“Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” - Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland Sometimes in life, we get lost and lose our bearings. We forget where we are going, what we value, and sometimes we even lose who we are.

In those times, it is often best to stop and collect ourselves. Here we can take stock of where we have come from and where we want to go. Otherwise, if we don't stop, we'll just keep pushing through while trying to find meaning amongst the chaos.

The same thing happens with faith.

It seems like Christianity has lost its way. It has become consumed with things that are far from what Jesus taught and modeled. From a movement that began with grace, compassion, and love, it seems like we have lost the plot entirely.

So why not begin again?

Let's strip down the facade of the faith and look back to Jesus. To follow Jesus means to understand the ethics of Jesus. When He preached about the Kingdom of God he wasn't setting up a new system of belief or dogma, he was giving a glimpse into a new way to live life.

With that in mind, we'll be diving in to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' centerpiece of his teaching and a vision into the ethics of the Kingdom of God. Let us go looking back at the beginning for what we've missed.

Perhaps, along the way, we may have lost something in our faith.

So we must ask ourselves:

What has been lost? What needs to be rediscovered?

Let's let these questions push us forwards into something new.

Show notes

Episode Timestamp:

In the News: 01:10

Christian Crazy: 19:00

Main Conversation: 26:00

Book referenced:

Taking Jesus at His Word: What Jesus Really Said in the Sermon on the Mount ~ Addison Hodges Hart

Big thanks to these outlets that make the Christian Crazy possible:

Right Wing Watch

Christian Nightmares

Friendly Atheist

Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.

www.SnarkyFaith.com

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"Acceptance does not mean passive resignation. Resignation means giving up because you've decided that there's nothing you can do about your situation, whereas acceptance simply means that you accept that your situation happened." - Psychobabble for Ordinary people, blogger

As we make our way through life, we all experience our wins and losses. There's heartache mixed with moments of bliss. That's the human existence. Yet, along the way, those ups and downs leave their marks. They create baggage that impacts the way we look forward at the horizon and how we experience life right now in the moment.

Seeing clearly and engaging reality with a clear mind requires perspective.

To have that type of perspective, we've got to evaluate those times in life when we've given up and resigned ourselves to a particular fate or situation.

Too often do we move past those hard times, bury the pain, and try to move forward. We do it to survive, but over time it affects us in ways we can't fathom.

Hard times, disappointment, and failure will hit us all at some point in life in different measures. How we respond to those times impacts how we move forward and grow.

Will we let disasters and defeat, no matter how big or small, define us?

When we respond with resignation, we essentially quit and leave unresolved issues.

To respond with acceptance does something very different. It doesn't nullify the pain. It doesn't mean you give up on your dreams. It just means you see things as they are and work to control the only thing you can control; yourself. Don't let disappointment define you. In the wake of loss, you have the choice to do what's next.

Otherwise, you've set yourself up for a war with reality that ultimately you can't win.

When we stop trying to control the things we can't control, we also stop fighting against reality. Acceptance happens. You see things as they are, warts and all. Then you are able to move on and keep living awake to life. You are able to be present in the world; fully grounded in reality.

Do you know who else is fully present in the world? God.

It's only by being in the present, being who we are where we'll find God at work.

She's not in the past. So we should stop living there. Show notes

Episode Timestamp:

In the News: 02:50

Christian Crazy: 16:20

Main Conversation: 26:30

Articles referenced:

Why Acceptance Is Not The Same as Giving Up ~ Jennifer Mulder

The Difference Between Acceptance and Resignation ~ Christy O'Shoney

Big thanks to these outlets that make the Christian Crazy possible:

Right Wing Watch

Christian Nightmares

Friendly Atheist

Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.

www.SnarkyFaith.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

"Well, it's full speed, baby In the wrong direction There's a few more bruises If that's the way You insist on heading" -Mary Jane ~ Alanis Morissette  

Sometimes along the journey of life, we need a bit of a course correction. Sometimes we acquiesce. Other times, we find ourselves lost, miles off track in a different direction. With faith, it's much the same way. 

Some of us end up raised in a system that indoctrinates early, while others have it instilled through a spiritual community along the way. 

