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Tony Campolo tells a story about the movie, The Seventh Seal.In short, a medieval knight plays a dramatic game of chess with death himself, the prince of darkness. Throughout the whole movie they go back and forth making moves.Right at the end, as things are reaching a climax, the prince of darkness makes one more … Continue reading One more move
Recorded on February 25th (what would have been Tony's 90th birthday), this special podcast episode is dedicated to the remarkable journey and enduring influence of Tony Campolo. From anecdotes to spiritual insights, join us in commemorating a life well-lived. Help sustain the work of RLC: www.redletterchristians.org/donate/ To check out what RLC is up to, please visit us www.redletterchristians.org Follow us on Twitter: @RedLetterXians Instagram: @RedLetterXians Follow Shane on Instagram: @shane.claiborne Twitter: @ShaneClaiborne
Speaker: Pastor NickDate: March 9, 2025Synopsis: Good morning and welcome to Conoy BIC Church! This morning we begin a new teaching series called Unfiltered Faith where we engage topics specific to the church. Today we have a sermon called "Built for More" that really digs into the idea of evangelism and if we're doing it right and effectively. We'll be tapping into resources like 'Adventures in Missing the Point' by Tony Campolo and Brian McLaren and talking about the importance of relationship. But first - join us as we engage in genuine and heartfelt worship together as a community. Pray with us as we discern together how we can be the hands and feet of Jesus to our neighbors.Intro Music: Inspire And Motivate by Mixaund | https://mixaund.bandcamp.com Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.comOutro Music: Inspiring Beat by Alex Menco | https://alexmenco.net Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US
Tony Campolo, Cantatas, and Controversy by 2Pastors - Kate and Eulando
Cliff talks about the legacy of author, speaker, and influential Christian leader Dr. Tony Compolo, who recently passed away at the age of 89.Watch this clip from Dr. Campolo's message at Urbana '87Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/sunrisecommunitychurchWatch live on Mondays at 10am: www.facebook.com/sunrisecommunityonline/liveSong: Fredji - Happy Life (Vlog No Copyright Music)Music provided by Vlog No Copyright Music.Video Link: https://youtu.be/KzQiRABVARk
Mike Erre joins Phil and Skye to discuss how to survive the holidays. What's the best way to engage (or disengage) a contentious relative who wants to argue about politics, and how do we remain united as churches and families in these divided times? Professor, author, and preacher Tony Campolo died last week. Shane Claiborne returns to discuss his friendship with Campolo and his legacy of challenging the American church with the “red letters” of the Bible. Also this week—what's the real goal behind protecting public nativity displays, and disappointed political witches. 0:00 - Intro 1:33 - Show Starts 2:50 - Theme Song 3:12 - Sponsor - Wheaton Graduate School - Learn in a rich, rigorous Christian environment - https://www.wheaton.edu/holypost 4:20 - Sponsor - BioLogos - Go to https://biologos.org/podcast/language-of-god/ and check out the Language of God podcast! 5:24 - Interview 6:42 - Political Witches 12:54 - The Liberty Council's Annual Report 17:19 - Tony Campolo's Passing 26:35 - Being Grateful 46:03 - Favorite Conflict-Deflection Topic 54:05 - Sponsor - Aura Frames - Exclusive $45-off Carver Mat at https://www.AuraFrames.com. Use code HOLYPOST at checkout to save! 55:43 - Sponsor - Glorify - Sign up for the #1 Christian Daily Devotional App to help you stay focused on God. Go to https://glorify-app.com/en/HOLYPOST to download the app today! 56:48 - Interview 1:06:34 - Dealing with Pushback 1:12:00 - Where “Red Letter Christians” Comes From 1:20:46 - What Tony Was Like to Be Around 1:29:15 - End Credits Links Mentioned in the News Segment: Witches Report Their Spells Against Trump Aren't Working: “He Has a Shield” https://cbn.com/news/us/witches-report-their-spells-against-trump-arent-working-he-has-shield Liberty Council's Friend or Foe Campaign: https://lc.org/newsroom/details/111124-friend-or-foe-christmas-campaign-2025 Tony Campolo's Story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRBM_YY_YX0 Other resources: With God Daily with Skye Jethani: https://www.withgoddaily.com/ Voxology Podcast with Mike Erre: https://pod.link/1049250910 Holy Post website: https://www.holypost.com/ Holy Post Plus: www.holypost.com/plus Holy Post Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/holypost Holy Post Merch Store: https://www.holypost.com/shop The Holy Post is supported by our listeners. We may earn affiliate commissions through links listed here. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
As we somehow adjust to the presidential election results, we bid farewell to an evangelical leader who stood for integrity over conformity. As Ken and Betsey connect again and share their disappointment over the election results, they begin with a lengthy reflection on the life of a powerful communicator, an inspirational influencer, a compelling professor/theologian, and an entertaining orator - Tony Campolo. We don't know if he was alert enough in those final days to have grasped the MAGA victory on November 5th, but he would certainly have shared our despondency. In this post-election Beach Talk, Ken asks Betsey to share her reactions as the election results became clear. They go on to react to some of the nominations in the headlines: Matt Gaetz, RFK Jr., Steven Miller, Elon Musk, Pete Hegseth, Mehmet Oz, and others. The fears of a Trump victory we all noted are being realized. Ken and Betsey lament the now-documented reality that a majority of those who voted chose this path. They conclude by sharing the need to find a place for gratitude as Thanksgiving Day approaches. Become a Patron | Ken's Substack Page | Ken's Recent Post: Writer's Block Support the show
On today's program, a former member of Village Church of Bartlett in Illinois is suing the church for defamation after the pastor allegedly accused her of an affair. Another family who supported the victim was also excommunicated. We'll have details. And, last year, Texas Christians provided Thanksgiving dinner to a group of Ukrainian refugees. This year, those same refugees thanked the Texas church with a festive feast of their own. We'll take a look. Plus, Tony Campolo, sociologist and famed ‘Red Letter Christian,' has died at 89. But first, donations to Gateway Church has taken a nosedive following scandals there, signaling tough decisions ahead. Gateway Church outside of Dallas is facing more issues after the church was shaken by allegations of sexual abuse by founding pastor Robert Morris. According to a video leaked on social media, elder Kenneth Fambro said the church's offering receipts are down 35-40%. The producer for today's program is Jeff McIntosh. We get database and other technical support from Stephen DuBarry, Rod Pitzer, and Casey Sudduth. Writers who contributed to today's program include Kim Roberts, Neva Rae Fox, Bobby Ross Jr., Bob Smietana, Tessa Sanchez, Christina Darnell—and you, Warren. A special thanks to The Living Christian, The Christian Chronicle, and Baptist Press for contributing material for this week's podcast. Until next time, may God bless you.
This episode features a conversation originally recorded in May 2020 for the podcast Baptist Without An Adjective. In it, Word&Way President Brian Kaylor interviewed author and sociologist Tony Campolo. The author of 35 books and a longtime professor at Eastern University, Campolo died on Nov. 19 at the age of 89. This conversation is being rebroadcast to honor this influential and important Christian thinker. Note: Don't forget to subscribe to our award-winning e-newsletter A Public Witness that helps you make sense of faith, culture, and politics. And order a copy of Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism by Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood. If you buy it directly from Chalice Press, they are offering 33% off the cover price when you use the promo code "BApodcast."
This is a rebroadcast of my 2012 interview with Tony Campolo. Dr. Campolo died this week at the age of 89.
https://redletterchristians.org/2024/11/20/tony-campolo-sociologist-and-famed-red-letter-christian-has-died/ We are deeply saddened to share that co-founder of Red Letter Christians, Tony Campolo, has passed away on November 19, 2024. Tony was a highly impactful spiritual figure and Shane reflects on his connection to Tony and the work they've done. God bless. Tony's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Letter-Christians-Citizens-Politics/dp/0830745297 Help sustain the work of RLC: www.redletterchristians.org/donate/ To check out what RLC is up to, please visit us www.redletterchristians.org Follow us on Twitter: @RedLetterXians Instagram: @RedLetterXians Follow Shane on Instagram: @shane.claiborne Twitter: @ShaneClaiborne Intro song by Common Hymnal: https://commonhymnal.com/
Tony Campolo, the Baptist preacher, sociologist, Red Letter Christian and ceaseless campaigner for a Christian vision of social justice, has died. In this episode, we pay tribute to Tony in the best way we know how: by letting him speak for himself. Eventually. First, we talk about our own memories of him, and his influence on our theology. But once we've done making it about us, we share an interview with Tony from the vaults. In 2012, Tony Campolo was concerned about many of the things that are now even more pressing and horrifying. The interview feels prophetic in multiple understandings of the word, and Campolo is solid on everything from American militarism and imperialism to the incompatibility of Christian spirituality with right-wing ideological selfishness. His identification of the central problem with evangelical engagement with culture -- the idea that everything gets better if people become Christians -- is expressed particularly poignantly, considering where we are with the Church in the West. We hope you enjoy hearing from Tony again, and that you remember his family and friends at this time. Full disclosure: we also talk a lot about why we're excited about our new magazine, S(h)ibboleth. We hope it doesn't come across as a sales pitch and more as the genuine excitement we're feeling about connecting more Christians with similar beliefs and making the world better as a result. Naive? Maybe. Worth a shot? Sure. Fun? Hell yeah. Find out deets at shibbolethmag.com and beerchristianity.co.uk
Read Malachi 3: 6-10.1. Today's passage begins with God describing the Israelites as “descendants ofJacob.” What is significant about this reference to Jacob? (Hint: rememberlast week's message and Genesis 28: 22)2. Pastor Mick said the Israelites seemed to have some form of spiritualamnesia. What did he mean by that? How do we sometimes struggle withthis same malady today?3. Pastor Mick shared a Tony Campolo story regarding “lowering the blinds.”Why were the blinds lowered? How does this relate to the Israelites nottithing? How do we sometimes “lower the blinds” in our world, too?4. God said the Israelites were robbing Him? In what way were they “robbingGod”? Is the modern church still guilty of this? How do we know?5. God knows that tithing can be a hard concept to embrace. What does He sayto do in such cases? (Hint: this is the only time we're allowed to do this)6. Are you willing to “test God in this”? Why/why not?7. What do you think would happen if everyone “tested God in this”? Whatdoes God say will happen?8. In verse 10 God says, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that theremay be food in my house.” What does “food in my house” look like inmodern times?9. Allow yourself to dream a bit. What would you like to see us do at GrandLake UMC if God opened the floodgates of blessing? How can we make thathappen?Prayer for the Week:Gracious and Loving God,We come before You with grateful hearts, acknowledging all the blessings Youhave so generously poured into our lives. Forgive us for the times we have failedto respond with an attitude of gratitude. Grant us wisdom to discern Your call onour lives to be generous and give us courage to faithfully live it out. In the midstof our fears and doubts, inspire and empower us to “test you” in this, knowingthat if we do, you will bless us beyond measure. Help us, in turn, to use theseblessings to bless others. May we never draw the blinds on those in need, butinstead see them clearly and do all in our power to help them. Remind us that allwe need to do is be faithful to you, and you will be more than faithful to us. Forthis we give you thanks and praise. We pray all of this in the precious, holy andstrong name of Jesus. Amen.
On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (07/29/24), Hank answers the following questions:Do you hold to the amillennial view of eschatology? Jason - NC (1:03)Can you explain the doctrine of election? If God chooses us, how can it be said that we choose Him? Jason - Memphis, TN (4:27)Can you help me answer a Muslim who says, if Jesus is God why would He pray, “Not my will” in Matthew 26:39? Brian - Princeton, IN (15:12)In 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7, who is the one restraining in this passage? Josh - Nashville, TN (18:35)What is your opinion of the ministry of Tony Campolo? Jean - Calgary, AB (24:24)
We talk with the hosts and producers of the Humanize Me podcast, Bart Campolo and John Wright, about leaving fundamentalist communities behind and whether it is possible to find new communities afterwards. Bart Campolo is an American humanist speaker, writer, former pastor, and son of Tony Campolo, the well-known Christian pastor and speaker. John Wright is a documentary filmmaker, freelance cinematographer, and media content producer whose work includes documentaries on various subjects, including the story of Bart's departure from the Christian faith. Links: Humanize Me Bart Campolo John Wright – Jux Media Bart's first appearance on IWATF -- Want more? Check out our exclusive Patreon episodes here. Transcript of this episode is here. Podcast links: https://linktr.ee/iwatf Doubting your beliefs? Have questions about changing or leaving your faith? You are not alone and Recovering from Religion is here to help. Please visit: https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/
What commitments does Christ require of us? What does scripture say it means to be Jesus' follower? Being a Christian means that we listen to Jesus' words and take them literally. Join Tony as he uses the Beatitudes to show what Christ calls us to commit to. NOTE: Break Forth Ministries has always encouraged a diverse source of voices as long as the message is Biblical.
In 1997, when Philip Yancey submitted his manuscript to his publisher, he had serious doubts that his new offering (which followed his popular book, The Jesus I Never Knew) would find an audience. He knew his evangelical readers. In Yancey's mind, the chapters on a Democrat President (Bill Clinton) and a fellow author who “came out” as gay (Mel White), would not set well - especially when he called for “grace.” To his surprise, What's So Amazing About Grace became his best-seller. Today, 25 years later, Philip and his publishers agree. The need to apprehend and exhibit grace is greater today than ever in our polarized world. After making some revisions - mainly updates - the book has been released. Ken welcomes back one of his favorite guests. After reminiscing over some good times together, they talk about the book. Better - they talk about grace. Amazing grace. Yancey shares his growing-up years - the racism that dominated his church, his neighborhood, and his Southern state (Georgia). They talk about his friendship with Bill Clinton, who read his books and regularly met with Philip's friends, Tony Campolo and Gordon McDonald. They explore his friendship with Mel White, who for years was the ghostwriter for high-profile evangelical leaders: Francis Schaeffer, Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, Oliver North, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, W.A. Criswell and Jerry Falwell and more. After years of depression, hiding, reparative therapy, and self-loathing, Mel came to terms with his identity. Philip was there; dispensing grace.Back in the 90's, PBS's Bill Moyers produced a documentary - Amazing Grace - that beloved hymn. Yancey was moved by that hour long exploration of the hymn's universal appeal. Moyers tells the story of the writer, John Newton, a brutal slave trader, who wrote the words: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” Yancey agrees, Newton was indeed a wretch. By grace, he ultimately became a fervent abolitionist. That's what grace can do.What's So Amazing About Grace? (Revised and Updated) On AmazonSHOW NOTES | Become a Patron | Ken's SubstackSupport the Show.
