I'm probably less sure now than I was 7 years ago about whether the Sunday School hour in most Christian churches is the best type of small group. It was the type I was most familiar with then. Now, I'd say the main requirement isn't location or time of meeting, but the ability to speak very freely about a challenging range of topics. Today, that range would include double-standards and miscarriages of justice from the halls of Congress to local district attorneys offices. Any small group that c...
Sep 28, 2020•48 min•Ep. 317
In the process of considering whether the message, or a worship service itself, was fundamentally different inside a sanctuary or some other form of cathedral versus a more ordinary room, my family ended up encountering a church that didn't have a building at all. No sanctuary. No roof over their heads at all, so to speak. And that's where we ended up, too. TalkBack episodes in podcast form exist largely due to Spotify. That's also among the places the new Harmony Springs Gives Voice podcast can...
Sep 18, 2020•40 min•Ep. 316
Whether racism is more prevalent and toxic within, rather than outside, the church? Robert P. Jones of PRRI Preview for White Savior: Racism in the American Church
Sep 04, 2020•48 min•Ep. 314
A significant number of Americans, most from the political and religious right, still owe Barack Obama an apology. When you understand the persecution a group thinks they will suffer, whether based on rational conclusions or not, it provides great insight into what they would do if given ultimate and absolute power. We are wise to be wary. The people who predicted Obama would "round up" both Christians and guns might just pose a similar dire threat to their perceived political enemies. We haven'...
Aug 20, 2020•1 hr 46 min•Ep. 313
Consider this the background material for the previous Inappropriate Conversations (#IC #231). Things have not improved in the past five years, and an argument can be made that the standards for law enforcement have gotten worse. I say this with as much sadness as anger, although I'm sure the anger cuts through. It's painful enough to bring even a mildly empathetic person to his knees, at a time in American where that gesture is inexplicably controversial. http://www.inappropriateconversations.o...
Aug 03, 2020•1 hr 50 min•Ep. 312
More than five years ago, Inappropriate Conversations #157 was released as an unedited nearly two-hour rant about that state of law enforcement and race relations in America at the end of 2014. Clearly, things have not improved. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves for not taking these issues more seriously. It is, after all, clearly a matter a life and death. Different Drummer: Dave Chappelle
Jul 29, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 311
More than a dozen years ago, it wasn't unusual for Christian leaders to provide political advice to one another that sounded like this: "Don’t equate the biblical kingdom of God with any human political party or nation" (Andrew Jackson). Many were already violating guidelines like this, but the trespasses would only multiply during the Obama administration. Recent years have been even worse. I have yet to hear a sufficient denunciation of this misbehavior from the same Christian leaders who publ...
Jul 06, 2020•53 min•Ep. 310
Pride was the focus for TalkBack episodes released in June this year. (Some of those files were mistakenly deleted and restored in July, despite being originally released in June.) I ended the series with a 2015 episode looking at the "T" of LGBTQ* and my perspective on how simple it is to address people in the manner they prefer. I was pretty young when my family went to an out-of-town wedding, an older cousin getting married. I must have asked an annoying question that morning because I recall...
Jul 06, 2020•57 min•Ep. 309
Before traveling to Las Vegas a couple years after this TalkBack recording and later making similar trips to New Orleans for Pride48 podcasting expositions , I made a commitment to myself to participate. I called that episode Proud To Know You. From a TalkBack perspective, it's really Proud To Know You 1. http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/128-proud-to-know-you/...
