What In God's Name: Recent Episodes
Ribeye Media
Recasting the stories of our shared public life together, using theology and philosophy. Smart. Fun. Challenging both the programmatic secularists and the quasi-theocrats, by lifting up a generous public religious voice for the flourishing of all Creation.
Part 3 of 4: Existential despair means hopelessness about human life having meaning and purpose. How does this lead to danger in our common life?
The two ways our common life has become ethically incoherent, and what we can do to begin to make a good and just society
You need to understand the underlying belief system that underwrites the moral world of the movement that goes by the name "Make America Great Again." Why? Because eventually this underlying belief system will bring down everything you cherish.
Progressivism is in retreat, not just in the United States but around the world. Catholic Social Teaching provides a wellspring to morally thirsty people. Can secular progressives come and drink?
The moral lens on our common life is a way to address our broken politics. Our politics is broken because we are an aimless people, unable to think and talk about meaning and purpose.
How a standard practice in reporting on federal judges increases cynicism and polarization.
Separating words from their meanings is a tactic in the battle to erode the authority of goodness to constrain powerful people from acting badly.
Using our government's recent security breach on Signal and Jeffrey Goldberg's reporting on it as a point of departure, we help you understand the friend/enemy binary in our society.
WIGN Short Form helps you understand the moral dimensions of our common life, and why they are important.
Today: Religious literacy to the rescue? How are we to have more open and honest conversations about public questions? Brandon and his University of Virginia students have some answers.
Chris and Shayna bring the moral and theological lens to see more deeply into our moment.
The S1 Project presents at the "Frontiers of Democracy" conference at the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. Here's a taste of the conversation we led.
We revisit the essential question from the 2024 HYPE Conference at the University of New Hampshire with Fin, NJ, Stella, and Taloosh
Higher Calling: A conversation about faith and politics between Senator Chris Coons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlpK4B1Zifo
Chris and Shayna consider Ralph Ellison's quote, from his speech upon receiving the National Book Award in 1953: "The way home we seek, is that condition of man's being at home in the world, which is called love, and which we term democracy."
Here is Jean Bethke Elshtain: https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/democracy/articles/democratic-authority-at-centurys-end
Jean Bethke Elshtain on Democratic Authority: https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/democracy/articles/democratic-authority-at-centurys-end
Rabbi Sharon Brous: https://ikar.org/team/rabbi-sharon-brous/
"This Is The Moral Earthquake" sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PuLI2atWPs
Here is Liz's article: https://liztheoharis.org/mike-johnsons-reading-of-scripture-misses-what-it-really-means-to-be-a-christian-nation/
Here is the Kairos Center: https://kairoscenter.org/
Your view of human nature will shape your understanding of how democracy should be ordered for longevity. Your view of human nature may mean that you don't think democracy is sustainable.
Shayna's Reflection:
I am an American, gender-queer, Jew and I am…
…terrified right now for innocent civilians in both Israel and Palestine, and for Jews everywhere as anti-semites around the world view the Hamas slaughter as permission to hit the gas pedal on their own hatred.
I am…
…pissed as hell at Hamas for unleashing what promises to be a disproportionate response by Israel, and pissed even further into hell by the Israeli governments inability to resist being goaded into that response.
I am…
…breathless with fear as I await the outcome for hostages taken by Hamas - women, children, persons with disabilities, the elderly, and breathless with fear for the lives of Palestinian women, children, persons with disabilities and the elderly.
I am…
…watching in despair as Western media attempts to report on this disaster, all the while seemingly blind to the prism through which they view “facts on the ground.'
I am…
…sensitive to those who feel called to stand in solidarity with Israel in light of the Hamas massacre AND sensitive to those who stand with the Palestinian people, recognizing the consequences decades of occupation have inflicted.
I am…
…incredibly grateful for the one friend who reached out to me to see how I’m holding up in the midst of this human disaster, recognizing, without having to be told, how deeply distressing these events are for those of us who carry the identity “Jewish”or “Palestinian, or maybe simply “human.”
I am…
…praying for the peacemakers, for I was lead to believe they would be recognized as “the children of G-d,” even as I find myself wondering how much clout G-d has in a conflict too many have blamed on Them.
I am…
…awaiting the reign of the meek, who Jesus said would inherit the earth. Where the hell are you guys?
I am…
…terrified, pissed, breathless with fear, watching in despair, sensitive, incredibly grateful, praying, awaiting.
How are you all holding up?
Today's show refers to this writing:
Religion News Service ran a story last week on the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, and their efforts to pass laws that (they claim) are based on Christianity.
Specifically (from their website), they are about “abolishing abortion,” “restoring marriage between one man and one woman,” and (an often forgotten part of the Sermon on the Mount), “promoting universal school choice.”
The story attributes the following criticism of the NACL to Holly Hollman, general counsel of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty: that making laws “shaped by a legislator’s view of Christian values can be harmful for both the government and people of faith because it erodes the separation of church and state.”
There’s a lot to unpack here, with implications for everyone—Christian or not, religious or not—who cares about the future of American democracy.
The key phrase in Hollman’s criticism is “the separation of church and state.” What does this phrase mean today? In what ways has it become a reflexive and feckless fallback position for well-intentioned religious people who are politically liberal? And in what circumstances is it indispensable?
So permit me, then, as a thought experiment, to defend the National Association of Christian Lawmakers—not for their specific causes, nor for their method. No. Let me defend the NACL for what they are trying to do, understood in the most generous way possible: they are trying to bring a moral vision into our shared common life, and reconnect that vision to the practice of making laws.
That’s a good thing. A healthy society needs to ask questions about, and have respectful debates about, the good towards which policies and practices are aimed. And a healthy politics is connected to a vision of the common good, or else you get what you have now—a politics of getting and keeping power for personal gain, bought by powerful moneyed interests.
Here’s where the imprecision of the phrase “separation of church and state” becomes problematic.
If Hollman is playing the “separation of church and state” card in order to trump any religious voice’s articulation of values in public conversations, including conversations about public policy and the making of laws, then she (along with many secularists who believe religion should be just a private activity) are making 2 mistakes: the first is constitutional; the second is strategic.
Let me take the constitutional mistake first. The separation of church and state is a Jeffersonian phrase that refers to the First Amendment. The First Amendment prohibits the establishment of a state religion, and prohibits the government from restricting individuals’ free exercise of religion.
Neither of these prohibitions can be construed to mean that religious voices are disqualified from articulating values or visions of human flourishing that rise from religious commitments, or advocating for those values as matters of policy. There’s nothing about articulation or advocacy per se, that establishes a state religion or prohibits an individual’s free exercise of religion. A particular bill that NACL supports that gets signed into law may violate the First Amendment, but that’s a separate question.
The second, strategic mistake Hollman makes in playing the “separation of church and state” card is not unique to her. In fact, it is common to most religious people who are politically left of center. It’s a failure to engage with substantive moral and theological critiques of liberal democracy, including laws that rise from liberal democracy’s commitment to equality and individual rights.
Failing to engage these moral and theological critiques is a strategic mistake because it (to use the language of battle) cedes the moral field to the critics. In short, where there needs to be an articulation of moral good in the public square by religious people who are politically left of center, those people retreat behind the wall of “separation of church and state.” The needed moral and theological articulation is never made. Silence ensues, and the loud voices win.
Let me be more concrete. NACL wants to undo Obergefell. Instead of criticizing NACL’s advocacy for reversing Obergefell as violating the separation of church and state, what religious people (and non-religious people, for that matter) ought to do, is articulate the moral and theological good that the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause (on which Obergefell was decided) guards.
Or again, abortion. Instead of criticizing NACL as violating the separation of church and state by seeking to abolish abortion, what religious people ought to do, is articulate how “choice” is a moral and theological good in this humanly complex issue.
The “separation of church and state” was never meant to disconnect moral philosophy and moral theology from public questions.
There are reasonable people, of good will, who have substantive critiques of liberal (understood as a political philosophy, not a political party) democracy, and (some of) its laws. The National Association of Christian Lawmakers may or may not be reasonable, or of good will. Either way, to refrain from engaging the moral and humanistic theological dimensions of our shared common life, in the name of the “separation of church and state,” leaves a void that such voices then fill.
And leaves the positive goods of liberal democracy unspoken.
Chris Owen
Chris is the Founder and Co-Associate Director of the S-1 Project, dedicated to the promotion of moral and humanistic theological reflection on our shared common life
Joseph's most recent book, Bulwarks of Unbelief: https://www.amazon.com/Bulwarks-Unbelief-Atheism-Absence-Secular-ebook/dp/B0BZ91GQDV?ref_=ast_author_mpb
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Sarah Neumann, News Channel 5 Nashville:
https://www.newschannel5.com/news/they-saw-the-bodies-covenant-school-mom-describes-how-the-shooting-affected-families
Transcription:
I’m not here because I want to be here. I hate public speaking. But Covenant School is my community, my son’s school. It’s filled with staff who’ve become friends and whom we love dearly. When I first met Katherine Koonce our beloved head of school three years ago she told me Covenant was intentional to make sure every child was loved and known and prepared, and those weren’t empty words. In our nearly three years there I have witnessed every staff member call my son by name; they know his interests his strengths his struggles. They know our whole family.
On March 27th at 10:38 am, I was at Green Hills about a mile from the school when a friend reached out, to ask where my 5 year-old son Noah was. She heard on social media that there was an active shooter; tweet from the Nashville Fire Department that they were responding to an active aggressor.
I said no, it’s a drill; it has to be a drill. I called my dear friend who’s the librarian. She answered with terror in her voice that I don’t have words to describe, screaming and crying. She managed to get out the words that she and her son were okay—her son was home sick—and that it wasn’t a drill.
My own son Noah was okay; he was getting a haircut with his dad, but the rest of our community was inside that building: my friends; our children; so many people we love in that building, our safe space.
My 2 year-old and I parked; we ran down as fast as we could to the school. The roads were blocked off; there were cops everywhere. We hadn’t even received word from the school yet. I texted our pre-school moms thread: Active shooter at Covenant. I could barely type the words. My body was shaking. At that moment that innocent moms’ text thread was forever changed, from a place where we shared pictures and reminders about dress-up days, to now coping through trauma and things parents should never have to discuss.
I frantically called friends, promising to try to find their babies. We got word quick from the school confirming the nightmare. The shooter was down, and a reunification site was in place. I got there as fast as I could, and my husband and Noah joined.
I will never be able to describe what it was like, sitting in that church. I didn’t feel like I was in my own body. Holding our friends, praying, waiting to hear if their kids were alive, piecing together things people saw and heard. All we knew was 7 people were dead. Texted friends, teachers, begging “please text us the word ‘safe’.” We got confirmation that our son’s teachers were okay, and started hearing back from others. His art teacher he adores; his PE teacher he loves because he’ll make mischief with him, and our dear pastor.
The first mom was told her kid was gone. The screams and sorrowing wails. I’ve worked in pediatric oncology for 13 years. I’ve held kids in my arms as they’ve died, way too many times. Nothing compares to the scream of that mom.
We kept learning about more staff members, but no one saw or heard about Katherine. We all knew. We knew there was nowhere else she would be other than in that church with us and with the students. My best friend kept asking if anyone had seen her dear friend. No one had. She knew, too. She knew what it meant, if she wasn't in that reunification room by that time.
The last 3 weeks have been deeply painful. Our days are spent hearing children as young as 3 years old describe in horrific detail what they saw and heard. Third graders saw the dead bodies of their friends, not just coffins. Their classmates. They sat in those rooms, shielded by their teachers, with bullets flying over them. We walked to school the other day and saw the bullet holes; we saw where those bodies lay. We went through classrooms that looked like they were frozen in time, with “March 27” still written on the boards.
The trauma’s not going to dissipate, it’s not going to leave us or our children. It’ll just find a home within us and we’ll learn to live with it.
The most painful question I’ve had to answer from my 5 year-old, who keeps proudly telling me how brave his teachers were, and how they knew exactly how to keep them safe from the bad guy: he asked, “Mommy, how did they know to do the practice? Has this happened before?” And I said, “Yes.”
He said, “A lot, Mommy?”
I said, “Yes.”
We had everything. We had the security. We had locked doors. We had intense active shooter training. The teachers hear AR-15s shot, and the school had to practice locking down for that. They had everything. Our cops are heroes, they didn’t hesitate a second.
It’s not enough.