Welcome to the Season four kick-off! Today, we have our first interview with one of the authors from our anthology on Christianity and American politics, the incredible Dr. Randy Woodley. The episode includes:- How dualism defines White worldviews, and how it negatively affects White Christians- How love and vulnerability are central to a life with Jesus- Why our voting decisions matter to marginalized people- And after the interview in our new segment, hear Jonathan and Sy talk about the attack on teaching Black history in schools, and the greater responsibility White people need to take for their feelings about historical factsResources Mentioned in the Episode- Dr. Woodley's essay in our anthology: “The Fullness Thereof.”- Dr. Woodley's book he wrote with his wife, now available for pre-order: Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Led Us to Harmony and Well-Being- Dr. Woodley's recent children's books, the Harmony Tree Trilogy- Our highlight from Which Tab Is Still Open?: The podcast conversation with Nikole Hannah-Jones and Jelani Cobb- The book A Race Is a Nice Thing to Have: A Guide to Being a White Person or Understanding the White Persons in Your LifeCredits- Follow KTF Press on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Subscribe to get our newsletter and bonus episodes at KTFPress.com.- Follow host Jonathan Walton on Facebook Instagram, and Threads.- Follow host Sy Hoekstra on Mastodon.- Our theme song is “Citizens” by Jon Guerra – listen to the whole song on Spotify.- Our podcast art is by Robyn Burgess – follow her and see her other work on Instagram.- Production by Sy Hoekstra.- Transcript by Joyce Ambale and Sy HoekstraTranscript[An acoustic guitar softly plays six notes, the first three ascending and the last three descending – F#, B#, E, D#, B – with a keyboard pad playing the note B in the background. Both fade out as Jonathan Walton says “This is a KTF Press podcast.”]Randy Woodley: So the Europeans were so set in this dualistic mindset that they began to kill each other over what they consider to be correct doctrine. So we had the religious wars all throughout Europe, and then they brought them to the United States. And here we fought by denomination, so we're just like, “Well I'm going to start another denomination. And I'm going to start another one from that, because I disagree with you about who gets baptized in what ways and at what time,” and all of those kinds of things. So doctrine then, what we think about, and theology, becomes completely disembodied to the point now where the church is just looked at mostly with disdain.[The song “Citizens” by Jon Guerra fades in. Lyrics: “I need to know there is justice/ That it will roll in abundance/ And that you're building a city/ Where we arrive as immigrants/ And you call us citizens/ And you welcome us as children home.” The song fades out.]Jonathan Walton: Welcome to Shake the Dust, seeking Jesus, confronting injustice. My name is Jonathan Walton.Sy Hoekstra: And I am Sy Hoekstra, we are so excited to be starting our interviews with our writers from our Anthology in 2020 that we published when we [resigned voice] had the same election that we're having this year [Jonathan laughs]. So it's still relevant at least, and we're really excited to bring you Dr. Randy Woodley today. Jonathan, why don't you tell everyone a bit about Dr. Woodley?Jonathan Walton: Yeah. So Dr. Woodley is a distinguished professor emeritus of faith and culture at George Fox Seminary in Portland, Oregon. His PhD is in intercultural studies. He's an activist, a farmer, a scholar, and active in ongoing conversations and concerns about racism, diversity, eco-justice, reconciliation ecumen… that's a good word.Sy Hoekstra: Ecumenism [laughter].Jonathan Walton: Ecumenism, interfaith dialogue, mission, social justice and indigenous peoples. He's a Cherokee Indian descendant recognized by the Keetoowah Band. He is also a former pastor and a founding board member of the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies, or NAIITS, as we call it. Dr. Woodley and his wife Edith are co-founders and co-sustainers of Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice situated on farmland in Oregon. Their Center focuses on developing, implementing and teaching sustainable and regenerative earth practices. Together, they have written a book called Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Led Us to Harmony and Well-Being, which will come out in October. It's available for preorder now, you should definitely check it out. Dr. Woodley also released children's books called Harmony Tree.In our conversation, we talk about what he thinks is the key reason Western Christians have such a hard time following Jesus well, the centrality of love in everything we do as followers of Jesus, the importance of this year's elections to marginalize people, and Dr. Woodley's new books, and just a lot more.Sy Hoekstra: His essay in our book was originally published in Sojourners. It was one of the very few not original essays we had in the book, but it's called “The Fullness Thereof,” and that will be available in the show notes. I'll link to that along with a link to all the books that Jonathan just said and everything else. We're also going to be doing a new segment that we introduced in our bonus episodes, if you were listening to those, called Which Tab Is Still Open?, where we do a little bit of a deeper dive into one of the recommendations from our newsletter. So this week, it will be on The Attack on Black History in schools, a conversation with Jelani Cobb and Nikole Hannah-Jones. It was a really great thing to listen to. That'll be in the show notes to hear our thoughts on it after the interview.Jonathan Walton: Absolutely. And friends, we need your help. We're going into a new phase of KTF, and as you know, this is a listener supported show. So everything we do at KTF to help people leave the idols of America and seek Jesus and confront injustice is only possible because you are supporting us. And in this next phase, we need a lot more supporters. So we've been doing this show, and all of our work in KTF as kind of a side project for a few years, but we want to make it more sustainable. So if you've ever thought about subscribing and you can afford it, please go to and sign up now. And if you can't afford it, all you got to do is email us and we'll give you a free discounted subscription. No questions asked, because we want everyone to have access to our content, bonus episode, and the subscriber community features.So if you can afford it, please do go to www.ktfpress.com, subscribe and make sure these conversations can continue, and more conversations like it can be multiplied. Thanks in advance. Oh, also, because of your support, our newsletter is free right now. So if you can't be a paid subscriber, go and sign up for the free mailing list at www.ktfpress.com and get our media recommendations every week in your inbox, along with things that are helping us stay grounded and hopeful as we engage with such difficult topics at the intersection of church and politics, plus all the news and everything going on with us at KTF. So, thank you so, so much for the subscribers we already have. Thanks in advance for those five-star reviews, they really do help us out, and we hope to see you on www.ktfpress.com as subscribers. Thanks.Sy Hoekstra: Let's get into the interview, I have to issue an apology. I made a rookie podcasting mistake and my audio sucks. Fortunately, I'm not talking that much in this interview [laughter]. Randy Woodley is talking most of the time, and his recording comes to you from his home recording studio. So that's nice. I'll sound bad, but most of the time he's talking and he sounds great [Jonathan laughs]. So let's get right into it. Here's the interview.[the intro piano music from “Citizens” by Jon Guerra plays briefly and then fades out.]What Dualism Is, and How It's Infected the White ChurchJonathan Walton: So, Dr. Woodley, welcome to Shake The Dust. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for contributing to our Anthology in the way that you contributed [laughs].Randy Woodley: I'm glad to be here. Thank you.Jonathan Walton: Yeah. Your essay, I mean, was really, really great. We're going to dive deep into it. But you wrote in the essay, the primary difference in the lens through which Western and indigenous Christians see the world is dualism. And so if you were able to just define what is dualism, and why is it a crucial thing for Western Christians to understand about our faith, that'd be great to kick us off.Randy Woodley: Yeah, except for I think I want to draw the line differently than the question you just asked.Jonathan Walton: Okay.Randy Woodley: When we say indigenous Christians, by and large, Christians who are Native Americans have been assimilated into a Western worldview. It's a battle, and there's lots of gradient, there's a gradient scale, so there's lots of degrees of that. But by and large, because of the assimilation efforts of missionaries and churches and Christianity in general, our Native American Christians would probably veer more towards a Western worldview. But so I want to draw that line at traditional indigenous understandings as opposed to indigenous Christian understandings. Okay. So, yeah, Platonic Dualism is just a sort of… I guess to make it more personal, I started asking the question a long time ago, like what's wrong with White people [Sy laughs]? So that's a really valid question, a lot of people ask it, right? But then I kind of got a little more sophisticated, and I started saying, well, then what is whiteness? What does that mean? And then tracing down whiteness, and a number of deep studies and research, and trying to understand where does whiteness really come from, I really ended up about 3000 years ago with the Platonic Dualism, and Western civilization and the Western worldview. And so Plato of course was the great dualist, and he privileged the ethereal over the material world, and then he taught his student, Aristotle. So just to be clear for anybody who, I don't want to throw people off with language. So the thing itself is not the thing, is what Plato said, it's the idea of what the thing is. And so what he's doing is splitting reality. So we've got a holistic reality of everything physical, everything ethereal, et cetera. So Plato basically split that and said, we privilege and we are mostly about what we think about things, not what actually exists an our physical eyes see, or any senses understand. So that split reality… and then he taught Aristotle, and I'm going to make this the five-minute crash course, or two minutes maybe would be better for this [laughs]. Aristotle actually, once you create hierarchies in reality, then everything becomes hierarchical. So men become over women, White people become over Black people. Humans become over the rest of creation. So now we live in this hierarchical world that continues to be added to by these philosophers.Aristotle is the instructor, the tutor to a young man named Alexander, whose last name was The Great. And Alexander basically spreads this Platonic Dualism, this Greek thinking around the whole world, at that time that he could figure out was the world. It goes as far as North Africa and just all over the known world at that time. Eventually, Rome becomes the inheritor of this, and then we get the Greco-Roman worldview. The Romans try to improve upon it, but basically, they continue to be dualist. It gets passed on, the next great kingdom is Britain, Great Britain. And then of course America is the inheritor of that. So Great Britain produces these movements.In fact, between the 14th and 17th century, they have the Renaissance, which is a revival of all this Greek thinking, Roman, Greco-Roman worldview, architecture, art, poetry, et cetera. And so these become what we call now the classics, classic civilization. When we look at what's the highest form of civilization, we look back to, the Western worldview looks back to Greek and Greece and Rome and all of these, and still that's what's taught today to all the scholars. So, during this 14th to 17th century, there's a couple pretty big movements that happen in terms of the West. One, you have the enlightenment. The enlightenment doubles down on this dualism. You get people like René Descartes, who says, “I am a mind, but I just have a body.” You get Francis Bacon, who basically put human beings over nature. You get all of this sort of doubling down, and then you also have the birth of another, what I would call the second of the evil twins, and that is the Reformation. [exaggerated sarcastic gasp] I'll give the audience time to respond [laughter]. The Reformation also doubles down on this dualism, and it becomes a thing of what we think about theology, instead of what we do about theology. So I think I've said before, Jesus didn't give a damn about doctrine. So it became not what we actually do, but what we think. And so the Europeans were so set in this dualistic mindset that they began to kill each other over what they consider to be correct doctrine. So we had the religious wars all throughout Europe, and then they brought them to the United States. And here we fought by denomination, so just like, “Well, I'm going to start another denomination. And I'm going to start another one from that, because I disagree with you about who gets baptized in what ways, and at what time,” and all of those kinds of things.So doctrine then, what we think about, and theology becomes what we're thinking about. And it becomes completely disembodied, to the point now where the church is just looked at mostly with disdain, because it doesn't backup the premises that it projects. So it talks about Jesus and love and all of these things. And yet it's not a reflection of that, it's all about having the correct beliefs, and we think that's what following Jesus is. So when I'm talking about Platonic Dualism, I'm talking about something deeply embedded in our worldview. Not just a thought, not just a philosophy, but a whole worldview. It's what we see as reality. And so my goal is to convert everyone from a Western worldview, which is not sustainable, and it will not project us into the future in a good way, to a more indigenous worldview.Dr. Woodley's Influences, and How He's Influenced OthersSy Hoekstra: So let's talk about that effort then, because you have spent effectively decades trying to do just that.Randy Woodley: Exactly.Sy Hoekstra: Working with both indigenous and non-indigenous people. So tell us what some of the good fruit that you see as you disciple people out of this dualistic thinking?Randy Woodley: I feel like that question is supposed to be answered by the people I effected at my memorial service, but…Sy Hoekstra: [laughter] Well, you can answer for yourself.Jonathan Walton: Yeah, I mean…Randy Woodley: Yeah, I mean, it's a bit braggadocious if I start naming names and all those kinds of things [Sy laughs]. I would just say that I've had influence in people's lives along with other influences. And now, I mean, first of all when I look back, I look and the most important thing to me is my children know I love them with all my heart and I did the best I could with them. And then secondly, the people who I taught became my friends. And the people I've mentored became my friends and I'm still in relationship with so many of them. That's extremely important to me. That's as important as anything else. And then now I look and I see there's people and they've got podcasts and they've got organizations and they've got denominations and they're... I guess overall, the best thing that I have done to help other people over the years is to help them to ask good questions in this decolonization effort and this indigenous effort. So yeah, I've done a little bit over the years.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs] How about for yourself? Because I don't think, I think one of the reasons you started asking these questions was to figure things out for yourself. What fruit have you seen in your own “walk,” as evangelicals might put it?Randy Woodley: Well, I think as you get older, you get clarity. And you also realize that people who have influenced you, and I think about a lot of people in my life. Some I've met, some I've never met. Some you've probably never heard of. People like Winkie Pratney, and John Mohawk and John Trudell, and public intellectuals like that. And then there's the sort of my some of my professors that helped me along the way like Ron Sider and Tony Campolo, and Samuel Escobar and Manfred Brauch. And just a whole lot of people I can look back, Jean [inaudible], who took the time to build a relationship and helped me sort of even in my ignorance, get out of that. And I think one of the first times this happened was when I was doing my MDiv, and someone said to me, one of my professors said to me, “You need to see this through your indigenous eyes.” And I was challenged. It was like, “Oh! Well then, what eyes am I seeing this through?” And then I began to think about that. The thing about decolonizing, is that once you start pulling on that thread the whole thing comes unraveled. So yeah.Jonathan Walton: Yeah, I think like, just to speak a little bit to your impact, I think something you said to someone that was said to me, was like we're all indigenous to somewhere. And the importance of looking upstream to see how we're influenced to be able to walk into the identity that God has called us to. Including the people who led me to faith being like Ashley Byrd, Native Hawaiian, being able to call me out of a dualist way of thinking and into something more holistic, and now having multi-ethnic children myself being able to speak to them in an indigenous way that connects them to a land and a people has been really transformative for me.Randy Woodley: Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. See? Right there.Love and Vulnerability are Central to Christian LifeJonathan Walton: [laughs] Yeah. And with that, you make a point of saying that you're somebody who works hard to speak difficult truths in a way that is loving and acceptable to everybody. I would say that's like Jesus, right? To be able to speak hard truths and yet people are curious and want to know more even though they're challenged. And so why, I could guess, and I'm sure people would fill in the blanks. But like if you had to say why that's important to you, what would you say?Randy Woodley: Well, I mean, love's the bottom line of everything. If I'm not loving the people I'm with, then I'm a hypocrite. I'm not living up to what I'm speaking about. So the bottom line to all of this shalom, understanding dualism, changing worldviews, is love. And so love means relationship. It means being vulnerable. I always say God is the most vulnerable being who exists. And if I'm going to be the human that the creator made me to be, then I have to be vulnerable. I have to risk and I have to trust and I have to have courage and love, and part of that is building relationships with people. So I think, yeah, if… in the old days, we sort of had a group of Native guys that hung around together, me and Richard Twiss, Terry LeBlanc, Ray Aldred, Adrian Jacobs. We all sort of had a role. Like, we called Richard our talking head. So he was the best communicator and funniest and he was out there doing speaking for all of us. And my role that was put on me was the angry Indian. So I was the one out there shouting it down and speaking truth to power and all that. And over the years, I realized that that's okay. I still do that. And I don't know that I made a conscious decision or if I just got older, but then people start coming up to me and saying things like, “Oh, you say some really hard things, but you say it with love.” And I'm like, “Oh, okay. Well, I'll take that.” So I just became this guy probably because of age, I don't know [laughs] and experience and seeing that people are worth taking the extra time to try and communicate in a way that doesn't necessarily ostracize them and make them feel rejected.Jonathan Walton: Yeah, that definitely makes sense. I think there's all these iterations of the last 50 years of people trying to say, “Hey, love across difference. Hey, love across difference.” And there's these iterations that come up. So I hope a lot of people get older faster to be able, you know [laughter].Randy Woodley: I think we're all getting older faster in this world we're in right now.Jonathan Walton: It's true. Go ahead Sy.The Importance of Voters' Choices to marginalized PeopleSy Hoekstra: Yeah. So we had another interview that we did, kind of about Middle East politics, as we're thinking about the election coming up. And one of the points we hit on that we've talked about before on this show is that to a lot of people in the Middle East or North Africa, whoever gets elected in the US, it doesn't necessarily make the biggest difference in the world. There's going to be drones firing missiles, there's going to be governments being manipulated by the US. America is going to do what America is going to do in the Middle East regardless. And I assume to a certain degree, tell me if I'm wrong, that that might be how a lot of indigenous people think about America. America is going to do what America is going to do regardless of who's in power, broadly speaking at least. What do you think about when you look at the choices in front of us this November? How do you feel about it? Like what is your perspective when you're actually thinking about voting?Randy Woodley: Yeah, that's a really good question. And I understand I think, how people in other countries might feel, because Americans foreign policy is pretty well based on America first and American exceptionalism, and