Snarky Faith

On a regular day, toxic masculinity is bad and unwelcome, but the shadow of the Coronavirus, it's downright criminal. Things like this only get worse when you sprinkle in conservative Christianity. From pastors peddling fake virus cures to megachurches staying open during a time of quarantine, it's all just a holy pissing contest.

On its' best day, the church has a terrible track record cultivating and preaching patriarchal systems of submission. Christianity is adept at perpetuating archaic gender roles and ties them to faith in God. The patriarchy reigned in the time of Jesus and there are still remnants alive and well today. The streak of toxic masculinity has gone on for far too long and needs to end.

You'll hear topics like, 'biblical manhood' and 'biblical womanhood' that strips us of our God-given uniqueness. It separates and divides us and toxifies marriages and positions of leadership in churches. It also gives us a distorted view of God.

Toxic masculinity is a cultural artifact from an age past and it needs to die. If we're all created in the image of God, we need to be able to celebrate and encourage our God-given uniqueness to change the world around us for the better.

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Living life in the shadow of a pandemic is stressful. There's so much anxiety and unpredictability on the horizon and all we can do is separate and quarantine ourselves from one another. The isolation leads to more fear and becomes a vicious cycle filled with doubt and paranoia. So what is the path forward in the face of uncertainty? It's gratitude.

Sounds crazy right? People are dying. Resources are scarce. Jobs hang in the balance. So why gratitude? Well, we can become so obsessed with what's right in front of us and fearful of the unknown, that we forget our own stories.

If you've made it this far in life, it hasn't been without struggles and tough times. You've overcome things. You've learned from your mistakes. You've gotten better and wiser along the way.

These times when we're forced to slow down and stop can become a great place to regain perspective. Remember where you've come from. Remember what you've survived. Remember that you haven't done this alone and others have helped you along the way. Contemplating all of this can lead to gratitude and that gratitude can fuel us to push through this pandemic and look forward to a hopeful future.

So instead of hiding from the outside world with the next Netflix marathon, begin to think about what you're grateful for. With each breath, we are reminded that we're not dead yet and should live like there are better days ahead. Those around you need you awake, aware, and soberly alert of what is needed now and beyond.

In the midst of all of this pandemic, we need to become compassionate neighbors, keen observers, ardent contemplators, and hopeful dreamers. Remember what is good. Remember what is next. And if God is moving in the world today, where can we see her moving and how do we join her there? The first step is gratitude.

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When it comes to race, most white Americans are obsessed with two things: defending our own inherent goodness and maintaining our own comfort levels. Too often, this means white people assume that to be racist, one has to be openly hateful and willfully discriminatory—you know, a bad person. And we know we're good, Christian people, right? But you don’t have to be wearing a white hood or shouting racial epithets to be complicit in America’s racist history and its ongoing systemic inequality.

In Good White Racist?, Kerry Connelly exposes the ways white people participate in, benefit from, and unknowingly perpetuate racism—despite their best "good person" intentions. Good White Racist? unpacks the systems that maintain the status quo, keep white people comfortable and complicit, and perpetuate racism in the United States and elsewhere.

Join me as I wrestle with Kerry about how we're complicit in a culture of systemic racism. It's essential listening to a message that needs to be heard.

You can find Kerry Connelly's new book, Good White Racist, here.

You can also find out more about Kerry: www.kerryconnelly.com/

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Damon Garcia is a leftist Christian living in Santa Maria, California. Through his vlogs, livestreams, and podcasts he's building an online community for post-religious, yet spiritually hungry nomads.

Damon grew up in the evangelical church and was on the road to becoming a pastor when things took a different direction. The more he studied the radical ways of Jesus the more he became convinced that the church had tamed Jesus. This was around the time he stumbled into liberation theology and its' critique of capitalism and it changed his world.

Join us today as we talk about his journey and how he's found an alternative way to minister according to his faith in an online community.

YouTube channel Twitter Facebook Podcast

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Socialism is the boogieman of American Politics. Brought again to the forefront by Democratic Socialist, Bernie Sanders, it's a topic that needs to be discussed in an intelligent manner that's not shrouded in stereotypes, half-truths or memes.

Today, let's have that discussion in regards to faith as we talk about Christian Socialism. This historical movement has been around since the mid-19th century and combined the fundamental aims of socialism with the religious and ethical convictions of Christianity. Do the tenants of Socialism gel with the teachings of Jesus? Join us as we try to find out.

In this age of misinformation, it's important to continue to be awake, aware and look past all of the noise to be sober-minded and educated. Whether socialism is bad or good, it's up to us to shine lights onto the rumors and hearsay in order to see the truth.

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Truth is a word that frequently gets thrown around in Christian circles.

"The truth is on our side."

"We alone know God's truth."

"I speak the truth in love."

"There is only one truth."

In those instances, the word is just used as a weapon against others. This kind of truth divides and it's not true at all. Over the centuries, faith leaders have learned how to harness the truth to manipulate others. Politics is the same way.

Now we are living in an age of misinformation where there's 'real news' and 'fake news.' People from both sides claiming absolute truth and calling the others liars. All of this leads us to division and ultimately chaos.

In a time where it's hard to know what and who to believe, we need to speak out. We need to learn to tell our stories and own our truth. It's an act of bravery and a simple one at that. For too long, we've let other people hold the microphone and tell us how to think or what to believe. It's about time, we start to take back our own stories and speak what we know. We need to learn again to speak the truth.

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Oh, Christianity, what has happened to you?

When faith has become a game of preaching confidence, something is wrong. When there're answers for everything and we treat the Bible as a scientific textbook something is definitely wrong. It's all about certainty and we need to return to a place of mystery.

Real faith is drenched in mystery. To embrace the ways of Jesus requires risk, imagination, hope, grace, and adventure. It embraces the world with an open hand. It tells us to remain open and awake. It shows us that we should be known for what we are for and not what we aren't.

We need to return to our spiritual roots and rekindle the imagination as we embrace the mystery of it all. So be brave and courageous as we walk in the footsteps of Jesus and transcend the limits of religion.

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“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”

– Martin Luther King Jr.

Love is at the heart of the Gospel. As followers of Jesus, we are called to love our enemies even at the risk of our own safety. Christianity not driven by love isn't Christianity at all.As we see the faithful being driven more by fear than love and Christianity is becoming more and more inert and inwardly focused. So let us look to history as a reminder of what a non-violent, but powerful love looks like. This type of love can impact real and lasting change.

This week, as we remember and honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., let us reflect on his teachings of non-violence and how his faith drove his actions. Join us as we look at Dr. King's powerful principles of non-violence that are steeped in the ways of Jesus. These principals have the power to change us and how we engage the world around us. This legacy of love started by Jesus must continue on in this broken and polarized world.

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The show today is part one of a two-part show. If you missed part one, YOU CAN FIND IT HERE. 

Join us as we continue to discuss the changing landscape of Christianity in American and abroad. From the beginning threads of Christian fascism to the recent assassination of a general in Iran, the Trump administration is not just pushing a political ideology, it's also pushing a theological one. Many of his advisors are end-times, apocalyptic nut jobs trying to tip the hand of fate and somehow trigger the second coming of Christ. It sounds crazy because it is. It would be easy to dismiss them as the conspiracy theory, far-right Conservative Christian lunatics, but they do have some influence over our clueless, bloated POTUS.

We must remain vigilant and awake as the religious right continues to wield its power in politics and push this end-times nonsense. What will the future hold? Well, it's up to you to stand firm and oppose this. None of this has to do with Jesus, so why does Christianity get so tied up in it?

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