Noises From The Attic

Pete Enns, his writings and podcast, have shaped a lot of us in progressive christian, post-evangelical, deconstruction circles. As we have wrestled with what to make of faith when it seemed to have become unrecognizable to our former selves—and unrecognizable to those who wonder if we've given up on faith altogether— Pete has been a trustworthy voice for putting the pieces back together meaningfully, thoughtfully, and intelligently. It was an honor to have him on for a short chat about the things he definitely has the chops to chat about. Enjoy!   peteenns.com peteenns.com/podcast/ www.amazon.com/How-Bible-Actually-Works-Answers/dp/0062686747

What if the reason God isn't doing X is because, well, if X means doing things all by God's self—God cannot do X? Would that make God less? Or would it perhaps make you and me and the rest of creation....more?If you like being challenged to do major rethinks, and you want to know what "God is Love" might necessarily mean, you're gonna enjoy theologian, philosopher, and multidisciplinary scholar, Tom Oord!   www.thomasjayoord.com            

"...gratitude changes mindsets, reduces violence, and improves everything." This is what Anne's organization, The Look for the Good Project says about children and adults alike. Constant stress, anxiety and tension in a culture under-aware of how to regulate emotion and see the bigger picture can become toxic. I'm sure you've noticed. Anne has a vision on how this might get turned around...and it's working!  

What are we discovering about fear and shame and anxiety during this pandemic that might help us when it's over? Tony has thoughts and guidance you'll love.

Aundi Kolber, Trauma-Informed Therapist and author of the new book "Try Softer" returns to talk about stress, anxiety, emotion and more.   https://aundikolber.com https://www.amazon.com/Try-Softer-Approach-Mode-Connection/dp/1496439651 https://claybrook.bandcamp.com/music

Gretchen is a divorce recovery leader and researcher. For more than 20 years, she has worked with women and men going through difficult, life-saving divorces, listening with compassion to those who have suffered from domestic violence, betrayal, infidelity, and emotional abuse.    National Domestic Abuse Hotline 1-800-799-7233 thehotline.org http://safehavenshelter.org/learn/educational-resources/domestic-violence/ @ggbaskerville

What if your experience of faith changing — even falling away, seemingly never to go back to how it was — is part of what is promised in Tim Tebow's eye make up? It's worth thinking about.   

My eyes sometimes wanna roll out of my skull too. Everybody wants to be woke, and one of the best ways of signaling wokeness is to be offended first. But, what if there's something far more weighty going on worth not only considering, but participating in? Well, if you want to be a person regarded as kind, thoughtful and respectful, then maybe there's more than the eye roll that we can offer one another. Ben has thoughts you'll love....   www.catharsisproductions.com  

Paul doesn't feel tension between his role as an astrophysicist and a pastor. Which should should chill the rest of us out considerably. As well as inspire us!  

Some thoughts this Thanksgiving about...well...giving thanks, which may only be possible on condition of our noticing what's actually happening outside our well-rehearsed stories about it all. Bonus: I end with a short story I call Footprints 2.0

Doug is a minister of a church in Raleigh. But that doesn't quite capture it. Because he's not simply trying to protect his congregation from the scary, ever-changing world outside. He is trying to participate in the revolution that's already underway. A revolution that requires a brand new look at faith and spirituality —of contents and containers, metaphors and rituals—or else things labeled "christian" will continue to divide people, and/or die like most everything else we see fading into history. We talk about sex, certainty, special relativity and so much more!    www.doughammack.com

Thought I'd take some time to answer a few questions I got about the Bible, happiness, and more. Sorta fun letting others lead!

Some thoughts on telling people that they are at odds with "clear teaching of scripture" and how that generally causes infinitely more problems than it could ever solve. And also, there are no non-heretics who follow Jesus, so let's be more thoughtful about the labels we apply if we feel we must apply them!

