Sheology

Another season of Sheology, done and dusted! But before we leave you, our magnificent listeners, to enjoy the Christmas and New Year season, we just had to squeeze in another boozy live Q+A. Reflections on season three, listener questions, potential topics for the future, and some silly tech mishaps along the way - it’s all here for your listening pleasure! You can also head over to the brand new Sheology Podcast YouTube channel to watch the original stream from early December.

Fifty years ago, 88% of Australians identified with Christianity, but the number has dropped to about 50% - and we’ve also heard reports for years that church attendance is in decline around the world. Is it possible that churchgoing is on the way out? And could this be a good thing? We enlist Gemma Bell, a passionate but sometimes-reluctant churchie with extensive experience working for and with Christian communities, to share her thoughts and maybe even convince Rubie and Biz - the Christians on the pod - to set aside their Sunday mornings again. And we hear a range of views from some smart Christians we know.

Harry Styles can’t wear a dress without ruffling feathers, and the US president passes off bragging about sexual assault as locker-room talk. We often discuss how rigid gender norms screw over women, but the blokes have it bad too - and we want to talk about it! In a month known for spotlighting men’s health with Movember and other intiatives, we convened a roundtable of three wise men we know - gay Christian and LGBTQ+ advocate Chris Csabs, youth worker and Biz’s husband Kris Adams, and Rubie’s dad Dave Hammond - to discuss their reckonings with masculinity, including lessons on gender from church.

Australian women take on between five and 14 hours of unpaid domestic housework per week, while men perform on average less than five hours per week, according to the 2016 Census. With the COVID-19 pandemic further burdening women around the world with increased housework and childcare, the gap between what women and men in straight relationships do in the home - call it the Gender Spray N Wipe Gap, if you will - seems frustratingly immovable. We discuss the age-old challenges, why we must maintain the rage, and whether scaring off swooping magpies is men's business.

(Content warning - this episode contains references to abuse, including sexual abuse.) In November 2017, motivated by the growing #MeToo movement, poet and yoga teacher Emily Joy revealed on Twitter that as a teenager she was groomed for abuse by an older youth leader. So began #ChurchToo, an outpouring from Christians around the world who had been sexually harassed or abused by other churchgoers - often their partners - or even church leaders, yet in many cases found little to no support from their faith communities. In our first international interview, we chat to producer and host Kelly Browning and assistant producer Sarah Jordan from the All At Once podcast about how Christian culture can enable abuse, particularly violence against women, and how they and many others are fighting for change.

It’s been 250 years since British naval captain James Cook set foot on these lands we call Australia. Ever since the early days of colonisation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have fought to protect their country and sustain a relationship with the natural world that white folk struggle to respect - even in the face of unprecedented environmental devastation. In an interview with Christian leader and Wakka Wakka woman Brooke Prentis, we discuss the work of Australian Christian justice movement Common Grace, which last year appointed her CEO, and why First Nations leaders and lore need to be at the forefront of climate change activism.

(Warning y'all: explicit content!) From Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion spitting unabashedly horny lyrics in the hit song WAP, to eleven-year-olds experimenting with twerking and tiny outfits in the film Cuties, 2020 has provided plenty of fuel for the conservative Christian war against media depictions of women expressing their sexuality - or girls exploring theirs. In our third sex-themed episode, we attempt to balance legitimate concerns around the hypersexualisation of women in popular culture with our frustration at the sexist - and usually racist - arguments against complex feminist art.

Should Christians expect financial riches from God? To launch our third season we've taken on a spicy topic: the always-provocative prosperity gospel. It’s an umbrella of Christian thinking born in the US - think Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar - but not unknown in Australia, where Pentecostal megachurches love talking about abundance (whatever that actually means). We consider the role money plays in church communities, what we've observed from afar, and how linking faith with financial rewards is bound to get messy.

If you missed our live episode in May, never fear - we recorded it for you! We’ve edited the discussion a little bit for length but all the best parts are there, featuring laughably sexist sermons, ABC’s controversial podcasting sketch, Beyonce, mansplainers on Twitter, Christian feminist book recs, and several other topics keeping our brains busy while we’re stuck at home.