[William Barber: The one thing you didn’t have, was banned assault weapons]
We don’t have banned assault weapons. Sure, we’re going to add the bullet-proof glass, but what about when they’re on the playground; what about when they’re playing soccer?
[William Barber: I want y’all to say to her, “You won’t bear this grief alone.”]
[William Barber: I want the nation to hear what you said. You know the people who say, “The real problem is mental illness.” They are right. It is mental illness, when you can hear this kind of pain, and still be more interested in guns.]
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Shayna shares her wisdom as a critical incident facilitator. Chris breaks a WIGN taboo.
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Leaf Seligman is a writer, teacher, and itinerant preacher who creates healing spaces in collaboration with others. Among other things, she is an adjunct professor at Keene State College in New Hampshire
Here are the works cited:
Anna Zeira's article on mental health and neo-liberal capitalism: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34032963/
Anthony Annett's book on economics and Catholic social teaching:
https://www.amazon.com/Cathonomics-Catholic-Tradition-Create-Economy/dp/1647121426
David Bentley Hart on capitalism:
https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/discipleship/what-lies-beyond-capitalism
Edie Russell on sustainability:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QkHWlL8q6w
Rebecca Henderson's book:
https://reimaginingcapitalism.org/
Anna Zeira on the "It's Not Just In Your Head" podcast on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrexHmqrjxk
What do a Humanist Chaplain and a speaker at the National Conservative Conference have in common? What do a Mennonite pastor/theologian and an Educational Specialist at Harvard (who happens to be a Black Christian woman) have in common? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything.
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This show is part of a 2-pack with show 518, a conversation recap.
Support this kind of conversation at https://www.patreon.com/whatingods
It's not about easy agreement. It's about making disagreement more interesting, more fruitful, with people who are committed to the project of learning.
Shayna and Chris react to Chris' conversation with Brad Littlejohn. This show is released as a 2-pack, with show 517, Brad Littlejohn
Resisting emptiness; choosing hope--this is our theme for the winter/spring, as we continue to use the lenses of philosophy and theology to see more deeply into our shared common life
Join with us in an exploration into the recent firing of a Hamline University professor for showing an image of Muhammad in her art history class. We would love to hear from anyone who disagrees with us, as part of fostering healthy disagreement in our plural public square.
You can find work Tim is involved in here: https://workshop.org.uk/
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There's a big difference between being free from something, and being free for something. American culture tends toward the negative freedom, freedom from. Freedom forrequires a vision of the good, and is naturally social. We can't be free alone.
You are invited to our Gathering with Elisa Rosoff and you as our guests, December 12th at noon (12-12 at 12)
Use this link to reserve your spot: https://www.whatingods.com/can-humanist-chaplaincy-be-a-model-for-public-conversations-with-elisa-rosoff
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Chris and Shayna discuss the election, using the lens of moral philosophy rather than politics
What In God's Name is the featured guest in this conversation hosted by the New Hampshire Council of Churches
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You are invited to a Talk Back with Alyshia on Tuesday October 25 at 7pm ET. To reserve your spot, send us an email at whatingods@ribeye-media.com
Sign up for our next Talk Back on Tuesday October 25 at 7pm Eastern, featuring Alyshia Keys-Harris as our guest. Send an email to whatingods@ribeye-media.com to reserve your spot
We want to hear from you. Send us an email at whatingods@ribeye-media.com
What are you grieving in our shared common life?
Come to Talk-Back, Wednesday 9/28 at 7pm Eastern! DS Leiter will be our guest, and you can comment and ask questions. Email for the zoom link: whatingods@ribeye-media.com
Come to Talk-Back, Wednesday 9/28 at 7pm Eastern! DS Leiter will be our guest, and you can comment and ask questions. Email for the zoom link: whatingods@ribeye-media.com
Come to Talk-Back, Wednesday 9/28 at 7pm Eastern! DS Leiter will be our guest, and you can comment and ask questions. Email for the zoom link: whatingods@ribeye-media.com
Perfectionism and the fear of making mistakes: anxiety in our time, especially with young people.
It doesn't matter what your spiritual practice is, just practice! Repetition is the key. The practice will see you through the times of dryness.
The corrosive effects of self-righteousness appear when humility disappears, and yet we still must exercise the practical wisdom of when to stand firm, and when to yield.
We're interested in mental health from a social systems perspective. It's not just about individuals.
Below are some further resources--positive action on gun violence that you can join or support; theological reflection on gun violence that helps our thinking become more creative:
Actions of Shareholders:
https://www.iccr.org/shareholders-approve-call-human-rights-risk-assessment-sturm-ruger
https://www.iccr.org/sr-judy-byron%E2%80%99s-statement-smith-wesson-agm
https://www.iccr.org/sites/default/files/page_attachments/d42522px14a6g.pdf
https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001141391/c2e65ce2-a90c-4854-b5a6-c2f4ae0a55c6.pdf
https://www.ri.gov/press/view/42767
Actions of Health Care Organizations:
https://www.chausa.org/cha-we-are-called/stories/detail/as-gun-deaths-rise-many-health-care-groups-call-for-more-funding-for-research
Further Theological Reflection:
https://catholicnews.com/texas-bishop-says-mass-shootings-most-pressing-life-issue/
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/bishop-flores-sacralized-guns-and?s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
What In God's Name goes into shadowy places, but always holding on to hope. Come with us. We can walk this together. Repair and renewal begin with truth-telling, and allowing the pain of what is true into our hearts, is hard. Hard-- and necessary.
We're adults. We can't look away. Even if we're comfortable, we should be uneasy. Our shared common life is broken, with too much violence in too many places.
Hope is also present. People are doing good things. We need to name the things that make us uncomfortable, and join with others who are awake, aware, and already bringing healing and hope.
The fundamental tension is whether a liberal society--characterized by individual rights and tolerance for diversity--can find enough moral glue to hold together.
Join us in this important conversation. We want to hear from you.
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If American society only had a political dimension and an economic dimension, what would be missing?
We didn't intend to talk about the leak of Justice Alito's draft opinion overturning Roe v Wade, but when the topic is religion in the public square, we couldn't avoid it.
Listen for some nuance on a topic that is usually framed in stark terms; listen for some consideration of how politics limits moral conversation and forecloses deeper moral reasoning; listen for a way forward.
We talk with theologian Peter Admirand about liberation theology, religious pluralism, and atheist/theist dialogue.
All of these can help us restore a more life-affirming public square--anywhere we meet another.
Amelia works in construction, building houses. She works in building community. You don't want to miss how she got to where she is, and how she brings spiritual and moral practice into the world.
This show is about a small company in Maine. This show is about our shared common life. Both are true.
We use a story from the time of the Roman Empire as a point of departure to shed light on the perennial problem of violence that rises from fear.
This story, revelatory of a theological understanding of what is often true of men who want to appear strong but who are really weak, illuminates current events: accusations of abuse in some Hillsong churches, and Putin in Ukraine, for example.
Good leadership-- variously understood as power exercised for the good of others, or servant leadership-- is precious. It doesn't matter whether it is exercised nationally, locally, or next door: good leadership is precious.
We need to be vigilant against bad leadership. Humans are weak; power corrupts. If we are not vigilant, bad leadership ascends, and the city suffers.
Why are science and religion-- and more particularly climate science and Christianity-- seen as being at odds with one another, in American culture today? We talk to Tom and Michelle: both are practicing climate scientists, and both are practicing Christians.
Abigail Andre practices environmental law and teaches at Vermont Law School. Susan Hoffman-Fishman is a visual artist focusing on water and the climate crisis. They join us for the second of our signature series Climate Dialogues.
Tori Goebel of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, and Lila Kohrman-Glaser of 350nh, join the show.
Listen to these two young leaders talk about their work on the climate crisis, about their motivation to be involved in the work they do, and about the challenges they face.
Through dialogue and appreciative listening, we help open new perspectives on our shared common life.
The Climate Dialogues™ is an on-going series of What In God's Name.
Our theme song is Private Eye by Kevin MacLeod
Reconditioning Has To Start Somewhere is by Dear Gravity
Ways of proceeding can be the change we want.
In other words, the journey can be the destination. The question can be the answer.
Join Chris and Shayna to consider how "conversation-ology" and interdisciplinarity disrupt reductive, corrosive, public discourse
When we talk about spiritual and mental health, we tend to leave out the possibility that deviance is healthy, if the society is sick.
Is there such a thing as moral progress? Is evil perennial? Is violence eradicable? Is there such a thing as a "just" war?
Creative Commons License
Kevin MacLeod--"Private Eye"
Is there a spiritual and mental health crisis in the United States? Hint: yes. And it's not just private. It affects our shared common life.
Who do you trust? How do you seek information to disconfirm your biases, to test your worldview? How do you balance individual liberty with communal responsibility?
Another in our series on the mental and spiritual health of our society in pandemic time.
In the improvisational mode that comes when a playful, childlike spirit is present, we riff on an article on pandemic trauma that appeared recently in the National Examiner.
Leslie Rawlings in conversation about mental health and trauma, part of our mini-series on the mental/spiritual health of our society as we tell a deeper story about our shared common life.
Music under Creative Commons License:
Private Eye by Kevin MacLeod
Strike One by Terry Devine King
Can We Be Friends by Lobo Loco
Leslie Rawlings in conversation about mental health and trauma, part of our mini-series on the mental/spiritual health of our society as we tell a deeper story about our shared common life.
Music under Creative Commons License:
Private Eye by Kevin MacLeod
Strike One by Terry Devine King
Can We Be Friends by Lobo Loco
We begin a mini-series on our society's mental and spiritual health, using the lens of trauma and trauma response, from Shayna's experience as a leader of critical incident debriefings with first responders.
Shayna returns and shares the wisdom of her encounter with the awesome wildness at the heart of creation.
Shayna is on her way back from Antarctica. Top Show Replay from 2021: beloved community and hope, as an act of rebellion against loneliness and disconnected, selfish individualism.
Shayna is in Antarctica. We invite you to reflect on the apotheosis of the individual: today's golden calf in America. And why this is a false god that cannot satisfy.
WIGN talks with Jeff MacDonald about churches in pandemic time, and the needed disruption to our usual ways of framing conversations about our shared common life.
Longing for the light of the nations. Called to prepare room for a different way of being, together.
Music by Lobo Loco; Kevin MacLeod
Shayna and Chris revisit the Doctrine of Discovery as the seed of varieties of oppression. Where do we go from here?
We are ALL held in a grace beyond imagining. Therefore, we give thanks without complacency, and without condemnation. The pain of the world covers a wide territory, and goes deep.
Live into the stories that tell you truly, who YOU are and who WE are, together. Naming the specific stories that recast the narrative of our shared common life.
Squid Game, Petronuses, and the armor of God all make an appearance in our continuing theological consideration of our common public life together. Join us! We like to hear from you: whatingods@ribeye-media.com
whatingods.com
The "revaluation of values" is a Nietzschean phrase that the German philosopher used in his critique of Christianity.
We apply that phrase in this show to mean: the market, in its current outsized place in our culture, and which functions as an impersonal deity, scrambles traditional ways of assigning value and meaning.
The Market, as a demanding god, revalues human values. And, sorry to say, it's not for the flourishing of human beings and all of creation.
Music by Lobo Loco "Can we be friends?"
Music by Kevin MacLeod "Private Eye"
Why are depression and anxiety framed as problems that individuals have, rather than as manifestations or symptoms of a sick society?
How does Covid Flux Syndrome illuminate the liminal space in which human lives unfold?
What are the stories and practices from spiritual wisdom, that help locate ourselves and our society, within that liminal space?
10 Questions. Agree or Disagree. And if any of our questions rings a bell for you, something you want to respond to, and maybe even join us on the show to discuss: send us an email at whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Even if you are not finding this show until months (years?) after it drops, the conversation will never be old. We want to hear from you.
Kindly put "10 Questions" in the subject line.
Theological reflection opens the social imaginary to the hopeful possibility that the future will NOT, inevitably, be the present extended into perpetuity. If democracy has a future, economic power will need to either restrain itself (ha!), or be restrained.
We continue the conversation on democracy, drawing, again, on religious and spiritual truth about human beings and repentance. Healing and justice in the story of race in our country-- and fulfilling the promise of democracy-- require the insights of theological anthropology, which give us understanding of the mystery of the human heart.
