Face The Sun

Hi, My name’s Gaia and I started a podcast a little over a year ago called FTS. It’s about religion and unbelief. I’m an atheist but I love studying and talking about religion and with people of belief. I’ll use this TT to record episodes, places of worship I visit and people I talk to.

I just thought I’d let you listen to a part of Season 3, Episode 1 ---- So here we go.

Hi, you're listening to Face The Sun. My name is Gaia, and I'm your host. Welcome to a show where I discuss matters of religion, belief, and unbelief. Today I am starting SEASON 3.  We will discuss topics that I've been pondering about for this past year. I would love to hear your feedback on what you would like to have as topics of discussion.

Please feel free to reach me at [email protected] . My next episode will be an interview I conducted with Justin Good. He's a professor of philosophy and he wears a lot of other hats as well, which you'll hear about in that episode. From there. I will air a conversation I had with a friend of mine - about her family leaving Puerto Rico and coming to the states and the journey that they had with the church.

I started a series back in January 2020 that I titled “52 in 52” or “52 Places of Worship in 52 weeks”. The idea to visit 52 places of worship that year. That was pre COVID. I couldn't get to those 52 places in 2020 because of the pandemic.

I've gone to one place recently. It was an Episcopal church that I will record as one of my 52 places. I think that will put me at number 11 and I anticipate on going to more places in 2021 and 2022 as the restrictions for this pandemic are being lifted.

 For episode ideas for this new season, I am going to do a part two on Street Epistemology.

I meant to do that last season, but I didn't get to it. I did get to a lot of other hot topics. I covered last season topics like racism, LGBTQ, and abortion. So…all light topic…

Those are really such heavy hitters that they, they wore me out. And I was - I was kind of worn out, you know, I was a little teary at different times.

And part of it, I had a personal story, in regard to the church and prayer and how that feels - that it feels a little like waving the magic wand of prayer and hoping that terrible. horrific things don't happen to you. Even though there are plenty of other ways for people to get involved, to make sure that terrible things don't happen and don't occur.

And then also with abortion. I gave a personal story of why I changed from being a Catholic pro-lifer to a Protestant pro-lifer to a woman who believes WE should have the rights to do whatever WE damn well, please, with OUR own bodies. And there was a very, very tragic, frustrating, horrifying experience I had with that, that I was very open with.

And so all of those episodes were helpful, but exhausting.  I'm very grateful for those who reached out to me via my email and called and checked in and were very encouraging for this year.

I AM also going to talk about Women and their roles in marriage and in the church. There's a mentality of…I don't know how to best to say it… I'm going to try to be cautious with my words or cautious with my thoughts here, but I have certainly plenty of thoughts on this.  I'm a feminist as way back as my preteen years. So, I have very definite views of women and how they are, or are not, valued in church. There's a book that I'm reading called The Making of Biblical Womanhood - by Beth Alison Barr.

I'm curious about churches who have a stance on complementarian versus egalitarianism. I'm also curious about having difficult conversations. There's lots of opportunities to have difficult conversations in churches and places of worship, especially when it comes to women, especially when it comes to their rights as women and their roles as being equal.

And I do think that it's a disservice for men to not see women as equals or you know, use a different phrase, like, yeah, “we're equal”. “We're just separate, you know, that ki

For this week's episode, Scott, Eric and I talk about our perspective on the resurrection story. This conversation is from the debate we watched. I have a link below for the YouTube debate with Bart Ehrman and Mike Licona.

 

Eric Stillman is the pastor of NewLife Christian Fellowship in Wethersfield, CT and Scott Solberg is the pastor of Wethersfield Evangelical Church, Wethersfield, CT. Please see links below to their churches and more information on Eric and Scott. 

I also have a link to Derren Brown who is a mentalist. I mention him in the episode and that I would provide a link and video. He was a Christian who became an atheist and studies what makes people believe they have seen or experienced something they haven't.  The mind is amazing! After you watch Derren Brown, it's hard to stop watching how he studies others and prompts them to act the way he manipulates them to act. He plays a role of mastermind but in all his interviews, he's clear that he has no secrets or powers. He simply has studied the human mind. 

Let me know what you think.

 

Ehrman-Licona Debate Prove Jesus Rose from Dead

Resurrection Debate: Ehrman & Licona

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi1eWhzxja0

 

Eric Stillman

Eric Stillman, NewLife Christian Fellowship

https://www.newlife-ct.org/our-pastor

 

Scott Solberg

Scott Solberg, Wethersfield Evangelical Free Church

https://wethefc.com/

 

Derren Brown

The Psychological Tricks of Faith Healing Explained | Derren Brown | Big Think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEYW2vqqNDQ 

Miracles for Sale

https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/derren-brown-miracles-for-sale/ 

 

BOOKS

Prophecy: Failure or Fulfillment 

https://g.co/kgs/YTimtr 

Think Again

https://g.co/kgs/wbtsAH 

 

CONTACT: FACE THE SUN [email protected]

For this week's episode I have another debate discussion. This time it's on the resurrection. Link below for the YouTube debate with Bart Ehrman and Mike Licona. My guest on the show are Eric Stillman, pastor of NewLife Christian Fellowship in Wethersfield, CT and Scott Solberg of Wethersfield Evangelical Church, Wethersfield, CT. Please see links below to their churches and more information on Eric and Scott. 

