The Uncensored Unprofessor

Following a 16-part series it's time for a happy-break! In this Theology-and-Culture shotgun I work through the following: a famous racist's plagiarism, a quote by the Chinese ancient Laozi, why I love Spudlandia culture (and why you won't want to move here!) (and why KS is angry at the I.D.!), how an embrace of divine determinism theology makes evil less evil, CNN's Dana Bash and her lengthy-28-whole-minutes!-long-piercing interview of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and a final reflection on St. Paul and the Old Testament law. This light hearted episode will make you think, laugh, and ponder what it means to follow Jesus Christ in the 21st Century.

Protestants focus, almost exclusively, on Salvation. (Who's against salvation? Not me! Praise God for salvation!) But that pressure-driven focus causes Protestants to look at every Bible passage or story as a matter of soteriology (salvation, pertaining to salvation). So we end up making the Bible say things it wasn't trying to say. And to that point? Election. Protestants think that election is always about salvation in eternity, or not. But that's not what election is in the Bible. I unpack the Bible logic about election, its wiring, its sweeping vision. Because the Lordship of Christ does not stop at the boundary of culture I reflect, in the show's beginning, on Church involvement in culture. Come think and laugh with me!

A classic prooftext for Divine Determinism is Romans 9. Especially verse 13, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated," is a pet verse for those who favor Divine Determinism. Across the last 500 years that verse has particularly been cited as an example of predestination: God chooses some for salvation and some for damnation. But is that what Paul was teaching in this passage? Was he saying God sent Jacob to heaven and Esau to hell? I spend the entire podcast unpacking the context, reasoning, and argument of the apostle Paul. He says several "insider baseball" remarks that make little sense to we twenty-first century westerners. Instead, Paul is going down a path that is rather foreign to us. Come join me as we plow through this significant chapter in Romans!

Significant to a notion of Divine Determinism is the Exodus. In chapters 7-12 we watch an ongoing interaction between Egypt's Pharaoh and Yahweh (via Moses and Aaron). What does that running exchange reveal to us? What does it reveal to us about freedom from slavery? About freedom of religious expression? About human agency? About how God deals with we, His creations? This is important because the pattern of Exodus is repeated elsewhere through the Bible, not least of which in the book of Romans. And then, because the Lordship of Christ does not stop at the boundary of culture, I examine and explain simulacra. We are surrounded, bombarded even, with simulacra. And that's more true in an election year than ever! Are reality tv shows real? Are piped-in video sermons authentic? Come think and laugh with me!

The Reformed's Westminster Shorter Catechism, point #1, "What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." That's a solid claim! I don't disagree, except it doesn't explain a deeper-still question, why did God create? What motivated Him? Was there a need in God to be glorified? Did God have a lack He needed to fill? Or does God express Himself through a kind of prodigal (wasteful, overspilling) love? I work through the traditional Protestant emphasis on the motivation of God and then suggest a better, more biblical, more Jesus-y answer. And then, because the majestic Lordship of Christ does not stop at the boundary of culture, I explain why I have been having numerous and regular dystopian nightmares where I awake in a fit of terror as demons lead me off into captivity. Come laugh and think with me!

God created the universe, and planet earth, with an inherent quality of free-play. Free-play is where energies, gravity, animals, weather and more all have their ability to move and be and impact reality. Given that, is life a matter of chance? Still more, is life a matter of unruly randomness? Both the Reformed and the Arminians have a high emphasis on the sovereignty of God; too often that is taken so that God is a kind of secrete puppet-master. But that doesn't jive with the existence of free-play. So how do we go about making sense of all those apparently competing elements? That's the aim of this show. I roll out a high view of God's sovereignty in light of the existence of free-play, chance, and even randomness. Let's laugh together as we think about complex matters!

The Reformed doctrine of Total Depravity rather necessitates their doctrine of Common Grace, or better, common graces. When I was in seminary I realized that most other Christians talked about life in terms of grace, whereas my tradition spoke about life in terms of God's Spirit. What are the benefits of each? What are important biblical frames for each? Against what was the Reformed doctrine of Grace reacting in the 16th century? Me? Because I reject the premises of Reformed theology I have other theological avenues by which to process life. Life is so magical! So personal! Why? Because of the omnipresence of God's Holy Spirit. But in the episode's opening I variously discuss: praying for the wounded, the care of my teeth (and a couple recent dental visits), rubbing respectable Christians the wrong way, Christianity and politics, and the amazing experience of watching philosphy books take incarnate form and springing to life. Come laugh and think with me!

The P of TULIP is Perseverance of the Saints. And so the question rises, "can you lose your salvation?" Just asking that question will get you kicked out of many in-home bible studies! Nevertheless, the Reformed and the Arminian Protestants answer this in ways that we note and unpack. And then me? The UU? Who takes Trinity (and so personhood, and agency, and mission, and love) as my theological foundation, what do I say? What bible verses inform my thinking? What theological commitments inform my thinking? At the show's opening I make a couple cultural reflections (because the Lordship of Christ does not stop at the boundary of cuulture) on judging evil vs. doing evil. Which of those two is worse? I also a question provocative for contemporary Christianity, was Jesus tame? Come think and laugh with me!

Is the grace of God resistible? Can the Holy Spirit's efforts be frustrated? When does the new birth (regeneration, justification) happen in time? In their historical context, why do Protestants, both Reformed and Arminians, so resist having works be involved in salvation? Those questions are all plowed-through in this eighth episode in this series. Once having set up the R'n'A dispute, and their respective answers (and mutual critiques), I offer other categories for framing salvation and grace and works. Do I believe works are saving? No, of course not. Do I think that rules works out of our missional calling? That is another question entirely. Then, because the Lordship of Christ does not halt at the boundary of culture, I variously discuss the Declaration of Independence and the way it grounds our human rights, the chaotic state of higher education, "normophobia", and how it is that today's religious impulse is manifesting itself. Come laugh and think with me for such a time as this!