Podcast appearances and mentions of jeffrey kranz

INTRODUCTION: Jeffrey Kranz is a Bible geek who started OverviewBible, a biblical literacy website, in 2013. He uses his expertise as a writer and consultant to help people understand what the Bible is, what it's for, and what it's all about. In 2019, he wrote The Beginner's Guide to the Bible, a non-preachy, jargon-free breakdown of the Protestant canon. In his free time, he loves trying bizarre amari, performing musical improvisational comedy, and working Hamilton references into his homebrew D&D campaigns. He hides from the sun at his home in Seattle, WA.  INCLUDED IN THIS EPISODE (But not limited to): ·      A Breakdown Of OverviewBible.com·      A Review Of Jeffrey's Book – The Beginner's Guide To The Bible ·      How The Bible Is Composed·      Identity Politics·      The Struggle For Gentile Acceptance·      What Exactly Is The ‘Hebrew' Bible?·      The Flexibility Of Jesus  CONNECT WITH JEFFREY: Website: https://overviewbible.comWebsite: https://jeffreykranz.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/OverviewBible/about CONNECT WITH DE'VANNON: Website: https://www.SexDrugsAndJesus.comWebsite: https://www.DownUnderApparel.comTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sexdrugsandjesusYouTube: https://bit.ly/3daTqCMFacebook:   https://www.facebook.com/SexDrugsAndJesus/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sexdrugsandjesuspodcast/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TabooTopixLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devannonPinterest: https://www.pinterest.es/SexDrugsAndJesus/_saved/Email: DeVannon@SDJPodcast.com  DE'VANNON'S RECOMMENDATIONS: ·      Pray Away Documentary (NETFLIX)o  https://www.netflix.com/title/81040370o  TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk_CqGVfxEs ·      OverviewBible (Jeffrey Kranz)o  https://overviewbible.como  https://www.youtube.com/c/OverviewBible ·      Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed (Documentary)o  https://press.discoveryplus.com/lifestyle/discovery-announces-key-participants-featured-in-upcoming-expose-of-the-hillsong-church-controversy-hillsong-a-megachurch-exposed/ ·      Leaving Hillsong Podcast With Tanya Levino  https://leavinghillsong.podbean.com  ·      Upwork: https://www.upwork.com·      FreeUp: https://freeup.net VETERAN'S SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS ·      Disabled American Veterans (DAV): https://www.dav.org·      American Legion: https://www.legion.org ·      What The World Needs Now (Dionne Warwick): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfHAs9cdTqg  INTERESTED IN PODCASTING OR BEING A GUEST?: ·      PodMatch is awesome! This application streamlines the process of finding guests for your show and also helps you find shows to be a guest on. The PodMatch Community is a part of this and that is where you can ask questions and get help from an entire network of people so that you save both money and time on your podcasting journey.https://podmatch.com/signup/devannon  TRANSCRIPT: Jeffrey Kranz[00:00:00]You're listening to the sex drugs and Jesus podcast, where we discuss whatever the fuck we want to! And yes, we can put sex and drugs and Jesus all in the same bed and still be all right at the end of the day. My name is De'Vannon and I'll be interviewing guests from every corner of this world as we dig into topics that are too risqué for the morning show, as we strive to help you understand what's really going on in your life.There is nothing off the table and we've got a lot to talk about. So let's dive right into this episode.De'Vannon: Hello and happy New Year. I hope your year is phenomenal, fantastic in everything you want it to be and more. Jeffrey Kranz is the Brains Behind Overview bible.com and the author of The Foundational Read, the Beginner's Guide to the Bible, which is a non preachy, jargon-free handbook to what the Bible is, where it came from and what it's all about.Jeffrey is here to help us understand how to navigate the Bible, learn about God, and expand our minds in a loving and open-minded [00:01:00] way. I've never heard anybody coin the term non-Christian Bible study until I met Jeffrey Kranz.And so I'm delighted to bring this interview to you so that you can learna little bit more how to navigate the Bible and to do so in a non-judgmental way. Lots of love to everyone. Please enjoy the show.Well, we have us here another episode of the Sex Drugs in Jesus podcast. And I'm here with a, a beautiful redheaded man by the name of Jeffrey Kranz. And he lives up yonder in the, in Seattle I believe you're in. That's correct. And and and I discovered him. Trolling around, no, that's not a cute word these days.I around on on [00:02:00] YouTube. But finding like different videos because I've recently discovered that I'm more of a, like a visual learner. So I've been consuming documentaries and all kinds of videos. So I've found that it sticks in my head better than re reading. Depends on what I'm reading. And so I discovered Overview Bible's YouTube channel and then thus the website.And so then I reached out to Jeffrey in hopes he would reply and he replied to my message and everything like that. And so here we are. Jeffrey. How are you? Jeffrey: I'm doing well, Devean. Thank you so much for having me. been looking forward to De'Vannon: this. Danielle's gonna enjoy how well spoken Jeff Jeffrey is like his, his dick's flawless and everything like that.And so so you are what I would consider to be. A Bible scholar, you are very, very detailed in your approach to all things that have to do with understanding this book. So the, y'all, the reason why I [00:03:00] reached out to Jeffrey as opposed to so many other people who are in various forms of media talking about the Bible is, is, is his approach.He's not really like trying to push Jesus on people. He's more like trying to make information available so that people can make up their own decisions. And so his objective neutral approach to it I found to be so refreshing in light of how so much of Christianity is trying to be forced on people during this day and time.And so his methods are very simple and easy to understand. And so it reminded me of how in the Bible, in the Hebrew Bible, it talks about how Jesus taught with simplicity. You know, he wasn't like super dramatic and over the top and trying to make everything a big deal and, you know, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.And then his, his Jeffrey does a lot of drawings and they're super colorful. And so that really made me feel like I was back in elementary school again, which just really warmed my, the boy and at least still lives inside my soul . So. [00:04:00] So Jeffrey, what would you like to tell people about you personally?Maybe some of your background education and what got you so impassioned about this book, ? Jeffrey: Yeah. Thank you so much for the kind words that made me feel good for, for those listen. . It's, it's about eight in the morning in Seattle today. And I feel like I'm starting off my day on a, on a very kind note.So, so thank you for all that. This is gassing me up and it's a Friday no less. So this is gonna be a very good day. Mm-hmm. . Yeah, so I would describe the overview Bible body of work as you know, you, you really, I, I think you encapsulated it pretty well when you, when you used the word neutral. I, I really like making things learnable and so I think that it's important when you're approaching something as large as the [00:05:00] Bible to, to have an idea of just what it is, what it's for, and what it's all about.Before you start really getting into, I guess the, the musts regarding re regarding biblical study, you know, when. When I was introduced to the Bible it was very much in the context of this is, this is what you should believe about the Bible. This is, this is what the Bible means to us as a family.This is what it means to us as a faith tradition. And so it, it came almost shrink wrapped in, in that sort of context. And, you know, I, as a child really, really got into studying it. I I really enjoyed analyzing the structure of the books. I started doing that as, as more of a teenager. And I was teaching Bible studies as a teenager and, and as, as an adult afterward.[00:06:00]And so what what I started doing when I was in my twenties was writing, writing overviews of the individual. That of, of the Bible and trying to help people who didn't necessarily have a lot of context to be able to approach it in a non-intimidating way. And so that's where, that's where the website came from.I started doing YouTube videos a couple years thereafter to try and help more of those visual learners out there and just grow as a presenter. It was a cool way to, to grow few skills that that I wanted as well. And then the book came later. De'Vannon: Oh, you say you did this when you were in your twenties.you still look young. . Jeffrey: Thank you very much. Devon . No, no, I'm I'm 33 now. De'Vannon: Yeah, I was gonna say, I don't know, that was like yesterday. So you started working on this maybe like in the last 10 years, this whole body? Jeffrey: Yeah. Yeah. . Yeah. It was, [00:07:00] I, I would say, Yeah, I think 2013 was when I wrote the first page for overview bible.com.And then I was done with the first stab at pages on every book of Bible. So if you go to overview bible.com I have an overview of each individual book of the Protestant cannon there on, on that website. And that was how the website began. Now I have more content digging into characters and themes and, you know, items from just the history of the Bible as a book.But no, that was how it began. Just individual overviews, trying to make it a little more approachable for people in my. De'Vannon: Let me make it more clear to people just how granular in detail your website is. So it's like, if you're reading one article, something [00:08:00] may be hyperlinked, is gonna take you in a further detail and then again, in a further detail.So like he said, he has an overview of all the books, but he also has overviews of like many popular characters. Mm-hmm. the Bible too, individually. So I was reading in there this morning before we got on, like, you have a breakdown on like on each of the apostles you have a breakdown on like the different prophets, the minor prophets, the major prophets who wrote the psalm, you know, and then there's a breakdown of like, of all of those.So this, like the, the painstaking detail that has gone into, into your website is absolutely mind boggling. I mean, I've never seen a, a bi, a bi biblical website make it so it's so much complex information. And it's presented in like such a readable way, and it's a lot thank you of little details in there for a lot of different people.So like on my website, the Sex, drugs and Jesus one, I'm creating this like little [00:09:00] minicourse version that shall never be as com as complex and detailed as your website is. Because I just don't want it to be, and my, my website's already as extra as I am and it's got a lot going on and so Nice. So his website is overview bible.com.Like the namesake says overview. Jeffrey likes to use this term high level view a lot. Yes, I do . And so if you watch his YouTube videos over on his YouTube channel, which is also Overview Bible, you know, you'll hear him say high level view. So his YouTube channel parallels. The website, and you'll see YouTube videos embedded at various points throughout the website as well.For those of you who want to click over to it. Mm-hmm. . So I really love the way the website is really well written. The YouTube channel compliments that, and then you provided these different mediums of learning and you've got everyone covered. [00:10:00] Thank you, . Jeffrey: I'm glad someone likes it. . De'Vannon: So you have a lot of comments on your YouTube videos though?Like people Yeah. Really. Have some feelings. One person called you a cult. . Yeah. Jeffrey: Yeah. That's there's always, there, there's always a new and interesting opinion on on YouTube and sometimes it's mine. But, but yeah. Yeah, it's, YouTube is a funny place. I think that the. Ability for people to just kind of browse and say whatever's on their mind can lead to some really interesting questions.And I try to approach most, most questions and comments in good faith. YouTube is also just kind of a breeding ground for bad faith arguments as, as many comment sections on the internet are. So [00:11:00] yeah, I would say that I would say moving from the website, which was predominantly found via Google to to making YouTube content as well exposed me to a lot more of the, of, of, of some thoughts that people have on the sort of material that I make.So, yeah. Yeah, the comments can be, can be pretty interesting. I feel like, and you know, Devon, maybe you deal with this too, as, as another internet creator. I feel like there's always a balance to be struck between like engaging, interesting comments that that people throw out. And, and then also saving yourself time and energy in, in responding to things and trying to assess the utility there.It's a fundamental exercise anyway. De'Vannon: So the way I'd say what Jeffrey's saying y'all is that some people are batshit fucking [00:12:00] crazy and they're not worth the damn time.Jeffrey: Yeah. There are, you know, the, the, there are some comments that, that I'm just like, okay, well this is this. I don't think there's much more for me to say here, , De'Vannon: you know, you know, as, as, as, as, as the saying goes in the good book, you know, every time we go to do good there's evil presence. And so, you know, weak-minded people are going to come onto our websites and send us nasty messages because this is, you know, the force of negativity trying to hurt us through people who are vulnerable to such influence.And so this is why we surround ourselves with people who are positive minded and who cater to positive energy and lighted not to negativity. Not, not so much cuz we judge the people, but because, you know, negativity can reach us through them. And so, Jeffrey: It's, yeah, I think, yeah, that's, that's such an interesting, [00:13:00] it's such an interesting part of the world, isn't it?Like the, I, I think that negativity wants to, it almost feeds by creating more of itself. And so positivity is almost an act defiance against that. Like, how can you, how can you continue to approach people maybe that you'll never meet again in good faith and be, or at least for, for me, I, I, I try to, even if someone's being mean online, it would be nice to be someone who is kind to that person.See, De'Vannon: now that's it. Sunday school teaching, right there, coming out , . Jeffrey: I mean, sometimes I'm better at it than others. I, I have responded to some comments with, and I quote, sir, this is a Wendy's. De'Vannon: Yeah, the, the, the, the, the, the, the redhead fire in you does come out in those comments. I would expect nothing lessAnd so, all right, [00:14:00] so the, his book is called The Beginner's Guide to the Bible. So that's what we're gonna talk about. Just a few parts of it. It goes over a little bit of the, well, it goes over a lot of the history, you know, of the Bible and where it came from and everything like that. And then the latter half of it is like a very deep overview, but still a deep look into like, literally each of the 66 books of the Bible.Mm-hmm. . And so tell us in your own words who this bible, who, who your book is written for. Jeffrey: Yeah. So when I started writing the Beginner's Guide to the Bible it, there was a specific conversation that I had with someone I had been doing improv with for, for a couple of months. And she was talking about how she had never really grown up with any sort of religious background.She didn't really have any context [00:15:00] for for what the Bible was or really what Christianity was at all. But she wanted to be able to speak with her aunt about things that were important with her. And I think this conversation was in 20, I think this would've been 2017 20 17, 20 18. And so there was, there was a lot of discussion happening in her family around like, politics, what does it mean to be an American?What does it mean to be a Christian? And my friend had no context for that, that third piece. And so in that conversation I had said, or she was saying, yeah, I just wish. I wish I had more context to be able to talk to my Christian aunt about these