Jul 06, 2020•1 hr 48 min•Ep. 308
Some Assembly Required (A NeoSurrealist Forsaking a Habit for Lent) Chapter 8 Editor's Note "Darkness Sets In" Life's an Essay Test; We're Obliged To Give Essay Answers Making the Grade "The false assumption most of them make is that Truth is somehow distant, elusive, and concealed. Their Truth must be tracked down, captured, and unveiled." Different Drummer: Boethius of Rome
Jul 06, 2020•56 min•Ep. 307
Some Assembly Required (A NeoSurrealist Forsaking a Habit for Lent) Chapter 7 Mad Scientist Editorial Board meeting: March 24, 1994 Coming Up Next How Am I Supposed To Live Without? "They'll Know We Are Christians" The Least Of These "Are we not, in fact, blaming the Godless for their very Godlessness?" Different Drummer: Art Eddy
Jul 06, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 306
Being active in a church, really active, often involves a spoken or unspoken expectation of very steady attendance. Learning what other churches and denominations are doing can be challenging, if not impossible, in such circumstances. The initial phase of "walking the earth" was eye-opening for this reason. Even the definition of "sermon" raised immediate questions. The first two episodes in Walk The Earth covered what I considered to be easy questions. This question was the first that led me to...
Jul 06, 2020•57 min•Ep. 305
Some Assembly Required (A NeoSurrealist Forsaking a Habit for Lent) Chapter 6 Just Say No, Nancy You're On the Air "Para-Double-Diddle" Cover Version Tell Us What You Think "By bringing the hallucinatory powers of your own brain to bear upon your experiment, you will be able to easily retrace your steps." Different Drummer: Brook Berringer
Jul 06, 2020•57 min•Ep. 304
Some Assembly Required (A NeoSurrealist Forsaking a Habit for Lent) Chapter 5 Twenty-something Sexual Revolutionary Critic On Your Way Home Assignment: Aion Noteworthy The Readers' Reply (Letters over 300 words may be edited for length and clarity) "We're going to be jumping around for the next couple of days. Let me have some undivided attention, and I'll give you a feel for what we're referencing." Different Drummer: Nadia Bolz-Weber...
Jul 06, 2020•46 min•Ep. 303
My first experience at Pride48 was last week's TalkBack episode (Walk The Earth #30). It was soon followed by my first event recap show. #IC #172, Proud To Know You 2, covered my thoughts on the trip upon returning. I also mention a corresponding interview on the Ramble Redhead podcast on the same topic. Next on Pride48 is the June 2020 live streaming event , Friday the 26th through Sunday the 28th. I'll be listening, and chatting whenever possible. http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/17...
Jun 16, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 302
My first of more public commitments to being an ally was the weekend of August 28, 2015, in Las Vegas. Walk The Earth 30 is a recording of a live podcast at Pride48 that year. For me, this moment was historic. http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/walk-the-earth-30/
Jun 10, 2020•49 min•Ep. 301
Have you ever been unexpectedly stuck staring down the barrel of a gun being held by someone who clearly states he has no qualms about shooting you if you don't cooperate? Outside of military-style preparation or perhaps police academy work, I believe it's impossible to predict how anyone would respond in such circumstances. I also found it challenging to assess how I responded for weeks, if not months, afterward. Simple answers rarely suffice. When I tell the story now, I usually present the si...
Apr 29, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 295
The first venture into TalkBack podcast episodes was thematic, Christmas shows in November-December 2018. It isn't hard to find running themes in past episodes of Inappropriate Conversations. A focus on the impact of gun usage starts here, revisiting October 2015, and will continue later in the month with a story that was 30+ years old in February 2013. I tend to tire very quickly over gun control debates. The conversation always seems to devolve to extremes. Worse, what should be an open discus...
Apr 08, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 293
Some Assembly Required (A NeoSurrealist Forsaking a Habit for Lent) Chapter 4 Did You Hear the One about V-8 Nate? Prior Restraint Premarital Skydiving "Characters don't always say what writers want them to say, and it's ignorant to presume otherwise." Different Drummer: Jackie Speier
Mar 31, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 290
As the old saying goes: the church is not a building; the church is the people. Well, I've been interacting with some of those people in new/old ways lately. The early episode of Walk The Earth was about walking away from one congregation. We had not yet found a new one yet. Now, years later, the church I've since joined is planning to start a podcast. Some of our sessions have been planning, others recording. I'll share links to Harmony Springs Gives Voice when podcasts are posted, probably on ...
