350 Soaking in Divine Spirit (1) Martin Luther: Word and Spirit

350 Soaking in Divine Spirit (1) Martin Luther: Word and Spirit

Uncensored Unprofessor
Holy Spirit

A new series! The theology of God's Spirit, first through the emphases of Martin Luther. Who was Luther? What was he doing? Why was he doing? What were his emphases about Holy Spirit? Why do I think we need a 21st century Reformation? How am I praying for that? What do too many contemporary Protestants do with Luther's emphases on the Holy Spirit? What can we learn from Luther? How do I critique Luther's emphases? All questions asked and answered on this "Theological Soaking in God's Spirit" episode. I also start the show with a devotional from Isaiah 40, "rise up on eagle's wings." Come think and laugh with me.

349 Necessary Discriminations (7) Fogginess of Fear

349 Necessary Discriminations (7) Fogginess of Fear

Uncensored Unprofessor
Discernment, Current Events, Cult of the Now

The number one reason people don't make decisions? Fear. Fear fogs our discriminating processes in a number of ways. I work through those painful ways in this episode. Then, as we all know, naming is powerful. I recently came across the name for a 50 year old social strategy: Cloward-Piven. With uncanny accuracy it describes the constant patterns we see at work in American society. Naming that strategy also helps us to realize, again, that we wrestle not with flesh and blood. Come think and laugh with me!

348 Necessary Discriminations (6) Gagged by Generosity

348 Necessary Discriminations (6) Gagged by Generosity

Uncensored Unprofessor
Discernment, Current Events

Just finished a book by an Ignatian spiritual mentor about discerning angels from demons, God's Spirit from evil spirits, and seeking God's will. Although tedious, it has some gems for both personal and communal decision making. I note those and then focus on the author's point that the Evil One loves to suggest some generous idea, an idea that then is used to draw a person and/or the church off the Lord's path, destroy purpose, and even ruin relationships. Then, the book of Daniel, as I learned 42 years ago, is also beautiful in its presentation of our own agency in light of God's revelation. Let's think through making discriminations in a biblical manner.

347 N. Discriminations (5) Nurtured by Beauty

347 N. Discriminations (5) Nurtured by Beauty

Uncensored Unprofessor
Beauty, Jesus, Discernment

Jesus lived life in beautiful ways. He treated all people as images of God, respected their agency as full persons, never spoke down to them, and never treated people as though they were children. In this fifth episode on making necessary discriminations I talk about how beauty has been important in my own life: my marriage, my vocation, the art in my home, my church attendance, and even how I vote. Beauty—one of life's transcendent qualities—suggests more and therefore calls for more. Beauty doesn't play by the strict transactional rules of today's World Spirit. Come laugh with me as we think through the necessity of making decisions.

346 Boxing the Holy Spirit

346 Boxing the Holy Spirit

Uncensored Unprofessor
Bible, Spirituality

Most Christians worship a binity: Father and Son, and that's when their binity isn't merely Jesus and the Bible! The Holy Spirit routinely gets boxed up, put away, and ignored. Functionally, He is the Cinderella of the Trinity: only brought out on special occasions, like a baptismal service: "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." But the Scriptures, Old and New, have much to teach us about the third person of the Trinity. I expore how the New Testament builds upon but then expands what the Old Testament revealed about the Spirit. I also work through 5 different ways the Church (and culture) box up the Holy Spirit, keep him on the back shelf. Let's prayerfully welcome the dynamic, creative, and beautiful work of God's Holy Spirit into our lives!

345 Who Needs Fences?

345 Who Needs Fences?

Uncensored Unprofessor
Christian Worldview, Discernment

This is a blast from the past, a least-worst, UU episode originally recorded for my premium subscribers. Why are fences and hierarchies and boundaries necessary? After all, they fly in the face of a raw democracy-style way of doing life, fly in the face of perfect equality. So how and why would a loving Christian ever embrace hierarchies and boundaries? I aims to explain their matter-of-fact nature and then explain how Christians should, because the Bible does, prioritize their own hierarchies and boundaries. Come think and laugh with me.

344 Are Easter and Christmas Pagan Holidays?

344 Are Easter and Christmas Pagan Holidays?

Uncensored Unprofessor
Christian Worldview, Advent, Beauty, Secular vs. Sacred

Mindful of how she and her husband raise their kids a listener and Patreon supporter of mine, Danielle, e-d me with a great question, are Christmas and Easter pagan holidays? After all, they both had pre-Christian pagan origins. I answer her great question by working through the way that God works, taking pre-existing forms and transforming them to his glory. Come and think with me in this least-worst blast-from-the-past.