things that are important to to both of us. And I said, you know, I've been, I've been kicking around this idea of writing down just kind of like a beginner's guide to the Bible so [00:16:00] that you had, even, even if you never went to Sunday school or if you grew up in Sunday school and never really spent much time reading the Bible, which is a lot of people who would consider who, who would, you know, say, oh yeah, I'm a Christian.I grew up Christian, still haven't either had the time or desire or brain space to to really read or study the Bible said. I said I would like to establish some sort of baseline with a book. And she said, if you write that book, please let me know as soon as it's done, because that is, that is exactly what I want.I wanna be able to have an intelligent conversation about the bible. Without necessarily needing to go to seminary or, you know, go to church or do all the work to try to to try to arrive at, at where you're at. And I do think that that's a very fair thing to, to ask for. So, oh, you look like you've got a question.De'Vannon: No, you keep talking. [00:17:00] You're here, Mike. Cool. Keep Jeffrey: going. All right. All right. So that was the conversation that really sparked writing this book and when, when I finished it in 2019, felt like I had a good first edition. That would be for someone who knew that the Bible was important, but didn't necessarily know how to talk about it with anyone that didn't already share their beliefs.So if you read it now you should be able to have. A good baseline for talking with a priest, a pastor, a religious relative, your bartender, an atheist, all that good stuff. All De'Vannon: the fucking things. So I'm gonna comment on the, that the whole priest, bartender, and everything in a minute. So we said improv.What kind of improv you mean like some sort of Ted Talk improv? Were you doing standup comedy Jeffrey: or, [00:18:00] you know, I, I tried standup for a little bit, but I keep getting tired of my own jokes. So, no, it's improvisational comedy, mostly musical improv. That was, that was my forte. And so, you know, just a, a bunch of adults getting up on stage and pretending and making things up for an.De'Vannon: That sounds so much fun. I bet you there was a lot of alcohol and weed involved in perhaps other hallucinogenics, . Jeffrey: Sometimes, sometimes there is the, the improv community is really interesting. Like you've got, you've got a full, you've got the full range of debauchery from like afterschool special appropriate to absolutely notDe'Vannon: I'm here for the absolutely not appropriateSo I think it's interesting you said that, you know, your book, you know, is gonna help people be able talk with the Bible, talk about the Bible with their pastor and atheist, the bartender, or anyone that's interested. [00:19:00] So I think this, this statement speaks your open mindedness cuz you know, when I was growing up in.You know, they told us not to dare step foot in a bar, let alone have a conversation with a people bartender, you know, and an atheist. You know, they, they built up our egos to act like, you know, we're so great and we're better than everybody, you know, the heathen folk and everything like that. So, the fact that you're mentioning these taboo people who are considered outliers, outcasts from Christianity, by so many of these churches and preachers and pastors who look down their nose at them, I think validates, you know, your open-minded approach to this.Thank you. . I've been in churches where they were like, you know, don't, if somebody doesn't make enough money, don't even talk to them. You know, they were like, you don't want their, you know, brokeness bringing Oh man and stuff like that, . Oh, Jeffrey: that sounds so healthy. , De'Vannon: you know, that's, you know, that those were [00:20:00] the Pentecostals who told me that shit, you know?And so and where I think they get this from is how in the Bible, you know, you have like the Nation of Israel and God's telling his people to be separate from the people around them and everything like that, which has all kinds of like historical context and stuff like that, that we can go on and on for hours for.But there was a practical reason why God told them that he did not say for everybody who, whoever believes on him to distance themself from whoever they feel like isn't living right. You know, that's an example of people taking the Bible and doing what the fuck they want with it. Which is super easy to do.Yeah. It, Jeffrey: it's . Yeah. I'm, that's, that's kind of one of the reasons why, you know, in the book, what I, what I put a lot of energy toward at the beginning is talking about what it is and what it's for. Because if you treat this [00:21:00] collection of ancient writings as something that is essentially your magical codex and then whatever, whatever meaning you can pull out of this, because you can link your thought to this magical book, then that gives it authority.If that is, if that is your mindset, then you can wreck a lot of harm on the relationships in your life. You can wreck a lot of harm on people that you don't even necessarily know. If you, if you bring that into the world around,De'Vannon: That's what I call the batt crazy, like what I mentioned earlier, because you know, the, you know that and there's a lot of ego there, you know, for somebody to read through the Bible. Ultimately, what I believe the Bible is for is for each individual to read through it, to find out how they can improve themselves, end of story.Like it has nothing to do with policing somebody else, you know? You know, [00:22:00] but it's presented that way. So, so we're talking a lot about, like, talking about the Bible. I think it's fascinating. You know, we talk about so much stuff with our friends, you know, sex, who we've slept with, who we're gonna sleep with, who were dating.Oh my God, the travel, all the trips were taking, you know, I bought this thing, that thing, you know, and yet when it comes to like religion and Christianity, I think the furthest generally as society we've come is the whole universe. So people will be like, I'm gonna manifest this in the universe. That is very friendly talk that I get everywhere I go, but specific deities are like gods and stuff.Mm-hmm. like that, not so much. And so I like, like your rhetoric and everything. Just the fact that, you know, suggesting that somebody would want to have a conversation with a pastor, an atheist, just to converse at all, rather than just saying, oops, we shouldn't talk about that, is like a big deal. I get this from, [00:23:00] like, I remember when I was like, you know, younger in my twenties and going around all the gay bars, doing all the cocaine and all the drugs and everything, you know, and trying to be cute.But you know, we never really had serious conversations about religion, , you know, or life. If it was, it wasn't Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, don't bring it up. You know what, I'mJeffrey: you know, you know, I think I can honestly say that I've never been in a situation in which, if it's not Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan don't bring it up, really applies to me.But I have been in plenty of contexts in which religion did not come up myself. , I've, I, I guess it's safe to say I've had a lot more conversations about the Bible than I have about Lindsay Lohan. De'Vannon: The thing is man in, in the gay community and just in general [00:24:00] society, we talk so much more about the things we want to acquire in life, our successes or, or the experiences we want to have, be it drugs or traveling or going fishing.But we barely ever talk about spirituality. Hmm. And then usually when people mention the universe, it's about something they're trying to get from it, you know? Yeah. I don't really hear people who subscribe to the universe as their higher power is talking about like spiritual growth a lot. You know, self-help and self-development is separate from the speak of the universe.Like when the secret first came out and everything like that, you know, I watched that video and it was very much about, I'm gonna put this picture of this house on the wall, I'm gonna get it right. You know, it was all about like, what can I get? You know? I'm not throwing shade at it, I'm just saying it just is very grabbyJeffrey: It's, it's really interesting and I think that, In some ways, like it's an unfortunate [00:25:00]side of human nature to approach something good and then say, how can I exploit this? Like, how can I get, how, how can I use this for all it's worth for me? And I think that that really gets to I guess what I, I shouldn't say what religion is good for, but like the, I, I think conversations around spirituality with the people in our lives are a really good opportunity to, to check that.Like, that's, that's one of the reasons why I like discussing spirituality with folks because it feels like an opportunity to identify ways in which, you know, maybe we're, maybe we could be thinking about ways to be good to the universe in return and what can we. , what can we contribute to, to the cosmos around us as opposed to what can we extract for, for ourselves right now?Obviously we need to get, we need to get good [00:26:00] stuff too. But I think having, having an attitude of generosity for the universe is also really helpful in spiritual conversations. Can help Facilit facilitate that. De'Vannon: It's balance, man. This is what I'm saying. This is, there was nothing wrong with us doing all the cocaine and talking about Lindsay Loja and Paris Hilton, but we should have talked about something spiritual too, you know?So, yeah. So get, get all you want, but give too. So what I. What I hate is when I have friends who I've known forever and talk to all the time, who never talk about anything spiritual. And then like when something happens to like one of their kids or something bad happens and they take the social media wanting all this prayer, and suddenly everything is Jesus in my faith.And I'm all like, bitch, I didn't know this about you, . Wait. Oh man, where'd this come from? . Jeffrey: And that's, that's really interesting. Like, I think that one [00:27:00] of the, one of the really interesting things that or, or an interesting topic that I find myself discussing with like new friends is like, what, what is spirituality even for, like, what's, what's the utility in being a spiritual person or things like that.And, and I feel like what, what you're describing is, is something that a lot of people. we're told religion was for right. Like this is, this is your channel to go to someone or something that's more powerful than you because they can do things that you cannot. Mm-hmm. . So once, once you like, reach a spot in which you realize that you can't, you don't have the control that you want you don't have the resources or the talents or you know, the, the scope in order to realize what you want, then what do you go to?You go to your, your religion to try and see, okay, well is there anything [00:28:00] here that can help me? Now that I've exhausted everything De'Vannon: that I can do,I want people to stop looking at God as a means to an end though, because none of us want some, want some food coming around just when they want some shit from us. Like nobody wants that. And so, God lets us abuse him like that , you know, because he's really nice. But , Jeffrey: I think it's, I think it's really interesting, like, because a lot of, a lot of the thought around like asking, asking God for things doesn't seem to take into account like where that thing is going to come from.So, you know, I, I think, I think we're all familiar with like this idea of two people fraying that their sports team wins the same match. Well, okay. It's, I think it's pretty clear to see like where the interests are aligned there. Or we're [00:29:00] not aligned there. Like that's, that's pretty, that's pretty base level.But then even in the Bible, you've got the, the problem of job in that, oh, job loses everything, has no idea why he's lost it. and ends up, ends up saying, you know, I, I want to file a complaint with God. Essentially asks like if God had a manager job, would've asked to see him or demanded to speak with him.And you know, at the, at the end of it, we see God just saying to Job, look, you don't even understand why the ocean stops at the beach. Like you don't, you don't know how any of this works and you want to file a complaint with, with me and how, and how it works. Like this is just beyond your understanding.The system is so complex. And, and I think that, you know, like that that human desire for there to be someone making things right in the [00:30:00] end has been part of, that's been part of us for as long as we've been a species as far as, as far as I can tell. And. Like when to, to, to bring it back to like asking God for things or just like demanding things.I think I think that as, as far as the picture of God has been painted in like the Hebrew Bible and, and the New Testament, this God seems to understand and, you know, not really begrudge humans of of asking him for things. But there's, there's something bigger. There's always something bigger at play than, than what we want.And you know, the Apostle James says that if, if anyone lacks then they can ask for wisdom and God you know, God's not going to begrudge them that. And [00:31:00] so I think like asking, asking for things like wisdom that don't need to come from somewhere else, like, that's not going to disrupt any other part of the system.The way asking for rain or asking for money or asking for, you know, a child or things like that might, I think asking to have more of that divine perspective I think, I think God will, God will make it rain on that front, right? Yes. But, yeah. Yeah. But, but no, I, I don't, I don't think God gets annoyed by, by us asking things.And I, I, I agree with you. Like he is, he puts up with a lot of our bullshit because he is nice. But I think he's also wise and he knows that we're just children and we're doing the best we De'Vannon: can. I know he's not angry. I'm angry on his behalf. I'm like, I want y'all to see that he's a person, he's like a human without flesh, whatever personalities we have.What, you know, he's that. The more, because we're [00:32:00] made in his image, you know, we're just like little versions of him. So his feelings to get hurt and stuff like that, though he possesses the capacity could be completely objective in spite of his feelings being hurt. So I just want people to see like the humanity in God.Mm-hmm. , even though he's totally divine, and yeah, we can ask for everything, but still, he's like a person and you know, you know, he, he has feelings. Yeah. , Jeffrey: that was, and if you read the, the Old Testament prophets, you'll see that. De'Vannon: See just best feelings. You know what, I don't. , you know, so we're not gonna be on this earth forever, and eventually we're gonna look at God in the face.You know, our relationship with him cannot just have been transactional the whole time. You know, at what point are we gonna just get close to him for who he is and just talk, just, you know, know him. Mm-hmm. , you know, and I get off my soapbox on that. I wanna comment on something that you had mentioned earlier about your, like your, your family, friends, relatives, associates, saying like, they don't, they're trying to figure [00:33:00] out what it means to be American and to be Christian.So I just wanna say that to be an American is like a blank slate. You know, this country doesn't have its own language. We don't have a national religion. Like you can't speak American, like you can't write American , you know, this country. It's just like, oh, somebody says just like a white, well, they took a, like a, a, a dry race board, such as you have behind you , and, and there was a bunch of indigenous people on it, and then they like, kind of wiped the majority of those out.And then they, they just took, you know, when we went down to African and snatched people and threw them in there and, you know, and just like pieced it together, you know? So to be an American is what I, I don't really know. It's like this, whatever do you make of it, you know? Allegedly, it's supposed to be a whole lot of freedoms here, but that's not the case.But there's no like, say, like, you know, Italian, you know, culture, you know, rooted in us