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Much stilted and unimaginative thinking, in Christian circles, limits the deep descriptive power of "corporate sin" to illuminate our shared public life. While the concept of sin contains within itself a cluster of meanings that function internally to those who are Christian, the explanatory power of "corporate sin," used as an interpretive tool, can deepen public conversations about racism in our country, even with and among those who do not have a Christian religious commitment.
Such is the work that accompanies bringing religious concepts into the public square in a pluralistic society: the work of interpretation, of translation.
Chris says "No" to the question our title asks; Shayna pushes back. Running underneath the conversation is the acknowledged reality that American democracy's future is far from certain.
Alexis de Tocqueville observed American democracy (such as it was) in the 1830s, and wondered if we could sustain it. Religion (such as it was) was part of the story he told; religion was a force in society without which, he thought, democracy would seed its own destruction. Was he right?
We begin again with an introductory tease for a series of shows on American democracy. What is the story? Is there a future? Does God have any interest in American democracy?
In what context did the Second Amendment arise? What understanding of “sacredness” was it connected to? How has that changed?
As we emerge from pandemic time, mass shootings have increased. What In God’s Name takes up this disturbing and unsurprising trend.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Governor Newsom says, in response to the latest mass shooting in San Jose, “What the hell is wrong with us?”
Shayna reframes the question as, “What is wrong with white men?” pointing to the fact that most mass shooters are male. Recognizing that mass shooters do not arise in a vacuum, the question then does return to us.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Sociologists of religion talk about the genesis of the sacred, as in, what is the human experience that leads to classifying certain things as “sacred?”
Sacred things may not be religious; over time, what was once considered sacred may lose its sacred quality, and other, new things, may acquire sacred status.
The current fault lines in American society and culture are revealed more clearly when we use the lens of “the sacred,” as it migrates from religion into the "secular" realm.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Republican Liz Cheney’s lonely stand against the Trumpists is a political story, on one level. On another level, we ask: what deeper story is this a part of?
What happens when the coherence of a world is blown apart by the corruption of language in the service of lies?
And what public redemptive language do we have, to fight back?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
We re-visit the opioid disaster in our country. With litigation beginning this week in West Virginia, and with recent statistics from the CDC showing that opioid deaths increased during pandemic time to their highest yet, it’s time to reflect again on the stories we tell ourselves about meaning and purpose.
Why can’t our society talk about the opioid disaster?
What does systems thinking reveal about the opioid disaster, that is concealed when we frame it individualistically?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
We re-visit the opioid disaster in our country. With litigation beginning this week in West Virginia, and with recent statistics from the CDC showing that opioid deaths increased during pandemic time to their highest yet, it’s time to reflect again on the stories we tell ourselves about meaning and purpose. When did neo-liberal (libertarian) free markets, and the profit motive, become gods?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Relationships as the fundamental building block of our common life: why the community organizing model is crucial for our time. Community organizer Angela Pape joins Shayna and Chris in conversation.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
What is faith-based community organizing, and why is it so important at this moment in the unfolding story of the intersection of faith and American life? Community organizer Angela Pape joins Shayna and Chris in conversation.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
What role does contemporary “white shock” have to play in the larger story of systemic racism/inherent alienation in our American history and culture?
How is God present in our tears?
These questions rise, as Chris introduces his new short film documenting a quilt project memorializing the last words of George Floyd.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
What is the deeper story, the bigger story, the longer story, the theological story, that George Floyd’s killing is part of? And how does this chapter end?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Can a Christian anthropology of suffering be translated into non-Christian language, such that that anthropology can enter public conversation NOT as specialized religious language, but as a generalized insight into human nature—an insight that leads to richer connections and more humane ways to order our common life?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
If we just stay committed, will we eventually win?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Is it true that to come out of pandemic time better than we went in, we must allow ourselves to be touched by others’ pain?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
What are the questions we should be asking ourselves as a society about our year’s experience with pandemic time?
How has our society’s performance in the last year contrasted with our response to 9/11?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
We’ve certainly blown past 100,000 Covid deaths in the United States. That was a potential threshold scenario we considered with sadness in this replay from May 7, 2020, when Covid deaths had just gone over the 65,000 mark.
What In God’s Name is about to embark on a mini-series of shows reflecting on the last year of pandemic time. In preparation, we go back to the beginning months.
What have we seen this year, that has been revealed by pandemic time?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
How have we aged, how have we grown, over the last year? It’s time to remember where we were when pandemic time began, as a baseline to consider the future. Today’s show is a replay from March 2020. What rings true, now, in hindsight?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
We re-ask Shayna’s question from two weeks ago: is the church in a particularly good position to be a model for building community? Are the spiritual resources available to faith communities especially helpful in creating healthy connections between people?
What does the parable of the Good Samaritan have to do with countering the impersonal forces that reduce humans to commodities?
Is there an aloneness before God that can help individuals form communities that don’t victimize?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Cancel culture. What is it? Can it have any role in building the beloved community? Or is it more closely akin to old retributive systems of justice, like “an eye for an eye?”
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
If toxic individualism is the spiritual disease of today’s United States, what is the healing balm? Today we peel back layers of “beloved community.” What is beloved community? How does it come to be? What are the prime features?
Are faith communities uniquely situated to nurture this kind of community? And what characteristics will individuals need to strengthen, when they commit to such a community?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Toxic individualism. The phrase captures one feature of our era here in the United States: the apotheosis of individualism, or as Paul Krugman in the New York Times put it in a column last July: the cult of selfishness.
What is the difference between a view of the human being that sees the human being as participating in divinity, versus being divine? How does that distinction play out in real life?
Isn’t seeing oneself as divine just another brand of narcissism?
We see toxic individualism as a deep facet of our current culture and public life. This facet transcends political categories. Do you agree?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Toxic individualism. The phrase captures one feature of our era here in the United States: the apotheosis of individualism, or as Paul Krugman in the New York Times put it in a column last July: the cult of selfishness.
Try this for a definition: toxic individualism results when the individual is separated from a higher moral order, and the individual then becomes the location for the sacred.
Recent history suggests four different strands that, in and of themselves are not bad, but which, in excess and out of balance, develop toxicity: anti-Communist anti-collectivism of the Cold War; 60’s liberal celebration of self-expression; Reaganist anti-government ideology; and consumerism. Would you add more, or tell a different story?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Toxic individualism. The phrase captures one feature of our era here in the United States: the apotheosis of individualism, or as Paul Krugman in the New York Times put it in a column last July: the cult of selfishness.
Shayna traces our current condition of individualism run amok—of individualism untethered to a higher moral order—as having arisen out of decades of erosion of respect for the dignity of people. Systems that denigrate dignity have led to a backlash, of which toxic individualism is but one component.
Try this for a definition: toxic individualism results when the individual is separated from a higher moral order, and the individual then becomes the location for the sacred.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
We recorded this show before the chaos began in Washington, surrounding the Electoral College certification; it just wasn’t that hard to see what was coming.
Our thrust: the richness of the intellectual tradition of conservative thought is being squandered. What passes, in unexamined conversation and in lazy journalism, as “conservatism,” is not. “Repubican” does not mean “conservative.”
Conservatism, with its sober view of human nature, would understand that leaders who lead people astray with falsehood, sow seeds of unrestrained violent passion. Order is not given; it is cultivated, and needs tending.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
“You can’t legislate the heart; you can’t legislate the spirit.” Willie Bodrick (Twelfth Baptist Church, Roxbury MA) responds to the question of the limits of politics and legislation to bring needed transformation and healing to the painful history of race in our country.
Why can’t laws change hearts? What does this mean for other contentious issues in our common life? And while we note the limitations of politics and law, how might this realm of our social life be, actually, helpful?
Today’s show is an excerpt from a What In God’s Name webinar from October 28, 2020. The full webinar is on our YouTube channel, and can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQhxXPtkEWo&t=26s
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Laura Everett (Massachusetts Council of Churches) and Willie Bodrick (Twelfth Baptist Church, Roxbury MA) reflect on how the life of the spirit is present in public space, as part of our common life, and how it’s important to discern that spirit within the conflicted story of race in our country.
This is an excerpt from a What In God’s Name webinar from October 28, 2020. The full webinar is on our YouTube channel, and can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQhxXPtkEWo&t=26s
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Divergent voices with different starting points, and different assumptions about the world, share a critique of modern America: we are too focused on the material.
What makes for a meaningful life? What constitutes human flourishing? We may not find unanimity in a positive answer, but there is increasing agreement, in certain quarters, in rejecting purely economic or material measures of meaning and value.
Can a segment of the nonreligious political left, and a segment of the religious evangelical and politically conservative right, find common ground in critiquing materialist understandings of what makes for success?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
What is the stillness that is poised, potent, powerful?
How might obedience to a loving authority—either a person, or a high ideal—help create a stillness in us that leads us to fuller living?
How does the dominance of political and economic modes of thinking and acting (what we understand as “culture”) make talk of stillness marginal, if not meaningless? What kind of society do we want to create, where stillness has a place in conversations about human flourishing?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Hope. One way to understand the human emotion of hope is seeing it as a particular kind of story we tell ourselves about the future.
Chris outlines two different possible stories about the future of our American society. One story is more hopeful, the other bleaker.
How might your view of the nature of human goodness affect the story you tell yourself about the future? Would you see divine intervention as part of the story you tell about the arc of history? Or are we alone to figure out our way forward? Does the arc of history bend toward justice?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Through the lens of legacy: looking at societal connection from the perspective of what we leave, when we leave.
This week’s death of Pat Quinn, one of the co-founders of the “ice bucket challenge” to raise funds for and awareness of ALS, prompts our show today.
Mostly, we live as though we will always be here. Lack of awareness of our limitations, including the limitation of finite time, leads to mischief—often in the form of some kind of selfishness.
Does recognition of finitude always lead to deeper compassion? Does being aware that we will leave a legacy, always lead to moral action that will bear fruit? Or do we need a vision of the good, that directs our actions and our legacy?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
When you’re with Uncle Bob at the dinner table, do you try to reconcile with him by listening sympathetically to his ideas, or do you confront him with the truth so that he will, at some point, repent of his errors?
If someone is acting poorly, do you try to see things from her point of view, or do you stand with conviction for a better way?
Can we approach our fellow Americans with BOTH conviction for the right, and with humility for our limitations? And what if the others aren’t interested in having a relationship with you?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
We’re not politically divided anymore. It’s more complex than that, and potentially more dangerous.
What happens when there is no commonly accepted authoritative voice for what is so, and what is not so, in the world? What happens when half the people think a certain kind of behavior is shameful, and another half think it is praiseworthy?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Some things stay the same, no matter who wins the presidential election. What are those things? How can we address them?
Is it true that our political problems do not have political solutions?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
What In God’s Name talked with Sarah Drummond, Founding Dean of Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School, last winter, before the pandemic changed our lives. The insights that Sarah offers from her book “Dynamic Discernment: Reason, Emotion, and Power in Change Leadership” are helpful to us all, as we negotiate change in these challenging times.
What is discernment? What are its constituent parts?
What are some pieces of self-reflection that a good leader needs to practice regularly? Aren’t those pieces of self-reflection necessary for all of us, whether we’re in formal leadership positions or not, to be effective people in life-affirming, life-producing relationships?
“When the going gets tough, the tough get curious.” How could this be a rallying cry for renewed citizenship?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
What In God’s Name talked with Sarah Drummond, Founding Dean of Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School, last winter, before the pandemic changed our lives. The insights that Sarah offers from her book “Dynamic Discernment: Reason, Emotion, and Power in Change Leadership” are helpful to us all, as we negotiate change in these challenging times.
Reason, emotion, and power map onto a three-fold picture of human beings as beings who think (reason), feel (emotion), and act (power). Which of these does our culture emphasize? What fades into the background? In what realm do you, personally, feel most comfortable?
How does this lens of reason, emotion, and power help us understand what is going on in the world? How can this lens help you understand what is going on in your organization? Your workplace? Your family?
Who are the best leaders you know? What makes them so good?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
For the first two seasons of What In God’s Name, what would follow here in the show notes was a detailed guide through the show, with timecodes for particular parts of the conversation. We are going to eliminate those notes, as an experiment, and see if anyone notices. If you notice, and you liked the detailed show notes with timecodes, please send us an email at whatingods@ribeye-media.com. If enough people liked and used the detailed notes, we’ll bring them back.
Estrangement and care: lifting the veil to reveal our common vulnerability, our common humanity.