Clear your diaries for tomorrow, Friday May 29 at 8pm AEST, cause for our third iso episode Sheology is coming to you live! Our Q&A with listeners will be broadcast over Facebook, so follow the Sheology page and get your fingertips poised to type out some juicy questions. We're not sure where the conversation will go but you can expect chat about feminism, faith, pop culture, podcasting and lockdown life. And if you can't make it, email your question instead to sheologypodcast@gmail.com.

Our bras are off, our ends split, our fancy clothes packed away and razors forgotten (unless we’re running them over our heads). In Sheology’s second iso special we discuss beauty ideals and expectations for women in the age of coronavirus, including the delicious opportunity that staying at home affords us to, in the words of Frozen’s Elsa, let it goooo. Focus points include the fascinating trend of women shaving their heads, the unsettling pressure to keep weight off and the influence of beauty corporations that just want all our money. Ladies, you have nothing to lose but your (expensive handbag) chains!

In this instalment of Sheology we wonder what exactly the deal is with coronavirus! Whether or not we should direct our swears at any holy person upstairs, it certainly has gate crashed 2020, prompting us to delay S3 and instead apply our Sheology brew of feminist rants, weird jokes and church-related introspection to three special episodes about the crisis. In this first one, we consider the Christian response to COVID-19, from our PM’s prayers to churches moving online and what people mean when they say God is in control of [gestures wildly].... all this.

Is it just us, or have Christians and their faith featured in the news more than usual this year? As a podcast with an interest in religion, politics, feminism and Hailey Bieber’s weird Instagrams, it would be remiss of us not to look back on 2019 and say “hope or nope” to some of the biggest news stories with churchgoers in the spotlight. So come, all Kanye faithful (but please don’t let it ScoMo), we’re wrapping up the year, Sheology style.

When someone uses the saying honest to God, they want to emphasise their feelings or stress the truth of something… sounds like your average episode of Sheology! By now we’re experts at unearthing our feelings, vigorously debating them, and sometimes returning to them later to reevaluate - or underline something that feels really important. And in a season that saw us unpack topics like Australian politics and abortion, interview two Aboriginal women about growing up on missions and visit an LGBT-affirming church, there’s so much to underline. Join us as we reflect on these moments and thank a bunch of legends (including our listeners!) who helped get us there.

Queer folk are born this way, and some like to pray... for the final episode of the season, we spend a Sunday morning at Sydney's Metropolitan Community Church, where people of all gender identities and sexual orientations are enthusiastically welcomed. Joining the Sheology crew of one agnostic and two church-shy Christians is returning guest Heather Chaffey, a passionate advocate for social justice who has extensive experience in the community sector and is also atheist and queer. Together we discuss some challenges faced by current and lapsed LGBT+ believers as well as the joys of belonging to an inclusive faith community. Plus… Rubie fumes for the final time, and we discuss Kristen’s box.

Last week we heard from two Aboriginal aunties about the good and bad bits of growing up on missions run on white, Christian beliefs. We’ve cheekily labelled this episode a part two, cause where Sandra and Nel had important stories to tell about the mission experience, the women (and men) who attend church mission trips don’t always learn as much about what communities in need actually... need. We also zoom out even further to explore the related, somewhat bewildering trend of voluntourism. If you’re a reasonably well-to-do westerner who wants to help people but avoid white saviour behaviour, we might be able to assist.

“We’re mums, dads, aunties, nans, pops, school counsellors, teachers. We’re playing seven roles.” For this episode we had the privilege of speaking to Aunty Sandra and Narelle, two women from the Wiradjuri and Muruwari nations respectively who work as Aboriginal education officers in Sydney. We were curious about their experience of living on missions, as many Aboriginal people have been forced to do - with the expectation they adhere to white, Christian values. But we also discussed the forced removal of Aboriginal children, teaching Indigenous histories and more. And it’s not just Rubie this week… we’re all fuming about tourists climbing Uluru, inaction on the proposal for a voice to parliament and the everyday racism inflicted on people of colour.

As many as one in three Australian women will have an abortion in their lifetime, yet access, affordability and a stigma-free experience is not guaranteed. Recent abortion bans in the US, changes to local legislation and the ongoing struggle of women everywhere for reproductive rights tell us this is a good time to talk about it… but it ain’t easy! We attempt to provide our Christian listeners with some empathetic guidance, while also destroying shitty pro-life myths and detailing how our own attitudes have changed. And, from protesters in Sydney to writers featured in a recent anthology on abortion, we feature the stories of the women behind the stats.