and stuff like that. You know, there's [00:34:00] no, Americans have pasta, you know, there's no, you know, the French have their crepes, you know, you know, there's no like American. You know, so it's whatevs. Jeffrey: I mean, we got serving sizes, right?we got we got, we got the supersize, we got the drive through . We got De'Vannon: things that the world laughs us about. So we have the golden arches. McDonald's. Yeah. Fast food capital. We're the fast food capital of the world. Arah,And what does it mean to be Christian? Well, you know, that's also very, very, very, very vague because you have many different denominations, you know, that are all supposed to be following, you know, the same God. But it seems like we can't get on the same page. So I think what it means to be both of these things, American and Christian, is very individualized.And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I think it's a beautiful thing because it requires each of us to get to know [00:35:00] who God is for ourselves to see what exactly Christianity is gonna look like for us. Go ahead. Jeffrey: It's, it's interesting how much of religion comes down to identity politics. Like so much of, so much of what it means to be a Christian comes down to what that individual means by Christian.Cuz you can talk to a thousand different people who would say I'm a Christian, and then ask, okay, well what, what about you makes you a Christian? Or, or what, what does that mean for, for you? How does that make your life different from what it would be otherwise? And you can get a thousand different responses.And so, you know, granted, like many of them will say, oh, well I [00:36:00] believe in the Niacine creed. I believe in the Apostles Creed. You know, I, I subscribe to this, or, or, or that. But ultimately I think the reasons why, We take on labels is because we want to, we want to know where we fit into the world. And identity politics is a really big part of that.But the De'Vannon: danger there is letting how another group of people define themselves define you, or how a certain group of people want to define you. Define you. And so then, so you're trusting that they're right and that, and you're believing that you're wrong. And which is how I entered into Christianity, believing the guy up in the pool pit knew better than me.And so then I would bend my mind. Yeah. Whether I dis whether I agree with what he was saying or not, I would change my mind by force to go with what the guy on the stage was saying. Now, I would never do that again because I, I need, I see the falling in that. So you know this, that sort of person you're describing is what we would call.[00:37:00] Maybe somebody who's not super experienced in their faith yet. Maybe it's somebody new. Cuz as you grow in God, eventually you'll get the point that you actually don't need a preacher , you know, or a whole group of people to . Yeah. It's, yeah, Jeffrey: you don't need it. But I don't think I, I mean, it, it sounds like we're touching on maybe one of the darker sides of like Bible study and I guess the way people approach this sort of topic in that we, we like having rubrics and we like having scorecards.And, and so like when, when we're dealing with topics of like morality or, or identity, then. It becomes like, I, I think humans have this this natural [00:38:00] gravitation to say, okay, well we know that there is good and bad in the world, and therefore, how do I make sure that I can identify what's bad and how do I make sure that nobody thinks I'm bad?Like, that's, that's something that I think a lot of people immediately try to figure out. And so that's where the rules come in. And that's, that's where like the, okay, well I'll, I'll just bend my mind to believe what what I believe to believe what I believe. The people who tell me what to believe, believeAnd I promise if you play that sentence back, it makes sense, . But that's, that's what we end up doing because we want to fit in. with a group of people that, that are going to affirm this idea that we're good and that we're, and that we're doing, we're doing what's right. [00:39:00] And I think that when you get to know the teachings of Jesus, and if you, if you can approach if you can approach this God with who you know, like John says, God is love, like if you can approach someone who could be described as as love personified then I think, I think you start to understand that it's not so much about checking boxes or, or meeting a rubric or criteria and signaling that you're good so much as it is just changing from within.And like all your core drives becoming more and more aligned to acting out of love for. For people around you, for people in general and for the world, De'Vannon: for the whole wide world. Mm-hmm. , let's spread some love. [00:40:00] So you, indeed, you make a point to say that this is not a Christian book, like right at the top of it.So what, why, like, explain why. Like, I, I, I believe that I know why mm-hmm. , so, but I'd like to hear you say it. Jeffrey: Sure. Well, it's not a Christian book because it's not trying, like in, in my discussion of the Bible, I'm. Really not trying to influence what you believe about God or what you believe about the person of Jesus.Like that's, that's not what you're going to, to find in there. And in fact, I try to be I try to not even say things like, you know, God says this without saying, [00:41:00] the ancient Israelites believed their God. Sid said this, like, I want, I want to keep the, the discussion focused on what the Bible is and what it says.As opposed to trying to say because we have these shared beliefs, then we can agree that this is what it says. I think that that's dangerous because it gates the, it gates the meaning of the Bible behind some sort of creed. And that's just, I don't think that's a helpful way of approaching or understanding such an old set of documents.You know, people appeal to the Bible when they're making legislation. People appeal to the Bible when they're making decisions as to who they're going to date or marry. They appeal to the Bible when it comes to how they conduct themselves in society. And these are things that [00:42:00] affect so many people who aren't Christian and, you know, don't necessarily have any reason to, to have the Bible in their homes.I think that it's only fair that there should be resources that help everyone understand what this book that everyone's appealing to says without them necessarily needing to either adopt beliefs that they don't have or pretend. To adopt those beliefs in order to, to get the education. Like I think that this is something that a lot of people appeal to when making decisions that affect other people and those other people should have as much as, as much as possible and unbiased means of understanding what these people are appealing to.De'Vannon: I'm gonna read two excerpts from your book that I feel like has to do with this right here, what we're talking about. And we were talking about [00:43:00] what does it even mean to be a Christian? And you were saying from the book it says, with so many Christians joining the faith from different backgrounds, there was a lot of confusion as to what it was they were actually supposed to believe and do.How did you theologians former prostitutes, wealthy merchants, illiterate slaves and other diverse people live their lives together, the follower of Jesus. And the other question posed in the book was, what should they do about the Jewish law? Then you say, if churches are a mix of Jewish and non-Jewish people, Jewish being of the bloodline of Abraham, non-Jewish, not of the bloodline of Abraham, as I understand it.How would Christians handle the culture clashes? The Jews had methods and traditions of food, worship, work, sex. The other cultures had their own approaches to these. How would they start out? Cultural differences in a new mixed community? Mm-hmm. in the book of Acts, which I think is a titillating read now that I'm, you know, older and I know how to go now that I'm able to look through it myself.[00:44:00]Mm-hmm. , one part that they never preached to me in the book of Acts growing up and all of them in their churches was about just how much the Jews hated the Gentiles. And they didn't give a damn about what Jesus said about all y'all kissing makeup and get together , they. It really had a heart. The Jew, the Gentiles being people were not naturally the bloodline of Abraham, people who were outside of the culture of the nation of Israel, who God said when he rolled out that, that vision to Peter, he's like, I want everybody, I cleansed everybody.Everyone can now come. Those people were not trying to have none of this. You know? They were like, we don't want them still. And so the book of Acts, a lot of it's about, yeah, the Holy Ghost coming and speaking in tongues, but a lot of it's also about, just hear what I just said. And what Jeffrey talks about in his book is, how the fuck do we infuse, you know, us together?Because up until the time of Jesus, God had told them, be separate. You're, you're, you're gonna be [00:45:00] holy and different than all these nations. And now all of a sudden he's saying, nevermind everybody play nice together. And so they had a meeting in the book of, And when they came out of this meeting, they were like, okay, if you're not of the bloodline of Abraham, then don't like eat chit strangled meat, strangled to idols, or some shit like that.It was like three tenets that all had to do with idol ideology or some shit like that. Jeffrey: It was, yeah, don't, don't eat things that were strangled, don't eat food sacrifice to idols, I believe. And I think it was abstain from sexual immorality. And then in in Galatians Paul, Paul says that like the, the main stipulation was care for the poor.So like, I, I think in terms of acts, those first three were, were the things that James just kind of said, okay, all right, all right. Like, we're, we're not gonna hold everyone to, to keep the whole Torah. But, [00:46:00] but we, we do wanna make sure that, that we're aligned on these three things. Is that the, is that the, the conversation that you're referencing when, like Paul and Barnabas come down from, from Antioch and they, they have this whole discussion as to whether or not Gentile Christians need to abide by the, the Jewish law.Right. It De'Vannon: was a whole scene. It was a whole scene, yeah. And so whenever I reference the Bible, I try to call it the Hebrew Bible to remind people that we're talking about a, a Middle Eastern book, you know, from all those years ago. Jeffrey: And just, and, and just for, for your reference, the Hebrew Bible in the Bible are kind of two separate things.So the Hebrew Bible refers to the Old Testament and like there's today a, a lot of folks call it the TaNaK, long time ago, I think it was called like Miska or Mik. You can, you can tell I'm not a Hebrew scholar. But, [00:47:00] but yeah, the he, the Hebrew Bible. Refers to the books that we now preserve in the Christian Bible that were written in Hebrew.So Old Testament books ranged in a different way for the Hebrew Bible, but that's, that's the Hebrew Bible. New Testament was written in Greek. And so like the Bible, you're right, was written in a different part of the world. The Hebrew Bible is, is really in reference to, to the Old Testament.Anything with acts would be, that would not be included in what most people refer to as the Hebrew Bible. Just, just so you know. De'Vannon: Thank you for the education. You got itAnd so it sounds to me like what they decided was that people can keep their own culture and like you said, agree on those things. And so, I think a reason why a lot of people are unhappy or they don't make it very far with Christianity and following Christ is because they're trying [00:48:00] to do too much. You know, God is not asking you to act like his people did over 2000 years ago.He's not. He's asking you to not put anything else before him. And he said to basically treat everyone else nice and to get serious, you know about God. So when Jesus says the love, the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and the love of your neighbor as yourself, he says, basically everything boils down to those two things.And so that's why I'm a big proponent of people getting past, just asking God for stuff and actually getting to know him. You know, because you got to, any relationship we have with anybody cannot just be based on getting stuff from them. We have to go beyond that. Yeah. And so and so I think that we have more freedoms in Christ than what the church tries to let us know.So this, so I don't know. I don't, I mean, I don't think he could get any clearer than this. You know, God himself has said, do your culture, but just worship me first. You [00:49:00] know? I don't, Jeffrey: yeah. And, and I think, you know, to, if we were to, to bring all of this around to what you had originally brought up like what the early church was dealing with, like this this desire to remain faithful to this to these traditions which we, we still have these, these documents preserved today in the Old Testament but also wanting to, you know, wanting to welcome in people that did not have any of that context and in fact had very, very different contexts.And this is, this is where I think that that command to love one another. Really starts showing what, what I maybe like most [00:50:00] or en or enjoy most about early Christian teaching which is you, you can't necessarily know what the long range ripple effects of anything you do are gonna be you know, to, to someone in the first century.I don't know how much they, how, how, how much they would've known about the nutritional or scientific benefits of abstaining from non-kosher foods. You know, like to today, today there's a lot of, there, there's a lot of talk about like, going back and like trying to find the science to make these ancient commands make sense.But that's not necessarily what people were, were dealing with back then. Like they, they just had these traditions. They wanted to acknowledge And, and I think that what Jesus did was gave us this opportunity to say, [00:51:00] well, what if we instead of tried to check the right boxes? And what if instead of trying to see you know, who is, who is necessarily winning this game?Or are we playing this game? Well what if instead we made it about acting out of love for, for those around us? Cuz while you can't know the long range ripple effects of anything that you do you can know for sure whether or not you're acting out of love for someone else. Like that's something that you can always, you can always check.And in many ways it's kind of like the only thing that you can know when you're doing something. So, like when I, I think that that's a, a harder rule because it deals with. Becoming, you know, a transformed person. But it's a simpler rule and I think that's, that's something that, that Jesus did. And I think that's what, [00:52:00] that's what gave the early church so much, so much appeal.De'Vannon: So in other words, Jesus was like, way more chill, , Jeffrey: and in other ways, way not like I like. Yeah. The, this idea that this idea that you can, that you can come in from anywhere like this this kingdom of God is, is something completely different from the empire of. And, and this this faith tradition doesn't rely on you being from a certain nation and then converting from, from one, you know, ethnic tradition to another.It's instead focused on you bringing yourself and and just using who [00:53:00] you are on behalf of, of those around you. Whether, you know, that's, that looks like giving giving of your, your resources giving of your services just being compassionate to, to the poorer around you. Like that's, that's what we see in in the early church.And yes, there, there was concern about, you know, there, there, there was concern about traditions and there was concern about teachings. But the. The general narrative that you're seeing there in Acts is one more of opening up than than closing off. I love De'Vannon: how Jesus broke. His own rules. So, you know, like when he was going through the cornfield and eating you know, on the Sabbath day and you know, and look back how and when he referenced how when David went into the temple, you know, and ate the holy show bread and stuff like that, you know, Jesus is like, yeah, the [00:54:00] rules are here, but if it comes