343 Death of My Dad, Reflections on Death

343 Death of My Dad, Reflections on Death

Uncensored Unprofessor
Eds Personal, Heaven and Hell

On Saturday 12/16/23 my Dad died after a four-month long battle with acute Crohn's. What was that all like? What happens to us in death? In this personal episode I share some fun memories I have about my dad, experiences we shared, and even the funny obituary instructions he left behind. This is no systematic episode, just a mish mash of theological, existential, and biographical reflections. What was amazing about how Jesus went through death? Why do I seem surprised by the grief of death? What kind of tatoo does my son think he might get? What was interesting about my Dad and alcohol? What kind of service will my Dad get? What are some existential takeaways I have ensuing this experience? Come laugh and think and grieve and hope with me.

342 Fifty-Five Things I Don't Know

342 Fifty-Five Things I Don't Know

Uncensored Unprofessor
Eds Personal

We can't always be serious, especially during the holidays, so I'm changing things up. I realize that on a theology and culture show it is easy to come across as having a resolute grasp on reality. Truth is, there are many things I do not know, do not understand. In this reflective, but light-hearted, episode I work through different elements of life: church configurations, mundane daily realities, the Bible, culture, politics, and history. Come laugh and think with me here in Advent!

341 2023 Year in Review

341 2023 Year in Review

Uncensored Unprofessor
Current Events

What were the most important stories of 2023? I review those and offer commentary. Also tell the story of enduing medical-industry-chaos in the midst of all that. And yet, I recognize the medical industry is both overwhelmed and underpaid. So I begin the show with a prayer of blessing. Come reflect, laugh, and think with me about the year we just survived!

340 Special—Guts-Out Mission

340 Special—Guts-Out Mission

Uncensored Unprofessor
Discernment, Current Events, Secular vs. Sacred

Like a classroom where a substitute teacher fills in for the regular, I am, here on the holidays, interrupting my series. How should believers go about our Christ-given mission? Maybe it is 33%, each, with an eye to the past, present, and future? Maybe it is a balanced 50%-50% mix of indigenous and ancient Jewish culture? Using my recent trip to Costco to fill my truck and the recent Roman Catholic Synod on Synodality I think aloud with you about how we ought to frame mission. Along the way I also describe the work of some of my Christian heroes: Mother Theresa, John Wesley, Phil Keaggy, and John Wimber. How did they go about Christian mission? Come laugh and think with me!

339 Ncssry Discrmntions (4) Tracking with Truth

339 Ncssry Discrmntions (4) Tracking with Truth

Uncensored Unprofessor
Discernment, Christian Worldview, Current Events

No one is born with diakrino, a Jesus-y street smarts. It has to be developed and trained. Last week I offered goodness as a telos for discernment. This episode tracks with truth as a guide for discernment. To contemporize the topic of discernment I ask the questions, "are you a racist?", and "are all whites racists?" Along the way we see what the Bible means by truth, and what history and empirical data have to say about racism. The show begins with a holiday reflection from the Bible, "it doesn't have to be like this." Come laugh and think with me.

338 Ncssry Discriminatns (3) Guided by Goodness

338 Ncssry Discriminatns (3) Guided by Goodness

Uncensored Unprofessor
Discernment, Current Events

Western Civilization is cracking and creaking. There are obvious signs—educated people celebrating rape, slaughter, and genocide—and there are subtle signs—someone being sent to prison for 10 years for posting a snarky meme. But we will miss both signs if we are lacking discernment. In order to catch nuance and practice discernment (a Jesus-y street smarts) we need a telos—a path that guides us toward a target—that informs the whole of our lives. The Bible holds out goodness for us as just such a telos. Come think and laugh with me.

337 Necssry Discrimntns (2) Nuance: Trees from the Forest

337 Necssry Discrimntns (2) Nuance: Trees from the Forest

Uncensored Unprofessor
Eds Personal, Current Events, Discernment

Two thousand years ago a Roman centurion observed yet another Jewish rable-rousing "messiah" being crucified. Compared to the many taunting passersby, that soldier discerned that something unusual was transpiring. Seeing it all, he uttered an epic historic statement. Truth is, discernment takes time. Catching the nuance takes practice. In this episode I begin building out several ways by which we can build our discernment. How can we recognize political propaganda? My aim is to help us develop a Jesus-y street smarts. I also work through rhetorical self-defeaters: phrases that are commonly uttered which, supposedly, are show-stoppers. What can we do and say when we hear something like, "well, there are no absolutes"? Come laugh and think with me.