As What In God’s Name partners with Project Home (NH) to raise funds for 4 families in southwest New Hampshire in the US asylum process, we wonder about the basic moral choice between accompaniment and abandonment.
Is the truth of the human condition so terrifying, that we can’t bear to look? Does the vulnerability of strangers and the relative weakness of foreigners raise some people’s defensiveness and disgust, because those without power are a mirror of the powerlessness that we don’t want to see in ourselves? In what ways are we all homeless? In what ways are we all in pain? How do these dynamics play out in society?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
For the first two seasons of What In God’s Name, what would follow here in the show notes was a detailed guide through the show, with timecodes for particular parts of the conversation. We are going to eliminate those notes, as an experiment, and see if anyone notices. If you notice, and you liked the detailed show notes with timecodes, please send us an email at whatingods@ribeye-media.com. If enough people liked and used the detailed notes, we’ll bring them back.
This is a replay of a show that dropped in October 2019, nearly a year ago. Listen to see how it has aged.
Bonds of affection in American democracy: did Walt Whitman have insights into what will make American democracy work into the future, or is he hopelessly out of touch with the modern world? Shayna and Chris discuss Whitman’s theology, his vision of the human being, and his vision of human connectedness within the context of American self-governance.
Shayna says that the death of RBG means we're screwed. Chris says it’s worse than that.
George Washington’s warnings against faction couldn’t be more timely in these days. What is faction? How does faction erode self-governance? Do we expect cycles of revenge to continue? How will they stop? What are the teachings from religion and moral philosophy that help us understand the dynamics of revenge and forgiveness?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
For the first two seasons of What In God’s Name, what would follow here in the show notes was a detailed guide through the show, with timecodes for particular parts of the conversation. We are going to eliminate those notes, as an experiment, and see if anyone notices. If you notice, and you liked the detailed show notes with timecodes, please send us an email at whatingods@ribeye-media.com. If enough people liked and used the detailed notes, we’ll bring them back.
What In God’s Name asks: What moves us to act publicly, with courage?
Does knowing what is good automatically move us to do what is good? Or are there human complications that interrupt the exercise of virtue? What becomes of a society where being morally outrageous is entertaining and titillating, rather than blameworthy?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
For the first two seasons of What In God’s Name, what would follow here in the show notes was a detailed guide through the show, with timecodes for particular parts of the conversation. We are going to eliminate those notes, as an experiment, and see if anyone notices. If you notice, and you liked the detailed show notes with timecodes, please send us an email at whatingods@ribeye-media.com. If enough people liked and used the detailed notes, we’ll bring them back.
What In God’s Name builds into Season Three with an examination of history. Particularly, American history. Particularly, how we tell our history now.
What is “harmless” history? Chris and Shayna bounce this back and forth—how would you define harmless history? Is there such a thing?
What dimensions does the lens of theology open up, when we use it to look at current controversies and current events? How does history relate to meaning-making? To community?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
For the first two seasons of What In God’s Name, what would follow here in the show notes was a detailed guide through the show, with timecodes for particular parts of the conversation. We are going to eliminate those notes, as an experiment, and see if anyone notices. If you notice, and you liked the detailed show notes with timecodes, please send us an email at whatingods@ribeye-media.com. If enough people liked and used the detailed notes, we’ll bring them back.
What In God’s Name builds into Season Three with an examination of renewal, AND a fun excursion into the realm of spinny wheels.
When is renewal necessary? And what makes it necessary? We’re talking about both personal and communal renewal. How is vocation related to renewal? How does examining the past help us in the process of renewal?
When examining the past is contentious, what skills do we need? Are there spiritual practices that can translate to non-religious settings, that can help groups that are discerning new ways to be?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
For the first two seasons of What In God’s Name, what would follow here in the show notes was a detailed guide through the show, with timecodes for particular parts of the conversation. We are going to eliminate those notes, as an experiment, and see if anyone notices. If you notice, and you liked the detailed show notes with timecodes, please send us an email at whatingods@ribeye-media.com. If enough people liked and used the detailed notes, we’ll bring them back.
What In God’s Name begins Season Three!
Chris and Shayna update what it means “to gird one’s loins” for today. What In God’s Name isn’t usually in the prediction business, but we foresee added stress and strain in the upcoming months: people are tired from months of pandemic uncertainties, and an upcoming presidential election will heighten people’s anxieties.
How does hyper-individualism manifest in our society? Where do we see it? What good and healthy human impulse is hyper-individualism a corruption of? Why does staying connected in community the way to “gird our loins” for oncoming difficulties?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to foster conversations, develop habits, and create communities that are grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
For the first two seasons of What In God’s Name, what would follow here in the show notes was a detailed guide through the show, with timecodes for particular parts of the conversation. We are going to eliminate those notes, as an experiment, and see if anyone notices. If you notice, and you liked the detailed show notes with timecodes, please send us an email at whatingods@ribeye-media.com. If enough people liked and used the detailed notes, we’ll bring them back.
Season Two comes to a close. We look back, and then ahead to Season Three.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:45 How is it helpful to reframe the way we see the world, using the lenses of philosophy and theology?
02:00 Listen again to our shows with Kathleen McTeague, which aired in late January and early February 2020. What makes solidarity a religious value?
04:23 What do Walt Whitman, Jim Mattis, and St. Augustine of Hippo all have in common? What is mutual affection in a society? How would we know that we were in such a society?
09:15 Our interview with Jeff MacDonald: why is religion covered so poorly in the mainstream media? Listen to our conversation with Jeff, which was aired on January 9th and January 16th, 2020.
10:44 What is the secular immanent frame? Is this what we all know that we all know? What do we lose, when we lose the transcendent? Our shows on awe and wonder were December 12 and December 19, 2019
14:13 Culture is habits of mind and patterns of behavior. What habits and patterns do we unthinkingly, unreflectively accept, that really need a fresh look?
16:22 Look for new old shows over the summer! We are so grateful for your support, as together we aim to be curious, go deep, and shine light.
Racism. If it’s a social construct, can we re-define what it means to be “black” and “white?”
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
03:30 In what ways is systemic racism like an addiction? Does it make sense to think that we can progress past racism? What is the pain and shame dynamic in addiction? What are the similarities to the pain and shame dynamic in systemic racism?
08:20 What does it mean to be “white?” How can we get distance from whiteness so that we can see it more clearly?
13:12 Does recognizing racist systems come first, before we can turn towards the pain of others? Or is turning toward the pain the pre-requisite of being able to recognize the racist systems?
15:46 How would you define “whiteness?” Is it possible to deconstruct whiteness into a different construct? If our current definitions of “white” and “black” dehumanize the human beings that have different skin colors, is it possible to re-define “white” and “black” so that both are fully human?
So much is current events now; so much is the original sin of racism through our history. So much is new ways of using religious items as props; so much is age-old hypocrisy.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
02:28 Words fail, yet words are necessary. Shayna presents the current moment as a choice between freedom and fascism. Do you agree?
07:07 If racism is America’s “original in,” how do we repent?
10:45 If the Bible is a prop, how is that a perversion of faith?
13:46 What is the difference between change and transformation? Will “voting” lead to transformation, or is conversion necessary?
18:22 “If you have a badge, and you don’t have problem with this, you need to turn your badge in” said a police chief. Did saying this take moral courage?
21:34 “A riot is the voice of the unheard.” Can we imagine the rage that leads to violence?
What can we learn about Trumpism, using Christian theological reflection? It’s important to understand the spiritual dimension of this political ideology.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
04:16 Trumpism is not conservatism. How does this realization help us understand what in God’s name is going on in the world? Why does the mainstream media insist on framing our political life as liberal versus conservative?
06:40 What is the idolatry of Trumpism?
09:15 If the City of God is ruled by love, the city that is turned away from God is ruled by fear. Agree or disagree?
13:46 How do the concepts of caritas and cupiditas illuminate the difference between the city that is ruled by the law of love, and the city that is in rebellion against the law of love?
18:05 “Remove justice, and what are kingdoms, but gangs of criminals on a large scale,” said Augustine. How true is that?
Can a marriage and family counseling model help bridge political divisions, or are there deeper forces at work that require us to re-think American identity and the unmoored self of post-modernity?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
02:19 Shayna takes the armed anti-lockdown protestors as a point of departure: how do we imagine these people? Are we invested in our view of others to the degree that we will purchase our justifications?
05:45 How does Martin Buber’s notions of I/Thou, I/It help us understand the objectification of other people? Can we have pre-judgments about others and still treat them fairly?
11:30 Do we want this relationship to work? It’s the question of marriage and family therapy; how would we answer this with regard to those in our society who have a different view of the world than we do? Is civil discourse all we need, or are there deeper issues?
18:30 Is our political situation a product of the failure of the moral imagination?
What’s the difference between centering down, and zoning out? Pandemic time means we are by ourselves more, so how do we assess our alone time?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
03:38 In pandemic time, how do we understand the different ways that we can be alone? The basic distinction we are drawing is the distinction between centering in, and zoning out. Are there other ways to understand this? How do you “center in?”
08:41 How do I collect myself, in order to be an effective and loving person?
11:29 Centering practices are about being present and remembering; zoning out practices are about escaping and forgetting. Agree or disagree? How do we find the balance between these (or is there a balance to be found)? What is the role of community in helping us find balance?
15:55 What is the role of celebration in all this?
Does the pandemic give us an opening to re-assess the trajectory of our social life and systems? Can we tell a different story going forward?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
03:12 What is gaslighting, and who would have an interest in gaslighting the general public in this time? Do people with power ever share their power willingly?
08:45 Is the pandemic an opening? Is it a moment where we can assess where we are? Are things bad enough that our society can begin to imagine a different kind of future? Can pandemic be an opportunity to practice the “inbreaking” of a higher or newer order?
12:47 Who has power today? How is that power exercised?
15:16 Are we in for protracted struggle? Do people have power because we give it to them?
18:04 We’re in a time of creativity, and instability. These go together. Who is best suited to lead in this time?
An educational consideration of the horn solo in Symphony 2, Movement 2, and how this music projects defiance in the face of forces--viral, moral-- that are brutish, ugly, and coarse.
This show originally aired in August 2019.
We recorded this show before the most recent mass shooting in El Paso. That murderous violence, part of a pattern of white nationalist violence in our recent (and not-so-recent) past, underscores the What In God’s Name conversation about What powers are currently at work in the American spirit? What values do we believe in? How can a sense of the Transcendent (in both non-religious and religious contexts) help set a life-affirming course direction?
Shayna pins some hope on Robert Mueller’s report and Congressional testimony. Chris invokes Walt Whitman.
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:30 Shayna declares that Chris is recording this show with his lower extremities “in the buff.” Chris clarifies.
01:17 Chris expresses skepticism about the importance of Robert Mueller’s testimony before Congress. Shayna rebuts.
05:08 Shayna identifies the racist rhetoric coming from our president, and presciently warns that divisive words lead to divisive consequences.
06:55 Societal values are always being contended, if not fought over, generation to generation. True or false?
08:28 Chris shares his six loves in doing What In God’s Name. Do you share any of these loves? Would you add any? As one of Chris’ loves, the conversation turns to Walt Whitman’s vision of American democracy.
12:10 It’s time for people who love this country in its diversity to stand up. How does idealism, or a sense of the transcendent, help us in this time?
The Easter bunny has cooties! How do we hold hope of new life, while living in the middle of a moment when disease leads to death, uncertainty, and fear?
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
04:02 Would our culture be better and healthier, if more of it were formed by Christian or other religious worldviews?
05:22 How odd is it to be proclaiming new life, in the midst of pandemic? How odd is it to see signs of spring, in the midst of pandemic? Or does our current time actually reveal how things really are, and we are used to being able to look away? Isn’t the tension between hope and grief where we always live?
08:01 Lincoln was shot on Good Friday, and a good part of our country mourned his loss on Easter Sunday. How does remembering this help us today?
13:28 Severe difficulty. Isn’t that what is authentic to human life? How does the story of the samurai sword illuminate what is human, and transformative?
17:03 How are we in this together, and how are we in this separately?
We don’t do suffering well. Kate Bowler’s perspectives, captured in an interview published in the New York Times, is our point of departure.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
02:54 What is the pandemic revealing about America’s soul? Is it an American trait to consider ourselves exempt from suffering, or is feeling invulnerable the luxury of the privileged, who are now learning what others in America have known all along?