down to it, you put people before rules.Because I think he said something like, rules were made for people, not people for rules. Jeffrey: The Sabbath was for man and not man for the Sabbath. Yeah, De'Vannon: yeah. You know, and so. and the love part comes in when you go, yes, it's AAB today, but I'm gonna heal this motherfucker anyway because he needs it. The rules be damned.Yeah. You know, so a version of that today would be like, we're gonna show love to this woman and let her get, get whatever abortion she needs if she wants it. We're not going to be like, well, these are the rules, you know? So 10 year old girl, have the baby anyway, even though you just got weight. So,Jeffrey: oh man. The, now I am, I am someone who enjoys petant or Petry a good deal. But no, the, define De'Vannon: what that word is. . Jeffrey: Petry. Okay. So I, [00:55:00] I am the guy who's super fun at parties because I will, I will show up and be like, I, I am kind of like the All right. Well actually it was this, or, you know, like I'm, I'm, I'm very much like a social nit picker when it comes to like answering trivia games and, and things like that.So respectfully annoying might be one way of putting it. So, so I do, I do enjoy picking, picking through the rules and lawyering around life. I'm not a lawyer, but that can be fun. However reducing someone's life to this academic exercise of whether or not something is, is right or wrong according to the rules, I think is just, it's dehumanizing.It would be, yeah. It, and, and I think that's a huge problem that that people, that [00:56:00] people in Christian circles, Are dealing with today when we, when we elevate this idea of being, of having a purity of creed but not, or, but elevating purity of creed over the way we actually treat other people. I think that, that, I think we could all do do a lot better on that De'Vannon: front.I'll just say amen on that . But there's, yeah, there's just, there's just so many rabbit holes can go down there. Yeah. Jeffrey: Yeah. It's, and, and it's, it's super frustrating. I mean, like, I, I grew up very much encouraged to, to look out for false doctrine and, you know, watch out for, for people that that might be trying to lead me astray and, and you know, just like be, be very play defensive when it came to [00:57:00]When it came to identifying with other people, and, you know, to, to some degree, I still, I still have a, a lot of that baggage today.But I think that if you are, if you gate yourself and if you gate the ability to commune with other people behind making sure that you agree on things, then you just, not only, not only does that result in just less love shared in the world, which I think is a negative, but you also just cut yourself off from so many connections that you cut otherwise have.And, and yeah, like that's this, this idea of trying to make sure that someone is clear before, before being able to relate to them or before being able to think of them compassionately, I think is it's a pretty big problem. Mm. De'Vannon: [00:58:00] What he said, y'all exactly how he said it. So, so in your book till you get very clear about detailing, like where the Bible came from, what it is, and like you said, what it's for mm-hmm.and you say in there that the Bible didn't, and I'll paraphrase here, like basically magically fall out of heaven. No. So growing up, and this is a good thing because your book really does that high level view because in there you talk about how it's important you compare the Bible to like a big 600,000 piece jigsaw puzzle.Cause apparently many words are in the Bible. And so you're driving the point home is that you have to get, you have to step very far. To get clear on the full scope of the Bible, what it is historically, how it's organized in your book. You know, you talk about who really wrote the Bible, you know, there's so many books we don't know the authors, you know.Yeah. From this time, you know, just cause someone's name on the book doesn't mean they, it doesn't mean that they wrote it. So, growing up in church, [00:59:00] you know, I used to think, you know, they always say the words divinely inspired. So, and this, it just made it seem like the book was always there. So, so what can you tell us about like, how the bible, how it's composed and it's, you know?Sure, Jeffrey: sure. That is a, that is a huge question. Let me, let me try and, and distill this real quick. How the Bible's composed. I think that in order, in order for us to talk about that, like the, the Bible. That we referenced today. And let's, let's just say, say it's the Protestant Bible. For, for the purpose of this conversation you have the, the Old Testament, which that's the first like three quarters of the Bible.That is that is a collection of texts [01:00:00] that the Israelites preserved that in order to show their relationship with their God. New Testament was composed and preserved to help Christians and churches understand the teachings of Jesus and what to do about them. How were, how was, how those two works were composed is kind of different.So let's start with, let's start with the Old Testament. Old Testament. You've got oral traditions. That, that people were just sharing, you know parents to, to children. Eventually these oral traditions become written traditions these written traditions get compiled into these literary documents of, of various types.[01:01:00] Then these documents came together as part of larger literary works until eventually we have the tark which is, you know, the, the Hebrew Bible the, the books of the Old Testament. And so you have these who have these works of writing that fit together as a larger literary masterpiece. And so when we're talking about the Old Testament, like how is it composed?A lot of these works are older than the documents that we have today, because like they, they've just been preserved and and edited and, and I don't say edited in a way that n necessarily means, like they were, they were, it's, it's not like you edit a document before you, you send it off [01:02:00] to, to a client or, or your teacher or something like that.Like these are, these are just works that were in the works for, for a very long time. The writers had their rhetorical agendas and then they, they joined this larger library for the New Testament. It's, that happened over a quicker period of. Followers of Jesus wrote down things that Jesus had said and then also wrote down things that Jesus followers said and did.And so these documents got passed around a lot by early groups of Jesus followers called churches. Eventually, a couple hundred years later, by about the, the fourth century in the common era, most like every, every book that we have in the New Testament today was relatively known and used by [01:03:00] churches.It wasn't until over a thousand years later that we actually got this definitive cannon of what books belong in what we call the New Testament today. So long, long answer to that question. Old Testament oral traditions People speaking out on, on behalf of Israel's God. People preserving that in order to tell that story of Israel and their God.New Testament got this person called Jesus. People write down what he wrote. People write down what his followers did. And eventually the useful documents or the ones that a lot of people found useful got preserved today. De'Vannon: Thank you for that breakdown. I think you did an incredible and spectacular outstanding job.And so thank you . Woo. And so, absolutely. And so there's a video on your YouTube channel called [01:04:00] 12 Non-Trivial Facts about the Bible, and I feel like as you said in that video, you wish you had known these facts before you got started reading it. Yeah, I think that that's a very good video as well.You know, I'm driving all these points home to make the point that when people are reading the Bible, either before they start or if they never thought of it like this before. So really take a step back and take that high level view, you know, and see historically how did this all come together? You know, you know what's what.And so the last thing that we're gonna talk about is we begin to wrap up here. You know, in your book, a part that I felt like was very special was how you talked about like the covenants. Mm-hmm. you know, you talked about the covenant of Abraham with Israel, Moses, you know, with David and how we have our covenant in Jesus Christ.And so, you know, this, this beckons back to the whole point of God trying to reach out and communicate with us, get on our level. The fact that he was willing to even come down in the whirlwind and [01:05:00] talk to Job, read him for filth basically, you know, and then turn around and bless him the way he did. You know, God is Big O God.He doesn't have to, to to talk to us. You know, like he's our equal, you know, if he doesn't want to, but he's been trying to just have a relationship with us, you know, the whole time. You know? And so I appreciate it, the fact that you highlighted all the different covenants in what they mean. Jeffrey: I'm glad, I'm glad that was helpful.And, you know, for, for those listening, this is, this is one of the things that I do in the book to try and make this enormous collection of documents, the Bible a little bit easier to, to grasp. If you think of, you know, this 600,000 piece jigsaw puzzle I pull out four, four parts of the Bible that can almost be used as the corner pieces.And that can kind of frame [01:06:00] the way the way the Bible fits together in your mind in, in a pretty, in a pretty straightforward fashion. So those, those four covenants are the, and, and a, and a covenant kind of using antiquated language here. But the Bible's an old book, so deal with it, I guess.De'Vannon: deal with it. . Jeffrey: Yeah. So so you've, you've got these, these old like solemn agreements that that God makes with with a handful of figures in Israel's history. And, you know, Devana, and obviously you've already read this, but these, these all relate to God's presence in the world and God's blessing for the people of the world.[01:07:00] And so understanding these four high points between God and Abraham, Between God and Moses and the nation of Israel, between God and David and Jerusalem. And then also between God and Christ and and the whole world. Understanding those points in the relationship really bring the rest of the Bible into focus.De'Vannon: Yeah. Yo, this book is practical. It doesn't have to be this overly spiritual woo woo thing, you know, it's practical. I wrote a blog on my website called The Common Sense of the 10 Commandments to break down how practical God thinks, you know, when he tells us to do something. It's for like a practical, physical reason.It's not just like, For fuck sakes or for rules sake, you know, or just to, you know, just to like have shit. So I'm gonna throw a little bit of shade at, at the Catholic church before I give you the floor for the last word. I feel like so much shit about all, you know, most organized [01:08:00] religions and especially the Catholic church, is just so extra for no purpose that I can articulate, you know, what the fuck are all the flowy robes and the, the goddamn processes, the protocols, all the pump, all the circumstance.You know, I, I think all of that is to just like, mind fuck you and to put you in a, a state of suggestibility so that you can't, you're focusing on so much shit. You can't really be critical of them. I just, I think that they're just like so over the top. And for me of all people to say something over the top, that is a big damn deal because I am an extra bitch , you know, all day long.I am a Sagittarius and I don't know when to quit. And so for me to say, you know, I got four felonies to prove that. And so for me to, so for me to say the Catholic church has gone too far, That that's a big deal. So I just wanted to throw a little bit of shade at them for not being simple. And practical and easy to understand like Jesus isJeffrey: Turns out [01:09:00] turns out running an empire is a little bit more complex than preaching a sermon sometimes. De'Vannon: Oh my God, when, when you say that, I'm getting parallels between the Galactic empire and Emperor Palpetine and the Pope. I think they're the same people. I know it . Jeffrey: It's Palpetine, not papain. Which sounds like some sort of only milks chocolate milk mixed chocolate milk drink.De'Vannon: Do the Pope is the Sy Lord. He is the Sy Lord. this whole time . Well, Jeffrey: no. Well, no. Hold on. I'm Pope Francis. Has gotta be the nicest sy Lord in the universe though, if that's, if that's the case. I mean like, he seems like a pretty nice guy. De'Vannon: That's until he executes order 66. It's[01:10:00]Jeffrey: It's, it's funny like the, you know, I, I can appreciate, I, I appreciate tradition. I think tradition has so much, has, so, like, there, there's, there's so much of what's cool about being human bound up in tradition gating understanding behind, behind behind regalia or, or behind I guess an ordeal.Can I, I don't think that's as good.De'Vannon: Okay, so tradition's cute, but I see too much sacrifice of people on behalf of the traditions, you know, is my thing. And then I [01:11:00] don't get where it comes from. So did God tell them to write out all these prayers and all of these things that you have to do before you qualify to be baptized or before you qualify?I heard the word say, as long as you have faith you can believe, not that you have to attend a catechism class. You know? So, Jeffrey: yeah. And that, and that kind of gets, that gets back to what we were talking about earlier, right? Like using rubrics to show that you're good instead of, instead of what's within, like how, how do we, how do we get people to behave sort of love for each other and for De'Vannon: the world?I say, take all the robes off and just put on fucking clothes and sit down and say what you got to say, . I'm done with it. There we go. But with that, Jeffrey, I thank you. You heard it Jeffrey: here first, folks, . De'Vannon: So Jeffrey, thank you for your time. I want you to again, his website is overview bible.com. His YouTube channel [01:12:00] is the same.The book is The Beginner's Guide on How to Read the Bible, A non preachy, jargon-free handbook to what the Bible is, where it came from, and what it's all about. The last word, anything you wanna say to all these beautiful bitches in the world? . Jeffrey: Hello? . No, no. The last word. The, the last word should not be.Hello. No. Thank you so much, Devon, for, for having me here. I, I absolutely love talking about this. And you know, if this, if you're listening and this makes you curious about, about this book, I just want you to know this is. The Bible isn't going anywhere. It's been around for a long time. And it's something that you can know just as well as anyone who believes it.And you, you don't necessarily need to, you don't need to change anything about yourself in order to understand what, what this is. It's [01:13:00] at the end of the day, this is information. This is something that is important to a lot of people and you, you don't need to adopt what someone else says about this information in order for you to know it.It's very knowable.De'Vannon: Hallelujah tabernacle and praise .Thank you all so much for taking time to listen to the Sex Drugs and Jesus podcast. It really means everything to me. Look, if you love the show, you can find more information and resources at SexDrugsAndJesus.com or wherever you listen to your podcast. Feel free to reach out to me directly at DeVannon@SexDrugsAndJesus.com and on Twitter and Facebook as well.My name is De'Vannon, and it's been wonderful being your host today. And just remember that everything is [01:1