gaining and maintaining power in the world. And I think that makes little difference. But in domestic affairs, I think it makes a whole lot of difference. Native Americans, much like Black Americans are predominantly Democrats and there's a reason for that. And that is because we're much more likely to not have our funding to Indian Health Service cut off in other things that we need, housing grants and those kinds of things. And there's just such a difference right now, especially in the domestic politics. So I mean, the Republicans have basically decided to abandon all morals and follow a narcissistic, masochistic, womanizing… I mean, how many—criminal, et cetera, and they've lost their minds.And not that they have ever had the best interest of the people at the bottom of the social ladder in mind. Because I mean, it was back in the turnaround when things changed a long time ago that there was any way of comparing the two. But ever since Reagan, which I watched, big business wins. And so right now, we live in a corporatocracy. And yes, there are Democrats and the Republicans involved in that corporatocracy, but you will find many more Democrats on the national scale who are for the poor and the disenfranchised. And that's exactly what Shalom is about. It's this Shalom-Sabbath-Jubilee construct that I call, that creates the safety nets. How do you know how sick a society is? How poor its safety nets are. So the better the safety nets, the more Shalom-oriented, Sabbath-Jubilee construct what I call it, which is exactly what Jesus came to teach.And look up four, that's his mission. Luke chapter four. And so, when we think about people who want to call themselves Christians, and they aren't concerned about safety nets, they are not following the life and words of Jesus. So you just have to look and say, yes, they'll always, as long as there's a two-party system, it's going to be the lesser of two evils. That's one of the things that's killing us, of course lobbyists are killing us and everything else. But this two-party system is really killing us. And as long as we have that, we're always going to have to choose the lesser of two evils. It's a very cynical view, I think, for people inside the United States to say, well, there's no difference. In fact, it's a ridiculous view. Because all you have to look at is policy and what's actually happened to understand that there's a large difference, especially if you're poor.And it's also a very privileged position of whiteness, of power, of privilege to be able to say, “Oh, it doesn't matter who you vote for.” No, it matters to the most disenfranchised and the most marginalized people in our country. But I don't have a strong opinion about that. [laughter]Jonathan Walton: I think there's going to be a lot of conversation about that very point. And I'm prayerful, I'm hopeful, like we tried to do with our Anthology like other groups are trying to do, is to make that point and make it as hard as possible that when we vote it matters, particularly for the most disenfranchised people. And so thank you for naming the “survival vote,” as black women in this country call it.Dr. Woodley's new books, and Where to Find His Work OnlineJonathan Walton: And so all of that, like we know you're doing work, we know things are still happening, especially with Eloheh and things like that. But I was doing a little Googling and I saw like you have a new book coming out [laughs]. So I would love to hear about the journey that… Oh, am I saying that right, Eloheh?Randy Woodley: It's Eloheh [pronounced like “ay-luh-hay”], yeah.Jonathan Walton: Eloheh. So I would love to hear more about your new book journey to Eloheh, as well as where you want people to just keep up with your stuff, follow you, because I mean, yes, the people downstream of you are pretty amazing, but the spigot is still running [laughter]. So can you point us to where we can find your stuff, be able to hang out and learn? That would be a wonderful thing for me, and for others listening.Randy Woodley: Well, first of all, I have good news for the children. I have three children's books that just today I posted on my Facebook and Insta, that are first time available. So this is The Harmony Tree Trilogy. So in these books are about not only relationships between host people and settler peoples, but each one is about sort of different aspects of dealing with climate change, clear cutting, wildfires, animal preservation, are the three that I deal with in this trilogy. And then each one has other separate things. Like the second one is more about empowering women. The third one is about children who we would call, autistic is a word that's used. But in the native way we look at people who are different differently than the West does: as they're specially gifted. And this is about a young man who pre-contact and his struggle to find his place in native society. And so yeah, there's a lot to learn in these books. But yeah, so my wife and I…Sy Hoekstra: What's the target age range for these books?Randy Woodley: So that'd be five to 11.Jonathan Walton: Okay, I will buy them, thank you [laughter]Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Randy Woodley: But adults seem to really love them too. So I mean, people have used them in church and sermons and all kinds of things. Then the book that Edith and I wrote is called Journey to Eloheh, how indigenous values bring harmony and well-being. And it's basically our story. The first two chapters really deal, the first chapter deals more in depth of this dualism construct. And the second one really deals with my views on climate change, which are unlike anybody else's I know. And then we get into our stories, but I wanted to set a stage of why it's so important. And then Edith's story, and then my story and then our story together. And then how we have tried to teach these 10 values as we live in the world and teach and mentor and other things and raise our children.So, yeah, the journey to Eloheh, that's all people have to remember. It's going to be out in October, eighth I think.Jonathan Walton: Okay.Randy Woodley: And we're really excited about it. I think it's the best thing I've written up to this date. And I know it's the best thing my wife's written because this is her first book [laughter].Jonathan Walton: Awesome.Sy Hoekstra: That's great.Randy Woodley: Yeah, so we're proud of that. And then yeah, people can go to www.eloheh.org. That's E-L-O-H-E-H.org and sign up for our newsletter. You can follow me on Instagram, both @randywoodley7 and @eloheh/eagleswings. And the same with Facebook. We all have Facebook pages and those kinds of things. So yeah, and then Twitter. I guess I do something on Twitter every now and then [laughter]. And I have some other books, just so you know.Sy Hoekstra: Just a couple.Jonathan Walton: I mean a few. A few pretty great ones. [laughs] Well on behalf of me and Sy, and the folks that we influence. Like I've got students that I've pointed toward you over the years through the different programs that we run,Randy Woodley: Thank you.Jonathan Walton: and one of them is… two of them actually want to start farms and so you'll be hearing from them.Randy Woodley: Oh, wow. That's good.Jonathan Walton: And so I'm just…Randy Woodley: We need more small farms.Jonathan Walton: Yes. Yes, absolutely. Places where stewardship is happening and it is taught. And so, super, super grateful for you. And thanks again for being on Shake the Dust. We are deeply grateful.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Randy Woodley: Yeah, thank you guys. Nice to be with you.[the intro piano music from “Citizens” by Jon Guerra plays briefly and then fades out.]Sy's and Jonathan's Thoughts After the InterviewJonathan Walton: So, wow. That was amazing. Coming out of that time, I feel like I'm caring a lot. So Sy, why don't you go first [laughs], what's coming up for you?Sy Hoekstra: We sound a little starstruck when we were talking to him. It's kind of funny actually.Jonathan Walton: Absolutely.Sy Hoekstra: I don't know. Yeah, I don't know if people know, in our world, he's sort of a big deal [laughter]. And we have, neither of us have met him before so that was a lot of fun.Jonathan Walton: No, that's true.Sy Hoekstra: I think it was incredible how much like in the first five minutes, him summing up so much about Western theology and culture that I have taken like, I don't know, 15 years to learn [laughs]. And he just does it so casually and so naturally. There's just like a depth of wisdom and experience and thinking about this stuff there that I really, really appreciate. And it kind of reminded me of this thing that happened when Gabrielle and I were in law school. Gabrielle is my wife, you've heard her speak before if you listen to the show. She was going through law school, as she's talked about on the show from a Haitian-American, or Haitian-Canadian immigrant family, grew up relatively poor, undocumented.And just the reasons that she's gotten into the law are so different. And she comes from such a different background than anybody who's teaching her, or any of the judges whose cases she's reading. And she's finding people from her background just being like, “What are we doing here? Like how is this relevant to us, how does this make a difference?” And we went to this event one time that had Bryan Stevenson, the Capitol defense attorney who we've talked about before, civil rights attorney. And Sherrilyn Ifill, who at the time was the head of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund. And they were just, it was the complete opposite experience, like they were talking about all of her concerns. They were really like, I don't know, she was just resonating with everything that they were saying, and she came out of it, and she goes, “It's just so good to feel like we have leaders.” Like it's such a relief to feel like you actually have wiser people who have been doing this and thinking about this for a long time and actually have the same concerns that you do. And that is how I feel coming out of our conversation with Randy Woodley. Like in the church landscape that we face with all the crises and the scandals and the lack of faithfulness and the ridiculous politics and everything, it is just so good to sit down and talk to someone like him, where I feel like somebody went ahead of me. And he's talking about the people who went ahead of him, and it just it's relieving. It is relieving to feel like you're almost sort of part of a tradition [laughter], when you have been alienated from the tradition that you grew up in, which is not the same experience that you've had, but that's how I feel.Jonathan Walton: Yeah. I mean, I think for me, coming out of the interview, one of the things I realized is similar. I don't have very many conversations with people who are older than me, that are more knowledgeable than me, and have been doing this work longer than me all at the same time. I know people who are more knowledgeable, but they're not actively involved in the work. I know people that are actively involved in the work, but they've been in the silos for so long, they haven't stepped out of their box in ten years. But so to be at that intersection of somebody who is more knowledgeable about just the knowledge, like the historical aspects, theological aspect, and then that goes along with the practical applications, like how you do it in your life and in the lives of other people. He's like the spiritual grandfather to people that I follow.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: [laughter] So it's like, so I think you said it, like we were a little starstruck. I do think I was very conscious of being respectful, which I think is not new for me, but it is a space that I don't often inhabit. And I think that's something that has been frustrating for me, just honestly like the last few years, is that the pastoral aspect of the work that we do, is severely lacking.Sy Hoekstra: When you say the pastoral aspect of the work that we do, you mean like, in the kind of activist-y Christian space, there just aren't a ton of pastors [laughs]?Jonathan Walton: Yes. And, so for example, like I was in a cohort, and I was trying to be a participant. And so being a participant in the cohort, I expected a certain level of pastoring to happen for me. And that in hindsight was a disappointment. But I only realized that after sitting down with somebody like Randy, where it's like, I'm not translating anything. He knows all the words. He knows more words than me [Sy laughs]. I'm not contextualizing anything. So I think that was a reassuring conversation. I think I felt the same way similarly with Ron Sider, like when I met him. He's somebody who just knows, you know what and I mean? I feel that way talking with Lisa Sharon Harper. I feel that way talking with Brenda Salter McNeil. I feel that way talking with people who are just a little further down the road.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. Lisa's not that much older than us [laughter].Jonathan Walton: Well, is she?Sy Hoekstra: You compared her to Ron Sider. I'm like, “That's a different age group, Jonathan” [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Well, I don't mean age. I do mean wisdom and experience.Sy Hoekstra: Right. Yeah, totally.Jonathan Walton: Yes, Ron Sider was very old [laughs]. And actually, Ron Sider is actually much older than Randy Woodley [laughs].Sy Hoekstra: That's also true. That's a good point.Jonathan Walton: Yeah, right. Ron Sider is, when the Anthology came out, he was legit 45 years older than us, I think.Sy Hoekstra: And he very kindly, endorsed, and then passed away not that long afterwards.Jonathan Walton: He did, he did.Sy Hoekstra: He was such an interesting giant in a lot of ways to people all over the political spectrum [laughs]…Jonathan Walton: Yes, right.Sy Hoekstra: …who just saw something really compelling in his work.Which Tab Is Still Open? Legislators Restricting Teaching about Race in SchoolsSy Hoekstra: So Jonathan, all right, from our recent newsletter recommendations. Here's the new segment, guys. Jonathan, which tab is still open?Jonathan Walton: Yes. So the tab that's still open is this article and podcast episode from The New Yorker, featuring a conversation with Columbia School of Journalism Dean, Jelani Cobb, and Nikole Hannah-Jones from Howard University and the 1619 project. They talked about the attack on Black history in schools. And so there's just two thoughts that I want to give. And one of them is that there are very few conversations where you can get a broad overview of what an organized, sustained resistance to accurate historical education looks like, and they do that. Like they go all the way back and they come all the way forward, and you're like “expletive, this is not okay.” [Sy laughs] Right? So, I really appreciated that. Like, yes, you could go and read Angela Crenshaw's like Opus work. Yes, you could go…Sy Hoekstra: You mean, Kimberlé Crenshaw [laughs]?Jonathan: Oh, I mixed, Angela Davis and Kimber… Well, if they were one person, that would be a powerful person [Sy laughs]. But I do mean Kimberlé Crenshaw, no offense to Angela Davis. I do mean Kimberlé Crenshaw. You could go get that book. You could go listen to Ta-Nehisi Coates testimony in front of Congress on reparations. Like these long things, but like this conversation pulls a lot of threads together in a really, really helpful, compelling way. And so that's one thing that stood out to me. The second thing is I think I have to acknowledge how fearful and how grateful it made me. I am afraid of what's going to happen in 20 years, when children do not know their history in these states. And I'm grateful that my daughter will know hers because she goes to my wife's school in New York.And so, I did not know that I would feel that sense of fear and anxiety around like, man, there's going to be generations of people. And this is how it continues. There's going to be another generation of people who are indoctrinated into the erasure of black people. And the erasure of native people in the erasure of just narratives that are contrary to race-based, class-based, gender-based environmental hierarchies. And that is something that I'm sad about. And with KTF and other things, just committed to making sure that doesn't happen as best as we possibly can, while also being exceptionally grateful that my children are not counted in that number of people that won't know. So I hold those two things together as I listened to just the wonderful wisdom and knowledge that they shared from. What about you Sy? What stood out for you?White People Should Take Responsibility for Their Feelings Instead of Banning Uncomfortable TruthsSy Hoekstra: Narrowly, I think one really interesting point that Jelani Cobb made was how some of these book bans and curriculum reshaping and everything that's happening are based on the opposite reasoning of the Supreme Court in Brown versus Board of Education [laughs]. So what he meant by that was, basically, we have to ban these books and we have to change this curriculum, because White kids are going to feel bad about being White kids. And what Brown versus Board of Education did was say we're going to end this idea of separate but equal in the segregated schools because there were they actually, Thurgood Marshall and the people who litigated the case brought in all this science or all the psychological research, about how Black children in segregated schools knew at a very young age that they were of lower status, and had already associated a bunch of negative ideas with the idea of blackness.And so this idea that there can be separate but equal doesn't hold any water, right? So he was just saying we're doing what he called the opposite, like the opposite of the thinking from Brown versus Board of Education at this point. But what I was thinking is like the odd similarity is that both these feelings of inferiority come from whiteness, it's just that like, one was imposed by the dominant group on to the minoritized group. Basically, one was imposed by White people on to Black people, and the other is White people kind of imposing something on themselves [laughs]. Like you are told that your country is good and great and the land of the free and the home of the brave. And so when you learn about history that might present a different narrative to you, then you become extremely uncomfortable.And you start to not just become extremely uncomfortable, but also feel bad about yourself as an individual. And White people, there are so many White people who believe that being told that the race to which you belong has done evil things, that means that you as an individual are a bad person, which is actually just a personal emotional reaction that not all white people are going to have. It's not like, it isn't a sure thing. And I know that because I'm a White person who does not have that reaction [laughter]. I know that with 100 percent certainty. So it's just interesting to me, because it really raised this point that Scott Hall talks about a lot. That people need to be responsible for our own feelings. We don't need to legislate a new reality of history for everybody else in order to keep ourselves comfortable.We need to say, “Why did I had that emotional reaction, and how can I reorient my sense of identity to being white?” And that is what I came out of this conversation with, is just White people need to take responsibility for our identity, our psychological identity with our own race. And it comes, it's sort of ironic, I think, that conservative people who do a lot of complaining about identity politics, or identitarianism, or whatever they call it, that's what's happening here. This is a complete inability to separate yourself psychologically from your White identity. That's what makes you feel so uncomfortable in these conversations. And so take responsibility for who you are White people [laughs].Just who you are as an individual, who you are as your feelings, take responsibility for yourself.There's a great book that my dad introduced me to a while back called A Race Is a Nice Thing to Have: A Guide to Being White or Understanding the White Persons in Your Life [laughter]. And it's written by this black, female psychologist named Janet Helms. It's H-E-L-M-S. But it's pronounced “Helmiss.” And she just has dedicated her career to understanding how White people shape their identities. And she has so, like such a wealth of knowledge about different stages of white identity formation, and has all these honestly kind of funny little quizzes in the book that she updates every few, there's like a bunch of editions of this book, that it's like asking you, “What do you think is best for America?” The campaign and ideas of this politician or this one or this one. And she asks you a bunch of questions and from there tells you where you are in your White identity formation [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Wow. That's amazing.Sy Hoekstra: It's really, “how would you feel if somebody said this about White people?” whatever. Tons of different questions, it's kind of like taking a personality test, but it's about you and your race [laughs]. That's just a resource that I would offer to people as a way to do what this conversation reminded me my people all very much need to do.Jonathan Walton: Amen.Sy Hoekstra: I just talked for a long time, Jonathan, we need to end. But do you have any thoughts [laughs]?Jonathan Walton: No. I was just going to say this podcast is a great 101 and a great 301.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: Like it spans the spectrum. So please do if you haven't, go listen to the podcast. Yeah, just check it out. It's very, very good.Outro and OuttakeSy Hoekstra: We will have that in the show notes along with all the other links of everything that we had today. Okay, that's our first full episode of season four. We're so glad that you could join us. This was a great one full of a lot of great stuff. Our theme song as always is “Citizens” by Jon Guerra. Our podcast art is by Robyn Burgess. The show is produced by all of you, our lovely subscribers, and our transcripts are by Joyce Ambale. Thank you all so much for listening, we will see you in two weeks with the great Brandi Miller.[The song “Citizens” by Jon Guerra fades in. Lyrics: “I need to know there is justice/ That it will roll in abundance/ And that you're building a city/ Where we arrive as immigrants/ and you call us citizens/ and you welcome us as children home.” The song fades out.]Randy Woodley: You know, I think I've said before Jesus didn't give a damn about doctrine. Excuse me. Jesus didn't give a darn about doctrine. I don't know if that'll go through or not.[laughter]. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.ktfpress.com/subscribe
