Have you been burned by the church? Found solace in Zen? Maybe you love your humanist discussion group. Maybe your church is the place you feel the most loved. Maybe you're disillusioned with religion in general. How do we hold the tension between the goodness and the badness of religion? Amanda shares a some stories of tension in this sermon.

Contemporary Christianity has split into hordes of different factions. And we try to find labels to identify different kinds of Christians. These labels are probably necessary in order to talk about the modern faith. . . but these labels are also intensely problematic. Let's try to use lots and lots of humility and forgiveness when it comes to finding adjectives to describe diverse groups of people.

Satan is a powerful force of evil in Scripture. He is an independent agent who challenges God, and successfully rules the world for awhile. But Satan's power rests in a very simple lie, based on ignorance and outdated science. Satan claims that some people are better, more real, and other people. In this episode, Sam tells a myth which explores how the lie creates sin, and how faith saves us from the lie.

Old Testament Law is difficult to understand, especially on the topic of blood. Blood belongs to God alone, and menstruation makes women unclean half the month. Miriam, Moses's older sister, illustrates the disappointment and disillusionment people with periods may feel when reading these verses. But in his treatment of the Bleeding Woman and of the Last Supper, Jesus takes away the shame of menstruation. In place of shame, Jesus shares with all people his divinity.

Amanda and Sam cruise all over the Bible, seeing how modern progressive ideas are ancient and Biblical. Unitarian Universalism is no longer an exclusively Christian belief network, But it is still historically linked to the Bible, and it's seven principles can all be traced back to Biblical teachings. Amanda, who is in training to become a UU minister, shows how her love of Scripture helped guide her into the Unitarian Universalist tradition.

Note: This episode was recorded very early in Amanda's UU seminary education and experience of the Unitarian Universalism. Therefore, the terminology used is a little imprecise (calling the Unitarian Universalist Association "the UU," rather than the UUA, or "Church" rather than Congregation, Fellowship, or Association) and the history is simplified and suspect.

Question - which gospel author would you most like to write your biography? Sam discusses the strengths, and weaknesses, of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. He shows what elements of Jesus are captured in each narrative. And how those same themes would be present in our own lives.

At the center of the Book of Lamentations, there's a long fantastic personal prayer. The author is hurt by God. The author loves God. The author tries to convince himself to trust God, but God doesn't seem to work that way anymore. Lamentations 3 shows off the cognitive dissonance between judgement and grace, fear and hope, the same cognitive dissonance than makes Christianity relevant.

It's a weekday night. You want to sit back, chillax, and read a Minor Prophet. Which one will be the most fun!?!?!? This minisode answers that ageold question you didn't know you were asking. How do you rank the Minor Prophets in order of Entertainment Value?

The Book of Lamentations captures that darkest sensation, when God becomes an enemy. Lamentations is our favorite book of the Bible. It has the darkest depiction of God seen in Scripture. And it may have the most hopeful, most empowering depiction of humanity in Scripture. These poems reject toxic religion.

Hard Atheism is the claim that there are no gods. This form of secularism is outdated, unnecessary, and accidentally hurts and silences progressive or alternative forms of religion. There is a theist/atheist binary that over simplifies the wisdom of modern religion and modern secularism.