This episode really has two distinct parts. The first part rejoins the perspective of the Bible as texts written by indigenous people called to live in relationship with creator and land, and the consequences of straying from those paths. The second part moves into the emotions of the heart and calls us to face the death of the planet and/or life around us with the hope that the time we have becomes deeply more meaningful.
It's easy enough to look at people who stand on the other side of the spectrum of climate data and say they need to remove their rose-colored glasses, but do we notice our own rose-colored glasses. Most of us still live in a world where we may intellectually know we live in an interconnected web, but are we truly in relationship with life around us? One of the best things we can do is read the Bible with these eyes, with rose-colored glasses removed, and see how scripture is a call to live in relationship with all.
Last Episode we talked about some pretty heavy stuff as we confronted the four scenarios to which data points the direction of our world. This episode we look at how our brains are wired to deal with crises like those scenarios, for better or worse, and then we move to the place that grief can play in all this, if we allow it.
NOTE: There is a clip of the ending scene from Adam McKay's film, Don't Look Up. It's an important part of this episode, so please go to YouTube and look up "Ending Scene of Don't Look Up." It's just under 3 minutes long.
Almost all of us have spent the last few decades coming to terms with scientific data around climate change and what the future holds. This series is not about convincing people with data, or looking at a plan of action for us not in national leadership positions, but how do we, as the every day person, find our community, find courage, find compassion to move forward, whatever that may be. This series will do something different, it will ask us to be in conversation with our emotions as we move into a world that may look different very soon.
We are lucky to have Alexis Donkin leading us in a series on World Religions. This week covers Christianity, the largest religion in the world.
***Unfortunately, we have not been able to record every episode in this series. We've missed Judaism and Islam. We will do our best to record the rest***
Honestly, the mark of the beast in Revelation 13 is just silly, and the way people have utilized this text to point to contemporary figures is even sillier. But this intensely misinterpreted part of Revelation has a significant enough effect on people today that it's important to use this as a great example of Biblical ignorance allied with power can lead to great harm.
Virtually no one in a heterosexual relationship in America practices the sexual ethics of the Bible. Heterosexual couples have allowed a massive departure from what the Bible says about hetero relationships because they are archaic and oppressive. Yet, when it comes to same-sex relationships, the Bible is utilized as the "end-all, be-all" of what a relationship should be. In today's episode we don't just talk about same-sex relationships in the Bible, but more importantly, how relationships were organized in antiquity across the board in order to see that the Bible doesn't reference homosexuality at all.
There is a great assumption that because Jews, Christians, and Muslims today are monotheistic that ancient Jews were monotheistic. However, from the beginning of the Bible to the end it becomes clear that ancient Jews believed in a plethora of gods, but the supremacy of their god. In today's episode we not only go over the scriptural references to these other gods, but we even look at a time when ancient Israelites believed in a god who was even above their own.
The Devil is as consistent as God if you ask a large swath of Christians. However, while God is clearly a part of the Biblical narrative from beginning to end, the same cannot be said about the Devil. Most of what our culture believes about the devil doesn't come from scripture, but has been spun from legends and misinterpretations long after scripture was completed. Today we look at the evolution from the innocuous satan figure, to the Devil we know today.
Abortion is not just a hot-button topic in society, it's a single-issue area for a lot of Christians who vote. But does the Bible condemn abortion? In this episode we look at what the Bible says about the practice. I will share an important disclaimer: this episode is not about a moral stance on abortion. It is explicitly about what the Bible says on abortion. What becomes clear in this episode is not so much on what the Bible says on abortion, but how people leverage authority using the Bible without knowing what the Bible says.
This episode is a bit of a controversial one as it starts off quickly the well established assertion that in the Fall story of Genesis, God absolutely lies to the first people. We go through the implications of this story as well as a story of deception in 2 Kings and what this means for us today.
This may seem like a pretty benign topic, but overlapping the long held assumption that God created the universe from nothing is the justification that people have maintained throughout time that since their God is all-powerful, they can do to outsiders whatever they want. We will be looking historically at the creation story and the origin of the doctrin creatio ex nihili in an attempt to create much needed humility.
Just the creation of what we know today as the Bible is full of assumptions informed by dogma and doctrine. And the truth is, scholars know quite a bit about how the Bible not only came to be compiled, but how it's been edited and revised over the last 1700 years. Today's episode gives a brief overview of how the Bible came to be and it's enough to help us realize how human this book truly is.
In this episode we lay the groundwork for the start of our new series on scholar Dan McClellan's new book, The Bible Says So. Today we go through the dilemmas of Christianity being so dogmatic, even in the face of contradicting scholastic data. Throughout this series we'll be tackling some big misunderstandings that have come from a more dogmatic approach in a the hopes that Christianity can speak up in new, yet very original ways.
We've all grown up hearing the Bible used as a moral authority for various arguments. Some of the big ones in our society revolve around sexuality, status of women in society and household, and homosexuality. However, the people that wield this moral authority are rarely versed in the context of the bible, and all of them conveniently rely on moral changes our society has made to the Bible without acknowledging such changes. Today we delve into several of these topics to think through how the Bible has been used wrongly, and to help us open conversations to using other sources of morality.
We conclude our series on Liberation Theology with Hope and Politics. Hope is a seemingly innocuous concept, but when considered in light of developed and developing areas, hope becomes a radical beacon that shines a light on the shortcomings of the present. However, to those whose present is just fine, hope becomes something to guard against. Hope is the cornerstone for Jesus, who uses this beacon to both shine a light and bring others together.
We have gone through a ton of material and not had as much time to reflect and respond, so this episode is a recap of everything so far, with some space to respond to what we've been talking about.
One might not consider history a theological concept, but when a substantial group's theological belief is that the only purpose of their religion is to convince people to adopt beliefs in order to go to an afterlife destination, than history becomes irrelevant and it becomes excusable to not teach or remember history. And then the lessons of history are forgotten and horrendous acts are repeated. History becomes a deeply theological issue when considering not only that God is present in history, but present in liberating ways.
Today we talk about the concept of Salvation. A term that most people grew up with having to do with where one's soul goes after they die. However, the Biblical narrative throughout scripture has far less to do with an after-life definition and far more with the life one works towards today. With massive implications on how people have understood the role of the Church, we delve into this concept at the heart of Liberation.
In all relationships a dependence develops between both parties, and ideally this dependence is both mutual and equitable. However, in the course of relationships with minority communities and oppressed communities the level of dependence is not only one sided, but a mechanism to keep marginalized communities in unjust environments so that resources and/or labor can continue to be exploited. Dependence is an area where liberation is deeply needed.