Afterword: Steve talks with sociologist and Baptist preacher Dr Tony Campolo. In part one Steve reflects on the conclusion to his book, in part two Dr Tony responds. “This is my conversation with my guest and expert witness Dr. Tony Campolo. Tony is a Professor Emeritus of Eastern University, a sociologist, a theologian, and an extraordinary communicator. We talked together about the afterword of my book: ‘We shape our systems, then they shape us'. I so love talking with Tony because it's absolutely true that I've learned more from Tony about sociology, theology, and about communication, than from any other person on Earth. Tony has been my friend for 40 or more years and why he chose to befriend me I haven't got a clue, but the benefit is all mine. I'm sure you'll enjoy his” – Steve ChalkeAbout Dr Tony Campolo Dr Tony Campolo is an American sociologist, Baptist pastor, author, public speaker and former spiritual advisor to U.S. President Bill Clinton.About this podcast series This podcast series, and the accompanying book by Steve Chalke sets out ten tried and tested practical principles for ‘how' to develop joined up, cost effective, community empowering work, gleaned from the hard-won experience that sit at the heart of the mission of Oasis over the last four decades. Steve talks to 13 expert witnesses who help him bring his book to life with their own thoughts and lived experiences.We believe it's time for a radical reset. It's time for A Manifesto for Hope!Steve's book is available wherever you buy your books but we recommend you buy it from Bookshop.org an online bookshop with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.This book is also available on Audible.The Manifesto for Hope podcast is brought to you by Oasis. Our producer is Peter Kerwood and the sound and mix engineer is Matteo Magariello. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Afterword: Steve talks with sociologist and Baptist preacher Dr Tony Campolo. In part one Steve reflects on the conclusion to his book, in part two Dr Tony responds. “This is my conversation with my guest and expert witness Dr. Tony Campolo. Tony is a Professor Emeritus of Eastern University, a sociologist, a theologian, and an extraordinary communicator. We talked together about the afterword of my book: ‘We shape our systems, then they shape us'. I so love talking with Tony because it's absolutely true that I've learned more from Tony about sociology, theology, and about communication, than from any other person on Earth. Tony has been my friend for 40 or more years and why he chose to befriend me I haven't got a clue, but the benefit is all mine. I'm sure you'll enjoy his” – Steve ChalkeAbout Dr Tony Campolo Dr Tony Campolo is an American sociologist, Baptist pastor, author, public speaker and former spiritual advisor to U.S. President Bill Clinton.About this podcast series This podcast series, and the accompanying book by Steve Chalke sets out ten tried and tested practical principles for ‘how' to develop joined up, cost effective, community empowering work, gleaned from the hard-won experience that sit at the heart of the mission of Oasis over the last four decades. Steve talks to 13 expert witnesses who help him bring his book to life with their own thoughts and lived experiences.We believe it's time for a radical reset. It's time for A Manifesto for Hope!Steve's book is available wherever you buy your books but we recommend you buy it from Bookshop.org an online bookshop with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.This book is also available on Audible.The Manifesto for Hope podcast is brought to you by Oasis. Our producer is Peter Kerwood and the sound and mix engineer is Matteo Magariello. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We all have some difficult people in our lives. You do. I do. So how do you deal with them – especially when you're under fire from the enemy? It's Easy to Fight Wars I don't know if you've noticed, but dealing with people, sometimes difficult people, is a big part of life, at home, at work, socially. And conflict can take its toll. Sometimes we feel as though we're under pressure - as though we're under fire, maybe through circumstances, maybe through what other people are doing - and right in the middle of that difficult space, we still have to deal with those difficult people, under fire. And in one of those perverse twists of life, in a sense there's meaning in conflict; in a sense there's meaning and dignity when we sacrifice in the midst of a conflict. Most nations, my own, Australia and in fact, New Zealand, celebrate the sacrifice of their soldiers during war. In Australia it's called ANZAC Day - the Australia New Zealand Army Corp and increasingly, that celebration is growing. About twenty or thirty years ago people said, “oh it's all war mongering and it's all about this and that and it's going to die and we can't possibly continue celebrating war. And it's funny, but we celebrate a day, in ANZAC Day, which is a day of great defeat. It remembers - maybe celebrates is the wrong word - it remembers that eighteen and a half thousand Australian soldiers were wounded or missing and seven and a half thousand were killed. Five thousand New Zealanders wounded and missing, two and a half thousand killed in this Gallipoli campaign in World War One which was such an enormous disaster. And social commentators are saying, “look, the reason that these celebrations, right around the world, the reason that these sorts of days are being remembered, right around the world, where we are looking at our soldiers who were lost in battle, is that - well it's not about war any more, it used to be about the glorification of war - but today it's about sacrifice and hope. It's all about the triumph of the spirit not about the victory in the battle. These sorts of days, where we remember fallen soldiers, say with a voice that grows louder each year that we expect to find something good to happen, that we are still capable of becoming the kind of society that would justify the sacrifice of those who thought we were worth fighting for. In other words, people today are looking back on the sacrifice of the soldiers of their countries and saying, “You know, there's meaning in that sacrifice, you know there's humility, there's giving, there's something spiritual when these men under fire, were prepared to sacrifice their lives for me.” There's a large shopping centre near where I live, quite a new one - very ritzy, glitzy, you know - enormous, expensive clothes. And you see people milling around in that shopping centre, day after day, week after week, and that whole shopping centre - mall, shopping thing - is like an icon of our time. Yet as ritzy and glitzy as it is, it doesn't have meaning and people are looking for meaning and it seems that in celebrations, like ANZAC Day, they're finding that spiritual flame - that cenotaph, that bugle, that cool morning air, that shrine, that spiritual experience - people are finding meaning in sacrifice. Now you might ask, “why don't they find that in Jesus? Why don't they find that in church?" And you look at the public media image of the church, with this denomination fighting that denomination and the systematic cover-up of child abuse and Christians who don't look any different, actually, from the rest of the world. The salt, at least in its public image, has lost its flavour. The light has stopped shinning when people look at what Christianity is through the media. And let's face it, we construct much of our reality about life through what we see in the media - it may not be fair, but that's the perception. So I can't imagine why they're not knocking down the doors of our churches searching for the truth, can you? A man whom I admire enormously, Michael Frost, once said to me - he said, “Holy living is mission.” In other words, the way that we live our lives as Christ followers, needs to be missional. We need to be salt and light, loving one another and as the shoppers are swilling around these shopping centers, what are they looking for? They're looking for spiritual authenticity. They're looking for sacrifice and love and community and acceptance, as they find on ANZAC Day. But you just don't find that in shopping centers and as much as the ANZAC Day style of celebration around the world is a spiritual experience, it can never replace Jesus. Why are we talking about conflict and battle? - because life is sometimes conflict and battle and when people look at the church, when people look at you and me as Christ followers, and they say, “Is this person for real? Is this faith authentic? Is there an authentic, spiritual experience to be had in this Christianity thing?" What they're looking for is what Jesus talked about in loving our enemy. I often talk about Tony Campolo, wonderful man who loves to ask university students, “Can you remember just one thing that Jesus said?” and they almost always say to him, “well, I remember that Jesus said, “love your enemy.” That's the sort of love that happens under fire. That's the sort of love when we are dealing with difficult people and all these other people who know that we might be Christ followers, look at us and they think, "well, ok, if this person going to be authentic, if this Christianity thing is authentic, I want to know how they behave under fire." God's Word says that we should be transformed, challenged. “I appeal to you,” writes Paul in Roman chapter 12 verses 1 and 2: I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your Spiritual worship. Don't be conformed to this world - don't be like the rest of the world - but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may know what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Don't be like the world, be a living sacrifice. When you and I are under fire, that's the time when we live out the living sacrifice thing and living out a sacrifice is not easy. It's a tough gig. How do we do that? Exactly how do you and I become living sacrifices? We are going to take a look at that question next. Make Love not War Well, how do we become living sacrifices? If authenticity of our faith is measured by Jesus' words - love your enemy, be salt, be light, be my love in this world - if that's what is the mark of authenticity, how can we be that, ‘cause it's not easy - it's not easy being a living sacrifice? If you have a Bible, open it - right towards the end of the New Testament, to the first letter of Peter, First Peter chapter 3, we are going to look at verses 8 to 13. This is what Peter writes - he says: Finally, all of you have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart and a humble mind. Don't repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse but on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called, that you might inherit a blessing for those who desire life and desire to see good days, let them keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking their seed. Let them turn away from evil and do good. Let them seek peace and pursue it, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are open to their prayer but the face of the Lord is turned against those who do evil. Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? The catch-cry of the nineteen sixties, when I was growing up was 'make love not war' and of course the cold war has been replaced by a different war. I mean there are a lot of wars going on, on the planet - between forty and fifty - but the one that is foremost in our mind is the war against terrorism. And we see the terrorists on one hand, of all different persuasions, trying to fight against and harm other people and it's kind of an amazing logic. It works like this - terrorists blow up a bus or they blow up a this or they blow up a that, and then the forces of good, supposedly, go and bomb this village or go and bomb that village, or go and blow up this and so the terrorists blow something else up and so the good guys blow something else up and on and on this goes. I just can't see the logic - violence begets violence. Jesus says, “murder begins in the heart,” and hate carries the same punishment from God as murder. We can't decry terrorism and at the same time continue to hate others in our hearts. Look what Peter writes in verse 8 of chapter 3 again: Finally all of you have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart and humble mind. Unity, sympathy and love are about unconditional acceptance of people. A tender heart and a humble mind is about being low; it's about saying, “You know something, I'm not as important as the other person. What's really important is that I love them, that I care for them, that I ‘do' for them.” That's the key to freedom, this message of Jesus that turned a whole world upside down. I mean you and I have enemies in our lives. We have terrorists in our lives, we have people who upset our lives and I can dig my trench and my enemies can dig their trench and I'll throw a grenade and they'll throw a grenade then I'll throw a bigger grenade and they'll throw a bigger grenade … This whole cycle of violence - now we mightn't be shooting each other but emotional violence - you know what I mean, conflict, anger, aggression - just doesn't fit with what Peter's talking about here - sympathy, love, a tender heart and humility. Are you a Christ follower - are you a Jesus follower? Then in these conflicts; in these battles with difficult people in our lives, we need to be the leaders and to be the leader we are the servant. How will peace break out in this war against terror? Exactly how will that do? Well, one side will stop bombing and shooting. One side will lay their guns and their munitions and their explosives down and refuse to take them up again. And when the other side keeps shooting and killing, they'll still refuse to pick up their guns. What would happen? Probably world opinion would turn against the aggressor and ultimately the shooting and the killing would stop. Look at what Peter writes in verse 9: Do not repay evil with evil, but on the contrary, repay with a blessing. Who are the difficult people in your life? Who are the ones that are making your life a misery? Who are the ones who are putting you under fire; you under pressure? Don't repay their evil with your evil. Ooh! Gets personal now doesn't? Don't repay their evil with your evil but on the contrary, repay them with a blessing.” That's how you get peace. Verse 11: Let them turn away from evil and do good; let them seek peace and pursue it. Is there anybody today who doesn't desire peace with the people in their lives? Why don't you lay down your arms; why don't you bless them? Why don't you speak well of them? Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3, it says: God has blessed us in Christ with every Spiritual blessing. The Greek word is ‘eulogia' from which we get ‘eulogy', which means ‘to speak well of'. God has spoken well of us in Christ with every Spiritual blessing in heavenly places. So when God speaks, He says: Let there be light", there's light. God has spoken every blessing over your life and my life if we are in Christ. What if we started to do the same? What if we spoke well of our enemy? What if we sought to understand their hurts and cover their backs and compensate for their weaknesses and leave their behaviour to God in prayer? Come on, what if? Some people won't like it - some people just won't like it, if they're enemies, they won't like it. But look what Peter writes in chapter 4 verse 8: Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining and like good stewards of the grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Well, when we decide to lay down our arms and stop fighting, some people won't like it but on the other hand, peace will probably break out and God is on our side. Now, who will harm you if you are eager to do what's good? But, even if peace doesn't break out, look at verse 14 of chapter 3: Even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Well, what happens if peace doesn't break out? A Radical Prayer for Peace Well, we are looking at what to do when we are in conflict - dealing with difficult people. And here in the third chapter of the first letter of Peter: First Peter chapter 3 - what we've seen is that we are called to stop repaying evil for evil and abuse for abuse but on the contrary repay it with a blessing. And then Peter goes on to say, in verse 13 of chapter 3: Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what's good, but even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear and do not be intimidated but in your hearts, sanctify Christ as Lord; for it is better ... Verse 17: For it is better to suffer for doing good if suffering should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil. What if the other side - the other person that we are in conflict with - this person who is putting us under pressure and putting us under fire, what if that person won't stop? What if we decide to stop and lay down our arms and say, “I'm not going … I'm not going to do this any more. I'm just going to bless you; I'm just going to be good to you; I'm just going to be nice to you; I'm going to speak well of you." And the other side keeps shooting? Well, we shouldn't be surprised because sometimes people do that, but even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. It's a promise from God. Don't be afraid of what they are afraid of and don't be intimidated. In other words, we don't have to be afraid any more because we have Christ. When I lay down my right to fight back against you, if you and I have been fighting, when I lay that down, I say: “I'm not going to do that any more.” I may still suffer for a time, but God says: “You are blessed, because you are doing what I have ask you to do, and you don't have to be afraid of what they're afraid of because you have Jesus.” And when it hurts, run to Jesus, get close, get intimate with God but don't be surprised because sometimes we do suffer for good and it's not fair. I mean, I think verse 17 of chapter 3 is kind of counter intuitive. Look at it: For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil. Now, we have it the other way around. We say, “well, you know, if I've done something wrong I kind of expect to suffer but if I'm doing the right thing, I shouldn't be suffering.” You know, we're out rebuking the devil, well, sometimes we do. And God says, “it's better that you suffer for doing right.” Even though it's unfair; even though it shouldn't happen, it's much better that we suffer for doing right than doing something wrong. This is radical stuff! This is turning our human understanding completely on its ear. Why? Because it's a missional outcome; because holy living is mission. Because being Christ, sharing in His suffering, shows an authenticity; a Spiritual authenticity that actually people are looking for. That's why they flock to War Memorials once a year - they're looking for some authenticity in suffering and when they see us not fighting back, then all of a sudden they say, “you know, that joker's different to me. That person has got something that I want.” This whole letter from Peter is about hope amidst persecution and to live that hope, to experience that peace, he's saying, “you do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse, but on the contrary, repay with a blessing.” Lay down your arms. Are you fighting a battle with someone? Are you under pressure; are you under fire from the enemy? And your blood boils and you just want to kill this person. Lay down your arms! Let them shoot - let them shoot as much as they like: let them criticize as much as they like; let them stab you in the back and go behind your back as much as they like. Lay down your arms. Bless them; speak well of them; bless them with your abilities and your talents and your gift - with whatever you have - look as good stewards of the grace of God. Chapter 4 verse 10: Serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. This isn't just about stopping the battle; it's about repaying evil with good. It's being proactive. It's not walking away, it's not de-taunt, its saying, “you know, the only thing that's going to change the darkness, is if I shine God's light into this place.” That's why it's so radical. Jesus going to the cross was radical. God nailed to a piece of wood! It looked like God was losing - it was the greatest of victory in all history because Jesus bought your life and my life for all eternity. And when you and I take up our cross; when you and I become a living sacrifice; when you and I say, “you know something, if I'm going to be a real Christ follower, I've got to look like Jesus; I've got to be like Jesus and some days that means I have to suffer like Jesus.” All of a sudden people see something different in us and when it hurts; when it's unfair; when we just can't take it any more, then we go to Him and we pray for our enemy. We pray: “Father, this person … this person who's hurting me, this person who's going behind my back, this person who's putting me under fire, Father I pray that you would bless them. I pray your grace upon them. I pray your prosperity upon them. I pray your love and your mercy over their lives.” Is that radical? It's just as radical as Jesus hanging on the cross, looking down at the people who nailed Him there - who were dividing up His clothes - saying, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” This is where our faith hits the road and the chances are peace will probably break out but even if it doesn't, God will bless us and that's worth so much more than anything else. Flick over to First Peter chapter 4 verse 19. Peter writes this - he says: Therefore let those who are suffering in accordance with God's will entrust themselves to a faithful creator while still continuing to do good. And chapter 5 verse 6: Humble yourself therefore under the mighty hand of God so that He may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety and cares on Him because He cares for you. We are allowed to throw ourselves on the mercy of God. If we are doing His will, if we are living out like Jesus, we can go to God and say, “Lord, this hurts, this is hard, I'm not doing it easy, I'm doing it tough, but I'm doing it for you and I will love this person and I will pray your blessing on this person and I will bless them with everything that I am and everything that I have.” And with these Scriptures ringing in our hearts, we can close our eyes and picture our greatest enemy and say, “Father God, in the name of Jesus Christ, I pray that you would bless this person. I pray Lord, that you would not just bless them a little bit, I pray that you would bless this person so abundantly that they can't imagine how wonderful you are.” That's what Jesus calls us to. That's what it means to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. That's what it means not to be conformed to the ways of this world - that's what it means to become a living sacrifice. Come on! This is where our faith hits the road - when we are under fire; when we are dealing with difficult people; when it's not fair; when it hurts; when it's tough - then the world looks at us and says, “does this person look like Jesus?” Or is this person just like me - just like one of us? I really encourage you to take God's Word, take First Peter; it's only a few pages long - read it from beginning to end. It'll take twenty minutes - and see what God says about suffering when it's just not fair. That's what Christ did for me, that's what Christ did for you and if we are to be Christ to a lost world and a fallen world, that is what God calls us to when we are under fire from the enemy.