Either way, there comes a time when we must evaluate what teachings and beliefs are worthy of our efforts and which ones are not. It's the way of growth that leads us forward.

Some ideas remain while others no longer have a place. 

Much live the concepts of survival of the fittest, beliefs and theology compete within us, and hopefully, the noble and worth ideas survive. Such is the most of human existence. It's a metaphysical sorting of goods to be kept, recycled, and thrown away. We claim what we need and toss the rest because the journey ahead doesn't need that anymore. 

Fresh faith constantly evolves into what we need to become, not holding on to what has passed, been, or occurred. To stop growth and evolution in oneself leads one to stagnation and rot. 

So when it comes to following after Jesus, there is always a new road ahead that requires us to be awake, aware, and ready to engage with what life offers us. We must have a servant's posture, but one that's also on our toes, ready for the movement of God's kingdom. 

In her book,  Into the Grey, Michelle Collins puts it like this, "For years, I was involved in bible reading, communion, religious study, and all the activities that make up the religious experience. Yet, nowhere along the way did I stop to evaluate what I was learning or what I believed. I just functioned without a lot of thought. I called it faith; I am sure others would not identify it that way." 

In Matthew 10:14, Jesus tells his followers to "shake the dust off [their] feet" if they find themselves in places ill receptive to the movement of the Kingdom of God. 

So, how many places of worship stifle spiritual growth because they don't like you asking questions that may make them uncomfortable. Churches that don't encourage you to grow are not churches at all. They're just a business, and you're a consumer. 

Let's kick that dust off of us and find places where we can question, wonder, and grow into who we should be.

If you're not growing, it may be time to walk on. Join us as we discuss when it's time to keep going. 

Show notes

Episode Timestamp:

In the News: 04:20

Christian Crazy: 10:44

Main Conversation: 20:00

Articles referenced:

With This Much Rot, There’s No Choice But To Deconstruct ~ Karen Swallow Prior

Can You Choose Your Beliefs ~ John Beckett

Big thanks to these outlets that make the Christian Crazy possible:

Right Wing Watch

Christian Nightmares

Friendly Atheist

Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.

www.SnarkyFaith.com

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

"Reconstruction begins with recognizing these cognitive distortions and discovering new and better ways of thinking. If you have thoroughly deconstructed, then theoretically all that remains are mental, emotional, and spiritual voids which are ready to be refilled with new and better information that serves your happiness and allows you to love and give freely. We are never more like Jesus than when we are giving and serving others. John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world, He gave. We should too!." -Todd R. Vick

For 30 years, Todd Vick was a Southern Baptist pastor, and in 2016 he left church ministry after a nervous breakdown fueled by severe anxiety, depression, addiction, and a crisis of belief. This led him on a path of intense spiritual deconstruction, where he reimagined his faith and began to research the role of the human brain in creating a belief system. 

In his new book, The Reconstructing of Your Mind: A Post-Deconstruction Journey, Todd shares the transforming power of the human mind to create better life outcomes. It's a field guide for those seeking a new way to live that balances science and faith. It gives you tools that are handy along the way.

Join me as I chat with Todd about his journey and the truths he learned along the way. With people leaving the institutionalized church in droves, it's an essential discussion about rebuilding your faith after deconstructing it. The act of deconstructing gives a liberating sense of freedom after being religiously oppressed, but for those that can't let go of Jesus, reconstruction is necessary. 

I've done it. 

Todd's done it. 

Others have too. 

I'll probably do it again. 

Hopefully, we can learn from each other along the way as we harness our faith to grow in ways that may no longer fit in religious systems comfortably.

To deconstruct is human, to reconstruct; divine. 

Buy Todd's book, The Reconstructing of Your Mind: A Post-Deconstruction Journey on Amazon.

For more on Todd: https://toddrvick.net/

Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.

 

www.SnarkyFaith.com

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“There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.” ― Madeleine L'Engle

We are all born unique and never meant to blend in, yet, humans spend a lot of time in life trying to fit in and look the same as others. We fear being different and labeled as weird, odd, or sinful. Then, slowly over time, we continue to strive to be something we are not and lose ourselves in the process.

What makes you odd may be sacred, and you need to learn to own it.

