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!

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 more. We look at some of those often overlooked lists.

Here are some links for what we discussed:

Google Search Trends

Worst Things to Spill in Your Car

Varieties of Axe Fragrances

And the inventor of auto-tune, Dr Andy Hildebrand

(Apologies to Botticelli’s Nativitiy, thanks PhotoShop Generative Fill AI)

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 “ice-breaker” feature, which poses random questions, to begin and end our conversations.

The conversation also covered a range of other topics including, sports as panentheistic (big word warning: we go against our own motto about not using big words), Christmas celebrations beyond Christmas Day, and experiences at various gourmet restaurants.

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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 of Jesus as a nonviolent resistor. They touched on the historical and mythical elements of the Christmas story, the financial and sporting implications of a high-profile player's transfer, their finances and future plans, music, making fruitcake, and casual conversations about classic Christmas movies and action figures.

We also spent some time trying to pronounce the Latin term for the third Sunday of Advent, gaudete.

It’s pretty close. Here are a few of the links to things that were discussed:

NCAA Volleyball tournament: https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/volleyball-women/d1/2023

Shohei Ohtani’s payout: https://theathletic.com/5126812/2023/12/11/shohei-ohtani-contract-10-numbers-dodgers/?source=user-shared-article

ActionAid Sweden and the Christmas Goats: https://youtu.be/ELvsokKcydM?si=VE7dMZPr6y9lP0qG

Fruitcake, by the Superions: https://open.spotify.com/track/2KsftzifufXI5ukgcfis77?si=3b826cbf58364e60

Wet Bandits, by The Home Alones: https://open.spotify.com/track/12XnacmXLpsZFE1yn84XDS?si=ca5fa6b06ddd4226

And, especially since it is chilly outside here in North America, support us through Patreon so we can have a warm cup of tea or coffee.

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.com/college-sports/story/_/id/38992406/how-watch-2023-ncaa-women-volleyball-championship-espn

Find the bracket: https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/volleyball-women/d1/2023

Common Hymnal – Humble People

The Hound + The Fox – What Child is This/Child of the Poor

Tracey Thorn – Joy

Dave Bazan – I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Alana Levandoski – First Advent

Starting off, though, continuing the conversation about theological assumptions, Cody and Craig talked about the proper order of themes for Advent. Here are some possible themes:

What is the proper order of Advent themes and why?

a. Joy, Peace, Love, Hope

b. Hope, Justice, Peace, Joy

c. Peace, Peace, Peace, Peace

d. Faith, Hope, Joy, Love, Light

e. Prophecy, Promise, Fulfillment, Faith

f. Signs, Saviors, Serpents, Song

g. Waiting, Preparing, Singing, Laboring

h. wear, wash, rinse, repeat

What do you think would be the best?

Login to Patreon and give us a boost, if you will. Also, make sure to rate, like, and share our podcasts. We do all this on a shoestring budget (both money and time are scarce).

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

Popular Sports

Craig quizzes Cody’s sports knowledge on the popularity of global sports. And together, we realize we have no idea how cricket works! Let us know. We’re willing to learn. https://aeonledlighting.com/2023/07/top-world-sports/

Make-up or Break-up Church Edition?

We took off on a tangent conversation about a segment on a local pop music radio station. One Boise’s, 102.7, the hosts do a recurring segment on the Joey and Loren Show, called, “Make-Up or Break-Up.” After listening to a portion of a recent broadcast, we wonder if we should start a church version of make-up or break-up. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/joey-and-lauren-in-the-morning/id1481402629  

Let us know if you have been a part of some weird church visits, or have not gone back, or you have witnessed some bad church “first-dates.”

Patreon Support

Support Cody and Craig and their emerging podcast media empire at patreon.com/craigdmorton https://www.patreon.com/craigdmorton

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 conversation was an article from National Archives which sets some of the history in a longer context. 1917, 1922 League of Nations, 1948 Provisional defacto recognition of state of Israel: https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/press-release-announcing-us-recognition-of-israel

Continuing With Theological Assumptions

Craig and Cody try to define the idea of a theological assumption. Cody describes his recent sermon which has some tricky interpretive ideas when speaking about God’s ability to forgive. More to come on the assumption front.

Patreon – go to for our developing Missionplace Media. Support will go for this podcast as well as other podcasts, blogs, and research.

Wanna go to Vegas?

Las Vegas grand prix discount tickets, https://www.8newsnow.com/sports/vegas-full-throttle/f1-tickets-on-steep-discount-buzz-building-on-las-vegas-prices/

What’s the best thing you’ve heard recently?

We reflect on the Country Music Award for best single to Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs. What a wonderful, unexpected couple!

Listening to Fast Car, brings back memories and still feels fresh. Listen to Tracy Champman at: Tracy Chapman: https://youtu.be/AIOAlaACuv4?si=yBQk9VZNxndl_Kl0

Luke Combs at: https://youtu.be/Fr7oYjnt3bM?si=iRsFus-bU1qdGTEP

Follow us and join the conversation at https://www.facebook.com/allthatsholy/

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 conceptions of God. Give it a listen. Does it make you think of other assumptions. Tell about those assumptions through our Facebook page.

Cody and Craig spent time with having a “commercial” and explaining the new and upcoming resources being developed. Check it out and sign on to become a Patreon supporter. In the future, we will create some merch that will be available.  

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 in central Washington.

One of the major themes the indigenous people have had to resist is the Christian Nationalist policies emerging from terra nulius. In it various expressions, it has treated indigenous people as mere raw materials on the land; as a part of the land to be exploited (Bureau of Indian Affairs is a subsection of the Department of the Interior, for instance). Terra nulius has justified land theft, kidnapping, killing and domination, and the removal of children from the homes of the birth to be educated in church-based boarding schools. These experiences, established in the age of discovery, instituted, and maintained by the church, demonstrate what Christian Nationalism looks like, and that it is not hypothetical. We’ve been here before.

Sarah Augustine’s author page at Anabaptist World : https://anabaptistworld.org/author/sarah-augustine/ and at  MennoMedia https://www.mennomedia.org/author/sarah-augustine/

The Land is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery, by Sarah Augustine at Herald Press https://heraldpress.com/9781513808291/the-land-is-not-empty/

https://dofdmenno.org/

https://www.facebook.com/dismantlediscovery/