So I wonder – who's the most difficult person in your life right now? Chances are you can picture their face. Well I'd like to spend some time with you chatting about the number one most difficult person in your life. When People Look at Us Let me ask you a question: when the world looks at the church, what does it see? When people look at the church of Jesus Christ, what is it they see in the media image? Sexual abuse on the news, division amongst denominations, people who mean well demonstrating against this, that and the other! It sees a bunch of people who say one thing and do another. On the one thing we profess God‘s love, on the other, well, the church seems to be saying, in it's media image, “do this, don't do that, but by the way, don't mind the fact that we have systematically covered up sexual abuse of children for decades." There's a name for that and it's called ‘hypocrisy' and the world hates hypocrisy. You and I hate hypocrisy. What do people expect to see when they look at God's people? What do people expect to see? Tony Campolo is a wonderful man out of the U.S., you may have heard of him. He just a wonderful minister of God's Word and he often asks young people, when he meets them in universities: “What's the one thing that you know that Jesus said?” and mostly people say this - mostly people remember that Jesus said: “Love your enemy!” And too often it seems that we as God's people; as Christians, are kind of telling people how far they have strayed from God. You know, we talk about this social issue, or that social issue, instead of reaching out to people and telling them how close God really is in Jesus Christ. Well that's the big picture; that's the macro. What about the micro? What about you and me? When they look at us, what do they see? Do they see, ‘love your enemy'? First John chapter 4 verse 7 says this: Let us love one another for love comes from God ... And when you look at Jesus, when you look at how He dealt with people and what He taught and what He spoke about, the biggest thing for Him was that love-walk; the biggest thing for Him was valuing people and loving them into the Kingdom of God. We got a new revelation of who God is when Jesus arrived and then when you look at the rest of the New Testament, the Epistles that come after the Gospels, the letters that were written amongst the New Testament church when Jesus had risen again, more and more you see that revelation expounded as ‘walk in love'. Love God and love other people. John Grey, the author of that famous book, 'Men Are From Mars and Women are From Venus', makes a very interesting point in that book. He says that very few people ever grow in love. Why is that? Because loving is difficult. The people we love can be difficult sometimes. Forty five percent of marriages - almost half - fail. I wonder of those that are left, how many of them are lousy marriages? We want to love; it's not enough to want to love, we actually need to know how to love, I really believe that. Let me just say that again. It's not enough for us to know that we ought to walk in love; we actually need to know how to do that. And so on Christianityworks this week we are starting a series of four messages called Dealing With Difficult People. Because difficult people are all around us, difficult relationships are all around us and our ability to look like Jesus and be like Jesus and love like Jesus, depends on our ability to deal with the difficult people in our lives - those that Jesus referred to as our enemies. Let me ask you, who's the most difficult person you'll ever meet? Just close your eyes for a minute and visualise the most difficult person you ever met. I'm sure you can see their face and it stirs up emotions in you. Now open your eyes. If I had a mirror I'd be standing in front of you holding up the mirror and saying, “Here, look at the most difficult person that you will ever meet.” Take a good look, because we look at ourselves for five, maybe ten minutes in the mirror in the morning and then we spend the rest of the day looking at other people. Day after day after day, we look at other people and sometimes the better we know them, the better we know their faults and weaknesses and their blind spots and we experience the things that they do to hurt us, or the things that they don't do to hurt us and we go from recognising their strengths and weaknesses to judging those. Now, it's right to look at someone and say, "this person is good at this and not good at that" and to assess them. But we can step over a line, where that good assessment of someone turns into judgement and that line is called, ‘anger and resentment'. When all of a sudden, what other people do to us or say to us or omit to do to us - when those things get us angry and resentful and vengeful - we have stepped over a very important line and all the time we forget that in order for us to have a difficult person in our lives we have to have a relationship with them. It's not so much that they are difficult people; it's that we are having a difficult relationship. It takes two to tango, as the saying goes. And sometime as we get to know these people better and their weaknesses hurt us and their failures grate up against our personalities, we can start to judge them. Instead of looking at them through God's eyes, we end up looking at them through the devil's eyes. Jesus said: “You've heard it said, 'Don't murder' and anyone who murders will be subject to judgement, but I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother, is subject to judgement.” Well, what is that judgement? What does that look like? Why do we go there? The Anatomy of Judgement So what is it, what happens when we run into a difficult person and we step over that line, we step over the line from a sober assessment of who they are into that realm of judgement and resentment? Well, Jesus talked about that because it was an important issue - was two thousand years ago, it still is today. This is what He said, if you have a Bible, grab it, you can open it at Matthew's Gospel; first Book in the New Testament, chapter 6 verse 22, Matthew 6:22, this is what he said. He said: The eye is the lamp of the body so if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. And when the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? The eye, when you think about it, is our major organ of perception. We see the world through our eyes and Jesus was using it here as a metaphor. It's true in the physical sense but it's also true in an emotional and spiritual sense. How we see things, often becomes the problem when we are having a relationship that is difficult. Now if the eye is healthy then we'll see light; we'll see things the way that they are but Jesus says: If the eye is unhealthy then you will be full of darkness and how dark is that darkness? When we get a wrong perspective, it kind of creeps up on you. I suffer from Glaucoma which is a disease of the eye where the pressure in your eye ultimately damages the optic nerve that carries the images back to your brain, and it happens very gradually. You lose your peripheral vision and all of a sudden you can barely see and by then it's too late. Now fortunately, for me, they caught it early and I've got treatment and I can see just fine. But when our eye is diseased; when our perception is diseased, we often don't notice that it's going on. Have a listen to this wonderful story, it was written by Frank Koche, in the magazine 'Proceedings' which is the magazine of the U.S. Naval Institute. This is what he writes. He says: Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been sent on manoeuvres in heavy weather for several days. I was serving on the lead battleship and I was on watch on the bridge when night fell. The visibility was poor, with patchy fog so the Captain remained on the bridge to keep an eye on all activities. Shortly after dark, the look-out on the wing of the bridge reported: “Light bearing on the starboard bow.” “Is it steady or moving astern?” the Captain called out. The look-out replied: “Steady, Captain,” which meant that we were on a dangerous collision course with that ship. The Captain then called to the signalman. He said: “Signal that ship. We are on a collision course, advise that you change course twenty degrees.” Back came a signal: “Advise for you to change course twenty degrees.” And the Captain said: “Send - “I am a Captain, change course twenty degrees.” “I'm a seaman second class” came back the reply, “You'd better change course twenty degrees.” By that time the Captain was furious and he spat out: “Send - I'm a battleship, change course twenty degrees.” Back came the flashing light: “I'm a lighthouse.” We changed course twenty degrees.” The Captain was caught in a fog. Now there were two battleships out there on exercise and he thought that that other light was a battleship but he had fog; he couldn't see properly. He was trying to keep an eye on things but he's vision was clouded. The picture in his head was of two ships and he relied on the picture in his head and the picture was wrong, yet he got angry even though it was because he had the wrong picture in his head and that is exactly what we do. We have a map in our head of other people and why they do what they do and how they do it and what they're doing to us. We have this map in our head of other people and sometimes it gets distorted. Sometimes we don't have the right end of the stick. Sometimes our vision is clouded and we just get it plain wrong. Maybe if we're insecure, we want other people to walk on egg-shells because of our insecurity. Maybe if we are arrogant we want other people to be perfect, made in our image. You know, perfection is always: they're exactly like me. Maybe if we've got selfish ambition we want people to get out of our road so that we can go and do what we want to do. The list goes on. Not so long ago, I visited a city; a large city that I used to live in, and I had an old street directory and I was trying to travel from point A to point B in the centre of the city in my car. And I got to a point and I discovered all of a sudden, they had put a pedestrian mall in the middle of one of the main streets, I had the wrong map. And when we do that in our relationships with other people, it can be a painful thing. Our past hurts or our own weaknesses or our own sin, all of those things - the devil uses those to destroy our relationships. We see things through the lens of our experiences. I wear glasses, maybe you wear glasses, maybe you don't, but we see things through the lens of who we are, our strengths and weaknesses, of our experiences, of our past, of our insecurities. If we looked at some of the people in our lives who are so difficult, the ones who hurt us and disappoints us, the ones who we've made our enemies - if we knew the hurts and disappointments in their lives, that make them do what they do, it would be enough to stop us from any feelings of hostility or anger or anything like that. ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness and if the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness.' In other words if you think you are seeing light and clearly, but actually it is distorted, boy, that is a really, really bad place to be. Come on, isn't it sometimes the problems in our relationships are not so much what other people are doing but how we see the world? What are the things in my life; what are the things in your life that distort our view of exactly what's going on? How is it that we can see clearly? Don't Judge We are talking about judgement. We are talking about dealing with difficult people and how it is sometimes that we get all hurt by what other people do. When so often it's got to do with our own failures and our own weaknesses and the way we see the world based on who we are. Again Jesus talked about this, open a Bible, if you've got one, at Matthew chapter 7 verse 1, this is what He said. He said: Do not judge so that you may not be judged. For with the judgement that you make, you will be judged and the measure you give will be the measure that you get.” Now under what circumstances, according to Jesus, is it ok to judge other people? Never! “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. Wow! Because judgement is about anger and retribution, when I judge you, I want my pound of flesh; I want to tear you apart. Yea, that's what we are like as people and Jesus is saying: “It's not your job. Don't judge other people.” Boy that's hard! Have a look at Romans chapter 12 verse 19, just flick there for a moment. This is what the Apostle Paul writes: Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God because it's written: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Now if your enemies are hungry, feed them, if they're thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads. Do not overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. If I judge what, God is going to judge me? God will judge me by the same rules that I apply to judging other people. Look at it - back to Matthew chapter 7, where Jesus was talking. He said: Why is it that you see the speck in your neighbour's eye but you don't notice the log in your own eye. Or how can you say to your neighbour; “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” while there's a log in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye and then you'll see clearly enough to take the speck out of your neighbour's eye. The log in my eye, the log in your eye, that's our failures and our weaknesses and our downsides and our sin - that's what causes our perception to be distorted. Come on, if I'm an insecure person, am I going to expect everybody to walk on egg-shells for me? If I'm an arrogant person, am I going to expect them all to kow-tow to me? Or am I going to humble myself and take the log out of my eye. If I'm on a mission; I've got a goal in life that's not from God and I want to roll over the top of people, will I lay it down? This stuff's not easy because, the log in our own eye, we don't want to know it's there. We don't want to admit that we have a log in our own eye, but we sometimes do. It's not easy to get rid of - that's why we need the Holy Spirit; that's why we need the Word of God. That's why you and I are together right now. We can be such slackos but what if - what if we put determination and humility in our hearts? What if we came to Jesus and said: “Lord, I've heard your Word and I confess this log. I confess my own poverty, I confess my complete inability to do anything about it, except to lay it at your feet - to lay it at the foot of the cross - and say: “Lord I need your help.” Because you know something - anything less is hypocrisy. The word ‘hypocrisy' that Jesus uses there, means an actor who is two faced. The world hates hypocrites - you and I hate hypocrites. How can we be hypocrites? How can we walk around with a log in our eye and say to a neighbour: “You've got a speck in yours.” Come on! Now does that mean that we can never deal with someone else's problem? No! That's not what Jesus said. Have a look at chapter 7 verse 5 of Matthew again. He said: You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour's eye. Because when we take out the log; when we take out our failures out of the equation, when we take off the devil's glasses and put on God's glasses and we see the world clearly through His eyes, through God's Word, through who He is, all of a sudden the judgement goes away, a desire for anger and revenge goes away. You and I, we can't genuinely help anybody when we are angry with them. Can I say that again? We can't genuinely help anybody to take the speck out of their eye when we are angry with them. All we can give them is cynical, self-serving and self-seeking hypocrisy and judgement. First we need take the log out of our own eyes, first we need to admit that maybe our own insecurities are ruining this relationship. Maybe our own selfishness is ruining this relationship. Maybe some unrealistic expectations are ruining this relationship. Jesus said: “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees. You hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and plate but inside they're full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup so that the outside may also become clean.” How do I deal with difficult people? For me, the first step is saying, ‘I'm the most difficult person I will ever meet. I am with me 24/7, I am with me every minute of every day of every week of every month of every year for the rest of my life on this earth and Jesus is saying to me, Jesus is saying to you: Examine your own motives in the light of God's Word and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Have a look again at the Book of Romans, if you will, with me - chapter 5 verses 6 to 8. Paul writes this. He says: For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though perhaps, for a good person, someone might actually dare to die, but God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. When you and I were still sinners; when we were in enmity to God, God proved His love for us, by looking beyond our sin. He didn't let the hurt that He felt at our sin, immobilise Him or deter Him from the cross. We all know John 3:16 - that's the good news, because: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him won't perish but have eternal life. But what about First John 3:16 - that letter toward the end of the New Testament - what does that say? Gotta remember this one too, it says this: “We know love by this - that He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for each other. In other words be imitators of God.” We are made to be like God - not to be God - but to be like God. We're made in His image and the one thing that stops us from that is our sin, our weaknesses and our failures and Jesus is saying: Take the log out of your eye. Because as long as you carry it round, you are the most difficult person you will ever meet and when you can see clearly - when you can see through my eyes - when you can see your enemies as the people who God created and God loves, as people made in His image, all of a sudden life becomes a lot better. All of a sudden it becomes so much easier to deal with those difficult people, when we acknowledge that we are part of the difficulty in that relationship. It takes courage to identify the log in your eye. You know, it takes determination to cast it out. It takes humility to love your enemy. So how about it? Don't underestimate it - this is a huge thing. It's being prepared to change our perspective; to lay our pride down, to struggle through this over and over again, to die to ourselves for the glory of Jesus Christ. When they look at you, when they look at me, will they see someone and say: “Now there's someone that's like Jesus, there is someone who heard Jesus say: 'Love your enemy.'” Come on, will they?
