation might be. One of the sources for conve...
Nov 19, 2023
Craig and Cody had a wide-ranging discussion covering technology, New Year's resolutions, theological assumptions, sports ethics, and popular TV shows. They also touched on racial issues in sports and the issues around 'sportswashing', responsible gambling. Regarding theological assumptions, we would love to hear your ideas. To get your mind wrapped around this theme, we played a portion of Gungor’s song, God is Not a White Man . The song goes on to describe a lot of ideas that get attached to c...
Nov 09, 2023
Cody and Craig resume their award-winning podcast (what awards, you ask?) after several months. And just for nostalgia, we go back to the 2018 introduction with Tom Joad telling what he’s been thinking about. We also play around a little with some new artificial intelligence tools to help summarize our conversation. See the podcast write up.
Nov 02, 2023
Sarah Augustine Episode 83 Cody and I have been on break for a while. Summer means a different pace of work, family time, and travel. We both had church conferences, and other work-related activities. And there were delays because of health issues as well. We spoke with Sarah Augustine earlier this Spring about her work as an advocate for indigenous people’s justice in the USA and in Suriname. Sarah is a descendant of the Tewa people, also known as the Pueblo, and lives among the Yakima nation i...
Aug 30, 2023
Together, Craig and Colin discuss how even those traditions (Craig’s Mennonite church, and Colin’s Friends meetings) can be lured into Christian Nationalism. Additionally, we spend some time discussing the experience of early Quakers in colonial America and execution of the “ Boston Martyrs ,” by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. From 1659-1661, the theocratic colony executed Marmaduke Stephenson, William Robinson, Mary Dyer, and William Leddra for their alternative beliefs. This history exemplifies...
May 16, 2023
Episode 80 Angela Denker, Part 2 Continuation the conversation with Angela Denker Just a reminder, it isn’t too late to hear more from these scholars and writers we’re been talking with over the past few months. Drew Strait (episodes 77 and 78) will be hosting a seminar leading voices in studying and describing Christian Nationalism through the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary . Follow this link to learn more: https://youtu.be/EIeORYinedo 1 Qrt Teddy Wilson from Radical Reports ( https://r...
Apr 06, 2023
Episode 79, Angela Denker, Part 1 First Quarter: · The governmental imposition of religion, and religion’s happy acceptance: o Lerone Martin’s new book, The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover o Weaponizing Jesus: Prince Of Peace? Christian Nationalists Push Jesus As Military Leader o Who is Policing the Military: The Coup & The Military-Christian Nationalist Industrial Complex o The Military Religious Freedom Foundation , check out their archives for all the projects they continue to report and work ...
Mar 25, 2023
First Quarter – Order, Freedom, and Violence the big three of Christian Nationalism (Perry and Gorski, The Flag and the Cross) Additional Information https://bjconline.org/bringing-more-engagement-to-the-fight-against-christian-nationalism/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/05/20/white-christian-nationalism-buffalo-abortion/ Institutions of CN propaganda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claremont_Institute https://americanmind.org/salvo/why-the-claremont-institute-is-not-conservative-and...
Mar 14, 2023
First Quarter · Christian Nationalism and the Perfect Storm · Some of the resources mentioned: o https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/groups?f%5B0%5D=field_ideology%3A183 o Marcia Pally, Twitter @marcia_pally author of White Evangelicals and Right-Wing Populism o PRRI: Understanding the Threat of White Christian Nationalism o Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead, Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States o Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: Revised and Up...
Feb 26, 2023
Episode 76: Pamela Cooper-White, part two Like a football game, or a basketball game, we’re trying to outline our podcast into four quarter. After checking in with each other, we begin by continuing our conversation from the last episode regarding Christian Nationalism. There are numerous resources mentioned in this conversation, especially scholars who are producing new research on Christian nationalism. Notably, these scholars represent the fields of politics, history, and social science. Ther...
Feb 16, 2023
In this episode we begin our series on describing a pastoral response to Christian nationalism. We also learn from scholar, Dr Pamela Cooper-White and her work at helping to bridge and create meaningful conversations with those who are Christian nationalists. Pamela Cooper-White is the Christine Brooks Johnson Professor of Psychology and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Dr Cooper-White is also a certified clinical fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. In h...
Feb 07, 2023
Cody and Craig are back. This episode is a preview of some of the topics we are looking to jump into as 2023 moves along. We will be a bit more organized, maybe. One can hope! We are pursuing two different series. We’ve never really carried out a series before, so this might not only be a challenge for us, but for you, our listeners. We continue to speak from a shared theological framework of open and relational theology, aka ORT. We have conducted interviews with Johnathan Foster and Bruce Eppe...
Feb 06, 2023
In this conversation Craig gets to visit with Dr. Brittany Wilson associate professor of New Testament at Duke University Divinity School about her book, Embodying God: Seeing the Divine in Luke-Acts and the Early Church , and the different ways that ways we can be enabled to consider the presence of God. One of the things that this book creates is a little bit of a conflict with the classic hymn, Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise . Rather we end up finding that God is not always so invisible. ...