Karl did what everybody of faith wants to do: let their actual experience of self-sacrificing love shape their interpretation of the Bible and its depictions of God. Yet, most of us only feel free to do this defining in the reverse. As a former (and current!) pastor, as well as a father — and now grandfather! — Karl gives us permission to think God might be as loving as Jesus died insisting God is. But it might take faith to believe this good news. karlscoaching.com

There's a way of thinking about the value — and even the morality — of certain people and ideas based on how icky we feel. We often map this icky feeling onto how we think it makes God feel. If you're willing to think differently about this (even if you always feel the same), you might discover a whole new way of being as merciful, loving and inclusive as the very Jesus who was crucified by those who labeled him unclean!

Psychoanalyst & psychotherapist Tony Caldwell has a lot to offer people who want to slow down and learn how to live deeply. But it's probably gonna hurt a little. A human rights activist, racial reconciliatory, sexuality and gender studies and workshop leader, Tony has an open invitation to return to the podcast anytime he wants. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “home” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org tonycaldwell.net @tony_caldwell_

Ever notice how the number of things you're putting off till later is directly proportionate to the amount of shame, overwhelm and misery you feel? Here's a few minutes on why many of us put the pro in procrastinate, and how things can be different, and even better. 

"True hospitality is not clean, comfortable, or controlled. It is an invitation to enter a sacred space together with friends and strangers. Through vivid accounts from her life and travels in Uganda, China, and Tajikistan, and stories of visiting congregations in the United States, Verner shares stories of life around the table and how hospitality is at the heart of Christian community." -Amazon description

My friend Olivia Council and I discuss her work with the CDC regarding HIV and AIDS research, and how, despite many of us not thinking about it anymore; it's still a thing. But, maybe someday soon, it won't be?   https://gettested.cdc.gov https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/actagainstaids/campaigns/doingit/index.html 

After a wedding and a corporate event this past weekend that had me teaching similar ideas in very different contexts, I decided to bring in you, dear listeners, to consider it as well.

A confession and a diagnosis and a challenge all in one. If you want to become more compassionate, and help others wake up to more compassion themselves as you go, this might help.

My favorite episode yet— I MEAN IT! Kristi and Answer listener questions about navigating our surprise conversion to christianity and ensuing faith challenges, how we’ve learned to communicate, managing our feelings and our logic, how we’d survive being stranded on an island and more.

A less than exhaustive but fully necessary deconstruction of a word and its powerful narrowness. (And some encouragement for those who've been elbowed out by it!)Also, if you have 60-120 seconds to spare, rate and review this podcast as positively as your conscience will allow on iTunes. Thanks!

It's hard to be wonderful toward other people when it feels like doing so takes something from you. Good news: life isn't cake.

I sit down (virtually) with Pastor and Author Melissa Florer-Bixler to chat about her new book about the Old Testament, Fire By Night, as well as her work with prisons, justice and more. http://southernersonnewground.org https://www.melissaflorerbixler.com  

I chat with Film Director Rex Harsin about his debut documentary "Beating Guns", based on Shane Claiborne & Michael Martin's book of the same name. FB & Twitter @rexharsinfilms https://vimeo.com/ondemand/beatingguns

World Class illusionist and storyteller, Harris III, talks Magic, Margin & his new Movie, Counterfeit!harrisiii.comcounterfeitfilm.comstorygatherings.com

A chat with Zach Hunt about his forthcoming book Unraptured, and the anxiety-laced religion of trying to get God to beam a few of us up before God gets really awful toward everyone else. Good stuff here, much more in his book!