Becoming spiritual doesn't create a divide that separates us from the rest of the world, but rather generates within us a compassion for the poor and oppressed. Spirituality that does not result in social activism is selfish and social action that is not infused with God's Spirit will leave you disillusioned and burned out. Tony shares thoughts on how an evangelical can marry both their faith and social action.
You go faster alone, but you can go further together: Why ‘The Big Society' failed and how we can make it work again. In this episode Steve's guest and expert witness is Marvin Rees, the Mayor of Bristol. In part one Steve sets out his third principle, in part two Marvin responds. “This is my conversation with my guest and expert witness Marvin Rees, the Mayor of Bristol. We talk together about Principle 3: You go faster alone, but you can go further together. I really enjoyed my conversation with Marvin because through the lockdowns, through the pandemic, through COVID, I had the opportunity of working with Marvin in Bristol where Oasis runs a number of schools, and I watched a man who knew how to build a team do exactly that. Bristol is an incredible city. A city that's learned that you may go faster alone, but you get a lot further together.” – Steve ChalkeAbout Marvin Rees Marvin Rees was first elected mayor of Bristol in May 2016, and re-elected in 2021, making Bristol the first major European city to have elected a black mayor. Marvin began his working life with Tearfund, one of the UK's leading international development agencies, before working in Washington D.C with US social justice organisation, Sojourners, and advisor to President Clinton, Dr Tony Campolo. Marvin also worked with the BBC as a broadcast journalist, with the Black Development Agency supporting the BME-led voluntary sector, and in NHS Bristol's Public Health team on race equality in mental health. Awarded an OBE for services to local government in King Charles' first New Year's Honours list, Marvin is also a Yale World Fellow and was named fourth on the UK black Powerlist in 2024. About this podcast series This podcast series, and the accompanying book by Steve Chalke, sets out ten tried and tested practical principles for ‘how' to develop joined up, cost effective, community empowering work, gleaned from the hard-won experience that sit at the heart of the mission of Oasis over the last four decades. Steve talks to 13 expert witnesses who help him bring his book to life with their own thoughts and lived experiences.We believe it's time for a radical reset. It's time for A Manifesto for Hope!Steve's book is available wherever you buy your books but we recommend you buy it from Bookshop.org an online bookshop with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.This book is also available on Audible.The Manifesto for Hope podcast is brought to you by Oasis. Our producer is Peter Kerwood and the sound and mix engineer is Matteo Magariello. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
You go faster alone, but you can go further together: Why ‘The Big Society' failed and how we can make it work again. In this episode Steve's guest and expert witness is Marvin Rees, the Mayor of Bristol. In part one Steve sets out his third principle, in part two Marvin responds. “This is my conversation with my guest and expert witness Marvin Rees, the Mayor of Bristol. We talk together about Principle 3: You go faster alone, but you can go further together. I really enjoyed my conversation with Marvin because through the lockdowns, through the pandemic, through COVID, I had the opportunity of working with Marvin in Bristol where Oasis runs a number of schools, and I watched a man who knew how to build a team do exactly that. Bristol is an incredible city. A city that's learned that you may go faster alone, but you get a lot further together.” – Steve ChalkeAbout Marvin Rees Marvin Rees was first elected mayor of Bristol in May 2016, and re-elected in 2021, making Bristol the first major European city to have elected a black mayor. Marvin began his working life with Tearfund, one of the UK's leading international development agencies, before working in Washington D.C with US social justice organisation, Sojourners, and advisor to President Clinton, Dr Tony Campolo. Marvin also worked with the BBC as a broadcast journalist, with the Black Development Agency supporting the BME-led voluntary sector, and in NHS Bristol's Public Health team on race equality in mental health. Awarded an OBE for services to local government in King Charles' first New Year's Honours list, Marvin is also a Yale World Fellow and was named fourth on the UK black Powerlist in 2024. About this podcast series This podcast series, and the accompanying book by Steve Chalke, sets out ten tried and tested practical principles for ‘how' to develop joined up, cost effective, community empowering work, gleaned from the hard-won experience that sit at the heart of the mission of Oasis over the last four decades. Steve talks to 13 expert witnesses who help him bring his book to life with their own thoughts and lived experiences.We believe it's time for a radical reset. It's time for A Manifesto for Hope!Steve's book is available wherever you buy your books but we recommend you buy it from Bookshop.org an online bookshop with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.This book is also available on Audible.The Manifesto for Hope podcast is brought to you by Oasis. Our producer is Peter Kerwood and the sound and mix engineer is Matteo Magariello. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In 2021 we spoke with Bart Campolo, a secular community builder, counsellor and writer who served as the Humanist Chaplain at the University of Cincinnati. He is the son of Evangelical celebrity preacher and author, Tony Campolo, with whom he made a movie about leaving Evangelical Christianity. You can connect with Bart at bartcampolo.org/ and find his podcast, Humanize Me on all good platforms. You can stream Leaving My Father's Faith here: https://campolofilm.com/ -- Transcript of the episode is here. Podcast links: https://linktr.ee/iwatf Email: hhandhillsong@gmail.com Doubting your beliefs? Have questions about changing or leaving your faith? You are not alone and Recovering from Religion is here to help. Please visit: https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/
Dr. Sharp's expansive book, The Other Evangelicals, dials back the clock to the early days of evangelicalism. Isaac identifies a significant collection of high-profile, self-identified "evangelical" Christians who just do not fit the current stereotype. Some were liberal, others black or progressive or feminist even gay. What these believers have in common is that they were ultimately rejected as "evangelicals" by the self-appointed gatekeepers of the movement. In this PART II of this series, Ken and Dr. Sharp begin with a discussion of the Bible - as the inerrant and infallible authority over the movement as argued by Harold Lindsell in his Battle for the Bible. It's not just the book itself, but the sectarian interpretation of the book that for many becomes non-negotiable for many. Women like Letha Scanzoni, Nancy Hardesty and Virginia Mollenkott engaged feminism as part of their biblical faith. Dr. David Gushee (Sharp's academic advisor turned literary colleague) challenges evangelicalism's condemnation of the LGBTQ+ community. They talk about Dr. Ralph Blair, an ardent biblical Christian psychologist, and his critique of "pray-it-away" reparative therapy. The Exodus International, promoted by Rev. Jerry Falwell, represented itself as a biblical ministry that existed to "cure" homosexuality. But it was ceremoniously shut down by founder Alan Chambers. Lawsuits, abuse and documented psychological harm overwhelmed the operation and led to its demise. John R. W. Stott and Tony Campolo challenged evangelical assumptions, but their advice went unheeded. In the era of Trumpism, evangelicals virtually eliminated these non-conformists from their exclusive tribe. In spite of the efforts of these biblical voices, evangelicalism has become the domain of white, conservative Republicanism. SHOW NOTESBecome a Patron: www.patreon.com/beachedwhitemaleSupport the show
Shane Claiborne is a best-selling author, renowned activist, sought-after speaker, and self-proclaimed “recovering sinner.” Shane writes and speaks around the world about peacemaking, social justice & Jesus, and is the author of several books including "The Irresistible Revolution," "Jesus for President," and his newest book "Beating Guns." He is the visionary leader of The Simple Way in Philadelphia and co-director of Red Letter Christians in the US, alongside Tony Campolo.
In this episode of Citizens' Climate Change, we explore the intersection between the Bible and climate change. More specifically, we discuss the Christian faith and how it inspires its followers to advocate for the planet. Pastor Kyle Meyaard Schaap, husband, father, and self-described disciple of Jesus, is Vice President of the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN). EEN is a ministry that educates, inspires, and mobilizes Christians in their effort to care for God's creation. Pastor Schaap is also of the book, Following Jesus in a Warming World: A Christian Call to Climate Action. It was published by Intervarsity Press, and is a memoir and theological field guide written for millennials and Gen Z believers. His message is that there is a space for Christians in the environmentalist movement. In fact, Pastor Schaap reminds us that the Bible starts off with Genesis where God gives man authority over creation. Schaap reveals to us how his faith as a Chrisitan inspires his climate work. Jesus asked his followers to love their neighbor as themselves, and Schaap asks Christians to extend this invitation to love all things including the natural world. Even further, Pastor Schaap suggests as Christians strive to be like Jesus, they must be impatient for the Kingdom of God. He urges fellow Christians to commit to creation care. “Our hope, and God's good plans for the world, has always been more stubborn than our fear of our ability to derail them.” - Kyle Meyaard Schaap A Climate Life Verse Ruth Abraham, a member of the Citizens Climate Radio team, shares with us the Bible verse that speaks to her about creation care and our need to clean up the pollution in the world. She is inspired by the Christman hymn, Joy to the World, which was written by Isaac Watts, and a verse in Luke's Gospel. Luke Chapter 2 verse 7 “And Mary gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Joy to the world,/ the Lord is come Let Earth receive her King / Let every heart / prepare Him room And Heaven and nature sing And Heaven and nature sing /(say it with me now)/ And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing But the resonating line for Ruth is / “prepare Him room.” In light of the humble reception Jesus received when he first arrived on earth, she recommends we consider how to prepare for his second coming. For Ruth, that means cleaning the air and water that God has gifted to us. Take a Meaningful Next Step Each month we will suggest meaningful, achievable, and measurable next steps for you to consider. We recognize that action is an antidote to despair. If you are struggling with what you can do, consider one of the following next steps. If you are a trained clergy or a lay minister, the Red Cross is actively looking for volunteers to provide spiritual support to people who experienced a disaster. Besides big regional disasters like hurricanes, tornados, and wildfires, the Red Cross also responds to local disasters like housefires. Learn about the many volunteer opportunities at RedCross.org. World Vision focuses on helping the most vulnerable children overcome poverty so they can experience the fullness of life. Inspired by their Christian faith, they help children of all backgrounds, even in the most dangerous places. Part of this work includes disaster management. As storms and floods have increased, so has the efforts of groups like World vision. They also assist during disasters caused by extreme weather and political crisis. Learn how you can get involved in their Emergency support efforts. Dig Deeper I'm a Climate Scientist Who Believes in God. Hear Me Out. - The New York Times Citizens Climate Radio episode 30 What Does the Bible Say about Climate Change? God Uses Changing Climates to Change Societies (Christianity Today) Citizens Climate Radio episode 56 Rev. Tony Campolo's Call to Save Creation Resilience Corner “Resilience is about recognizing a challenge and moving through it, so that we're a little bit stronger on the other side of it.” Tamara Stanton, returns this episode with a new series: Resilient Climate-teering through Unexpected Climate Connections. The goal is to have you, the listener, worry less and act more. After revealing the motivation behind the name “Climate-Teering.” Staton begins to equip us with the tools necessary to combat the inevitable challenges that come alongside climate change. She reminds us that resilient minds respond to conflict with an, “I got this,” attitude. Good News CCR's very own intern, Lila Powell, delivers a story about various faith groups who are collaborating to advance a climate preservation mission. In 2022, Egypt hosted COP27. In attendance were several religious institutions and a wonderful demonstration of interfaith conversations in support of climate policy. In addition to committees, some faith groups have gone as far as publically divesting from fossil fuels. It is a great step forward. For more links and full transcript, visit our full show notes
Scripture and Questions for Study and Reflection: Read John 8: 1-11.1. Why did the Pharisees only bring the woman caught in adultery, and not the man also? What ulterior motive did the Pharisees have in bringing this woman before Jesus?2. What was the significance of Jesus bending down and writing in the sand? What did that gesture mean in his cultural context?3. What was Jesus' response to the Pharisees that allowed him to spare the woman's life without breaking the Law? What does this teach us about judging others? About grace?4. How did the story about Tony Campolo and the prostitute named Agnus make you feel? To what kind of church did Tony Campolo say he belonged?5. Pastor Mick said “grace comes first” and “grace precedes transformation.” What did he mean by that? How does that apply to today's passage? Do you agree with Pastor Mick's assessment? Why/why not?6. How do you think Jesus would respond to the woman caught in adultery if he saw her again in the future and she was still committing adultery? Would he condemn her? Would he stone her? Would he forgive her?7. Do you think true repentance happens quickly and completely, or is it something we have to work on for the rest of our lives?8. What does it mean for us that Jesus did not condone the woman's behavior, but neither did he condemn her? How does this inform us of the way we should treat ourselves and others?Prayer for the Week:Lord Jesus, thank you for accepting us despite our sin. Help us in turnto be more accepting of others. Help us to put down our stones and extend a hand of grace. Help us to remind others that they too are beloved children of God and of sacred worth. And as we share this, and others hear it, may all of our lives be transformed more and more into your image, that we might change the world and advance your kingdom. We pray all of this in your name and to your glory, Lord Jesus. Amen.