06:40 The strength or weakness of a system is revealed in a crisis. What are we learning about America in this crisis?
09:04 How is positivity a national obsession? What is immature in this obsession? Why is the recognition of suffering, the acknowledgement of suffering, good news?
16:11 “I’m on the edge. Someone out there, just please show me love.” Is this what prayer is?
18:30 How do we be Easter people in this time, without being shallow and facile?
20:58 What music will carry you through this time?
Settling into the long haul: walking the pandemic path with endurance.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
02:54 How is dealing with the pandemic like running a marathon?
05:12 Who is the cloud of witnesses that we can be surrounded by, and strengthened by? How is being connected to that cloud of witnesses similar to being connected to our contemporaries?
07:45 How does anxiety entangle us? Is being “tangled” in anxiety an illuminating image? For those who love soccer: does the image of “settling the ball” suggest a helpful response to anxiety? “Every day we begin again:” how is this a mantra of perseverance?
12:25 “Just breathe.” What is the wisdom there? How is mindfulness like Sabbath?
16:20 What does it mean to “run with perseverance?”
20:05 Is it possible to get through pandemic time alone?
How do we respond to anxiety and uncertainty in a time of pandemic? Shayna brings wisdom to us, from her experience and knowledge in working as a chaplain with first responders.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
03:10 Encounters: often unexpected, and often leave us changed. What are we encountering, when we encounter this pandemic?
05:03 Shayna shares that she will be working with a group of people who are first responders in the current public health crisis, but who aren’t trained as first responders: those answering telephones at state agencies. Shayna gives a shout out to all on the front line: janitors, grocery store workers, cafeteria workers.
07:52 What is our experience of powerlessness like? In what ways are we not powerless? What is the difference between a post-traumatic stress disorder, and a post-traumatic stress response?
12:30 What is the difference between anxiety and fear? “Do what you can, and trust that it’s enough.” What is the healthy wisdom in that adage?
18:30 How does the experience of making music together relate to generosity? How is music a religious experience? What do we encounter, when we meet music?
How do we respond to anxiety and uncertainty? Some practices and perspectives for life at this time of a novel coronavirus.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
02:16 Shayna offers some pastoral care in a time of anxiety. “Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.” What is the truth that this teaching is aiming at? What wisdom can come from near-death experiences, or other contacts with death, in our life?
07:06 Does faith make us immune to anxiety? What is the difference between having fear, and fear having us?
08:52 What does the practice of sitting quietly do for us? Can people of faith and people of no faith find commonality in this practice?
12:45 Fear, and the desire to have some sense of control, can drive over-the-top buying. How is the run on toilet paper a modern, non-religious purity practice? Shayna believes in the fundamental goodness of people. Do you? In what ways do we need to watch out for judging people as “clean” and “unclean?”
18:00 How does Jesus give us a new teaching on what is clean and unclean?
19:36 Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Was that easy for Jesus to say? Is that easy for us to say?
Three practices for dealing with anxiety and fear. And don't forget to stay curious, go deep, and shine light - no matter what!
Three practices for dealing with anxiety and fear. And don't forget to stay curious, go deep, and shine light - no matter what!
How you respond to jerks matters: theology and evolutionary biology shed light on forgiveness as a society-wide, rather than interpersonal, dynamic.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:52 A brief coronavirus diversion.
05:35 Mark begins to explain his interest in forgiveness, and traces how forgiveness has been studied in recent years. What are the insights that evolutionary biology can offer to an understanding of forgiveness in groups? Is altruism possible?
11:17 What are the implications for our common life, of the insight that, in the long run, injections of graciousness and forgiveness help life go better for everyone? What are we to do with those who take advantage of generous, forgiving people?
14:00 Tit for tat locks us into a death spiral. Is that where we are in America today?
18:29 Is the religious teaching of forgiveness for all just a way to make sure my forgiveness extends to all in my group, or is the religious teaching of forgiveness for all serious in its universality?
21:47 Could we map times of generosity and times of tit for tat, onto a historical timeline?
24:20 Can spiritual practices and humility help us be people more disposed to acting with generosity and forgiveness, even to people we don’t know?
Abortion is one of the wedge issues in the culture wars. The quality of the moral thinking in the public conversation is lackluster. What In God’s Name draws on recent scholarship to bring some fresh air to a stale room.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing association of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
02:30 Shayna proposes a new What In God’s Name tagline: “getting beyond the binary.” What are some examples of the ways that binary thinking limits our understanding of things?
03:15 Today’s show highlights many parts of the moral complexity of abortion, but what parts did we miss?
03:45 Can you be pro-life and pro-choice?
07:24 Does moral thinking begin with compassion?
08:29 What does the concept of delayed animation add to a consideration of the moral status of a fetus? Or is the question not “when does the fetus have a soul,” but “when does life begin?”
12:47 Using the political system and state power (laws) to coerce people to behave in ways that we think are moral is a sign of the weakness of the moral position. Agree or disagree?
15:52 What is the moral status of the pregnant woman?
19:08 Might an emphasis on relationality be a fruitful way to re-contextualize the abortion debate, so that it gets out of the realm of hyper-individualism exemplified by competing claims of rights (“the right of the unborn to life” verses “the right of the woman to choose.”)
Shayna sends Chris on assignment to the borderlands near Nogales, Arizona. Chris brings back audio of a hike into the desert, to sites where migrant remains were found.
No vision of God’s dream for the world would include these deaths. So what are we missing? It’s complicated, but the lack of moral imagination is one thing.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing association of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:35 Chris shares a dream he had one night recently. Is dreaming one everyone has in common?
04:48 If you want a primer on US immigration laws, go to You Tube and search for Alyson Ball and immigration. If you want more information on migrant deaths in the desert, go to humaneborders.org
06:32 What do you learn from Laurie’s orientation to the desert?
11:24 Can we construct a public, widely-shared morality, within the boundaries of a pluralistic and religiously neutral society, on the foundation of common humanity with those we categorize as “other?”
13:24 Transformation: what transformations are needed in our common life?
16:25 We pause for our once-yearly funding drive, and announce that we have an anonymous matching challenge grant, to the amount of $1000! Thank you for your generosity.
What are the pros and cons, the benefits and the costs, of secularization? We take Jose Casanova’s work in the sociology of religion as a point of departure. Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing association of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities. In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light. Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com. Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com. Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show: 00:55 Chris and Shayna take a minute to name what they love, what their passions are, that move them to make What In God’s Name: conversation; how ideas manifest in the world; faith traditions; the American idea. Which of these passions do you resonate with? What passions do you bring to listening? 06:22 Secularization is the process whereby spheres of human activity become increasingly disconnected from religion. What are the benefits of secularization? What are the costs? If religion is privatized, what tools do we have for asking and answering questions about what makes a good society? 13:29 How does the way that most journalism is practiced today feed into our inability to be reflectively critical of where we are? Do you think Chris’ metaphor of the lobster pot is apt? 15:30 How does Danielle Allen’s quote illuminate the problem of privatized religion?
21:21 What makes a good human life? What makes a good society? Where can we ask and answer these questions?
Do we have the discipline to play the long game that making a more moral, more fair, more humane society requires? Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing association of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities. In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light. Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com. Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com. Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show: 03:38 What are the three elements that make some activity more than just that activity, but a spiritual practice? What spiritual practices do you engage in? How do these practices form you? 07:46 How do spiritual practices set us up to be able to persevere, or demonstrate steadfastness? What are the grounding perspectives that spiritual practice give us? 12:50 Ta Nehisi Coates identifies himself as someone who does not believe in God, but Kathleen relates her experience of Ta Nehisi talking about a view of history and struggle, and a view of a person’s work, that are readily translatable into Christian spiritual categories and language. What are the implications of this for a secular (that is, neutral with regard to different worldviews) society? 16:08 Virtue: is virtue for the individual, or for the community? 19:32 Is tilling our own acre enough? 21:51 “We will not accomplish all there is to be done, in one lifetime.” Discuss.
If you pray for your enemies and seek to regard your enemies in their humanity, aren’t you going to get steamrolled? More broadly: how should spiritual practice inform political engagement? Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing association of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities. In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light. Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com. Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com. Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show: 02:30 What In God’s Name: what it is, and what it is not. Do you agree with the premise of our show? 05:46 Shayna sets up Part Two of our interview with Kathleen McTigue. 07:05 Kathleen shares some of her life story. Her exposure to people whose engagement of the world is informed by faith was something of a revelation. What did Kathleen see in them that was eye-opening? What is the intersection between spiritual hunger and our commitments to the common good, and the flourishing of society? 13:49 How did Kathleen’s experience of herself as a political activist change, as she became more grounded in a religious outlook and practice? How is humility helpful? 21:03 If you pray for your enemy, are you a sucker? 24:37 Why is being tethered to a higher power important? “It’s time for those who are tethered to lead,” says Shayna. Why?
Within the larger effort to create a more healthy society, what is the difference between offering “service,” and partnering with people who want your help? What is social justice? Why is social justice often perceived as synonymous with liberal political agendas? Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing association of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and, eventually, polities. In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light. Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com. Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com. Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show: 03:18 Shayna introduces today’s guest, Kathleen McTigue. 04:38 How does the history of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee reflect the animating spirit of America in that timeframe? 07:15 How would you define a “structural” injustice? 09:15 Do you agree with Kathleen’s analysis of the shortcomings of “service learning?” What are the implications of the conceptual shift from “serving” to “partnering?” 16:15 Is a sense of fairness innate in children? If so, is social justice just a “grown-up” version of this innate sense of fairness? What does this understanding of justice illuminate? What might be missing? 22:08 Why is social justice often thought of us synonymous with a liberal political agenda? Why isn’t abortion framed as a social justice issue? 24:42 How adequate to define a just society is the definition: “You don’t desire, and get, for yourself, without desiring, and getting, for everybody else?
Today our topic is selfishness: how does selfishness manifest in our culture? Are there new ways to shed light on selfishness, new insights that can deepen our understanding of how selfishness operates in American society? Part of the What In God’s Name mission is to create a cohort or community of people who see, as we do, the need to renew certain habits of feeling and being together in community, and ways of thinking about and understanding the fullness of human life and flourishing, that are grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, economies, and polities. In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light. Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com. Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com. Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show: 02:38 Today’s show is NOT about climate change, but Shayna leads with this question: is selfishness at the heart of our environmental crisis? 04:02 Chris offers another example of how selfishness is showing itself in our culture today: the decline of public apology. What characteristics of selfishness are present in the inability to express contrition? 07:57 Can people of different political outlook find common cause in standing for morality and virtue? Who would we be standing against? What would make finding common cause in this way difficult? 10:22 What is the public space that is pre-political? Where is it? 12:01 Joseph Butler was an 18th-century Anglican priest who preached on the selfishness of his time. How does realizing that people have for centuries decried the selfishness of their time? Is there something to be discovered here about human nature? Is Hobbes correct, that life in the state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short? 15:15 Civilization is an achievement, in that it overcomes the human propensity towards vandalism and destruction. Discuss. 17:02 Can we resist an animating spirit of the times, if the animating spirit is selfishness? 20:10 Does selfishness arise from the kind of thing a human being is, or does it come later, once we are part of society?
Part Two of our conversation focuses on the ways our culture reduces human beings to consumers, and what we can do about it. As we begin the new year, we re-emphasize part of the What In God’s Name mission: we want to create a cohort or community of people who see, as we do, the need to renew certain habits of feeling and being together in community, and ways of thinking about and understanding the fullness of human life and flourishing, that are grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, economies, and polities. In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light. Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com. Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com. Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show: 05:17 Jeff introduces himself and tells some of his story of becoming both a journalist and a minister. 06:31 What does a life of authenticity and integrity look like? Why does speaking of “vocation” help us get a deeper view of the human being? How does Jeff relate the composition of a story that he writes for publication, to the form that a life can, or hopefully does, have? 10:13 Can you fulfill your vocation despite your job? 11:40 Jeff talks about “Part Time Is Plenty,” his new book which is due out in April. Jeff’s discussion of the consumer mentality in churches leads to a consideration of consumer mentality in our culture at large. How does a consumer mentality diminish our humanity and debase notions of human flourishing? 15:22 What are some of the deeply human elements of life that a spiritual path can open for us? (Jeff talks about a few). 17:09 Buechner describes vocation as the meeting point of your deepest joy and the world’s deepest need. Discuss. 22:08 Shayna and Chris reflect on vocation and consumerism.
