Inappropriate Conversations

Whether understanding the meaning of words in their time is key to seeking the mind of God?

Christianity 201: Time for Solid Food

The concept of parental control, even censorship, was clearly a part of my upbringing. I could cite numerous examples of inconsistencies, though:

Different Drummer: Dolly Parton

George In Atlanta #52

Whether progressive emphasis on affirming churches is even sufficient?

Concluding a long TalkBack series to start the year, I'm giving the last word to the Sermon On The Mount. Intentionally, I've done this in the most common English translations I can find, preferring an easily understood paraphrase to any version that makes it sound like Jesus was speaking to some gathering of experts rather than a crowd. 

It is not possible for me to look back to February 2012 and Inappropriate Conversations #81 and not think of community. It's particularly true this year. This recording would not have been possible without a strong, supportive online community, one that now seems to be gone. At the same time, another online community, Pride48, is providing deeply meaningful support for its participants at the news that one of our podcasters has died, too young and suddenly. This is the right time for the voices of old friends to be ringing in my ears.

The TalkBack series in January focused on scripture, theology, and religion with slices of Inappropriate Conversations #150. February will finish this set of callbacks with episodes that function as an Appendix of sorts, supporting material consistent with Opening The Scriptures and taking the Bible seriously. Inappropriate Conversations #131 has a New Testament focus, primarily the story of Peter in the Acts of the Apostles. 

When Inappropriate Conversations #150 was first posted in September 2014, the best solution I had for liner notes was simply a list of all the quoted texts, which alone was quite extensive. Now, wrapping up this look-back to that long podcast, I'll use the last of these 6 parts with a link to the original post. It has the full set of scriptures and the name of the Different Drummer, and that segment closes out the episode. 

Few figures in this history of Christianity are as controversial as Paul. Really, it's important to look at the story of the Apostle Paul as both a history of Saul and Paul. That is true whether you view "history" here as historical fact or the internal back-story of a fictional narrative. Either way, Paul's influence is quite real, and I wouldn't call him the hero of his own story. 

Having passed the half-way point in sharing Inappropriate Conversations #150 with the 3rd part, the excerpts will be shorter from this point on. Part 4 starts with the question of whether everyone the circles of family and friend were on board with Jesus and his ministry. Far from it.

Following up more quickly with Part 3 of the TalkBack to Inappropriate Conversations #150, in part because the way this portion of that long podcast ties into the section before.