I also have a link to Justin Brierley's podcast episode and a YouTube link of a debate he had on his show on the resurrection with Bart Ehrman and Mike Licona.

Let me know what you think.

 

Ehrman-Licona Debate Prove Jesus Rose from Dead

Resurrection Debate: Ehrman & Licona

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi1eWhzxja0

 

Eric Stillman

Eric Stillman, NewLife Christian Fellowship

https://www.newlife-ct.org/our-pastor

 

Scott Solberg

Scott Solberg, Wethersfield Evangelical Free Church

https://wethefc.com/

 

Justin Brierley, Unbelievable Podcast with

Justin Brierley - Unbelievable? Premier Radio with Ehrman & Licona on The Resurrection

https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-16-Apr-2011-Biblical-evidence-for-the-Resurrection-Bart-Ehrman-Mike-Licona

 

YouTube – Justin Brierley with Ehrman & Licona on the Resurrection

YouTube – Justin Brierley with Ehrman & Licona on the Resurrection

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgcHGnjN1PQ

 

CONTACT: FACE THE SUN [email protected]

Today's episode is short and and to the point. Watch Phil Visher's YouTube clip.

David French, a pro-life civil rights attorney, recently wrote about the reality of politics and abortion in America today. When Holy Post co-host, Skye Jethani, echoed French’s point of view on Twitter, people asked if they could summarize it with a video. Links to the video are below.

Click below for the link to Phil Visher's YouTube clip:

Phil Vischer - What about Abortion? Should this one issue determine how Christians Vote

Copy and paste the link if you are on Apple podcast. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvWD7ykNjCc 

 

If you would like to get in touch with Face The Sun, you can email:

https://facethesun.podbean.com/

I did an episode on abortion - it was an introduction of my story, as well as, some Bible verses. It certainly wasn't all the Bible verses – I just touched on what verses were out there that dealt with killing babies and killing pregnant women. In addition to that, there's so many other stories of killings in the Bible.

I ended the last episode saying, “If God really opposes abortion, why didn't God say so?” What's interesting is if you go through the Bible, you'll see that the death penalty has been handed down for all these different missteps and awful crimes, but there's a death penalty for little “wrongs”.

So…working on the Sabbath day - death penalty.

Collecting sticks on the Sabbath day - death penalty.

People who act as mediums or consult spirits - death penalty.

Rebellious children - death penalty.

Homosexuality (let's not forget how much God hates the gays) - death penalty.

Blaspheme the name of the Lord. I don't think I even know what that means. I had to look it up and it said the act or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things; profane talk. Um, I'm confident that I have engaged in profane talk and anybody who knows me and listens to this podcast - if they really know me, they know I am capable of profane talk.

The thing is, if there is a God, I think the only proof of a God is that I am not swearing like there's no-tomorrow. So, maybe there is a God. "Maybe there is a God. Gaia isn't swearing like a lunatic."

Speaking sacrilegiously about God… I just don't even know what that means. I think that the goalpost moves a great deal depending on who you're talking to. I'm not sure that it's ever understood what blaspheming the Lord would mean or blaspheming the name of the Lord means. I don't even know.

It goes on to list some other misdeeds, which is idolatry. At first I thought idolatry was like worshiping the golden calf, right? In Moses when… Mel Brooks did a really funny movie on Moses. Moses comes down from the mountain and he's carrying three tablets and he says, I have 15 commandments and “doosh”, one of the tablets falls and he says 10 commandments.

When that movie from Mel Brooks and then a number of other movies with Charlton Heston and a few others, when they do this whole thing in the desert, they're worshiping a golden calf. So, I always thought idolatry meant worshiping a golden calf or worshiping really anything else, like money and this and that and the other. But I guess in the Bible, it specifically was talking about sacrificing your children to a God.

There's also the list of other sins or wrongdoings to get put to death. Adultery is on that list. Murder is on the list as well. You know what’s not on the list? Abortion. So, killing your rebellious child and picking up sticks on the Sabbath and being gay – those things… you're gone. “We’re just going to have to kill you. We're just going to start hurling rocks.” If you sleep with someone who's married, “I'm sorry. We’re going to have to end you right here and now.”                  

None of the reasons to put someone to death are for abortion.  Out of all the criminal offenses and out of all the criminal violations and the supposedly criminal violations, abortion is not one of them, not one in the entire Bible. And that's not because there's no such thing as abortion. The Bible talks about forcing the death of a fetus and there's no condemnation.