Jeff MacDonald is our guest. Jeff’s award-winning reporting on religion has appeared in Time, Conde Nast Traveler, the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, and other publications. He is the author of Thieves in the Temple: The Christian Church and the Selling of the American Soul. His new book, Part Time Is Plenty: Thriving Without Full-Time Clergy will be released in April. Part One of our conversation focuses on the coverage of religion in mainstream media. As we begin the new year, we re-emphasize part of the What In God’s Name mission: we want to create a cohort or community of people who see, as we do, the need to renew certain habits of feeling and being together in community, and ways of thinking about and understanding the fullness of human life and flourishing, that are grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical traditions. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, economies, and polities. In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light. Let us know your thoughts and reflections on our Facebook Page: @whatingods. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com. Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com. Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show: 03:17 Chris introduces Jeff MacDonald 05:35 Jeff gives his take on the state of religion reporting today. How do you experience religion reporting today? Is it similar to how politics is reported on? If so, what’s missing? What should the coverage of religion include? Is it just about institutions, or are there “religious” questions that are alive in our society that should be included? 10:25 If you had no idea about religion except for what you heard or read in the media, what would your impression of religion be? 12:33 Is it true that theological language and categories, and/or moral language and categories broadly understood, give us a way to understand human flourishing that we can’t get any other way? What are some facets of the human experience, both individually and collectively, that theology and philosophy help us come to terms with? 17:33 Jeff describes what counts as news today: either something is unexpected (that counts as news), or something causes change (that counts as news). How do those two ways of separating out what is newsworthy verses what is not newsworthy, work against covering religion? Should something that remains steady and unchanging count as news too? 20:55 Chris and Shayna review Part One of the Jeff MacDonald interview.
This show was recorded in October 2019.
What In God’s Name has a conversation with Mark Koyama, Tina O’Neil, Sarah Ellis, and Mona Brooks of the United Church of Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Our conversation: their community’s religiously anchored response to the number of Americans killed by gun violence in 2019.
In this second part of our conversation, visual artist Mona Brooks talks about the physical, tactile dimension of this project and how that physicality made the people who have died in mass shootings more real, more human. Sarah Ellis reminds us that no society will last long without courage and love.
Part One of this conversation can be found in last week’s show, released on October 3rd.
Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you think is interested in a different way of understanding what’s going on in the world. Or post one of your favorite shows to your Facebook page. You can direct people to our website: whatingods.com/how-to-listen.
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:10 Chris and Shayna recount how they met and what draws them to co-create What In God’s Name
03:00 Chris shows some love for the What In God’s Name audience. Our show asks people to think seriously about public questions.
04:10 Chris recounts this local New Hampshire church’s response to the mass shootings this summer in El Paso and Dayton.
05:57 Mona Brooks shares her participation in the project. How is the question Do I make a difference? one of the questions that gives rise to religion?
09:12 Mona shares an invitation she makes to anyone who walks into her gallery, and the reason for the invitation. Does her reading of our human need ring true to you?
10:26 Can the exercise of human creativity unwind the life-denying power of destruction? What kinds of teaching do elders need to engage in, to help young people understand the human capability for both creation and destruction?
16:54 Shayna talks about the physical dimension of making the crosses, and planting them in the ground. Why is the physicality of these acts important?
18:20 Sarah Ellis shares that she was motivated by words that conveyed hope and resolve. How important is it for us to encourage one another?
20:22 Sarah observes that the culture of fear might be new to those who have lived in relative privilege, but that for many people of color, living with fear is not new.
22:09 Sarah emphasizes the importance of making way in the world that is grounded in love. Is that possible? Even if it’s not possible, could it still be worth making the effort?
This is a replay of a show from April 2019.
Our conversation with Dan Andrus, fire chief of Concord, the capital of New Hampshire, touches on PTSD in first responders, depression and suicide. Here is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
The Lifeline phone number is: 1-800-273-8255.
Also, in part one of our conversation, Dan mentions 3 firefighters who have faced the life-draining forces of traumatic stress, and the mental health costs in doing so. Those people, and links to their stories, are:
Mike Stevens, Salt Lake City: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/05/18/once-suicidal-a-salt-lake-city-firefighters-got-help-now-hes-urging-other-first-responders-to-consider-therapy/
Todd Donovan, Derry, New Hampshire: https://www.wmur.com/article/event-aims-to-end-stigma-around-mental-health-issues-of-first-responders/24416188
Scott Geiselhart, Frazee, Minnesota: https://seeingincoloragain.wordpress.com/
Dan Andrus, fire chief of Concord, the capital of New Hampshire, joins us for conversation. Dan is a beautiful soul, experienced as a lifesaver and well-acquainted with human suffering. Our conversation covers the opioid crisis, and then pivots to the anxiety and depression that can come with repeated exposure to trauma: PTSD for paramedics and first responders.
Those of you who have taken time to write a review for What In God’s Name on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify), or also on Facebook: thanks so much. Your reviews help us become more visible to the mysterious algorithms of search engines.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
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Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:10 Chris introduces today’s show and expresses sadness that Shayna is unable to join him today.
03:13 Dan explains how long he has been the fire chief in Concord, and how he got to the Granite State. How would we tell the stories of our lives? How would we tell the story of how we got to where we are? What is a Christian understanding of “vocation,” and how does that offer an alternative to economics-saturated understandings of work?
07:05 Chris asks about the opioid crisis. Dan shares his experiences and observations. For those of you who like statistics, Dan shares some of those too. What despair is in our land, if people are dying in such large numbers from addiction and overdose?
12:18 What In God’s Name is having a funding campaign: support the core values of curiosity, depth, and shining light into the public conversation by going to our website www.whatingods.com, and making a donation through Patreon, or through Filmmakers Collaborative.
13:37 Why is there an opioid addiction crisis in the United States? Why now? How can we understand anxiety and depression philosophically (what do these afflictions say about human being, human nature)? Theologically? What role does pain play in our lives? Should we aim to eliminate all pain? If not, how do we distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable pain?
18:40 Dan turns the conversation in the direction of first responders’ experiences with post-traumatic stress, depression, and suicide attempts. Sometimes the darkness and pain and heartbreak seem to be too big. What resources can we draw on, in order to get through to the dawn?
22:36 “Seeing in color again”: how is this a metaphor for new life? How is this an actual, physical experience of what it means to be transformed? How is this a metaphor for hope?
Awe and wonder, part two: what gets in the way of awe and wonder? We consider certain kinds of reductionisms, including scientific materialist reductionism, as a way that wonder can be dismissed. Are there limits to human knowing? We think so. What In God’s Name continues to celebrate being one year old! We give thanks to you, our loyal, thoughtful, caring, and supportive listeners. Our fall focus on increasing our listenership was a success: thanks to you, our listenership is up 40% since last spring, and 60% from where we started in Season One. Our show is growing. We believe we are offering something valuable to the public conversation, and our growth suggests that we’re not alone in thinking that way. So thank you! We will continue to think about ways to expand our engagement with you, and to introduce our show to new people and groups. If you have any ideas for us, be in touch: Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com. Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com. What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle. Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show: 01:00 What happens when we start to think about and talk about what is going on in the world, from the perspective of transcendence—getting ourselves out of the perspective that this is the only time and place that matters? 03:33 Chris and Shayna recap last week’s show on the salutary effects of wonder on our shared life together, in one minute. 05:22 What are ways that wonder and awe can be distorted? 10:26 Is one of the downsides of the “information age” that we overvalue knowing, and undervalue “not knowing?” 12:51 Does science help or hinder the development of wonder in people? 15:35 Does materialist reductionism of the “nothing but-ery” type shed light on the kind of reductionism we see in current United States political life? Are there limits to what we can know? 19:00 Does your picture of God allow for a God who wonders? 21:03 How does sacramentality relate to wonder? Can there be non-religious sacramentality?
Wonder and awe. It’s the season. Today on the show we take an appreciative look at wonder: what does it look like, what does it feel like, and how does the psycho-spiritual stance or attitude of wonder help equip us to be better participants in social life? What In God’s Name continues to celebrate being one year old! We give thanks to you, our loyal, thoughtful, caring, and supportive listeners. Our fall focus on increasing our listenership was a success: thanks to you, our listenership is up 40% since last spring, and 60% from where we started in Season One. Our show is growing. We believe we are offering something valuable to the public conversation, and our growth suggests that we’re not alone in thinking that way. So thank you! We will continue to think about ways to expand our engagement with you, and to introduce our show to new people and groups. If you have any ideas for us, be in touch: Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com. Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com. What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle. Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show: 01:04 When we use theological reflection to shed light on current events and culture, how does the usual story of who we are and where we are going change? 04:03 What are the characteristics of wonder? Beyond the individual, what are the social consequences of an attitude of wonder? 07:55 What is the relationship between wonder and curiosity? How does wonder add life and vitality to a conversation? What is the relationship between wonder and humility? 11:15 Does the information age detract from, or enhance, the possibility of wonder? Does religious practice detract from, or enhance, the possibility of wonder? 13:28 How would an experience of awe make us more generous people? 17:38 What are the spiritual and moral habits of mind and heart that are necessary for us to remain a free and self-governing people? 21:44 The experience of wonder and awe can be destabilizing. Discuss.
Is Donald Trump evil?
What In God’s Name has, to this point, steered clear of directly addressing questions that arise from the character and leadership of our president. Today, we bring the tools of moral theology, in order to enter into a deeper consideration of the meaning of this presidency.
Shayna begins with a consideration of the creative power of words; we pivot to corrupt uses of words, especially lying words that manipulate and confuse. Chris then connects M. Scott Peck’s book “People of the Lie” to the conversation, pointing out that Peck connects lying with evil. From that point, it’s a conversation that weighs moral culpability against what might rise to the level of moral evil. Our fall focus on increasing our listenership was a success: thanks to you, our listenership is up 40% since last spring, and 60% from where we started in Season One. Our show is growing. We believe we are offering something valuable to the public conversation, and our growth suggests that we’re not alone in thinking that way. So thank you! We will continue to think about ways to expand our engagement with you, and to introduce our show to new people and groups.
If you have any ideas for us, be in touch:
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:42 Shayna riffs on the beginning of the Christian gospel of John. In what ways is language powerful, and why is the wise use of language humanizing?
03:55 What In God’s Name has, to this point in its year of existence, steered clear of a direct reflection on our current president. What do we gain by steering clear? What is the moral hazard of steering clear?
09:00 What are the common psycho-spiritual characteristics of the sociopath/amoral or evil person? How does lying contribute to these characteristics? What happens when a group of people in a society embraces and perpetuates the lies of a leader?
15:22 Do you need to kill 6 million people in order to be a truly evil leader?
18:00 How does the realist vision of what is involved in statecraft make moral judgments about leaders more complex? Or do they?
20:30 “As long as one believes that the evil man wears horns, one will never find an evil man.” Discuss.
24:41 To what extent is a leader morally responsible for evil deeds committed by others, but inspired by the leader’s words?
Happy Thanksgiving!
Today we consider what it means to give thanks, and the spiritual ramifications of a posture of gratitude. George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation also helps us see where we are, by being a landmark from where we’ve come.
What In God’s Name celebrates being one year old today! We give thanks to you, our loyal, thoughtful, caring, and supportive listeners.
Our fall focus on increasing our listenership was a success: thanks to you, our listenership is up 40% since last spring, and 60% from where we started in Season One. We are a small show, and we are growing. We believe we are offering something valuable to the public conversation, and our growth suggests that we’re not alone in thinking that way. So thank you! We will continue to think about ways to expand our engagement with you, and to introduce our show to new people and groups.
If you have any ideas for us, be in touch:
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:22 What is your favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal? Chris and Shayna agree that the best stuffing is cooked inside the turkey. What are you grateful for?
05:54 How is giving thanks the antidote to entitlement? How are gratitude and humility connected?
07:50 What are the benefits of practicing gratitude as a spiritual discipline?
11:11 Chris reads 2 parts of George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789. How does George Washington’s appeals to God strike your 21st-century ears? How would a religious voice in today’s American culture be strengthened by paying attention to Washington’s implied theology?
16:27 The best of what America has to offer: where has it gone? How do we get it back?
18:12 Do we need to (temporarily) forget the injustices of our past, with regard to Native Americans, in order to have a Happy Thanksgiving, or can remembering and being sorry be part of a fuller Thanksgiving?