Mulan sneaks off to fight the Huns. Matilda bends the rules with books. Fleabag steals, has lots of sex, and breaks the fourth wall. Annalise Keating gets away with murder. And Arya Stark fucks. What do they all have in common? They’re deviant (adjective); departing from usual or accepted standards, especially for social or sexual behaviour. And we grew up thinking we shouldn’t be like them. In an unusual break from despairing over the news, we discuss the female film and TV characters we love, even (especially!) when they go against the grain. And Rubie fumes… this week about our warped attitudes towards violence against women.

What was it like for us to lose our virginity? How should Christian leaders talk about sex? Why are young girls left in the dark about masturbation? Does Rubie know what a clitoral hood is? All these questions and more are answered as we follow up our season-one effort, Sex Ed for Church Girls, with rants and ruminations about the legacy of those early sex lessons. Between cherry-popping chat and a review of Sex Education, we’re back in the clitoralhood, baby. Plus - get your ears ready for a second instalment of Rubie Is Fuming and a special guest appearance.

It was called the unloseable election for Labor, but on May 18, 2019 Australians instead served up a victory for the conservative Liberal party.  With PM Scott Morrison’s faith emerging as a talking point, and issues like religious freedom (hello Israel Folau) and abortion in the mix too, the role of Christianity in Australian politics became a pressing question again. In our season two debut, we speak to Christians about how they voted and chat to Father Rod Bower, the Anglican priest known for his progressive church signs. We also review the SBS documentary Christians Like Us and introduce a new segment, Rubie Is Fuming.

It’s probably unusual for three feminist millennial women to start a podcast about Christianity. It’s especially unusual if the conversation is like the one you have with friends about your exes over several drinks: occasionally admiring, frequently critical and unapologetically honest. We haven’t ended things with God yet (at least Rubie and Biz haven’t), but to quote Mean Girls, we just have a lot of feelings! Now that season one is done, we discuss the joy and responsibility of sharing other people’s stories and trying not to mangle our own.

Sallie Hammond has spent over 30 years helping families of all kinds be the best they can be. She loves to encourage young mums, particularly those doing it tough. Ebube Uba is part of the team behind Afro Sistahs, a fun digital series exploring the lives of women with African backgrounds. In our final episode of the season, we chat to these two fucking amazing women and discuss the qualities we see in ladies all around us that we feel are impressive enough to justify dropping the f-bomb. Fuck yeah!

A recent report found only 1 in 5 Australian women feel confident about their bodies, and those with low body esteem are cancelling jobs, plans with friends or other important stuff because of it. Why is it so hard to feel like the bosses of our own bodies? And how come women are especially unhappy with how we look? We discuss body positivity, the phenomenon of the hot Christian wife and the refreshing message of self-acceptance in the Netflix hit Dumplin’. A content warning for references to body dysmorphia and disordered eating.

We’ve already covered sex, politics and religion, but there's another taboo topic we want to lift the lid off: money and class. Heather Chaffey knows something about it, having worked in social housing and the community sector more broadly in western Sydney for 20 years. She doesn't feel she's an expert but is nonetheless passionate about the issue of place-based disadvantage and the way it intersects with factors like gender, race and criminalisation. For us this results in a grim but ultimately galvanising discussion of poverty. We also review the underrated NBC comedy Good Girls and its tale of three women who resort to crime to make ends meet.

Skye Leon is an Aboriginal woman who started out in youth work and is now studying filmmaking. She's a proud Australian who wants the date to change, a Christian who finds strength in faith communities, and a storyteller who has at least one rom com in her. We join Skye in exploring the complexities of living with this multifaceted identity, and as three white women we also grapple with our own privileges. Plus, we discuss how Doctor Who tackles racism in the S11 episode Rosa.

Sex is strictly for marriage, a broken hymen is like a torn banknote and don't forget to wear your purity ring! We talk about the messages we absorbed as young girls in Christian circles, and also what was missing, including more talk about porn and masturbation and a serious rethink of the practice of male headship. And because Christmas never dies, we also consider the gender dynamics in Baby It's Cold Outside. A content warning on this one for discussions of child porn and sexual abuse.

Do Christians actually need to go to church? Was Jesus a feminist? Are witches cooler than wizards? All questions we pretend to know the answers to in our first episode of Sheology! We discuss our upbringings, reimagine Proverbs 31 and look back at Practical Magic. Out now!