336 Necessary Discriminations (1) Judgment Lo Malo y Lo Bueno

336 Necessary Discriminations (1) Judgment Lo Malo y Lo Bueno

Uncensored Unprofessor
Bible, Current Events, Discernment

Jesus said, "do not judge lest ye be judged." And that settles it: we should never judge, right? Well, actually, no. In the same chapter—Matthew 7—where Jesus starts out by forbidding judgment he positively calls us to make several judgments: bad vs. good fruit, wolves vs. sheep, wide vs. narrow gates, bad vs. good fathers, foundations of rock vs. foundations of sand. So the notion that he banned all judgment is simply silly. In this first-of-a-series episode I unpack Jesus' teaching on good judgment: discernment. We also clarify the bad judgment he was banning. 

335 RfYtB (8) Vivid—Life in God's Spirit

335 RfYtB (8) Vivid—Life in God's Spirit

Uncensored Unprofessor
Reasons for Your Belief, Spirituality, Beauty

Christianity is not first the study of a book, or a new ethic, or a set of doctrines, as important as all those are. It is, instead, a lived experience. Or more carefully? Christianity is a felt telos: a orientation to life that filters and orients all our other experiences (even going to football games!). More specifically still, Christianity is (or can be) life in the third member of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit. And that is because the Spirit is a person, not a forcefield, not an it. In this episode I think pastorally and personally about life in God's Spirit. During the show's opening I reflect on the pastors—the Black Robed Regiment—who helped to foment the American Revolution. Would that revolt have occurred if it were up to today's pastors and priests? Why does that question even matter?

334 RfYtB (7) Election—Israel as Proof for God

334 RfYtB (7) Election—Israel as Proof for God

Uncensored Unprofessor
Reasons for Your Belief, Spirituality, The Spiritual World, Current Events

Election is a thoroughly biblical doctrine. Among many—Protestants especially—election goes to the matter of who is eternally saved, or not. But that's not where the Bible begins with the doctrine of election, and it's not even where Jesus began in his practice of election. No, instead? Election has to do with mission, being called to mission, and sharing in the mission of God's redemption of creation. With that formulation as a foundation, why then are the Jews so globally hated? Why, across all of written history, have the Jews been so targeted for pogrom, genocide, and Holocaust? And with that, why are the Jews so deeply hated and targeted for massacre today?

333 Israel & Gaza—Is this THE End?

333 Israel & Gaza—Is this THE End?

Uncensored Unprofessor
Current Events, Spirituality, The Common Good, Why Does Morality Matter?, World Religions

Immediately after an episode (last week) where I explained why governmental power (because it is too commonly insidious) should be slow-walked? Hamas invaded Israel. After I narrate some of the horrors of that, I explain my initial reactions to this heart-breaking event. What do we do to mitigate the "cycle of violence"? Or, is "cycle of violence" even the accurate way to assess what's going on? Then I frame our catastrophic-feeling era in light of both history and theology. Many Christians today—Catholics, Protestants, and Eastern Orthodox—sense how apocalyptic this all feels. So, are we in THE end times? 

332 RfYtB (6) My RealPolitik, The Moral Goodness of Hell

332 RfYtB (6) My RealPolitik, The Moral Goodness of Hell

Uncensored Unprofessor
Reasons for Your Belief, Heaven and Hell, Eds Personal

A Christian engagement with politics is idealistic, right? I mean, don't Christians want both a righteous messiah and an earthly Nirvana? Not me. I explain why I do engage politically, noting my historical and theological reasoning. In the show's second part I work through the topic of hell. Can we say God is loving if he sends people there? Can we say God is just if he sends people there? Well, actually, I believe there are profound reasons to suggest that hell is morally good. Let's be more nuanced.

331 2020 in the Rearview Mirror

331 2020 in the Rearview Mirror

Uncensored Unprofessor
Current Events, Cult of the Now, Eds Personal, Christian Worldview

The show starts with me praying for my listeners' provision: interest rates and the cost of living are soaring. Then I discuss how a NYT email news-feed hit me like a bolt of lighting. The story read, "2020 was driven by a righteous spirit and legitimate moral demands." How did that spirit and its moral demands shape the hearts of ten millions of good-hearted Christians? Can an emotional response be legitimate if the perceived event was based on a lie? Come think with me about why we are now experiencing another 16th century Reformation, but this time around it is entirely to the bad. 

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