The Broken Book Bible Podcast

Adriaan Dippenaar, director of the Seattle Nonbinary Coalition joins in to discuss how queer identity, queer tension, and queer magic helps them imagine God. God is absurd, and that's okay! The divine does not fit into any clear, clean label. This is what gives God the power to create and the power to live. This power leads us to struggle with the marginalized.

Sam, who is on the autism spectrum, discusses how his diverse theory of mind has brought him on a unique, exciting, and terrifying journey with and towards God.People on the spectrum develop their sense of theory of mind differently than neurotypical people. Theory of mind is how we distinguish objects and ideas from each other and from ourselves. Which profoundly relates to faith. This journey has many blessings, many curses, and many exegesises of the song 'Moon River.'

This episode was originally recorded over two years ago, and shows us at a different stage in our spiritual development. Amanda, a Unitarian, defends the trinity. Sam, a relativist, defends Biblical' authority and infallibility. As modernism is challenged, new possibilities of truth open up. God can live in relationship. Scripture can serve as revelation. Humans can live after death.

After Eden, God curses the world with hard child birth, patriarchy, toil, and death. The curse sets female against male, humans against nature, and humanity against the snake. We explore how these curses mirror the evolution of humans and the birth of agriculture. But. Good news. We are fighting the curse. And success is possible.

The constant evolution of religious doctrines is an argument for God's living consciousness. The Spirit is sentient! Christianity has too often shunted the Holy Spirit to the corners of our canon, as sort of the third wheel of the Trinity. But the Spirit is where we may most actively perceive God as an active living agent in our lives.

We answer more listener questions! How does the Spirit move and change through time? How should Christians approach the Qur'an? If we could make a Bible TV show, what book would we choose? And is America the new Roman Empire? Also, what does it mean to love our enemies?

Jesus Christ flips. He is the anti-emperor who becomes the symbol of empire. He resists all elements of power, and then becomes the all powerful. He is the incarnation that eventually rejects humanity. What Jesus stands for in the Bible versus what Jesus comes to represent makes the New Testament one of the saddest books ever written.

Listener questions we consider -

What is your favorite and least favorite book of the Bible?

What would you ask Jesus (historical Jesus) if you had the chance?

Do you know anything about Song of Songs? I've heard some interpret it a source a metaphor about the relationship btw Yahweh and Israel, but that seems strange.

If you could become friends with someone from the Bible or a biblical author, who would it be and what would your friendship look like?