Absurdity with Ryan Becker

Two weeks ago, Shantel Smith shared a status on her Facebook detailing unwanted sexual advances as well as verbal assault and a physical altercation with a soon-to-be pastor. This status encouraged over 100 women to come forward to her sharing their similar stories. Tony and Ryan process that and talk about what small things and big things we can do to work toward putting an end to situations like these.

When was the last time a sermon on prophecy fixed someone's overdue bills or helped solve someone's medical crisis? This episode, Tony and Ryan deal with one big issue: churches are often focused on solving problems that are disconnect from the social and socioeconomic realities their members experience. It's not that there is no place for sermons that are largely disconnected from someone's immediate situation, but how can churches shift their emphasis to be a more positively significant presence in their community and for their members.

Nicole is a second-year med student currently attending school in California. Born and raised in a very conservative home and church, she never expected to be who she is today. Now, she embraces herself and all that has come with it. Nicole and Ryan explore her journey of accepting herself, reconciling her faith with her identity, and why she remains a dedicated Christian despite the obstacles in her path.

Tony and Ryan dive into the realities and difficulties of loving someone wrestling with addiction, even if that person won't accept help or admit there is a problem. We recognize there is so much more that can be said about this topic. We also want to reiterate that Tony and Ryan are not experts of medical professionals, so this episode should not take the place of professional opinions from those properly trained in medical care and mental health.

Here are the links we referenced in this week's episode!

This week, Kevin Christenson joins Ryan to talk about creative projects and how the church could look to invest for a more direct return on that investment in young adults, their passion projects, and more.

TED Talk on Non-Profits

A listener called in recently wanting to share her stories of experiencing some of the negative parts of body shaming and modesty culture, but she didn't feel comfortable being on the podcast. Tony and Ryan do our best to retell her stories and provide our reactions along the way while protecting her anonymity. These stories help add weight and perspective to some of the very things we discussed the first time we dove into this topic for A98. We hope you enjoy this episode and are compelled to get rid of whatever harmful parts of this culture exist in your sphere of influence.

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We can't believe we've gone this long without actually talking about this subject, but there's no time like the present. Tony and Ryan dive into grief and loss as Ryan returns from his grandfather's funeral. What is grief and how does it work? How can churches and individuals handle grief and loss in their communities better? These are the questions we try to answer, and more.

Remember our Relevant episode, 107? Well, we are back to tackle the next level of that conversation with Andre Henry, the former Managing Editor at Relevant Magazine who wrote the Medium article exposing the toxic culture at Relevant. Andre talks with Ryan about how traditionally white institutions can pragmatically take action to value people of color and their voices and what true antiracism really looks like in normal, everyday life.

Matthew Lucio, host of Adventist History Podcast and the upcoming Adventists are Weird podcast, sits down with Ryan to talk Annual Council and the practical steps Adventists from all walks of life can engage with the system in order to create the changes they want to see.

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This week we have a two-parter! For part 1, Tony and Ryan recap Annual Council and give their reactions and analysis of the major conversations and votes that took place. We talk Gossip Juice, the abortion statement, the discipline votes, and more. Disclaimer: this is an Adventist-centric episode.