Oct 31, 2022
Before we get around to discussing the value of public apiologies, we queue up Youtube and Spotify tunes. We got into a discussion of what music we’ve been listening to this summer. Eventually, we get around to discussing one of Cody’s favorite bands, Mewithoutyou which just completed their farewell your. We’ll hear more about Mewithoutyou in a podcast later this year. Sorry for the delay…I apologize, can you forgive me. We got sidetracked talking about music when we really wanted to discuss the...
Aug 23, 2022
Cody and Craig take on a number of topics on their way toward discussing the theological metaphors arising in season four of Stranger Things. If you have not watched it yet, you should. Cody’s family would suggest that you have a few boxes of tissues readily available. But, before we talk about that, we cover a range of topics, unrelated other than the fact that they emerged from our minds. Is there a better Greek prefix we should begin using when talking about “good news?” Evangellion, has pret...
Jul 24, 2022
Cody and Craig catchup with each other post-Fourth of July. We also discuss the upcoming conversation guests are planning to talk with and some of the topics we will be looking at in the near future. Spoiler Alert: We will be talking about Stranger Things without restraint and without calling out any spoiler alerts. So, if you haven’t binged on it yet, it’s time to catch up.
Jul 15, 2022
After getting an update on Cody’s health (and what I heard as “butt nerves”?) we have a conversation (with a number of technical difficulties) about some quick updates on: Stanely Cup, golf and the LIV league, and then a bit about of youth basketball as Angela joined us, as we to talked way too briefly about DeShaun Watson and the questions about the state of the NFL regarding sexual misconduct and ethics. We had a fun conversation with someone whose venn diagram of interests looks a bit like Co...
Jul 01, 2022
Episode 68 Matthew Paul Turner We’ve been hearing a LOT about deconstruction the last few years, even featuring episodes about the topic here and there on this podcast. But what comes AFTER deconstruction? The answer will of course be different for each person. Matthew Paul Turner– a forerunner of the current deconstruction movement by over a decade– has found an answer that suits him well, and might work for many others: telling better stories. Specifically in the form of picture books. His wor...
May 17, 2022
Is there any hope for “Recovery” after dismantling the scaffolding of your faith? Can you find a spiritual community after the painful challenges of walking away from a church culture in which you have been deeply enmeshed? Cody and Craig had a fun and thoughtful conversation with musician, go-kart czar, and pizza delivery guy, Forrest Clay who faced all of this himself over the last decade plus. At one time, Clay was deeply involved in worship music leadership and was even part of a touring Chr...
Apr 27, 2022
Episode 66 Sunia Gibbs UMC pastor at The Groves in Portland, Oregon. Born in South Korea and raised in Minneapolis, Sunia arrived in Portland to work with the Assemblies of God campus ministries at Portland State University. Through the United Methodist church, Sunia became a church planter and worked at restoring and renewing and rooting the church in the neighborhood. We cover a lot of ground with Sunia in this conversation: A methodology for church life: It is the impulse toward justice, a st...
Mar 26, 2022
Craig and Cody connect for a shorter episode to discuss two topics in particular: The recent wave of retirements in the world of professional athletics (headlined by Tom Brady) prompts Cody to ask: When do you know it’s time to quit? We don’t leave the discussion in the realm of sports—we talk about careers, ministry, and relationships. The conversation naturally flows to the popular topic of deconstruction. While both hosts are pro deconstruction, both notice a couple troublesome aspects that c...
Mar 07, 2022•Ep. 65
Cody and Craig visit with Katie Hargrove. Katie was also with us in earlier episodes, Episode 52: Kalie and Pride Month , and Episode 53: Kaile, A Look at Genesis 1 & 2 . Kaile is a pastor at First Christian Church of Decatur, Ga., and a seminary student. In the midst of Kalie’s seminary education, suddenly her academic world was changed when her school informed her that they could not accept her as a transperson. Fortunately, she has found a new school in which she can continue her educatio...
Mar 01, 2022
When we first started, we outlined our podcast conversations around the daily liturgy - kinda. We even had an offering of sorts where we’d ask for money to support the podcast and the sponsor (themissionplace.org). But rather than having a benediction at the end, we would have a “Two-Minute Warning.” In football, the two-minute warning represents a fast-paced offense, and an edge-of-your-seat defense. The two teams can go head-to-head, sometime playing more focused and deliberate football than i...
Feb 15, 2022
We spoke with Tobin, Professor of African American Studies, several months ago ( https://www.themissionplace.org/allthatsholybluecollar/episode45 ) and learned that he wasn’t keeping up with University of Montana Football (nonetheless, Go Griz). We speak to Tobin again and meet his long-time friend and partner in struggle to dismantle racism, Dr. Regina Shands Stoltzfus of Goshen College. Regina is professor in the Religion, Justice, and Society department and worked at anti-oppression and anti-...
Dec 02, 2021