INTRODUCTION: Join De'Vannon as he closes out 2022 with some real talk on bad preachers, the church's hustler-like mentality, Tyler Perry, Joel Osteen and so much more...  INCLUDED IN THIS EPISODE (But not limited to): ·      My Takedown Of Preachers·      My Takedown Of Tyler Perry·      Religious Trauma·      Shade Against Joel & Victoria Osteen·      Lakewood Choir Bullshit·      The Hustler State Of Mind·      Taking A Step Back·      The Three Things I'm Glad I'm Not·      Unpreached Scriptures ·      The Church Choir Orgy  CONNECT WITH DE'VANNON: Website: https://www.SexDrugsAndJesus.comWebsite: https://www.DownUnderApparel.comTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sexdrugsandjesusYouTube: https://bit.ly/3daTqCMFacebook:   https://www.facebook.com/SexDrugsAndJesus/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sexdrugsandjesuspodcast/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TabooTopixLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devannonPinterest: https://www.pinterest.es/SexDrugsAndJesus/_saved/Email: DeVannon@SexDrugsAndJesus.com  DE'VANNON'S RECOMMENDATIONS: ·      Pray Away Documentary (NETFLIX)o  https://www.netflix.com/title/81040370o  TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk_CqGVfxEs ·      OverviewBible (Jeffrey Kranz)o  https://overviewbible.como  https://www.youtube.com/c/OverviewBible ·      Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed (Documentary)o  https://press.discoveryplus.com/lifestyle/discovery-announces-key-participants-featured-in-upcoming-expose-of-the-hillsong-church-controversy-hillsong-a-megachurch-exposed/ ·      Leaving Hillsong Podcast With Tanya Levino  https://leavinghillsong.podbean.com  ·      Upwork: https://www.upwork.com·      FreeUp: https://freeup.net VETERAN'S SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS ·      Disabled American Veterans (DAV): https://www.dav.org·      American Legion: https://www.legion.org ·      What The World Needs Now (Dionne Warwick): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfHAs9cdTqg  INTERESTED IN PODCASTING OR BEING A GUEST?: ·      PodMatch is awesome! This application streamlines the process of finding guests for your show and also helps you find shows to be a guest on. The PodMatch Community is a part of this and that is where you can ask questions and get help from an entire network of people so that you save both money and time on your podcasting journey.https://podmatch.com/signup/devannon  TRANSCRIPT: Solo Dolo: Bad Preachers[00:00:00]You're listening to the sex drugs and Jesus podcast, where we discuss whatever the fuck we want to! And yes, we can put sex and drugs and Jesus all in the same bed and still be all right at the end of the day. My name is De'Vannon and I'll be interviewing guests from every corner of this world as we dig into topics that are too risqué for the morning show, as we strive to help you understand what's really going on in your life.There is nothing off the table and we've got a lot to talk about. So let's dive right into this episode.De'Vannon: Hello everyone and welcome to the Final sex Drugs in Jesus episode of 2022 , I'm so happy to have you here and I appreciate you listening all year long. Heaven's blessings reign down upon you in massive abundance. For the support that you have shown this show. So as we get ready to close out this year, I thought I would end it.You're sharing, you're sharing some shit with you from off of my heart. I [00:01:00] love how I can use this show to heal both myself and other people. I hope I say something that's meaningful to you. Hope I say something that changes your life. I hope I say something that helps you to go a little higher.Now in this show, I'm gonna dive a little deeper into the problems I have with the modern day preacher. And about this choir orgy that happened that one time at that one Pentecostal church back in California. . Stay tuned. Enjoy the show and have a happy fucking new year.Hello, all my beautiful, delicious people out there and welcome back to the Sex Drugs in Jesus podcast. This is your final show that I'm giving you for this year, right here in 2022. Before we roll on over in the 2023, hopefully, God willing I've been toiling about what was gonna be the final show for the year, you know, and I didn't wanna do another one of those.[00:02:00]Hey, next year's gonna be great sort of messages and everything like that because we hear those all the time. And so I was, I. , I like to use my show as a, as a cathartic tool for myself. It helps me heal to talk about things that bother me. And I know that the things that bother me bother you too because of the way some of you have reached out to me and have shared with me the problems that are going on in your life.And so one of the biggest problems that have ever plagued me in my life has been the church dealing with preachers and stuff like that. And so I wanted to take a moment and, and just give my take on, on preachers specifically. I've talked a lot about churches and religion and stuff like that. That's a free book that I just released on my website called Don't Call Me a Christian, what is his Word even mean?And you can go to my website, download it, [00:03:00] and go to several different bookstores and get it here for free, as well as all at Sex Drugs and jesus.com. And so, I wanted to start with the scripture in Jeremiah 23 that I've never heard a preacher preach before in church because this scripture preaches against preachers.And how much of the Bible is littered with God? Not, not just striving with sinners, but striving specifically with the priesthood, but the kings of Israel and with people who are under positions of authority, you know, who really killed Jesus and responsible for his crucifixion church folks. And there's no sense for us to be so naive as to think that, you know, just because we have the Bible to read the mistakes that preachers and priests and kings of the past have made that churches are not going to turn around and do those same things today because they're totally, absolutely doing the same things today, or as they say, history as a way of repeating itself.So in Jeremiah 23, [00:04:00] There's four scriptures that I'm gonna read. So four verses I'm gonna read. So please bear with me. It just says, woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pastor, says the Lord. And therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people.You have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you. The evil of your doings says the Lord. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries, whether I have driven them and will bring them again to their foes. And they shall be fruitful and increase.And I will set up shepherds over them, which shall feed them and they shall fear no more nor be dismay. Neither shall they be lacking, says the Lord. So what is this scripture saying here? This scripture is coming for pastors, preachers, priests, whatever you want to call them, thought leaders, whatever. [00:05:00] Who, who do damage to the congregation, who do damage to people who listen to them.And then they don't go back intend to the damage that they have done. Instead they just press forward with more book deals, with more church services, with more arena tours, you know, and everything like that. And soI was flipping around social media the other day and I saw where Tyler Perry was speaking at Lakewood Church. Okay. So I was like, okay, I didn't know when he became a preacher. But I guess, you know, the way churches are these days in times you're famous enough, or if you have a large enough platform or people to you and you can get onto churches you know, platform and speak to people.Maybe he is a minister, I don't know. But, but what pissed me off was what he was saying. And I think it was like, as he was closing his message, he was saying, [00:06:00] the thing that I've heard so many people say in so many churches from coast to coast and around the world, Christian churches now about how if you're out, if you're growing in life and you're prospering and stuff like that, there's gonna come a time according to them, I don't agree with this at all, that you're gonna have to outgrow the people around you and don't be afraid to let them go and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and so on and so forth.And thunderous applause erupted. And, and the comments, you know, on, on the social media, like, yes, of course. Oh my God, that was the word I needed. Same shit that they always say you know, in these churches. It, it's, it's so, it's so expected. It's so . It is just, it's just, this is just what's gonna happen because church people are so damn, you know, programmed and so,What I don't like about it is I don't feel like that we should be rejoicing over leaving somebody behind. You know, if this person was a friend of ours, [00:07:00] at some point, you know, these preachers are not even saying, you know, leave them behind because they hurt you, try to destroy you. That's different.They're saying is, you used to be on the same level, I guess now you've gotten some promotion at work or whatever the fuck, you feel like you're now elevated and this person is now beneath you. If anything, if there must be some sort of disconnect because you feel like somebody's holding you back or whatever, I think that that's a sad thing because y'all started off great and now you're losing a friend.I don't, I don't get what the clapping and the thunder is of parole is for that. That's something that shouldn't be done, regrettably, if it has to, but with, but with sorrow. Not with joy. But what does this do? It feeds on the narcissism that prevails within the church body. There's this thinking of you know, I have to improve, but only if somebody else's, if only if somebody [00:08:00] else's diminishes.So I'm like, so like, why can't it just be like my growth and not my growth relative to somebody else's lack of growth? You know, when I was, when I used to go to churches, they would take this so far and they would say like, you know, if somebody is, you know, not speaking positive or not being good, or whatever, Christian enough, you don't want them to hold you back from your blessings.So they would tell us not to let them ride in our cars, don't speak to the people and do all of these things that Jeremiah 23 is saying not to do. You know, the, the Lord always said to go back and find the one lost sheep. Not, not to, to, to discard of them and just move on. This whole idea, we're just gonna move on and leave certain people behind so we can go forward in life.Is it, it just rubs me the wrong way. And I hated seeing Tyler Perry at Lakewood Church of all [00:09:00] places, you know, the largest church platform in the country when the big is in the world next to Hillsong Church, and their Hillsong is caught up in their own scandal right now. Brian Houston is currently going through trial right now for his daddy molested them boys and they didn't tell anybody.You can find out more about that at, at the Leaving Hillsong podcast. Tonya Tonya Levine is covering that over in Australia as we speak. You know, like why, you know, why is, why is, why is this same message still being preached? And I, you know, I, and I really fell out with Tyler Perry anyway because, you know, I was researching him and, you know, and I found where, you know, he does not accept mail from people.No fan mail, no nothing. Like, so either he only wants to be contacted electronically or not at all. But the people I physically talked to on the phone, you know, verifying this, they, they really sounded more like gatekeepers that were just like trying to block anybody from reaching Tyler Perry. And I [00:10:00] thought, you know, this isn't the same tone that he had back when he was trying to come up and was wondering if anyone would come to any of his shows.You know, now he's come to a point that he's not even interested in getting a letter from a fan. , but this makes sense, you know, with how Lakewood Church is and how Tyler Perry is now very dismissive, you know, of people who they feel like are beneath them. You know, the same thing happened to me when I was there at Lakewood and I got kicked out for not being straight.But this mentality, you know, you know, and that's that same mentality that prevails. They'll leave you behind in a minute. And, and I, I really think that there is an overemphasis here on the impact that somebody else can have on our destiny, you know, just by us hanging around them. You know, your purpose is your, your purpose in life, and there's nothing anybody can do to take that from you.What God has for you is for you. It's a shame that, that the body of [00:11:00] Christ, that these church people are so damn fragile, are so damn made out of thin ass paper. It, you know, such, such, such thin veneer that they think that just merely hanging around a person is gonna cripple them so much so that they're gonna completely miss their whole purpose for existence.Again, this is not the same as somebody's actively working against you. What these preachers are saying is just don't even be around somebody who's not, I guess as you're, as you might examine them to be on your level, whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean. And so, and my whole thing is this, even if you are being elevated to another level, that means you're going somewhere you've never been before.That means that you're going to hang around people you've never hung around before. So you currently are not on the those people's level where you're headed anyway, and they're being open-minded and humble enough to accept you. Okay. They are not treating you the way you're treating your ex-friend by [00:12:00] saying, bye, you basic bitch, I can't fucks with you no more because I'm better now and you not on my level.So I'm gonna leave you behind because I have to grow. That's all I'm gonna say about this. That's part of this. It just really pisses me off the way churches, when these preachers get on this whole, you know, we're all gonna move forward, but we're gonna leave people behind, you know, you know, if they, if they no longer serve our purposes or we deem them as heretics or whatever the case may be,you know, and just for references, I continue down this, this path I'm on. Just remember, you know, the gospels, you know, are littered. You know, with, with, with church people striving with Jesus, Jesus didn't really have to fight, you know, with what's considered the Gentiles, people who are not people, not really like, who are not really like, hanging around godly things all the time.I don't know why, but this, this, the war really comes from within the church though. The, the book of Malachi, you know, the first couple of [00:13:00] chapters of that is all about God struggling with priest, not struggling with sinners, you know, struggling with priest, you know, the leaders of the church. There is so much in the Bible about that, but this does not get preached.Why? Because it doesn't serve the churches agenda. You know? It's difficult for a preacher to preach these sort of scriptures, like what I'm talking about today, and not include themselves in it, because that would be obviously, , you know, to be like, I see God here in Jeremiah 23 is talking about these trifling ass preachers.But that's not me though. Well, that's not for them to decide. . So , you know, and everybody has a super high opinion of themselves. Most people assess themselves really, really great at the beginning of the book of Revelation when John is sending out the letters to the seven angels of the churches. You know, God is judging these churches and getting entering into judgment with them, and he's assessing them and letting them know, y'all are not really as cute as you think you are.you know, you're not as far along in your spiritual growth. As you might like to, [00:14:00] to, to say that you are. And so he's giving 'em a gut check moment, a performance evaluation, if you will, and letting them know you're doing all of these things, but you're not as glistening as you think. And look, God's judgment is the only judgment that matters.It doesn't matter what our friends say about us, our lovers, our family, our our preachers. None of that unless say, preachers truly has a divine word or something like that, which preachers these days don't. When they prophesy, all they're doing is speaking positive things over you. There's nothing more than positive manifestation that is not the same as true prophecy.True prophecy is past, present, and future. Not just good things are going to happen, you know, great things are going to happen. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, what they say is so general. I grew up with true prophecy in my life and things like that where people can tell you what's gonna happen, when it's gonna happen, how it's gonna happen.They can tell you what happened in the past and you, you know, you know, my dreams come to me the same [00:15:00] way. You know, when, when the spirit reveals to me things about people that they have done or doing or are going to do, and I go and talk to them about what the Lord is trying to, to deliver them and to heal them.That's true prophecy, not the spoken positivity that that prevails in churches today. I mentioned the Leaving Heal Song podcast. I wanna give a shout out to the Preachers and Sneakers Instagram page because that that guy preachers and sneakers tracks celebrities and how they buy all this expensive shit and all these expensive clothes and stuff like that, and how.that really, really turned a lot of people off from following Christ. You know, it's up to you to make your decision on that. But I think it's a very, very interesting way that he's followed that. And then he even wrote a book called Preachers and Sneakers too, I believe it is. And so I mentioned earlier about how I didn't, how, I don't like how these, these, these, these preachers, they just [00:16:00] discard people, move on, keep selling out, you know, selling their books and stuff like that.You know, that's how I feel when I got kicked outta Liquid Church. I talk about this all the time because it's one of the biggest, you know, scars that I yet bear. It's one of the greatest traumas that ever happened to me in my life. And it's something that still affects me to this day. Though I am getting better every day.You know, every day I'm a little less bitter. You know, as I clear this out, what really helps me is being able to talk to people like you who are willing to listen to my show and everything like that. And I, and I love you cuz it heals me so much. And I pray that you be healed too. , you know, to, to have served that church for so long and so dedicatedly, you know, being on time most days of the week, showing up early, staying late, you know, you know, to be kicked out because I'm not straight, won't say discovered on my MySpace page, you know, and then, you know, nobody called me from that church, you know, all those years of serving and volunteering, [00:17:00] you throw me out and nobody called to see how I'm doing.What did they do? They just kept on moving forward, kept on having church services and, and then they told me I wasn't the only volunteer that they kicked out. They said they do this all the time, . So it was just common to them. And so, so speaking of like these arena tours, so what I mean, and so you would have like, say Joel and Victoria, Joyce Meyer Ministries, Hillsong, whoever, you know, would go and do just like a, a Beyonce or somebody would do and go s.Goes to Madison Square Garden or whatever, Verizon Wireless Center or wherever, and and do like a concert, you know, it's, it's the same sort of mentality. You know, they don't, I think, I think Joel and Victoria would charge people, like, I wanna say, let me like $10 to go and know, so, which made it look like it was to cover the cost.But [00:18:00] the thing that I want people to consider is what is the monetary benefit outside of ticket sales? So if I'm a celebrity and I'm making music, I gotta go out and tour to promote my product. To promote whatever cha uh, streaming channels I might be on, or whatever else I might be doing. So these churches are not just going to spread the gospel, they're also going to sell their books to sell the music they've produced and created, you know, to also get people more engaged in their church to, to ultimately gen gen, generate more revenue for the church.Do what you want with this. I'm just trying to get you to consider the other implications. It's not just the word of God coming to your town. These people are coming to your town to get money from you too, you know, and to, and, and to boost their bottom line. And it just, it looks so much like the world, the way that they conduct their business and stuff like that.And it's so [00:19:00] hypocritical of them because, you know, they're like, don't be like the world. You can't, they don't want you to smoke and drink and fuck and, you know, do anything and masturbate and you know, in heaven forbid you're not straight, but. Then when it comes time to money, when it comes time to the money, then the, then these churches look just like the world.They, they cannot chart their own path. They go and say, let's do it . They literally gonna say, let's do it the same way these other people did it so that we could get money like they did and so and so. Like. I just can't, even with that, speaking of Joel and Victoria and, and again I talk about Joel and Victoria and Lakewood church cuz that's the church that I was at, you know, I was not at some other church otherwise I would talk about that church.It just happens to be the lord of church in the country and one of the most prolific churches in the world just happens to be that. And so they were going to New [00:20:00] York to do what they call a night of worship, I think, or whatever the fuck they call their shit when they go out. And I was in the choir, the adult choir at this time.and they wanted the choir to fly with them to New York. Okay? You would think that a church that size with all the millionaires running around there with all that money and the church being a volunteer unit, that they would have paid for the choir to go. Not so honey. Not so for those of us who would've gone, we would've had to pay our own way for the privilege, okay?Of singing background in Joel and Victoria, and oh my God, what a hot mess that ensued in the choir. It was chaos. You know, fighting over who's gonna go, who's not gonna go. Room assignments, you know? You know all of this here. And I'm all like, but bitch, [00:21:00] I'm working for you for free.Your staff members, you're gonna pay to go. Oh. So I suppose my reward is gonna be in heaven. or it'll just come back to me some type of way. Eventually, I thought that that was very, like, low, you know, of the ministry to, to want the choir to be there because people are very, very entrance by the choir. The choir's fucking awesome.okay. Very organized and musically, you know, and everything like that. And people show up a lot of times for the music to these events in the church and more so than anything. And it's, it's, it's, no, it's no misstep or mistake as to why they wanted the choir, I think for their first time in New York, and I think they were at Madison Square Garden or some large place like that.But I'm like, why the fuck would I pay you to go volunteer to help booster your image that you're gonna make all kinds of [00:22:00] crazy money off of this? Then I'm gonna be in a deficit because it's what, it's the right thing to do. I just thought that it was really fucked up. Know what I'm talking about? Fucked up shit in the choir.you know, they would get on us for like, say if a fr like, I remember one time a friend of mine had on like the full choir suit and everything, like we're supposed to have, but his shoes were like, I don't know, Chuck Taylor's a, you know, some cool ass vans or some shit like that. And, and one of these stubby ass, little Sopranos was like trying to tell him he can't sing that Sunday, you know, and stuff like that.We're all like, bitch, nobody can say our feet. Nobody can say Our feet not on the cameras, not anywhere in the church. No one can see what the fuck kind of shoes we have on now. Now this dude was also queer, so I don't know if she just had a problem with the gaze or what, but there's definitely that sort of mentality of anti queerness that prevails in [00:23:00] churches.And so I've said this a million times and I'll say it, a billion queer, F queer folk. Queer folk, queer folk, queer folk, stop going to these churches that are not affirming. If you insist upon going to church and get you one that is totally okay with who you are, that way you don't have to deal with this low-key discrimination that shows up in ways like this.But I just thought that was so tacky, you know, of the choir to be like attacking people who are sh again, showing up to work for fucking free. We're showing up to work for free and you worrying about what Chinese shoes we have on which no one can see, but your petty evil hate fla soprano choir bitch.And you know who you are. And I just think about sometimes, like all the jobs that I used to have, I work for myself now because I can't, I don't have the patience to deal with people's bullshit. And so, especially for the low pay that they try to, to low ball you with, I'll go to work for somebody one day if it's for like a million dollar contract apps to fucking literally.But see, at [00:24:00] that level, you're not gonna have. Fuck. I would hope as much like pettiness like that, you're gonna have pettiness everywhere you go, but at least not nitpickiness because everybody is well paid and everyone's happy. But all the little jobs I've had along the way, they would just, you know, fire somebody over an outfit, a, a, a uniform, you know, petty shit like this.One thing I'm thankful for about the coronavirus is that it pulled the teeth out of these petty assed employers and now they can't find anybody to go to work. You know, they deserve that for being so goddamn mean and dismissive of people over the years, over stuff that was completely un jobb related when I was homeless and going from like house to house, being in these trap houses, you know, walking in there, there's all kind of people just scattered about an abandoned house laying on the floor or some drug dealer house, some or some meth cooks home or something like that.I never saw people get judged for like the shoes they were wearing, the [00:25:00] clothes, you know. , yeah. But what we were, what we were doing was totally illegal and stuff like that. And we never pretended like it wasn't, you know, there're more, there's more realness in a, in a dope house than there is in the church, but I, but I, I've seen more acceptance in a trap house than I've ever found in a church or in any sort of like, public, you know, setting like work or something like that.And I don't know, that just really, really rubs me some type of way, you know? And we're sitting here in this choir fighting over who's gonna get to go to New York and everything and sing, you know, behind Joel and stuff like that. And the last time I was at that church, I went there a couple of shit, like last year, no fi a couple of years ago, whatever.And we were filming that, the docuseries that's on my website. And, and when I walked in there, they had changed the carpet and, which was fine, but what pissed me off was that I looked up and I saw these, this [00:26:00] huge like mural. This, this larger than life picture of like Joel and Victoria and their children, and then slightly smaller pictures of like the worship leaders and stuff like that.And I'm like, Hmm, okay. So, so we've gone from like a golden calf back in the Old Testament to like these murals at Lakewood Church, these monolithic golden idols, basically in the form of Joe Victorian, their kids and the worship leaders who, who you now get to look up at every time you walk through the halls of Lakewood.And this is a golden calf idol tree of our day. Now let me step into my hypnotist mindset here, you know, cause I'm also a licensed hypnotist. Hypnosis. Hypnosis Motivation Institute is a wonderful school. Highly recommended now every time. You look up at somebody on stage, there's something that happens and your subconscious that makes you believe that that person is higher than you, better than you, knows [00:27:00] more than you, that's further along than you.And it's something that makes you all, all automatically wanna listen to them and hear what they have to say. It's something about that that makes you feel this big, very tiny while they, while you view them as this big larger than you, because they're on stage and the cameras are on them. Now, you already have this happening because Joe Victoria, their worship leaders are on stage weekly and on camera all the time, not just Lakewood Church.Many churches across the country, you know, are like this and across the world are like this. But on top of this, you now gonna put big ass pictures of yourself,all over the, you know, the inside of the church. Like, you know, to reinforce. What, what you're already doing. You're reminding the people whose fucking house it is, it's not theirs. And look, y'all making a mistake. No matter how much these churches tell you, they [00:28:00] couldn't make it without you and they need you, and they wouldn't be the same.You know, they are lying at least on an individual basis. What they mean is conglomerate. Yes, they need multiple people to continue to fund them so they can keep on living the lifestyle that they wanna live. But individually, no. As soon as you no longer serve their purposes, or you might tarnish their reputation, they will get rid of you.So, so don't let their, their, their glittery, glittery golden words make you feel like you're so special to them. You're not , you're just not. And soand so I'm like, if you just had to paint a picture, You know, in these walls, couldn't you have done like some sort of interpretation of the spirit or of angels or of the people you help of missions work? Why the fuck do you need to show us Joel and Victoria and their children and your worship leaders when they're on TV in front of people [00:29:00] all the time anyway.Like, I just felt like you could have come up with something else. I think it's vain and I, and I judge them for it, and don't even get me started on like, Joel's this, this relationship he has with Kanye West. You know, I'm just gonna take time to say right here, right now, we've seen Kanye , I can't even believe I'm saying his name on my show.What, what a tragic human mean that, I mean that with to so much just like pity, you know, to be that, that low, you know, , I'm like, so let me get this straight. I can't stay at Lakewood because I hang out in Montrose in the gay district and I'm not, Straight, even though I show up to work and I don't bring my gayness to, to church, but you invite Kanye West to be on stage with you because he what exemplifies the epitome of Christianity and everything, like what church stands for.