Mar 18, 2020•39 min•Ep. 289
Some Assembly Required (A NeoSurrealist Forsaking a Habit for Lent) Chapter 3 "Gone, But Not Forgotten" Timed Test Hostile Takeover Bid Fine Tuning Replay "If you cannot address the concerns of one increasingly irate customer, then those concerns ultimately may cost you the business of other customers as well." Different Drummer: Bob Walkenhorst The Rainmakers in Norway...
Mar 11, 2020•48 min•Ep. 284
When a new member of a church pledges to join a congregation, the public statement is often about supporting the church with prayers, presence, gifts, and service. At the point of deciding to leave a particular church, though, that pledge gets called into question. For some, leaving a congregation can reflect an abandonment of everything, all of that plus belief itself. For my family, though, the tension was more about whether the commitment was to a particular local church or something differen...
Mar 04, 2020•44 min•Ep. 283
Some Assembly Required (A NeoSurrealist Forsaking a Habit for Lent) Note: explicit language throughout Chapter 1 What the Anti-Formalists Thought Bennie's Got It Pop Quiz Homegrown My Brunch with Nicole "You always do this to me. First, you bring up something offensive. Then, you tell me to stop you before you go too far. But how can I?" Chapter 2 R.S.V.P. Cat Burglar Diary of a College Graduate Backroads Telemarketed "Film Break" "Whether the goal is to become a member of the Christian Communit...
Feb 22, 2020•1 hr•Ep. 282
Whether a mission statement is necessary, and what role does it play in the mission itself? July 2010 on Inappropriate Conversations A conversation from before Inappropriate Conversations existed
Feb 12, 2020•47 min•Ep. 281
Now that I've committed to TalkBack episodes being part of the structure going forward, along with new episodes of both Inappropriate Conversations and Walk The Earth, it's a good time to note that no past podcast I've ever recorded seemed quite as set for a reprise as this one, #IC #138. I am surprised that six years have gone by since I was slightly shaken by the news that someone from my high school graduating class had died. Hillary wasn't the first, there have been others since 2014, and in...
Feb 05, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 280
Seems to me, our society collectively complains about how the quality of our discourse has devolved while also avoiding even talking about potential solutions. Some seem just as legalistically obsessed with the First Amendment being a hard-stop to even common-sense standards of decency as they, or perhaps others, are about the Second Amendment. Just as you can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater where there is no fire or danger, you also cannot threaten to attack someone merely to silence their o...
Jan 29, 2020•56 min•Ep. 279
With the second Senate impeachment trial of my lifetime scheduled to start any day now, I've chosen to schedule this TalkBack episode in advance for future release. That's a risky move. Who knows what might happen between now and then? To me, that's one of the challenges of dealing with current events on a podcast intended to be more evergreen than the news of the day. And the impeachment covered in this podcast is more than 20 years old now! http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/40-other-...
Jan 21, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 277
From an endgame perspective, the so-called "war on drugs" was never intended to generate the equivalent of permanent prisoners of war in the form of mass incarceration, but that is probably the true face of the political strategy that seemed to directly target my generation. The focus came after the Summer Of Love crowd, hitting instead the younger brothers, sisters, and cousins. It's hard to cite any wins because "Just Say No" as a campaign was far more about the image than the results, pure st...
Jan 15, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 276
To our shame, our society still tends to teach women to separate themselves from their sexuality, treating pleasure as something regrettable while looking the other way with a "boys will be boys" shrug about men pursuing pleasure. Even within committed relationships, this has unfortunate and unnecessary consequences. Wise women have spoken against this, and their counsel is well worth considering. Different Drummer: Ruth K. Westheimer
Jan 09, 2020•58 min•Ep. 275
Considering how prominent sex is on the logo for Inappropriate Conversations, I haven't touched that topic as often as I could. I may explore some reasons why in the next Inappropriate Conversations recording for #IC #222. We'll see. In the meantime, this past episode from 2010 provides valuable background information, recalling a time when the church taking sex education seriously did not have anything to do with protesting, banning, or undermining it. http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/...
Jan 03, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 274