This week's episode contains two teachings from Sandy Simpson. The first is, “The Fallacious Arguments of Neo-Universalists” is from a DVD Sandy produced in the early to mid-2000's. In it, he discusses some of the beliefs from the Emerging. Some of the leaders of the Emerging church are Brian McLaren, Leonard Sweet, Rick Warren, Tony Campolo, and even Billy Graham. The second teaching in this episode is from an article Sandy wrote in 2005 called, “The Fallacies of the Third Wave Spiritual Warfare Teachings”. Sandy discusses the book, “Portals to Cleansing” by Dr. Henry Malone and why it's in error compared to the Scriptures.The article Sandy mentions can be found on his website: DeceptionInTheChurch.com.
In this week's episode, Phil and Susie talk with Humanist Chaplain, Licensed Clinical Counselor, Coach, and our Good Human of the Week, Bart Campolo. Bart is the longtime host of the Humanize Me Podcast, author of "Why I Left, Why I Stayed" which he cowrote with his famous, evangelical father, Tony Campolo, following his deconversion from a life as a professional Christian, pastor, and evangelist He served as the first humanist chaplain at USC and now serves his community as a therapist and coach in Cincinnati and around the world. Our conversation covers a wide variety of topics, especially around the idea of morality, humanism, having meaningful conversations with people we care about, how to make the world a better place in a secular way, and so much more. Bart's Links: https://humanizemepodcast.com/ https://www.patreon.com/humanizeme https://bartcampolo.org/ Follow us on Facebook @flawedtheologypodcast Join our Facebook group "Dangerous Questions" Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube Listen and Subscribe on Google, Apple, Spotify, and anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts.
Randall Balmer is a scholar, professor, author, documentarian (Emmy nominee), and Episcopalian Priest. Ken and Dr. Balmer talk about his new book, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right. They discuss notable players in the movement like Senator Mark Hatfield, Harold O.J. Brown, W.A. Criswell, Paul Weyrich, Ralph Reed, and Richard Land. In the right's celebration of Ronald Reagan, the religious right movement did not, as many believe, begin as pro-Life but rather defending evangelical institutions against the IRS which required compliance with the Civil Rights law. The genesis of the Religious Right had nothing to do with abortion - it was racial segregation. The bridge to understanding the election of Donald Trump is Ronald Raegan - as evangelicals abandoned Jimmy Carter. Ronald Reagan launched his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi at the Neshoba County Fair, confirming "State's Rights." The church basement classic, Thief in the Night. was inspired by Dr. Balmer's pastor father's sermon series on Revelation preached in his home church in Iowa in 1974. It's the story of The Rapture and Larry Norman's popular song "I wish we'd all been ready." College and graduate school introduced Dr. Balmer to the life of the mind. They remember Billy Graham's crisis of faith. In 1994, Dr. Balmer's book 1989 Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory became a PBS Documentary and featured Tony Campolo, Dolphus Weary, Fred Price, Bill Hybels, the black church in Mississippi, Hispanic Pentecostals, Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, and many others. Today, in addition to his academic profession, Dr. Balmer is an Episcopalian priest - he shares the journey that led him to his ordination in the church. Learn More at our SHOW NOTESBECOME A PATRON of the BWM PodcastSupport the show
================================================== ==SUSCRIBETEhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNpffyr-7_zP1x1lS89ByaQ?sub_confirmation=1================================================== == DEVOCIÓN MATUTINA PARA ADULTOS 2022“NUESTRO MARAVILLOSO DIOS”Narrado por: Roberto NavarroDesde: Chiapas, MéxicoUna cortesía de DR'Ministries y Canaan Seventh-Day Adventist Church 01 DE SEPTIEMBRE «PERO DIOS...»«Es difícil que alguien muera por un justo, aunque tal vez haya quien se atreva a morir por una persona buena. Pero Dios muestra su amor por nosotros en que, cuando aún éramos pecadores, Cristo murió por nosotros». Romanos 5:7-8, RVC¿QUÉ ES LO MÁXIMO QUE PODRÍAMOS ESTAR DISPUESTOS a hacer por una persona buena, a la que, además, amamos? Sacrificarnos por ella. Pero sabemos que esto es más fácil decirlo que hacerlo, como lo muestra el siguiente relato que cuenta Tony Campolo.Es la historia de dos amigos que iban viajando por tren en Londres cuando uno de ellos sufrió un ataque de epilepsia. En cuestión de segundos, el hombre cayó al suelo, convulsionando. Sin pérdida de tiempo, el otro se quitó su chaqueta, la enrolló y la puso bajo la cabeza de su amigo en forma de almohada y, mientras secaba las gruesas gotas de sudor en su frente, le hablaba suavemente para calmarlo. Cuando ya lo peor había pasado, lo colocó de regreso en el asiento. Luego explicó por qué ayudó a su amigo con tanta solicitud.El caso es que los dos hombres habían batallado juntos en Vietnam. En una ocasión los dos resultaron heridos; él con dos balazos en las piernas y su amigo, uno en el hombro, pero el helicóptero que debía rescatarlos nunca llegó. Entonces él le dijo a su amigo que lo dejara y que él huyera para salvarse, pero no quiso dejarlo. Durante tres días y medio cargó con él, a pesar de estar muy herido.¿Qué estaba haciendo el ahora por quien le salvó la vida? El hombre explicó que hace cuatro años, cuando supo de la enfermedad de su amigo, vendió su apartamento en Nueva York y con ese dinero viajó a Londres para cuidar de él.-Después de lo que mi amigo hizo por mí -dijo—, no hay nada que yo no estaría dispuesto a hacer por él. *¡Vaya ejemplo de lo que hace el amor por un amigo! ¿Pero haríamos lo mismo por un enemigo? Es aquí donde entra en juego nuestro texto para hoy. «No es fácil —dice Pablo— que alguien esté dispuesto a dar su vida por otra persona, aunque sea buena y honrada. Tal vez encontremos a alguien que diera su vida por alguna persona realmente buena. Pero Dios nos hizo su gran amor al enviar a Jesucristo a morir por nosotros, a pesar de que todavía éramos pecadores» (Rom. 5: 8, TLA).¿No es esto grandioso? Dios no esperó a que nos amistáramos con él para amarnos. Tampoco esperó a que nos arrepintiéramos para enviar a su Hijo a este mundo de tinieblas. ¡Cuando todavía éramos rebeldes, Cristo murió por nosotros! ¡Alabado mar Dios! Gracias, Padre celestial, porque «aun estando muertos en pecados» nos diste vida en Cristo (Efe. 2:5). Ayúdanos a vivir hoy como hijos tuyos que han sido perdonados por la preciosa sangre del Cordero.*Tony Campolo, Tú puedes marcar la diferencia, Word Publishing. 1984, págs. 58-59.
On today's Bible Answer Man broadcast (08/09/22), Hank answers the following questions:Do the teachings of Red Letter Christians like Tony Campolo comport with essential Christian doctrine?What is it about our transformation that when we get to heaven, we will not be able to sin?Why do you discourage people from discerning the time of Christ's coming when Jesus talks about discerning the signs of the times in Matthew 16:2-3?What makes homosexuality so much worse than gluttony, and why do preachers seem to ignore being overweight?With so many different denominations and different views, how can we know the correct interpretation of the Bible?
================================================== ==SUSCRIBETEhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNpffyr-7_zP1x1lS89ByaQ?sub_confirmation=1================================================== == DEVOCIÓN MATUTINA PARA ADULTOS 2022“NUESTRO MARAVILLOSO DIOS”Narrado por: Roberto NavarroDesde: Chiapas, MéxicoUna cortesía de DR'Ministries y Canaan Seventh-Day Adventist Church 09 DE JULIO¿TAMBIÉN HIJOS DE DIOS?«Este recibe a los pecadores y ven con ellos». Lucas 15: 1CUANDO LOS ESCRIBAS Y FARISEOS pronunciaron las palabras de nuestro texto de hoy, estaban muy molestos con Jesús. ¿Qué los molestaba tanto? Al menos, dos cosas.Lo primero, que Jesús «se juntara, con una simpatía tan visible, con los parias de la sociedad» (Palabras de vida del gran Maestro, cap. 15, p. 144). Lo segundo, que esas «parias» también parecían sentirse muy bien en la presencia del Señor porque, no solo lo buscaban, sino que «escuchaban con arrobada atención sus palabras >> (ibíd.). Así que la rabia de los rabinos era por partida doble: A quienes ellos entendieron «malditos» (ver Juan 7:49), «Cristo los saludaba como a hijos de Dios [...], apartados de la casa del Padre, pero no olvidados por el corazón del Padre» (ibíd., p. 145).¿Quiénes eran esos pecadores a quienes Jesús saludaba como a «hijos de Dios»? Según Albert Nolan, en la Palestina de ese tiempo entre los pecadores se contaban quienes desempeñaban trabajos considerados pecaminosos o impuros: las prostitutas, los cobradores de impuestos, los usureros, los apostadores...*Es difícil leer estas palabras ya la vez ignorar sus implicaciones: ¿También a las prostitutas las considera el Señor como «hijas»? ¿Qué diríamos de los homosexuales? A mi mente acude un relato que leí en un libro de Tony Campolo. Es la historia de un pastor que había oficiado el funeral de un homosexual que había muerto de sida. Cuenta este pastor que al sepelio acudieron unos veinticinco a treinta amigos del fallecido; al parecer, todos homosexuales, por la forma como vestían.Al concluir el servicio en el cementerio, ya él se separará del lugar cuando notó que ninguno de los presentes se movía. Entonces les preguntó si había algo más que podía hacer por ellos. Uno le pidió que leyera el Salmo 23. «Cuando me levanté esta mañana —dijo— pensé que me gustaría que alguien me leyera el Salmo 23». Al terminar, otro le pidió que leyera el pasaje de la Biblia que dice que nada nos puede separar del amor de Dios. Cuenta el pastor que cuando leyó que nada nos puede separar del amor de Dios, por primera vez vio señales de emoción en sus rostros. Luego vino otro pedido, seguido de otro, y otro. Durante casi una hora, el pastor estuvo leyendo los pasajes bíblicos favoritos de este grupo de homosexuales.Mientras leía este relato, no pude evitar que se me hiciera un nudo en la garganta. Tampoco pude evitar preguntarme: si ellos no han sido olvidados por el corazón del Padre, ¿qué estamos haciendo para atraerlos a la casa del Padre? ¿No son también «hijos de Dios»? Capacítame hoy, Padre, para no considerar a ningún ser humano como indigno de la sangre de Cristo. ¿Quién soy yo para condenar a quién tú llamas «hijos»?*Jesús ante el cristianismo, Nueva York: Orbis Book, 1999, p. 29. **Carpe Diem. Seize the Day, Dallas: Word Publishing, 1994, pp. 64-67.
#030 Is our society, our infrastructure, built to last? What if it's not? And what can we do, together, to prepare for that possibility? Bart Campolo is the son of famous Baptist evangelist Tony Campolo, and he's now a secular humanist who's hopeful but not optimistic about the future of humanity. So he's trying to get people thinking about how to cultivate resilient, loving communities that can withstand the challenges of the years ahead—communities that aren't necessarily bound together by beliefs. This is a super interesting—and challenging—episode. There's some swearing, too, so grab those headphones or keep the kids out of the room. Show notes and more at SmartPassiveIncome.com/cx030.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
After a number of close friends recently having passed away, Greig recalls his own father introducing him to a fascinating study of 95 yr olds as shared by Dr Tony Campolo in his brilliant sermon: “If I had it to do over”. (Scripture: Acts 13:36: “Now when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep;…”)
Milena y Mateo son mis artistas favoritos, eso no tiene discusión. Por eso guardé esta ocasión especial para invitarles a ambos a conversar en el podcast: el primer episodio del 2022. No solamente recordamos los orígenes de esta cofradía creativa que se gestó en el corazón de Dios desde la eternidad (modestia aparte), sino que también conversamos sobre los límites de la creatividad en el campo de la fe, la importancia de la comunidad en plena era de la deconstrucción y compartimos nuestros referentes creativos. Sin más preámbulo, con ustedes el Ministerio Posfundamentalista Intergaláctico Dos o Tres. Notas del episodio: Seguir a Milena en redes: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/panderetamilennial/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/panderetamilennial YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/panderetamilennial Seguir a Mateo en redes: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quilindomateo/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mateoquilindosoy/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MateoQuilindo Artistas que recomendamos escuchar y leer: Darwin Narváez: https://www.facebook.com/darwin.narvaez.5011 Mayra Pérez: https://www.youtube.com/c/MayraPerez Paula Ortiz: https://www.instagram.com/cres_pau/ Iván Skamarda: https://www.instagram.com/skamarda/ Noa Alarcón: https://lahigueradenoa.wordpress.com/ Samuel Lagunas: https://circulodepoesia.com/2021/01/poesia-mexicana-samuel-lagunas/ Ayelen Müller: https://www.youtube.com/c/AyelenM%C3%BCller Santiago Benavides: https://www.santibenavides.com/ Armir: https://www.youtube.com/c/ArmirLaBandaMusic Naked Pastor: https://nakedpastor.com/ Shane Claiborne: http://www.shaneclaiborne.com/ Tony Campolo: https://www.tonycampolo.org/ Pala: https://pala.com.co/ El duende Josele: https://duendejosele.com/ Wislawa Szymborska: https://circulodepoesia.com/2012/07/7-poemas-de-wislawa-szymborska/ Philip Yancey: https://philipyancey.com/ Mr. Rogers: https://www.fredrogers.org/ Ignacio Simal: https://www.facebook.com/IgnacioSimal/ Otras cosas que mencionamos en el episodio: El contenido de Dos o Tres: https://www.facebook.com/watch/1667612416890558/273931334429177/ La revista de Teocotidiana: http://teocotidiana.com/ El episodio de Notas Sueltas con Milena Forero: http://cancionerocristiano.co/2020/09/24/la-busqueda-de-dios-desde-la-mirada-de-una-mujer/ Mi primer live con Mateo: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CK5LX5fBq0V/ El semillero creativo Crea Solamente: https://www.facebook.com/groups/172218301183228 La charla de Milena sobre creatividad: http://cancionerocristiano.co/2021/03/09/super-poder-creativo/ El gol de James Rodríguez ganador del Premio Puskás: https://youtu.be/GESyL3MkgNU El video de Milena sobre el talento como servicio público: https://youtu.be/yVGX7nDADJo PREA Refugio, en Bogotá: http://prearefugio.org/ Un gol a la vida, en Popayán: https://www.facebook.com/Fundaci%C3%B3n-Un-Gol-A-La-Vida-980119502096319/ Guía del episodio: 00:00 | Introducción 05:04 | Breve presentación de Milena y Mateo y el origen de Dos o Tres 17:15 | Sobre desligar la creatividad de los lugares comunes de la fe 30:57 | Brillar haciendo brillar a los demás 40:12 | El sistema del mundo y la competencia que promueve 49:25 | El verdadero valor de la comunidad 01:09:32 | Artistas que recomendamos seguir 01:17:33 | Salutaciones finales Tema musical de Dos o Tres: X Files Theme - Cumbia Drive
Dr. Oord shares from Divine Echoes, Mark G. Karris' concept of conspiring prayer.