[00:30:00]So no to the van in, yes to Kanye. I'm just gonna leave that there. The next thing on my list, , is oh, Jesus Christ. That's something about money. Again, it's not more money. And the way, and I look, I used to let myself be deceived by these churches too. They'd be like, give us your tides, give us your money, and good things.Again, that, that, those vague promises, good things will happen to you one day. Like, if they don't happen, then it's because you didn't believe or it's because you didn't have enough faith. It's never the church's fault. It's never the preacher's fault. It remind me of casinos. It's like they always keep like a dangling carrot in front of you.It's always gonna be the next hit. The next hit, the next hit the next time you put that card down, the next time you pull a a slider mash, mashed a button on the fucking, the colorful ass machines in there. [00:31:00] But one thing I, two things. One thing that casinos have in common with churches is that the house is always going to win.The house will absolutely always win. Those, those casinos have guaranteed income churches because of all of their people coming there always have guaranteed income. So, so they gonna promise to pray for you for possible money tomorrow while they're asking you for guaranteed cash today. , these people remind me of hustlers.You and I've dealt with a lot of hustlers, you know, and shit. When I was, you know, a drug dealer and I was in the game, you know, and a hustler is always gonna be sure that they're watching the numbers and the value of things and make sure they come out ahead. They going to trickle you a little bit every now and then say nice words to you to make you feel good.But if you run the numbers that, that, that hustler is always gonna make this much a whole hell of a lot. And you always gonna be down [00:32:00] here, but you gonna have good feelings though. A hustler has a way of making you feel like the, it's very special to even be in his presence. And that's really the greatest gift.I'm talking about street hustlers now. And this was, this was not something I could really see when I was still in the game or when I was still at church, but now that I've stepped away from both of them, I can, I can draw the curtain back and see both of them for what they really are in these disturbingly eerie parallels between like a street hustler and a pastor, you know, or a street hustler and the whole game and the church itself.I'm like, honey, there ain't much difference. There ain't much difference. What the hell do you really have to show for like the money that you have given to these churches over the years? They try to say Any blessing that [00:33:00] comes into your life is gonna be because of money you've given to the church. No, that's not true.But if, if they're gonna play on your fear, then they're gonna say, if you don't give us money, then bad things are gonna happen to you. A lot of churches say this completely not biblical, because in the book of Acts it says that, you know, people don't have to do anything. Except for basically not put any other God before God.You know, God is, it's not about idolatry. Are you idolizing anything? And tho that was the only thing, there was this whole big argument about like exactly what people who are not, you know, of, of the bloodline of Abraham supposed to do and not supposed to do was a whole falling out. And when they came out of the meeting, they were like, okay, these are the things, and none of it had to do with money.Tithing, you know, drugs, sex, music, you know, none of these things at all. And so basically you can give the money to your church if you want to, but ain't nothing bad gonna [00:34:00] happen to you if you don't. And so some people give, give their ties or money to nonprofit organizations that are non-religious and stuff like that because they just refuse to give their money to the organizations that discard of certain people.Keep certain people, you know, I'm reminded right now of a, a nonprofit called Compassion Art. They've since changed the verbiage on their website, but years ago, and this, this, they, this is an organization that'll, you write letters to kids in third world countries and then over time you might have a chance to go visit them and stuff like that.People just living really fucked up lives and ain't got shit. And they had on their like, if you're homosexual, we don't want you to volunteer with this program. We don't. We just don't. And I was all like, I think if you ask that kid in a third world country who's like drinking water outta landfills and walking around barefoot, if he gives a damn that the person helping him is gay or not, I don't really think that [00:35:00] kid gives a fuck, a flying fuck where his help is coming from.As long as he gets some goddamn help up in this bitch, . Okay, , fucking Americans, fucking Christians have confused and thrown so much complications. Into what is supposed to be. A simple approach to God is made open to us by Jesus Christ because of people's hate and prejudice. As my good friend John Vanier, who is the host of the Cult of Christianity podcast, and the author of the book named the Same says, every man before Jesus Christ added rules.Jesus came and simplified everything down in the two things. Love the Lord and love your neighbors yourself, and put nothing before God. And then every man after Jesus Christ went back and added more shit, more shit to it. You know, every time humans get their hands on shit, it just becomes unnecessarily complicated,[00:36:00]you know? There, there, there, there's there. There's three things in life that I'm glad I'm. A police officer, which I almost became a preacher at a church, which I almost became an A politician, which I never fucking thought about being, you know, what is it about these three things? I think that the three of them are pure calling at the onset, and they are really designed to help better society, but the three of them are so full of corruption in all, in all three of them.You have people making way more money than what the position actually pays. Does it matter if it's a p, a Democrat, capital D, Democrat, Republican, you know, both sides of the aisle. You know, police officers taking bribes, politicians taking briars. [00:37:00] Church is just, well, there's mindf fucking people, you know?And because it's, because it's easy for churches to do that. You know, like a hustler. That's one thing I forgot to say. A hustler. The first thing a hustler does if you meet one on the street is they're gonna assess your mental strength. Hustlers are really fucking good at reading people. I mean, it's like some sort of gift they have.They can size you up like that, and they're only gonna deal with people who they know are weak-minded enough to go along with their gangs. Other than that, they're moving right on. They're not gonna do that. And churches are no different. They look for the weakest people to pray on. And church people are very, very, very easily manipulated.I used to be one of those people.And so in all of these three positions, getting back to the point, you know, a police officer, a preacher, a politician, it's basically like these are such highly respected positions of society. , but these people are basically still criminals. They don't have a [00:38:00] checks and balance. They have a lot of money and a lot of power over people.And I think it's that power over people and that money is why a lot of them start out with the good intentions. But that stuff goes to your head and, and I think it's a slow corruption over time in many cases as we, you know, as they begin to justify their compromises and their negotiations with the truth.Because all three of these people have a very, very negotiable relationship with the truth. I think that we can agree on that. It's the same goes power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Okay. Or, or, or is our friend miss Sheri with the Real Housewives of Atlanta would say, you know, who gonna check me Boo?Who in the hell? You know, we're starting to get, you know, a check on police starting, but who in the hell really checks politicians? Look at all the shit that has happened in the last year or two. [00:39:00]In politics, it's so hard for a politician to actually get in trouble for doing anything. And preachers, you know, which is the episode of my conversation, that they have no checks and balances.They surround themselves with yes. Men who support their narcissism. And preachers are highly narcissistic people. It's very difficult to get one of them to say they're sorry they're anything like that. I'll give a shout out to my good friend Barry Bowen over at the Trinity Foundation in, in Texas, and they investigate all kinds of nonprofits and stuff like that.And and churches are not exempt from their investigations and they dig up all kinds of shit all the time. All of these preachers. So check out Barry Bowen, you know, on Twitter or Trinity, Trinity Foundation's website for that. I did a couple, several interviews with him too, you know, and like my evangelist Nelson, you know, my spiritual mentor would tell me someone who, who, who is a true prophet.You know, preachers just like the kings of [00:40:00] Israel are gonna be really, really strong or really, really weak. There isn't an InBetween. You know, when you're reading the Old Testament and Israels going from king to king, a judge to judge, it's like the way it'll start out. It's like such and. Died and now this new person is the king and this person was either righteous or wicked, and it was like either or.There was never an in between. The righteous people elevated Israel to good times. The wicked people brought 'em down. There was never anybody that I could remember who was like kind of, sort of both. You know, when I don't, I don't know why this is, but when you're in a high leadership, spiritual leadership position, you're either really strong or really weak.And the thing is you don't know when your preacher transitions from being strong to weak. You don't know that. You know, I look at, I look at Paula White's crazy ass, you know, standing besides Donald Trump praying and trying to prophesy and saying he's gonna stay in power and making no poems about asking [00:41:00] somebody to send her a hundred thousand dollars.I'm like, but I've seen her live before, back in the day when I go, when I went, when I used to go to churches that dealt with all of that. You know, speakers and shit like that. And I'm like, you know, at what point did you go from being somebody who's anointed and called to a Trump supporter who's just trying to get another hundred thousand dollars to somebody because you asked for it.You know, you know where, you know, where, where, when did the change come? You, you, it's difficult to see if you're setting up under these people all the time. So see, sometimes we have to get away from the influence of something that you discern and separate our own mind, our own mentality, and thinking from as it relates to whatever it is that we've been under the influence of.So yeah, it's gonna be difficult for you to render a true assessment of your church if you keep going there because you, you're consistently reposing yourself to their hypnosis. [00:42:00] It's gonna be difficult for you to, to. Properly assess things that have a strong grip on you unless you take yourself away from it for a considerable time and then consider independently, you know, but they keep you in fear and they say, if you don't keep coming here, then bad things are gonna happen.And stuff like that. I'm like, the church has way too much control over people, way too much control. so, so, so I want y'all to stop believing these preachers because it's, cuz they're on stage and because of who you think they are, you don't know them. You don't go to their houses with them. You don't hang out with them. You don't, you not there, you know, they say words to make you feel like you're a part of their family, but you're not, you know, many of them have security.You can't even get close to them on most days. You can't, they're not accessible to you. These people are not your friends. You know, they're not. And the only thing you've ever needed was the Lord. , it's not a person like they have the answers to everything cuz they don't, some of these, some of the ways some of these preachers preach is so overly simplistic [00:43:00] and especially with compared to how the, the deep things the Bible goes into, how deep our problems are.You know, I was reaching the other day over and judges about how this one woman got, you know, raped so much about a bunch of men, you know, that she died, you know, churches that they don't preach that scripture. You know why? Because it's difficult for them to act like they're the men in Sodom Gaur, who they, who they try to say wanted to have sex with.The dude is a reason all homosexuality is wrong. But then when there's scriptures in the Bible of a bunch of men doing terrible things, not wanting to actually doing terrible things to women, they don't use that to say all heterosexuality is wrong. You see? You know, so they don't get into this. So I have a problem with preachers because they only talk about the flowery shit.They don't talk about the deep shit, you know? , or they might say, you know, break up into your small groups once the main service is over to go deeper. I've been in those [00:44:00] small groups. They don't go that much deeper because those churches have a protocol and everything is guarded and protected that is ever said or spoken.The spirit is not for flow freely in churches anymore because they're too concerned with their bottom line and their image and their media schedule and stuff like that. You know, I'll never forget the time I was sitting in Lakewood Church and this woman caught the Holy Ghost. The only time I've ever seen this in any sort of, you know, church of that stature, and they put her out the, you know, they put her out, the congregate out the out the sanctuary, you know, and I was like they're like, okay, so is this God's house or is this Joel's house?You know, I don't know, because you know, the spirit wants to move and this woman wasn't faking. , you know, it takes a lot of nerve to let the spirit move you that freely in the Lord's Church in America and not be shamed, you know? And she got up and the spirit started, you know, to move and to speak through her.And you know, she was doing a [00:45:00] little dance, you know, something that, you know, I'd really only seen in Pentecostal churches, you know, and then them ushers got on her so fast, before I had a chance to, to be impressed in an about what was happening. She was already gone. And so do it in what you will. But what I'm saying is there's, I don't think that there's really as much God in these churches anymore, you know, as what it seems to be to some people.As the Bible says, there'll be a great falling away, you know, from the church. You let the church tell it. That falling away is just because we're all gonna become heretics and wanna leave God. No. Like we've falling away because the church is full of shit, you know? And full of assholes, you know, and narcissistic people.Who, who discarded people fire volunteers that are more concerned about the next book they're going to write, the next album they're gonna release in the next arena. They're gonna sell out, you know? And you know, rather than actually tending to the hurting people, [00:46:00] they got flowery words, you know, and everything like that.But for the amount of money that people pay them donate to them in exchange for what? Positive words, girl, you can go on YouTube and listen to somebody tell you something kind about yourself. You don't have to deal with the church's bullshit for that. You know,when I, when I, when I sit here and I'm thinking about the controlled churches have over people, I remember I was at this Pentecostal church in California when I was in the military out there. This church didn't have like a choir, they just had about, you know, seven or eight worship leaders or 10 whatever.They would rotate behi, you know, you know, in the back of the preacher. Well, three of the two, three or four of them decided to have them a good old orgy girl. And you wish, I'm like, Hey, you know what, y'all are young hot , you know, you, a couple of boys and girls got together, you know, [00:47:00] they need to do some experimentations and whatnot.You know, I don't see the problem with it, you know, but , one of them was a Judas and decided got guilty after they had busted their nut. And when Rand told the pastor snitch because he had this, this woman who just went and told him every fucking thing. And and I know that because when the pastor got back in town he said that his snitch told him what had happened in the choir.and and I'm all like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Why in the hell is the church getting all up in people's sexual lives, you know, in the first damn place? And then why are you announcing this to the congregation? He didn't say their name, but he was like, basically like, well, it's seven people who usually sing up here.Three of them aren't here tonight. So you know who they are. I'm like, you may as well have said the names, if you gonna be that messy about it. [00:48:00] And so, but look at how much control this person could not go and enjoy a sexual experience that clearly was planned and just let that be that, and if they felt bad about it, prayed and been done with it.This person is so convinced that they, if they feel guilty, they can't get right unless they go confess to a human. You know, that's just so, that's so stupid. Like, wait, what is the point of Jesus if. If we feel bad about something, we can't get reconciled to God unless we go through a human. What was the point of the crucifixion?I don't get it. That's why I don't get the existence of the Catholic church. I don't get their existence. I don't get half of their fucking rituals and canon and whatever the fuck they have going on. I just don't understand how there's so many people in the way of us in Jesus when the whole point of him coming here was to get rid of the necessity of people in the first damn place.And [00:49:00] so I digress. I want y'all to be cautious of these I statements, these preachers make. They'll say like, so when, when Joel and Victoria were being interviewed by Larry King and, and Larry King asked him about his view on homosexuality, the first word outta outta Joel's mouth was like, I wasn't raised that way.I've heard many preachers say this. I wasn't raised this way. I, I, I, I, I. But you know, from the beginning, it was not. So when the prophets and the kings of Israel, the righteous ones spoke, they said, this is what God says. Thus say, if the Lord, this is a message from