For those raised in the church, the deck is already stacked against you. Modern-day Christianity has developed a culture of control that uses guilt and shame to conform congregants. Then, lines are drawn as one side is labeled sacred and the other secular. Yet, it is a fake ideal that is more pious than Biblical. It is a lie.

The way of Christ was meant to free us to walk differently. Jesus set up a set of Kingdom ethics that called for love, acceptance, and grace. The Kingdom of God did not call for conformity; it called for action.

Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Serve those in need. Feed the poor. All of those are expressions of a faith that loves deeply and acts lovingly.

Christ's ways were audacious because they celebrated the uniqueness of the individual.

With Jesus, odd is beautiful, and actions matter.

Jesus painted outside the lines and celebrated those the empire had long forgotten. He loved those that religion had cast away. We are called to do the same.

We need to work at untangling God from this cacophony of religious bullshit. God created humans to be unique and creative. She did not create drones or cookie-cutter beings. God wants us to be different. God wants us to own our oddity because it is very beautiful. Like Mike Yaconelli said, "You should know the truth, and the truth should make you odd."

Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.

www.SnarkyFaith.com

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"To have enemies as a source of liberation—for ourselves and for those who do harm—is to recognize structures of power and their relationship to identity... We have enemies in particular and curious ways, ways that do not make sense within the structures of violent power-keeping around us. Instead, we are people who have set down our lives within the reconciliation of all things." -Melissa Florer Bixler

Christianity tells us to love our enemies.

Jesus commanded it, but how do we do it, and who are our enemies? 

In a polarized world, it is easy to pick sides and become tribalized; whether in faith, politics, sports, or most other realms of everyday life. Those divisions make it difficult for us to see one another well, let alone love them. We see them as different from us, and it is nearly impossible to love someone in the abstract sense. Yet, the call to love others still exists. 

So what do we do? How do we walk out this ethic in such a fractured time in history?

To befriend an enemy, we first have to acknowledge their existence, understand who they are, and recognize the ways they are acting in opposition to God’s good news. In How to Have an Enemy: Righteous Anger and the Work of Peace, Melissa Florer-Bixler looks closely at what the Bible says about enemies—who they are, what they do, and how Jesus and his followers responded to them.

Melissa is the pastor of Raleigh Mennonite Church and a graduate of Duke University and Princeton Theological Seminary. She joins the show today for a lively and timely discussion on her new book and offers ways to do the hard work of building communities, seeking justice, and tearing down systems of oppression. It is an essential conversation for such a time as this. 

Buy Melissa's book, How to Have an Enemy: Righteous Anger and the Work of Peace on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08PQDQM2W/

For more on Melissa: https://www.melissaflorerbixler.com/

Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.

 

www.SnarkyFaith.com

 

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Today, on the show, we see the triumphant return of the Christian Crazy where Hank Kunneman has a surprise guest, and Jim Bakker needs more money. Shocking, I know.

I'm also joined by Kassidy Beane, aka the HippieCatholic. She's a content creator on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube. She's all about starting a conversation between the world, where the Holy Spirit moves, and the church, where the Eucharist resides.

Today, Kassidy and I talk about progressive Catholicism, mysticism, and patron saints. We'll walk through her journey of deconstruction and reconstruction and discuss why she's still drawn to the church.

It's a fun and spirited talk about finding your place outside the lines of faith.

You can find all the links to the HippyCatholic here: https://linktr.ee/thehippiecatholic

Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.

www.SnarkyFaith.com

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As Pride Month comes to a close, I wanted to take a different approach to a conversation that I haven't heard in many happening various faith spheres. Much of June is either filled with celebration and allyship or open condemnation towards the LGBTQ+ community. It's sad, yet not surprising, that Christianity takes such a binary approach. If the American church would learn to love like Jesus, this would all be different. 

The show is much less about pride and much more about supporting others. More specifically, it's a conversation about parents and caregivers of LGBTQ+ children. 

Joining me today are Adam and Michelle Palmer, who are both musicians and ministers with a lifetime of ministry work under their belts. They're also the parent of an LGBTQ+ child. So am I. 

