Religiosanity

On July 6th we commemorate Jan Hus, the important Czech theologian and early reformer. Pastor Andrew, who is himself Czech, takes us through the events that led to his execution at the stake, the uprising in its aftermath that became know as the first reformation, and how we can honor him by our commitment to justice and truth.

“Who endowed the ibis with wisdom and gave the rooster his intelligence?” Job 38:36

On the 50th episode of ReligioSanity, Pastor Andew’s week spent bird watching prompts a talk about the strange insecurity in monotheism in regard to cosmotheism, and he makes a plea for a better understanding of nature coming from the deeper layers of our faith.

The New York Times published a disturbing article titled "Send In The Troops" on their opinion page last week, written by Republican Senator Tom Cotton. The paper has since apologized for printing it, saying it did not meet their standards. Pastor Andrew talks about the dangers of a lack of curation with pieces like this, how certain adjectives can clue the reader in to a certain mindset in the writer, and how the simple addition of some context would have helped the whole affair.

The President of The United States used military police to forcefully clear the area so he could have a photo op in front of a church awkwardly holding the Bible in the air in a way that revealed he likely never held one before in his life. Pastor Andrew vents about the blasphemy of this event, the disrespect and disregard of the message contained in the pages of that book, and the distance between him and the so-called "Christian" leaders who championed this display.

Pastor Andrew does a deep dive into what lies at the heart of the typical mega-church leaders’ and mega-churchgoers’ passionate desire to re-open. He opines that the same thing that draws people to mega churches are what draws many to high energy political rallies. There is certain proclivity in these folks to seek and like the validation and confirmation found in large crowds, who find it energizing and confirming. But what does this kind of “crowd-comfort” say about faith? He ends with the thought that “you cannot get deeper, better insight and illumination without experiencing some levels of discomfort” and makes the case that this discomfort just might be beneficial to our spiritual and psychological wellbeing.

The concerning situation at nursing homes during the pandemic prompts Pastor Andrew to call for a reexamination of the way we treat the elderly in this county. He cites the story of Tithonus and Eros as an example of our lack of myths in our Judeo-Christian tradition that warn us and help us to deal with the idea of growing old and the cherishing of our elders.

An opinion piece in the New York Times by Annalee Newitz triggers the ire of Pastor Andrew due to its oversimplification of ancient history (particularly in regard to the city of Ugarit), in its overzealous attempt to tie together a well-intentioned point about inequality and its connection to modern times. His rebuttal to their piece also serves us by filing in some blanks with pertinent details about Ugaritic society.

Without trivial ideological simplification we can learn more about reasons and dynamic leading towards or accompanying collapse of civilisations.

Here's a link to the article :

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/opinion/coronavirus-inequality-history.html

Pastor Andrew lays out for us of what worship in a Ugarit temple would have been like like more than 3000 years ago, including description of the temple both inside and out, and even a nearby business connected to the temple. It's fascinating to learn that many of these details are not as far from ours in current times as we may have thought.

Christians know well the story of Jesus touching a leper and healing him, but few realize, despite it being spelled out in the gospel, that Jesus was basically forced into quarantine following the encounter. Pastor Andrew sheds light on this episode, leprosy in general in the Bible, and makes a plea for caution AND humanism at this time of our own quarantine.

A viral video of a Ohio church parishioner claiming that she can't catch the Coronavirus because she's "covered in the blood of Jesus" prompts a conversation with Pastor Andrew about the anthropological, ethical, and theological insanity and downright blasphamous mis-use of this metaphor. Also the sparse history of blood use in rituals of ancient times and in the Old and New Testaments, plus what the Pastor believes Jesus would do with his blood right now today.