Very early on we begin developing a strategy for dealing with others, and with all the hits we take along the way. Aundi is a trauma-informed therapist who helps folks learn how to be mindful of their style of relating, how to set good boundaries, & how to live from healing vs from a wound. Really great stuff—enjoy! #trysofter

“We don’t have to have all experiences just for them to be valid. It’s important for us to keep in mind that people experience the world differently…that doesn’t mean any of that is less valid.” Join host Steve Daugherty and guest Dr. Krista Nabar in a talk about our transgender neighbors, and how choosing to have a better understanding of the facts can and will lead to a better experience for all of us. Resources from the Episode https://carolinaswc.org https://www.genderbread.org https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/sa-visual/visualizing-sex-as-a-spectrum/ https://pflag.org National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255  

With changing ourselves for the New Year hanging so heavy in the air right now, here's some food for thought about how—and whether—we see each other that's important all year long.

Aggression is its own reward. But, thankfully, the story doesn't end there. If you've wondered why it sort of feels good to get angry, but also leaves you hoping for a deeper, more peaceful way of being in the world, here are some thoughts that might be helpful. 

Gavin Rogers, pastor and missionary, recently went to Mexico City to join and travel with the caravan from Honduras. It's a great story and a perspective we have to have if we're to be people looking to take compassion and care as far as they're supposed to go. For more information about getting involved, check out www.raicestexas.org and Interfaith Welcome Coalition at www.facebook.com/texasiwc  

Isn't it contagious when someone's at peace with who they really are? Isn't your best competition yourself? Isn't Santa an unmitigated jerk? This episode covers all this and more. If you've ever felt like you and your ideas are too strange to embrace, author, leader and encourager in the difference-making ways of Weird, CJ Casciotta can help you start rethinking all that and dare to start moving away from Same.www.cjcas.com

"Everything that happens, we interpret through a lens, and the lens is the story we have been born into." In this conversation with sociologist, author, storyteller and activist Gareth Higgins, we explore our way of being in a world whose tensions and violence demand better attention. From the interpersonal to the international, are we listening, and loving, and using the power we've been given for healing and peace? garethhiggins.net theseventhstory.com  

Jeff Polish, founder and Executive Director of The Monti, talks with me about storytelling, its popularity, and what sharing personal stories with a room full of strangers says about what we know we need.  “The Monti is an extraordinary experience that goes beyond insightful storytellers and wonderful stories—but please don’t come, it is hard enough to get tickets as it is.” –Dan Ariely, bestselling author of Predictably Irrational

Can we learn how to keep actively caring, to keep compassion and kindness in motion long after the storm passes? What if there are no other obvious demands upon our best selves? Can we become...generally compassionate?"Be Kind; Everyone You Meet is Fighting a Hard Battle." -Somebody, somewhere  

(Novemeber 8, 2016) Steve's Daugherty and Claybrook wax philosophic on Satan, Love and a little Electoral subtext.

(November 4, 2016) Steve, Stephen and Brandon chat with Science Mike from "The Liturgists" and "Ask Science Mike"

(October 13, 2016) In honor of World Mental Health Day, Steve and Stephen chat about the expectation in faith culture to (pretend) to be what we're not for Jesus. It's only a little emo here and there.  

(September 21, 2016) Steves and Dr. Brandon talk about the Prophet Muhammad, the Quran, and other things you probably won't hear from the cable news grind.   

(Spetember 21, 2016) Mother Teresa, miracles, the supernatural, the regular natural, Buddha, Paul Rudd and more!

(August 31, 2016) Stephen and Steve discuss a tradition of forging new worlds and how some pastors, like all of us, appear to inadvertently bow to babylonian gods. 

(August 23rd 2016) NFTA's maiden voyage where Stephen, Brandon and Steve talk about a particular fear of not knowing and how it shapes what we think we know.

After a long hiatus, NFTA is back! Join host Steve Daugherty as he talks about how our faith forms and is formed by our view of the world, ourselves, and others, and how—inevitably—the world, ourselves and others force our faith to unravel in some way, and to be remade. You know; birth, death and resurrection.Special thanks to our sponsor, Giordano Counseling Services in Durham, for financially supporting the NFTA relaunch. It was going to be stuck on the pad for a long time without you!