Raising children can be difficult and, even with the best intentions, affirming parents can often feel at a loss on how to support and protect their children. Much of this is similar to the struggles of any parent. Yet when part of the world already prejudges others based upon identity or sexual orientation, it's hard to know how to help your kids. 

So, today's show is an honest and open conversation about supporting and loving LGBTQ+ children as they find their footing in the world. Hopefully, through our dialogue and stories, there's wisdom here for the taking. We're far from perfect parents, but the hope is to learn from our mistakes to love better and hurt less in the future. 

 

Follow the Palmers on Instagram: Adam - @thatAdamPalmer Michelle - @mywildpreciouslife Resources for caregivers and parents of LGBTQ+ children:

PFLAG

https://pflag.org/

Q Christian Fellowship (nothing to do with QAnon)

https://www.qchristian.org/resources/family

Beloved Arise

https://www.belovedarise.org/

Queerfully and Wonderfully Made: A Guide for LGBTQ+ Christian Teens

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084SN481M/

Made, Known, Loved: Developing LGBTQ-Inclusive Youth Ministry

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L9SZVQC/

Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.

www.SnarkyFaith.com

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"God works to influence, persuade, and teach people to move away from their misunderstanding to a better concept of who God is… but that can take time." -Gabriel Gordon

 

This week, I sit down with author, Gabriel Gordon. Gabriel's new book, God Speaks, tackles the topic of Biblical inspiration or in laymen's terms, how can the Bible be the word of God if humans wrote it. 

Gordon's work Thomas Jay Oord's theology of Essential Kenosis and revealing how it provides a better theological basis for developing a doctrine of Biblical Inspiration. Tom Oord was on the show months back - check it out here. In God Speaks, Gordon is trying to Bible away from people, correcting many assumptions, and then wants to give the Bible back to read and experienced. Too often, do Christians assume the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God, but they tend to ignore the multitude of human fingerprints all over it. There's this fear that putting humanity back in the Bible will somehow diminish it, but it's quite the opposite. When we cease to hold up the Bible as an idol and see it for what it is, then we can embrace it in a new, healthy, and God-honoring way. 

In God Speaks, Gordon presses the idea that if God cannot control free creatures, then how did the biblical authors interact with God's revelation to produce the biblical text?

Join us today for a lively, theological, and eye-opening look into why we should hold and read scripture in a new way. Though it may seem scary, it's quite freeing to see the difference between God and scripture. There is God. There is scripture. They are not the same and that leads us to embrace the humanity of the Bible as we seek to faithfully wrestle and live out scripture. 

In the Bible, people experienced God through revelation or inspiration and then wrote it down with human hands, understandings, and biases... and that's okay! It doesn't diminish God. In the end, how we choose to hold and interact with scripture says much more about us and our views of God than it does about God or the Bible. It's far time we engage with scripture in human terms as it was meant to be. 

Buy Gabriel's book, God Speaks: A Participatory Theology of Biblical Inspiration on Amazon

Gabriel Gordon is also one of the co-founders of The Misfits Theology Club and podcast. 

Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.

www.SnarkyFaith.com

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Typically on Snarky Faith, I'm interviewing different authors, advocates, and voices doing great work in the sphere of Christianity and beyond. 

Today, we're going to flip the script and the interviewer becomes the interviewee as I pass the reigns to my good friend Dr. Justin Meier. Justin has known me for years and doesn't pull punches, so I thought he'd be an excellent candidate to skewer me and ask the hard questions. 

In this episode of Snarky Faith, Justin will ask me anything he wants. He has not given me the questions ahead of time and I've given him full latitude with nothing off-limits. What will he ask? What will I say? Who is Stuart Delony? What makes him tick? Why is he so snarky? Does he know people think he's an asshole? So many questions and more will be answered on Snarky Faith this week.

It's bound to be a fun and entertaining dialogue about faith, growth, deconstruction, hope, and a whole lot more. 

If you've ever wanted to know more about your Snarky Faith host, this should be a fun conversation. 

Enjoy!

*If there are still lingering questions after the interview, just email: [email protected] with your questions, and I'll answer them on the air soon. 

Come along for the ride as we skewer through life, culture, and spirituality in the face of a changing world.

www.SnarkyFaith.com

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