Bart Campolo is a secular community builder, counsellor and writer who serves as the Humanist Chaplain at the University of Cincinnati. He is the son of Evangelical celebrity preacher and author, Tony Campolo, with whom he made a movie about leaving Evangelical Christianity. You can connect with Bart at bartcampolo.org/ and find his podcast, Humanize Me on all good platforms. You can stream Leaving My Father's Faith here: https://campolofilm.com/ Our links: https://linktr.ee/iwatf Email us: hhandhillsong@gmail.com
This is the second half of our time with Bart Campolo, a secular community builder, counsellor and writer who serves as the Humanist Chaplain at the University of Cincinnati. He is the son of Evangelical celebrity preacher and author, Tony Campolo, with whom he made a movie about leaving Evangelical Christianity. You can connect with Bart at bartcampolo.org/ and find his podcast, Humanize Me on all good platforms. You can stream Leaving My Father's Faith here: https://campolofilm.com/ Our links: https://linktr.ee/iwatf Email us: hhandhillsong@gmail.com
We're going to talk about the B.I.B.L.E. and discuss whether it's the book for us. Where'd it come from? Is it truth? What is truth? Then we get deeper and deeper. Come follow along as we try to figure this out. What's the deal with the Bible? - 2:06 * Deconstructing is now a “thing” * Reconstruction is also important (https://www.relevantmagazine.com/magazine/how-to-deconstruct-your-faith-without-losing-it/) The 3 ‘I's of scripture - 7:32 * Inspired, Infallible, Inerrant (https://www.namb.net/apologetics/resource/the-three-i-s-of-scripture-inspired-interrant-infallible/) * Quotation confusion in the New Testament * Hebrews 8: 7-9 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%208%3A7-9&version=NIV) * Jeremiah 31:32 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+31%3A32&version=NIV) * Luke 24:45-47 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+24%3A+45-47&version=NIV) * Jude 14-15 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jude+14-15&version=NIV) * 1 Enoch 1:9 (https://www.ccel.org/c/charles/otpseudepig/enoch/ENOCH_1.HTM) * Things added later * “Cast the first stone” story - John 8:-11 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+8%3A1-11&version=NIV) * Biblical Chiasmus (https://www.chiasmusxchange.com/explanatory-notes/) * Mark 16:9-20 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2016&version=NIV) The Sacredness of Scripture - 28:01 * Book: “Red Letter Revolution” by Shaine Claiborne & Tony Campolo (https://amzn.to/3fn8O1q) * The sections of the Tanakh (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_Bible#Books_of_the_Tanakh) * “All scripture is useful…” 2 Tim 3:16-17 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Timothy%203%3A16-17&version=NIV) * Competitive Agency vs. Dual Agency * “Pray to God for Protection. Then Praise Him for Your Mask.” By Tish Harrison Warren (https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2021/march/covid-19-coronavirus-pandemic-gods-protection-mask.html) * “Liturgy of the Ordinary” By Tish Harrison Warren (https://amzn.to/3df8Jdi) A Toxic Relationship With the Bible - 48:03 * Putting too much of our faith on the 3 ‘I's can cause it all to crash down * The through-line of the Bible is the important thing * Coming to terms with imperfection is important Differently Important - 1:05:54 * Looking for the Truths instead of the Rules * From milk to meat - 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%203:1-3&version=NIV) * We want to stay with “incorrect vs. correct” but the Bible is pulling us in a different direction * Jesus taught in this direction - Matthew 5:17-48 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205%3A17-48&version=NIV) * It's not about the rule, it's about your heart and a relationship with God * Easter Letter of Athanasius (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_letter) * History of the New Testament Canon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_the_New_Testament_canon) * Q Source (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_source) * What's the minimum viable Bible? * Book: “Love Does” by Bob Goff (https://amzn.to/31puRMJ) * “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” (https://youtu.be/gMjRTCWAgB4) Join our Patreon (http://patreon.com/followingthefire) - we'd love your support and we have some fantastic patron perks!
EPISODE DESCRIPTION: In the last episode of the A-HA MOMENT Series (and the last episode of the entire year), Zena reflects back to a time when she was privileged to hear Tony Campolo speak at a Youth Conference. His topic: Rituals and Traditions. Tony argued that Rituals and Traditions have had a far greater impact on our lives than we have realized. For example, as a father, he had developed a bedtime ritual with his children. Regardless of what may have transpired throughout the day, this ritual would be observed, and the ritual was a way to make the world right again, of making his kids feel safe and protected, and of giving them hope for a better tomorrow.Tony went on to say that this was precisely what God had in mind when he created the 24 hour day. He pointed out that scientists really don't know why we need to sleep. Tony proposed that sleep was God's gift to mankind, a built in daily ritual to right our worlds, make us feel safe, and keep our hope alive. No matter what horrible things may have happened that day, when we go to bed that night, we can rest. The act itself is a whisper of hope: “This day is done. Tomorrow is new. Tomorrow will be better.” The same principle holds for the 365 days that make up a calendar year. Tony argued that God Himself had created the world to cycle through each season, only to come full circle so that we would have a chance to start again. No matter what has happened in the year before, no matter how much pain or suffering has been experienced, the New Year is God's gift to mankind, a cleansing of the past, and a built-in whisper of hope: “This Year is done. Tomorrow is a New Year. This Year will be better.”May the ritual of the New Year bring you peace, safety, and hope, and may we all step into a brighter tomorrow. Thank God for a New Year. CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEBSITE:Starting in January, The Storyteller's Mission will now be offering advanced online classes and other services for novelists and screenwriters. Check out our website at www.thestorytellersmission.com to sign up for our FIRST ACCESS EMAIL LIST so you'll be the first to hear about any new classes that become available for registration. UP NEXTThanks for listening to The Storyteller's Mission Podcast in 2020. Please join us again in the New Year as we launch into a new craft-oriented series on how to develop heroic characters.QUESTIONS OR TOPIC REQUESTS? If you have a question about this or any other episode, or if you have a specific topic that you would like Zena to address, click on the link below to leave a voicemail recording with your problem, question, or issue.https://www.speakpipe.com/ZenaDellLowe SPECIAL THANKSThe Storyteller's Mission with Zena Dell Lowe would like to thank composer Carla Patullo for the original music she graciously permits us to use in the intro and outro of this podcast. To find out more about this amazing talent, go to www.carlapatullo.com Support the show (https://paypal.me/missionranchfilms?locale.x=en_US)
"Hi Bart, I know in your podcast you talk a lot about people in 'suddenly interfaith' marriages, where one is a believer and the other has since left, and obviously there are obstacles, but what I want to know is: Does anything work? Is intimacy possible between people of radically different worldviews?" Bart's perspective: Sometimes. And there are some things that make it harder and other things that make it easier. — Follow this podcast to stay up-to-date: Twitter: @HumanizeMePod Instagram: @HumanizeMePodcast Facebook Group: Facebook.com/Groups/1772151613053280 Check out Patreon.com/HumanizeMe! Support the podcast there for the cost of a cup of coffee once a month and get extra content for it. That amount won't matter to you, but it means everything to us and makes the podcast happen! (Includes access to the monthly bonus podcast, ‘Why It Matters', where we discuss the show and read listener feedback, and the ‘Campolo Sessions‘, long-form conversations between Bart and his dad Tony Campolo.) Humanize Me is hosted by Bart Campolo and is produced by John Wright at JuxMedia.com.
In this solo episode, Bart talks about seeing the current wave of protest and uprising - the most significant moment ever for the Black Lives Matter movement - in the context of collective trauma. -- Follow this podcast to stay up-to-date: Twitter: @HumanizeMePod Instagram: @HumanizeMePodcast Facebook Group: Facebook.com/Groups/1772151613053280 The reason this podcast exists, even in trying economic times, is because some people support it monthly at Patreon.com/HumanizeMe. Please consider supporting us there for the cost of a cup of coffee once a month and get extra content for it. That amount won't likely matter much to you, even now, but it will mean everything to us! (Includes access to the audio story of Bart's recent psychedelic experience, the bonus podcast, ‘Why It Matters' where we discuss the show and read listener feedback, and the ‘Campolo Sessions‘, long-form conversations between Bart and his dad Tony Campolo.) Humanize Me is hosted by Bart Campolo and is produced by John Wright at JuxMedia.com.
"Hey Bart. As I grew up, prayer was touted as the answer to everything. Now with the shutdowns and loss associated with COVID-19, I still miss the feeling I had when I could 'give it all to Jesus.' I suppose this is part of taking back control of my own life and not depending on a higher, all-knowing power to save me all the time. But I still feel feel like I've lost something very powerful, if only in my own mind. Any ideas of how to move beyond this? Is it just a grieving process that I need to go through?" - Jonathan "Hi Bart. I am concerned. During this strange and surreal time (I work in a hospital in the UK), I am finding myself more and more 'sucked in' to Christianity and have been attending Church services regularly. I do not want to be Christian but I am finding much support and solace within their boundaries and I can feel myself submitting to their ways!!" - Debbie In this episode, we attempt an answer to both these (related) questions and give a little preview of the next one. Includes an update on life during the pandemic. — Follow this podcast to stay up-to-date: Twitter: @HumanizeMePod Instagram: @HumanizeMePodcast Facebook Group: Facebook.com/Groups/1772151613053280 The reason this podcast exists, even in trying economic times, is because some people support it monthly at Patreon.com/HumanizeMe. Please consider supporting us there for the cost of a cup of coffee once a month and get extra content for it. That amount won't likely matter much to you, even now, but it will mean everything to us! (Includes access to the story of Bart's recent psychedelic experience, the bonus podcast, ‘Why It Matters' where we discuss the show and read listener feedback, and the ‘Campolo Sessions‘, long-form conversations between Bart and his dad Tony Campolo.) Humanize Me is hosted by Bart Campolo and is produced by John Wright at JuxMedia.com.
Bart reflects on two recent episodes that have generated the most mail ever for this podcast, and offers some thoughts on how to improve relationships during this extended lockdown. — Follow this podcast to stay up-to-date: Twitter: @HumanizeMePod Instagram: @HumanizeMePodcast Facebook Group: Facebook.com/Groups/1772151613053280 The reason this podcast exists, even in trying economic times, is because some people support it monthly at Patreon.com/HumanizeMe. Please consider supporting us there for the cost of a cup of coffee once a month and get extra content for it. That amount won't likely matter much to you, even now, but it will mean everything to us! (Includes access to the story of Bart's recent psychedelic experience, the monthly bonus podcast, ‘Why It Matters' where we discuss the show and read listener feedback, and the ‘Campolo Sessions‘, long-form conversations between Bart and his dad Tony Campolo.) Humanize Me is hosted by Bart Campolo and is produced by John Wright at JuxMedia.com.
Three years ago to the week, Michael Dowd talked with Bart on this podcast about our modern way of life, sustainability and the future of civilization. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Bart could think of nobody he wanted to talk to about it more than Michael, so he's back! In this conversation, Bart and Michael talk about their shared sense that the pandemic will be followed by an economic recession or even depression, and that it signals the beginning of the end of our current way of life. Michael talks about the industrial world's reliance on the 'religion' of growth-based progress, the ecological fallacy being committed, the illusion of control we have, the inevitability of collapse, the stages of grief in response, and his optimism about what lies beyond it all. Michael's website can be found at PostDoom.com. On Patreon this week, hear Bart's story of his first psychedelic experience after taking LSD! It's at Patreon.com/HumanizeMe. — Follow this podcast to stay up-to-date: Twitter: @HumanizeMePod Instagram: @HumanizeMePodcast Facebook Group: Facebook.com/Groups/1772151613053280 The reason this podcast exists, even in trying economic times, is because some people support it monthly at Patreon.com/HumanizeMe. Please consider supporting us there for the cost of a cup of coffee once a month and get extra content for it. That amount won't likely matter much to you, even now, but it will mean everything to us! (Includes access to the story of Bart's acid trip, the monthly bonus podcast, ‘Why It Matters' where we discuss the show and read listener feedback, and the ‘Campolo Sessions‘, long-form conversations between Bart and his dad Tony Campolo.) Humanize Me is hosted by Bart Campolo and is produced by John Wright at JuxMedia.com.
Bart and John are socially distancing, like most of America. What does that mean for our all-important human connections? In this episode, Bart talks about his humanist community, Caravan in Cincinnati, and how they're handling the crisis. Bart emphasizes the importance of listening to each other, reaching out, asking how people are doing and genuinely hearing the answer, and more. Here's some stuff we've been reading lately.... On potential silver linings: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/19/coronavirus-effect-economy-life-society-analysis-covid-135579 On watching movies together remotely: https://apple.news/AwpiLmYYwRC-lDtTh8hyafw An editorial by Alain de Button: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-camus-plague.html A reminder for materialists to cultivate wonder: https://blendle.com/i/time/string-theorist-brian-greene-wants-to-help-you-understand-the-cold-cruel-universe/bnl-time-20200222-f23c2127b01?sharer=eyJ2ZXJzaW9uIjoiMSIsInVpZCI6ImJhcnRjYW1wb2xvIiwiaXRlbV9pZCI6ImJubC10aW1lLTIwMjAwMjIyLWYyM2MyMTI3YjAxIn0%3D — Follow this podcast to stay up-to-date: Twitter: @HumanizeMePod Instagram: @HumanizeMePodcast Facebook Group: Facebook.com/Groups/1772151613053280 The reason this podcast exists, even in trying economic times, is because some people support it monthly at Patreon.com/HumanizeMe. Please consider supporting us there for the cost of a cup of coffee once a month and get extra content for it. That amount won't likely matter much to you, even now, but it will mean everything to us! (Includes access to the monthly bonus podcast, ‘Why It Matters', where we discuss the show and read listener feedback, and the ‘Campolo Sessions‘, long-form conversations between Bart and his dad Tony Campolo.) Humanize Me is hosted by Bart Campolo and is produced by John Wright at JuxMedia.com.