The Uncensored Unprofessor

This episode's content in order: a Sawtooth mountain campfire conversation; a from-the-future newscast; recognizing patterns; prayer to wake and shake; how to play it when you're outmatched in a conversation; carefully defining the meaning of faith; faith as Holy Spirit-ual attunement; the Jesus Seminar on Gospel manuscripts; and, the bulk of textual evidence behind the New Testament. Please, come think and laugh with me!

Had a grand talk with my mom last week. Turning philosophical it was about the organ of vision, the sensus divinitatis, that characterizes human nature; we cannot help but spectate about transcendence. This episode's latter half touches on ancient copyists errors in the process of biblical formation; concerning truth it's better to be frank than pompous (re. covering up embarrassments). I also variously muse about politicians who go vacant in front of cameras, what to do when you're outgunned in a conversation, and how the Dems might play 81million's next roll out. Come laugh and think with me.

Reasons for You to Believe, #2. Is the version of the Bible we have in English accurate? In ancient history was it, as some scholars assert, ever taken and manipulated? I begin working through the process—the canonization process—of how we came to have our Bible. Also tackled in this episode: a) is it okay to have some doubts about the Christian faith? b) what is the perfect argument that precedes faith in God? c) what was Jesus' own Bible? and, d) a new election season UN-song!

What are the good reasons, if any, through which one could believe in Christianity? In this first episode of a series I work an apophatic argument, one by negation: the existence of evil. Evil is so common as to be empirically beyond question. But the Christian worldview goes further: it calls evil by the name sin. Why? I also consider more questions one might ask one's dialogue partner when it comes to conversations about life. Are opinions arguments? Are emotional stories legitimate arguments? Oh, and then, what about Trump's mugshot? Come laugh and think with me!

The global church has seen its fill of horrors: pastors and priests betraying their call by sinning and deflating congregants' attitudes toward Christianity. And yet the broader culture still makes evident a hunger for transcendence: spirituality is on the rise. So what, respectively, do religion and spirituality take as their focus and their telos? I compare spirituality and religion in this episode. Along the way I also share more strategic questions one might ask in thoughtful conversations. Come think and laugh with me!

What does it mean to be human? The orthodox Christian worldview teaches we are embodied souls; not souls trapped in bodies, not spirits doomed to earth, but integrated, each valuable. The Postmodern secular worldview now holds we are consumers; choice is the exercise of willpower and nothing—especially others—should interfere with the exercise of one's own choice. The body, with all its appendages, is thus the both vehicle of consumer-choice and something to be used up, at will. In the first 12 minutes I talk, from Psalms 106, about the continual presence of God. Come think and laugh with me!

Significant to our culture's secular quality has been the presence and role of feminism. I offer a historical overview of family-and-public life, noting how the Industrial Revolution did things to women, men, and the family that the Feminist movement was right to protest and critique. Along the way I also note some of the shortcomings of the Feminist critique. At the show's beginning I reflect on the legalization of drugs in the state wherein I grew up: Oregon. Come laugh and think with me.

A recent experience at the Oregon coast: an unknown woman walked into our camp and began to visit with us. When, after ten minutes, the pleasant conversation turned to the cultural-shift she went on a verbal tirade. It made me think, what are some good questions to ask in an honest conversation? Why are questions disarming? Why do questions make for space? Oh, and this episode has a "special" advertiser joining us. Come laugh and think with me.

If it's hard to look back on one's personal history it's doubly hard to do that concerning group history. But to that end I unpack American Evangelicalism's trio of emphases: conversion as a subjective experience, turning pastors into celebrities, and a hyper-individualistic expression of Christian life. All three are two-edged blades, having both healthy and injurious qualities that help (or not) us navigate turbulent times. I also start the show with a prayer for broken relationships. Come laugh and think with me!

Darwinism is not merely a philosophy affirmed and disputed among scientists. No, today it permeates significant avenues of public life: law, education, theology, language, and economics. Herein I recount the whos and hows of this viral social spread. At the show's beginning I play back the contents of a "church-board meeting" I recently secretly recorded; silence is the tack of acquiescence. Come laugh and think with me!