God, not, let me think about how I was raised and see what I'm going to tell you.But that doesn't have anything to do with the cost of tea in China. Bitch. The nothing, it has nothing to do with anything. But preachers are so damn narcissistic by nature, they cannot separate [00:50:00]themselves from their message.I, I'm thinking about TD Jakes now. Who has preached vehemently against homosexuality. There was a moment where he had a chance that he was gonna like actually do the right thing, and he was on some damn show and he was all like, you know what, my thinking's evolving concerning this. You know, he got back to his own congregation and then he was like, you know, that's not really what I meant.But first of all, it's not your thinking, you know, it's not your thinking. You know, these, these preachers get there and they tell us what they think. When you hear Joyce Meyer talk all the time, she, I mean, I, I don't listen to the bitch anymore, but you know, she be like, you know, I, you know, I, I, I, I, aye you know, there, there, there's so much I that comes outta these preacher's mouths.And I used to sit there and listen and take this shit off of these people. But again, now that I'm no longer in [00:51:00] it, I can stand back and look and see how stupid I was to let them manipulate me like this. These, these ministries are not ministries of God. These are ministries that belong to these preachers and their families.These are family businesses, and you are not doing nothing more, but supporting their family business in exchange for very little in return in most cases. And this is all I'm gonna say about that. I, I hope I don't ever hear another preacher say, I think, or I feel, or what I, because we're all gonna do what we think and what the fuck do we need you for.And if everybody's gonna just do what they were raised, then I mean, that, that just goes against every, it just goes against so much, you know? It's about how does God want us to be and who can give us an unadulterated, true word from the Lord? Well, you can go and find it yourself because we all need to graduate from church.I don't know where this whole idea came from about [00:52:00] being in church forever, you know, and from the beginning. . I mean, churches were first introduced to the nation of Israel. Those people didn't go to church every week like, like that. They went up to that temple I think like once a year, or for special reasons.This whole concept of gathering like that was not an all the time thing, you know? And you don't, I mean, well, two or three people are gathered. The Lord is there. You don't, I mean, that's just you talking with your friends, your neighbors and stuff like that. But the whole purpose of church is to be a school.It's a place where you go to learn and to be educated. I guess now you go there to, I guess may be made to feel better about yourself or whatever. There should come a time where you will learn the enough from the preachers you said under, you know, they are hopefully growing, but you are too. And the thing about it is you're gonna be super serious about getting close to God.Then there's, there's gonna come a point, [00:53:00] as the Bible says in the scripture, there comes a day and time where you will have needs that no man teach you. That is in the Bible. And preachers don't preach that either. And God is calling for you to come to a point that you are spiritually in the pen. I n d e p e n D, tea bitch.Okay? And so, cause the thing, another thing I don't like is like when people try to attack other people for religious reasons and stuff like that, they always say, well hear this scripture here says this is wrong. And that, you know, but true people, people who truly has achieve spiritual growth, understand that as you walk with God, everybody's walk with him is gonna be a little bit different.In some ways. Jesus is the same. The Holy Ghost is the same, the angels are the same, but it's like when God reveals himself to certain people, in scriptures, it's always a little different every time. He never ever does anything exactly the same [00:54:00] way. So we all dealing with the same God, but he's gonna deal with us uniquely cuz we're all different people.So somebody who's truly walking with the Lord will speak from their experiences with God. You know, I've walked with God long enough. I know his personality, I know him, I talk to him, I pray to him. I read his Bible, you know, and I do recommend trying to learn the Bible in as many of its original languages as you can, or cross-referencing things and trying to look it up because those biblical interpretations and translations out there are, are done by people.I just did a show with Barry Bowen. The Bible translations industry and how much money is in it. You know nothing but white conservative people control the interpretation of the Bibles as we know them. You know, black, brown colored indigenous people, queer people. Were not at the table. You know, you know women not really at the table.And so get to get to learn those original languages as much as you can for yourself. Overview [00:55:00] bible.com. Jeffrey Kranz, my homie over there, is a great place to go to learn really what the Bible is and all the years it took to try to put it together, how it was started out being orally spoken and transferred.Everything that you need is not gonna be in the Bible. It is not. I don't give a damn what people say. It isn't. You know, they like the preachers like to use though that acronym, that Bible stands for basic instructions before Leaving Earth. Well, then at the same time, they wanna say, but everything you need is in here.Well, bitch, is it basic or is it comprehensive? Because it can't be both. And so , those preachers in their narcissism are gonna say whatever serves them at the moment. But we gotta come to a point people where we speak about God out of our personal experiences with him, and we've walked with God long enough, we know how he's gonna act.Probably in this situation, just like we do with anybody else, for all of our personalities and the way we commune with each other. This came to us from God. He [00:56:00] is the biggest person there is. You know, a lot of us have a lot of strong personalities, but we ain't stronger than the most high, and so we are just little microcosms of him.Okay. So walk with him, get to know him, and you know, whenever somebody tries to tell you, try to correct your behavior based on a scripture, you tell them to go fuck themselves. Because these people, if they really walked with the Lord, then they would know better than that. They would know the folly in thinking that that scripture is to be weaponized cuz that's not the point.God is all about grace, mercy, long suffering, loving kindness, understanding and being patient with people and being patient more like he says, if you walk a mile with somebody, walk two and you forgive people up to up to 70 times seven times, 70 times seven times a day, which is basically unlimited forgiveness is what he wants people to work towards, not refusing to make a cake for people if they're not straight and they want to get married for refusing them, service, kicking them out.This is not of God. This is of the spirit of [00:57:00] narcissism, , this is arrogance. These are insecure little people who are cavernous holes on the inside of their heart who need to feel better about themselves. By making other people feel bad. This is not God. This is something else. Posing is God, wolves and sheeps clothing, as Jesus said, would be here, has gotta be somebody.And they are found in the church. And so, you know, so as you walk with the Lord, you'll grow with him over time and you'll get to know him as a person. And then you'll be able to, to speak about the things of God and what he will or won't do based on your experience, not, not other people's experiences that you read in the Bible, though that's a great place to start.That's not where you should finish. And so by the time you get done with God, well in this life the Bible should be something you reference. And if you insist upon going the church, it should be as an accessory, not as the main meat of your walk with [00:58:00] God. Your main meat is your personal time with him.Period. Done in the story, not the pretty worship at churches, not. Not, you know, you know, not, not even the Bible, outside of your personal experiences with Lord. All those things have their place, and the Bible certainly has power in, and you can use those scriptures to, to do very powerful things in your life, to bring you peace.There's power in the word of God, but there is still nothing more important than how God deals with you directly, personally, in ways that only you know. So to sum this all up, stop letting preachers spoon feed you. You can go to God for yourself because the more you look at what those preachers like, you need them, the more that reinforces this big them and little you and baby that's not good for your soul. All you ever needed was the Lord. [00:59:00] You get to know God for yourself.Cause when you stand before him, ain't no preacher or pastor gonna be able to stand with you. You gonna stand there alone, you know, with nothing but books open with all you know, with all of your history and works and life in it. So be sure that you make a priority out of following God, out of all the things you want to get in this life.Sex, money, fortune, positions, promotion, travel, children. Be sure that you prefer God above your chief. Joy. I ain't saying there's nothing wrong with any of those things, but just be sure you put God above your chief joyand I pray that you learn the proper position of, of things in your life like, like churches and preachers, you insist upon having them and if they've done something to hurt. , please don't associate God with that, and don't be angry at God. You know, separate those two things. I once made that mistake. It was a dire mistake, you know, in my life, to let there be [01:00:00] silence in between myself and heaven for as long as I did, because of what happened to me at Lakewood.Please don't make that mistake. Yes, we've seen our friends be damaged by churches. We've been damaged by churches. Our family's been damaged by churches. But let's let, let's leave that to and just, just un understand that that was the church that wasn't God. And and let's, then let's do what we can to reconcile ourselves to God while we can.Again, my name is De'Vannon the website is Sex, drugs and jesus.com. This is a Sex Drugs and Jesus podcast. I thank you so much for listening. I hope y'all have a fabulous New Year. I hope it's a year of truth. I hope it's a year of genuineness. I hope it's a year you find who you really are. And I hope it's a year that you're able to hear your own thoughts separated from the crowd, and you're able to come into oneness with yourself and with your creator.Thank [01:01:00] you all so much for taking time to listen to the Sex Drugs and Jesus podcast. It really means everything to me. Look, if you love the show, you can find more information and resources at Sex Drugs and jesus.com or wherever you listen to your podcast. Feel free to reach out to me directly at DeVannon@SexDrugsAndJesus.com and on Twitter and Facebook as well.My name is De'Vannon, and it's been wonderful being your host today. And just remember that everything is gonna be all right. 

Jeffrey Kranz, who joins to talk about Salesforce Flow, is a Product Manager at Riskonnect. Main Points The mindset of “building for flows” v.s. “Building with flows” Flow is the future The cool features of flows How to debug and test flows The fast evolvement of the flow Flow features: Apex-Defined Data Types, External Services, Custom Property Editors Links Jeff’s LinkedIn Video Teaser The YouTube Video URL The post 95. Salesforce Flow | Jeffrey Kranz appeared first on SalesforceWay.

Today’s episode is with Jeffrey Kranz. Jeffrey Kranz runs OverviewBible, a website and YouTube channel that helps people understand what the Bible is, what it's for, and what it's all about. In 2019, he self-published The Beginner's Guide to the Bible. He loves grey skies and black coffee—so it's a good thing he lives in Seattle. Today’s episode we discuss the other gods, demons, ghosts, and other strange things we can find in the Bible. With so many people interested in the supernatural during the halloween season, this is a conversation I’m sure will spark your interest. Check it out for yourself, my conversation with Jeffrey Kranz. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stephen675/support

Today's episode with Dan Koch, Jonathan Merritt, Justin Khoe, Jeffrey Kranz, John Mark Comer, Nick Stumbo, and Cait and Nicole Zick of the Moral Revolution. This is part two of the three-part "best of" series. All episodes available today!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/humbleandhonest)

Today’s episode is with Jeffrey Kranz. Jeffrey Kranz runs OverviewBible, a website and YouTube channel that helps people understand what the Bible is, what it's for, and what it's all about. In 2019, he self-published The Beginner's Guide to the Bible. He loves grey skies and black coffee—so it's a good thing he lives in Seattle. In today’s episode, we discuss the other gods, demons, ghosts, and other strange things we can find in the Bible. With so many people interested in the supernatural during the Halloween season, this is a conversation I’m sure will spark your interest.Check out Overview Bible's Youtube page here. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/humbleandhonest)

#4: Jeffrey Kranz, a content marketer and CEO of Overthink Group, shares what he’s learned from helping companies across multiple industries understand what content the people they’re trying to reach actually want to read, and how to attract those people to their content through organic search.Connect with Jeffrey via LinkedIn or email him at jeffrey@overthinkgroup.com. And be sure to checkout Overthink Group!Episode show notes and transcript at contentheroes.com/4

Do you have a newsletter that no one reads? Jeffrey Kranz of Overthink Group joins the podcast today to discuss how to create a newsletter that your audience actually wants to read.

Do you have a newsletter that no one reads? Jeffrey Kranz of Overthink Group joins the podcast today to discuss how to create a newsletter that your audience actually wants to read.

Have you heard about “RankBrain”? That’s the name of Google’s AI technology, making user intent a critical piece in search results. RankBrain is constantly trying to improve the Google’s Search Engine Results Page by attempting to understand what people are actually looking for when they search and delivering on that need. Better search results pages are better for searchers, but how can you take advantage of this shift to get in front of more of your ideal customers? In short, how can you optimize for RankBrain? Or is it impossible? If you want to understand more about how RankBrain in upending the search business and how you can stay on your feet, listen to Jeffrey Kranz, an SEO expert who focuses on RankBrain. https://www.theagentsofchange.com/271

Catch this week's episode of the Future.Bible Podcast as we have Jeffrey Kranz, SEO and marketing expert, and a Bible geek, with us. Jeffrey is the owner of Overview Bible, a website dedicated to helping people understand the Bible better through a variety of such as articles, infographics, and more.Tune in as Jeffrey shares his story - how he started, utilized marketing and SEO to be able to reach a wider audience, and going from zero to a million users a year. He's done all of this so that Overview Bible can help people understand the Bible better. Make sure to check out Overview Bible at www.OverviewBible.com. You can reach out to Jeffrey at Jeffrey@OverthinkGroup.com.

Find out what iBuyer behemoth Opendoor is doing in content marketing and advertising. Jeffrey Kranz and I discuss the what they're getting write, could be doing, and a specific tactic to overtake some of Trulia's best organic traffic. I mention in the show I have a .pdf of all the Facebook ads Opendoor is running at the moment. Email me to get that .pdf at Nate@RealTeamPanda.com

Jeffrey Kranz talks with us about a cool new church curriculum called Disciplr; meanwhile, back on the podcast, Eric, Jeremy, and Phil explore more about the future of church curriculum. Join the conversation: #cmagcast