Anti-abortion individuals will assert that human life begins at conception and therefore the fertilized egg possesses all the constitutional rights of a living person. It would follow that the destruction of a conceived embryo is murder and, this is the basis for the personhood argument.

If the fertilized egg is a person as pro-abortion extremists would claim then God is the greatest murderer of unborn children, because most fertilized eggs either failed to implant in the uterine wall and pass out of the body, or they implant and begin to develop and they're spontaneously abor

For this week's episode, I'm going to talk about abortion and the Bible.  As I prepared to give this talk, just like I have prepared to give other talks on racism and on LGBTQ, it's difficult because it takes me a while to record and then re-record and then edit what I've recorded and then re-record again.

That circle has gone on a number of times, so I'm coming up with another solution and it's to grab little chunks of little bits and see what I get out of this.

So… this might be a twenty-piece. This might be a twenty-part series. Who knows? But here I am. Right? Here I am just trying to get this through, just trying to get this posted.

When I do interviews on my podcast, they're so easy. I'm so happy to just hear what someone's perspective is - just appreciate who they are and what they're sharing with me. There's the other part of me that knows that I have a platform and that I should use this platform to give the perspective that I have on racism and the church and LGBTQ and Christianity and Christians and prayer and on abortion and the Bible. When I do interviews, it's easier because. Well… there's somebody else carrying the water to be honest.

And then it's not a debate. It's a discussion and it's not a conversation to be won. It's a conversation to be enjoyed. I care about those that I interview. I would never have, you know, when you listen to some investigative reporters and they you're like ‘dog on a bone’, they're really dogged in on getting the truth out of somebody, but they're really aggressive. I appreciate the work that investigative reporters do, but that's not what I do. I just like to chat with people. And then in between the chats, there's these moments that I just know I need to speak and say my perspective. So, for this episode or a portion of this episode, I'm going to talk about myself.

 I was raised Roman Catholic. My mother and father came over -they are immigrants from Ireland and they it's a predominantly Catholic country.

And they came to New England. The state that I live in, Connecticut, that's a very Catholic state - as is, as is Rhode Island and Massachusetts. So, they came from, from that country to this country and the section of this country. I'm going to guess that most people who are listening, know that Catholics are pro-life. It's almost like, I think that it doesn't even need to be said, because I think everybody knows that.

But if you didn't know, Catholics are really pro-life.

My views changed when I was in my late twenties or early thirties, when I thought I was pregnant for the second time. I just couldn't do it. I had postpartum depression when I had my first child. I was really isolated. I had horrible sleep deprivation. I was suicidal. I had some hallucinations, which I think when people say those words out loud, you know, hallucinations, everybody just creeps away from them. For anybody who's struggled with sleep deprivation that was so bad that they wished they could die from sleep deprivation just so that the pain could stop, you're probably going to have some hallucinations.

So here I was, just barely surviving when I had my first child. When I thought I was pregnant the second time, I just didn't know; I was just so overwhelmed. You know when you're a new mom and you're struggling and you're suffering in this intense, debilitating illness, who do you turn to? You're really isolated. You feel embarrassed and you feel fearful that they could lock you up against your will or they could take your child away. During that time, I clung to one person, it was like I was drowning in the ocean and I clung to another, which in itself was life-giving, and it created an overdependence.

 

Back then, and now, we don't know how to help others in this level of pain.

 

So I thought I was pregnant and I thought, I hope I can live through this. I hope I can live through this nine month and give birth, but I don't know if I can do any more than that. This is all I got.

 I wasn't preg

It has taken me a while to figure out how to express what I think about abortion and the Bible; abortion and "the church". I have a personal connection as to how I was raised and how I came to change my mind. I hope this part one of the work I cover on abortion is helpful. I you would like to reach out to me, you can always email me at [email protected]

Recording a podcast on the Laramie Project took a lot more out of me than I thought it would. I recorded several times and deleted my recordings. This isn't my best work but I wanted to post it and know that I will circle around again to talk about Christianity and the LGBTQ community. I hope to have guest on my show who can speak about their experiences now, how much the religious communities have grown and changed and areas of needed growth. 

 

I'm sorry the recording isn't up to par with what I would like to post but I'm very grateful for the opportunity to have this platform. 

If you would like to reach out to me, please feel free to email me at [email protected]

This weeks episode is a bit of a continuation of last weeks episode regarding LGBTQ and the Church. This is part one of observations and thoughts on the Laramie Project and Mathew Shepard. For more information on the Laramie Project, please see the link below. 

 

The Laramie Project movie on YouTube: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1qiTmF0p4A

If you are on Apple podcast, please subscribe to Face The Sun so that the hyperlinks are accessible.  If you are on Apple and still cannot clink on the link, simply cut/paste. Links are accessible on other podcast platforms. 

 

You can contact Face The Sun at [email protected]