Part Two, today, of our conversation with Randy Mayer, who leads a humanitarian relief ministry to migrants coming across the border in the desert area of Arizona. His church is The Good Shepherd, UCC, in the Santa Cruz valley not far from Mexico.
Listen to Part One of our conversation with Randy, on the show released last week on November 14, 2019.
Our fall focus on increasing our listenership was a success: thanks to you, our listenership is up 40% since last spring, and 60% from where we started in Season One. We are a small show, and we are growing. We believe we are offering something valuable to the public conversation, and our growth suggests that we’re not alone in thinking that way. So thank you! We will continue to think about ways to expand our engagement with you, and to introduce our show to new people and groups.
If you have any ideas for us, be in touch:
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
02:25 If there were 3000 people dying in your neighborhood, what would you do? Randy recounts the human element, the numbers of people who have died trying to get into the United States.
04:26 Is it the purpose of religious practice to form in us the moral imagination to see the humanity of the other? What other purposes for religious practice are there? Are those purposes related to each other? How do those purposes connect us to God?
07:00 The beauty of being part of a religious tradition is that you can go deep into the core stories, and you can walk in a path that has been trod by others. What are pitfalls here? And can we receive the same kind, or similar, formation without being part of a religious tradition?
10:54 Everyone needs an immigrant for a friend. Why does Randy say this?
13:00 Christian morality needs to be more encompassing than simply to focus of codes of sexual purity. Why are we paying so much attention to codes of sexual purity?
16:16 How can physical, embodied practices lead us to spiritual wisdom in ways that thinking cannot?
17:00 Shayna shares a story about the divine image being carried by all people. How, then, does the work of service save not only the receiver, but the giver?
21:30 The world is cruel, and our society grows more coarse. How are we going to make a difference?
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding DACA, the Obama-era policy that defers action on the deportation of young people who were brought to this country unlawfully as children. Keeping with this theme of border and immigration issues, today on What In God’s Name we talk to Randy Mayer, who leads a humanitarian relief ministry to migrants coming across the border in the desert area of Arizona.
Our fall focus on increasing our listenership was a success: thanks to you, our listenership is up 40% since last spring, and 60% from where we started in Season One. We are a small show, and we are growing. We believe we are offering something valuable to the public conversation, and our growth suggests that we’re not alone in thinking that way. So thank you! We will continue to think about ways to expand our engagement with you, and to introduce our show to new people and groups.
If you have any ideas for us, be in touch:
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
03:14 Shayna provides a roadmap for this, part one of our interview with Randy Mayer.
04:05 Randy introduces himself and his humanitarian work with the Green Valley-Sahuarita Samaritans.
05:37 Is the Bible a handbook on immigration? Do you have to be a seasoned host to be a Christian?
07:35 What could it possibly mean, that to be a Good Samaritan is to be a bad American?
10:40 If a nation’s law is wrong, do people of conscience have an obligation to stand up and do the right thing, even if it means breaking the law? How can we discern if a law is wrong or unjust?
15:32 The solutions to these problems at the border are not political, the solutions are with people. Discuss.
18:00 You owe it to yourself, you owe it to your country to be face to face with an immigrant. Why? What is the power of this encounter?
22:15 The Samaritan doesn’t ask what will happen to me if I help that person, she asks, what will happen to that person if I don’t help. What flips in that simple re-framing?
24:37 Hospitality is the core of Christianity. If Christians actually acted as though this were true, how would the practice of Christianity be different in our culture? How would Christianity be perceived differently?
27:23 When my story becomes part of your internal landscape, God is present in that moment. If this is an accurate picture of who God is, how would we characterize the heart of God?
Today’s takeaway: Narcissism sucks! And other deep thoughts about excessive self-love in our culture today.
Our fall focus on increasing our listenership was a success: thanks to you, our listenership is up 40% since last spring, and 60% from where we started in Season One. We are a small show, and we are growing. We believe we are offering something valuable to the public conversation, and our growth suggests that we’re not alone in thinking that way. So thank you! We will continue to think about ways to expand our engagement with you, and to introduce our show to new people and groups.
If you have any ideas for us, be in touch:
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
02:30 Basic question: why even talk about narcissism? What can we learn about what in God’s name is going on in our culture, by considering the role of narcissism?
04:08 What is healthy self-love, and how do we discern the line where self-love becomes excessive?
07:14 How is limitlessness related to narcissism?
09:09 How are old age and death the ultimate threat to narcissism? Do you think narcissism accounts for some of our culture’s denial of the inevitable decline and death of each of us? What other factors might be involved? Is pain intolerance related to narcissism?
12:32 Trace the connection between narcissism and empathy.
14:55 How are communities that can grieve together counter-cultural?
16:55 What is the connection between suffering and service?
20:11 How is rampant narcissism a threat to American democracy?
20:41 Is excessive acquisitiveness another facet of narcissism in our culture?
What do our cultural practices around Halloween tell us about who we are? Is Halloween just another way for us to become numb, or do our Halloween practices contain kernels of unfulfilled desire for deeper living, and lives that matter?
Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you think is interested in a different way of understanding what’s going on in the world. Or post one of your favorite shows to your Facebook page. You can direct people to our website: whatingods.com/how-to-listen.
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:21 What was your favorite Halloween costume growing up? Shayna was all about the candy; Chris was all about the envy of others whose costumes were better than his.
02:52 We are unbreaking news, so What In God’s Name takes a moment to acknowledge both the fires in California and the impeachment inquiry process in Washington, noting some of the moral questions these raise.
06:48 Is there anything to the warnings that some Christians raise about the dangers of Halloween as allowing Satan a foothold? Or are these the ravings of crackpots?
9:47 What moral questions are raised by the fact that we spend, by recent accounts, upwards of 9 billion dollars on Halloween costumes, decorations, and candy? More broadly, what is a critique of consumerism from a spiritual perspective?
12:03 What does all our energy around Halloween signify about what we are hungry for? Are we seeking numbness, or seeking a way to break out of numbness?
18:37 Is there a connection between Halloween and extreme roller coasters in our culture today?
19:30 How does danger make us feel alive? Are we a people who are largely asleep?
20:37 Is modern American life the numbness of consumerism interspersed with absolute terror?
Bonds of affection in American democracy: did Walt Whitman have insights into what will make American democracy work into the future, or is he hopelessly out of touch with the modern world? Shayna and Chris discuss Whitman’s theology, his vision of the human being, and his vision of human connectedness within the context of American self-governance.
Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you think is interested in a different way of understanding what’s going on in the world. Or post one of your favorite shows to your Facebook page. You can direct people to our website: whatingods.com/how-to-listen.
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
04:26 Chris introduces Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself.”
05:30 Can love and mutual affection hold together a society that aspires to be self-governing? On what could such love and mutual affection be based? How is Whitman’s vision an “American” vision?
07:00 What are the beneficial aspects of basing American unity on honoring the Constitution? What are the shortcomings?
9:12 Can a democracy work when animus is the operative spirit? If democracy doesn’t work, what comes next?
10:48 The paradigm for our public life at the moment is professional sports: we choose our team, and aim to defeat the other. What does this paradigm leave out?
18:03 Shayna distinguishes soul from spirit. Do you agree with her distinction?
19:30 Shayna shares her takeaway for today’s show: Maya Angelou’s beautiful words about our need in this world to share connection. Chris’ takeaway is similar: the Whitman vision of spiritual connection is necessary for this American experiment to have a future.
While this installment of What In God’s Name was recorded before Atatiana Jefferson was shot by a Fort Worth police officer in her home, Shayna and Chris are talking about systemic racism this week, as part of their reflections on the similar case of Botham Jean, and his murder at the hand of Amber Guyger.
Brandt Jean (Botham’s brother) spoke words of forgiveness to Amber Guyger at her sentencing. What is forgiveness? What are the psycho-spiritual dynamics involved in forgiveness? What is forgiveness NOT?
Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you think is interested in a different way of understanding what’s going on in the world. Or post one of your favorite shows to your Facebook page. You can direct people to our website: whatingods.com/how-to-listen.
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
02:30 For those (like Chris) who hadn’t followed the story, Shayna gives a recap of Botham Jean’s murder at the hands of Amber Guyger, and the scene in the courtroom when Amber was sentenced.
05:00 What is forgiveness? Why is it easy to confuse forgiveness with condoning? Does the offender need to be repentant in order to be forgiven?
08:00 Shayna introduces the element of race in this story: Amber Guyger is white; Botham Jean was a black man. How does the issue of race make it more difficult and complicated to make sense of what happened?
13:00 How difficult is forgiveness? What makes it difficult? Who is the hardest person to forgive?
14:50 Is forgiveness the willing forfeiture of the right of revenge? Does forgiving mean forgetting? Does the fact of our forgiving someone mean that we must let that person who has injured us, back into our lives?
19:10 What are we to do with the fact that some of us see systemic racism and its deleterious effects, and some of us don’t?
What In God’s Name has a conversation with Mark Koyama, Tina O’Neil, Sarah Ellis, and Mona Brooks of the United Church of Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Our conversation: their community’s religiously anchored response to the number of Americans killed by gun violence in 2019.
In this second part of our conversation, visual artist Mona Brooks talks about the physical, tactile dimension of this project and how that physicality made the people who have died in mass shootings more real, more human. Sarah Ellis reminds us that no civil society will last, or be remembered as anything special, without creativity, courage, and love.
Part One of this conversation can be found in last week’s show, released on October 3rd.
Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you think is interested in a different way of understanding what’s going on in the world. Or post one of your favorite shows to your Facebook page. You can direct people to our website: whatingods.com/how-to-listen.
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:10 Chris and Shayna recount how they met and what draws them to co-create What In God’s Name
03:00 Chris shows some love for the What In God’s Name audience. Our show asks people to think seriously about public questions.
04:10 Chris recounts this local New Hampshire church’s response to the mass shootings this summer in El Paso and Dayton.
05:57 Mona Brooks shares her participation in the project. How is the question Do I make a difference? one of the questions that gives rise to religion?
09:12 Mona shares an invitation she makes to anyone who walks into her gallery, and the reason for the invitation. Does her reading of our human need ring true to you?
10:26 Can the exercise of human creativity unwind the life-denying power of destruction? What kinds of teaching do elders need to engage in, to help young people understand the human capability for both creation and destruction?
16:54 Shayna talks about the physical dimension of making the crosses, and planting them in the ground. Why is the physicality of these acts important?
18:20 Sarah Ellis shares that she was motivated by words that conveyed hope and resolve. How important is it for us to encourage one another?
20:22 Sarah observes that the culture of fear might be new to those who have lived in relative privilege, but that for many people of color, living with fear is not new.
22:09 Sarah emphasizes the importance of making way in the world that is grounded in love. Is that possible? Even if it’s not possible, could it still be worth making the effort?
What In God’s Name has a conversation with Mark Koyama, Tina O’Neil, Sarah Ellis, and Mona Brooks of the United Church of Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Our conversation: their community’s religiously anchored response to the number of Americans killed by gun violence in 2019.
Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you think is interested in a different way of understanding what’s going on in the world. Or post one of your favorite shows to your Facebook page. You can direct people to our website: whatingods.com/how-to-listen.
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
04:50 What are the differences and similarities between responses to gun violence that come from a worldview grounded in a commitment to living as though God has something to do with the world, and a worldview grounded in a commitment to living as though no god has anything to do with the world?
06:30 Rev. Mark Koyama explains the project, and how it responds to the frustration that many people feel about the numbers of people dying in gun-related violence in the United States.
10:10 The community decided to create the crosses themselves. What happens when we make things rather than buy them?
10:30 Where do we discern the presence of God in this project?
13:10 Shayna points out the contrast between the time that it took to put each cross in the ground, and the time it took for the Dayton gunman to kill and wound many people.
14:24 People who regularly pray and engage in liturgy at least are practiced at returning to what is of ultimate concern. Is that true? Does it make a difference in the world?
17:32 Tina O’Neil describes resonating with the idea that it was no longer good enough to think and pray, but that we need to think, pray, and act. How is this more religious than just thinking and praying?
18:44 What is this culture of fear doing to us, as a society?
20:45 What is the faithful response to the culture of fear? Tina tells her grandchildren “to make a stand.”
21:43 How would you complete this sentence, on the topic of gun violence and mass shootings: “I wonder………”
Hurrah! Shayna is back, and gets to have a say about the recently enacted climate strike, while Chris asks questions about the place of human beings on the planet: where do we fit?
Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you think is interested in a different way of understanding what’s going on in the world. Or post one of your favorite shows to your Facebook page. You can direct people to our website: whatingods.com/how-to-listen.
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:00 As What In God’s Name listenership increases, Shayna and Chris re-set the show’s premise and briefly introduce themselves.
04:28 Shayna and Chris spend a moment on the announcement that the House of Representatives will begin a formal impeachment process. A What In God’s Name question is: what is the relationship of politics and ethics? What happens when political considerations take precedence over ethical or moral considerations?
07:00 Is the rhetoric of “emergency” appropriate for the climate issues we face? How does that rhetoric help, and how is it unhelpful?
10:20 Some people feel that the fate of the world is entirely in human hands (since, from that view, there is no divine realm); some feel that the fate of the world is entirely in divine hands (since, from that view, God is omnipotent and omniscient). What is a possible “middle” theology?
14:30 How is a relationship with the living God similar to a relationship with a living person?
16:24 What is the human place in Creation? Where do we fit, in relation to the rocks, trees and squirrels? Does replacing fossil fuels with renewables take care of the "problem" of human beings?
Shayna needs to miss a second show, but will be returning next week. Chris considers the practice of journalism in America today, in preparation for the What In God’s Name interview with Jeff MacDonald, coming up in October.
Here at What In God’s Name we are realists about truth, not relativists: truth has an independent existence apart from any one individual’s perceptions (for example, people tell lies; the existence of lies means that there exists truth that stands above perception or distortion, and has authority). Problems arise, however, when a person or group of people claim to know the whole truth. The antidote to such overweaning pride is humility in front of truth: we need each other to help all of us, together, to see more clearly.
Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you think is interested in a different way of understanding what’s going on in the world. Or post one of your favorite shows to your Facebook page. You can direct people to our website: whatingods.com/how-to-listen.
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:32 Chris resets the premise of What In God’s Name. We LOVE conversation; dialogue is our means of knowing; we need each other to understand what is going on in the world. Our lens (to use the metaphor of optics) is theology and philosophy.
04:58 Chris invites listeners to 5 minutes of reflection on journalism. How does journalism relate to our being citizens? To our being a self-governing people?
06:04 “The more desparately the press chases readers, the more it resembles our politics.” Agree or disagree?
06:54 How does a journalist’s worldview affect what s/he finds newsworthy?
07:42 How does the pressure to get people to consume journalism by manufacturing outrage, affect our ability to be self-governing? Or does it not matter?
08:10 Should the practice of journalism be about finding what is true?
Feeling the side effects of chemo-therapy, Shayna has to miss today’s show, so Chris flies solo in a show that asks the essential question: If you don’t think that climate change is an emergency, does that make you a climate denier?
Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you think is interested in a different way of understanding what’s going on in the world. Or post one of your favorite shows to your Facebook page. You can direct people to our website: whatingods.com/how-to-listen.
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:55 Chris resets the premise of What In God’s Name. In the way that there exists a slow food movement, we are part of the slow news movement. Also, we polish the lenses of theology and philosophy to offer a useful and mostly neglected perspective.
03:12 We encourage you to offer your thoughts on our Facebook page (@whatingods), responding to the question: If you don’t think that climate change is an emergency, are you a climate denier? This question arises as 350.org and other groups prepare for the September 20-27 Climate Strike.
05:20 Can calling climate change an “emergency” actually inhibit action rather than motivate action?
06:19 What constitutes an emergency? Is the example of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving movement analogous to what is needed to address climate change?
08:22 Does this age of anxiety make everything feel like an emergency?
08:30 If declaring an emergency is not a spur to act, what could other motivations be? What if, in addition to applying the kinds of pressure that are needed in confronting entrenched fossil fuel economic power, we could also appeal to people’s loves?
To begin Season Two, Chris and Shayna go to a Trump rally to talk with people in line waiting to get in. Our questions: What makes America great? What attracts you to a Trump rally?
Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you think is interested in a different way of understanding what’s going on in the world. Or post one of your favorite shows to your Facebook page. You can direct people to our website: whatingods.com/how-to-listen.
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:30 Chris explains the purpose of attending a Trump rally, and the approach we took to talking to people. What In God’s Name was there neither to protest or to support, but to seek understanding and to discern the spirits.
05:00 People respond to the question: What draws you to a Trump rally?
08:30 Chris gives a generous interpretation of what draws people to a Trump rally. Can a generous interpretation be given for such an event, without considering the morals and values expressed in them?
09:55 How does the scapegoating mechanism work in human societies? Shayna wonders about de-centering forces at work in American society, and how those forces drive the desire for unity.
14:22 Our interviewees answer the question: What makes America great?
17:24 Shayna reflects on some of the people she encountered—the warm-hearted and the cold, the gentle and the abrasive. It was a gathering of humans.
20:37 Is Donald Trump a great orator? Does he have some characteristics of great oratory?
In this summer “in-between” seasons show, Chris invites Shayna into a deeper consideration of “culture,” and the observation attributed to Andrew Breitbart that “politics is downstream of culture.”
We also tease some upcoming fall shows: a collaboration with the Harvard Interfaith Forum, and an interview with journalist and minister Jeff MacDonald, who covered the Boston Marathon bomber trial for USA Today.
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:44 Chris reveals plans for season 2: a collaboration with the Harvard Interfaith Forum, and an interview with Jeff MacDonald.
02:17 Chris and Shayna reaffirm their love of religious plurality.
04:55 “Politics is downstream of culture.” Andrew Breitbart is attributed with this observation. Do you think it’s true? Chris and Shayna trace the implications of this observation. We didn’t get to where we are overnight, and we won’t move to another place overnight, either.
05:32 What do we mean by the word “culture?”
08:28 Can philosophy and theology help us think more creatively about where we are as a society, such that the current political categories get re-arranged? Obviously, we think the answer is “yes,” or we wouldn’t be making this show.
12:00 If politicians are followers, where is leadership in society coming from? Discuss.
16:20 Shayna shares her understanding of what philosophical thinking is about, and how it can be helpful in this time.
We recorded this show before the most recent mass shooting in El Paso. That murderous violence, part of a pattern of white nationalist violence in our recent (and not-so-recent) past, underscores the What In God’s Name conversation about What powers are currently at work in the American spirit? What values do we believe in? How can a sense of the Transcendent (in both non-religious and religious contexts) help set a life-affirming course direction?
Shayna pins some hope on Robert Mueller’s report and Congressional testimony. Chris invokes Walt Whitman.
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:30 Shayna declares that Chris is recording this show with his lower extremities “in the buff.” Chris clarifies.
01:17 Chris expresses skepticism about the importance of Robert Mueller’s testimony before Congress. Shayna rebuts.
05:08 Shayna identifies the racist rhetoric coming from our president, and presciently warns that divisive words lead to divisive consequences.
06:55 Societal values are always being contended, if not fought over, generation to generation. True or false?
08:28 Chris shares his six loves in doing What In God’s Name. Do you share any of these loves? Would you add any? As one of Chris’s loves, the conversation turns to Walt Whitman’s vision of American democracy.
12:10 It’s time for people who love this country in its diversity to stand up. How does idealism, or a sense of the transcendent, help us in this time?
When bad things happen, where is God? Is God dishing out punishment?
These questions arise as Shayna shares her news that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer and will be undergoing treatment over the summer.
How do we manage when life gets difficult? How well does our culture do, in times of difficulty?
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Our Instagram page, curated with philosophical tidbits and show news, can be found on Instagram at @whatingods.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:07 According to US Breast Cancer.org, 12% of US women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. Shayna shares that she is now one of those women.
03:13 Chris asks Shayna, “When you share your news, what is helpful for you to hear?” What would you want to hear?
05:55 What makes for good care, when you are being present to someone with pain or grief or sadness?
07:30 When bad things happen to good people, how do we understand God’s presence, or absence, or indifference? Does God send bad things into our lives as punishment? Can God make bad things happen to nations, to punish whole peoples?
12:23 Is anxiety the opposite of faithfulness? If not, what is?
14:10 Do you agree that we would be better off as a society if we could ground ourselves in something “bigger,” something that commands our allegiance and forms us into more mature people?
17:13 Is God all-powerful and all-loving? Could God not be one (or either) of those things, and still be God?
20:23 Can we find our way through life without others?
22:00 Shayna sends us on our way with a benediction for the summer.
The Doctrine of Discovery (1493) was a papal bull authorizing Christian conquest of non-Christian lands. Could this 15th-century Roman Catholic document be influencing how we in the industrial and post-industrial West are treating the world and nature’s goods?
A recent report from the United Nations working group IPBES on biodiversity is the occasion for these theological reflections.
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Our Instagram page, curated with philosophical tidbits and show news, can be found on Instagram at @whatingods.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:37 Shayna summarizes the IPBES report.
03:22 Shayna invites us into theological reflection on the environment that goes beyond Scripture (usually we begin with Genesis and note how in that story God gives Creation to humanity to have dominion over and to be good stewards of). Instead, what if we reflect on the history of the Church, and look especially at what our theological inheritance is, from the time of the “Age of Discovery” (late 15th-17th centuries). Specifically, what is the Doctrine of Discovery, and what kind of theology does it promote?
06:23 Can the mindset of exploitation be traced to this document? Chris probes this question with Shayna.
12:17 Is our exploitation of the environment today connected to the exploitation of indigenous peoples throughout the history of European settlement of North America?
14:39 The United Nations report seems to be calling for a radical new beginning. Can we begin to imagine what such a new beginning could look like, and how it might come?
17:01 Shayna makes a “Game of Thrones” reference.
17:55 If the Doctrine of Discovery is bad theology, what is its opposite good theology? Shayna and Chris each offer a response.
Franklin Foer’s article in the March 2019 Atlantic Monthly “How Kleptocracy Came to America” provides the jumping off point for today’s show. You don’t need to read the article to understand today’s show, but if you’re curious, here is the link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/how-kleptocracy-came-to-america/580471/
What elements of American culture over the last quarter century have made us the “go-to” country for money laundering and tax avoidance by the world’s grifters? Does the concept of sin, and the category of evil, help us understand what in God’s name is happening to our country?
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money and economics angle, not from a technological and scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Our Instagram page, curated with philosophical tidbits and show news, can be found on Instagram at @whatingods.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:02 Chris shares a little of his story of coming to Christianity later in life, having first survived being raised by irreligious hippie parents.
02:33 Franklin Foer’s article in The Atlantic: what does kleptocracy mean, and how has the United States become involved?
06:02 What are the values of kleptocrats? What are American values? As Shayna points out, are there parts of American culture that are “receptive” to kleptocracy and greed? Do some of the values in a capitalistic system that appeal to human selfishness make us vulnerable to kleptocratic values? Where is the public good, in these value systems?
09:14 What does sin have to do with our seeming indifference at being the world leader in shielding dark money? How is sin a helpful hermeneutical tool? How has the word been cheapened?
13:52 Where in our culture do we talk ethics and morality?
15:52 Shayna introduces the sailing metaphor. How apt is this metaphor? What does it illuminate? If we lose the capacity to talk about sin and evil, are we progressing as a society in the direction of enlightenment, or have we lost an important tool to help us find our way?
18:22 Chris defines evil. How would you define evil?
20:38 The importance of stories to connect us with each other, to connect us with a higher purpose and meaning, and to connect us with a God or gods, or with no gods, as the case may be.
Andrew Breitbart famously, and correctly, said that politics is downstream of culture. Today, Shayna and Chris evaluate fear’s role in our culture, and how a culture of fear produces a politics of fear.
What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money/economics angle, not from a techno-scientific angle, but from a theological and philosophical angle.
If you’ve lost your way, you might want to ask directions from people who’ve been down this path before.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Our Instagram page, curated with philosophical tidbits and show news, can be found on Instagram at @whatingods.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:44 “An Era Defined By Fear.” Shayna reads from David Brooks’ April 29 article in the New York Times.
02:55 Consider how fear causes us to contract into ourselves. We would do well to pause for a moment, and reflect on how fear appears in our lives.
05:33 Are we ultimately alone in the universe, or ultimately connected to Love, or Being, or God?
07:00 Shayna reflects on training to become a firefighter. What is the difference between your having fear (one possibility), or fear having you (a second possibility)?
10:33 We turn to fear of change, and relatedly, the fear of vulnerability that might lead us to change. Why is change so scary? Shayna courageously shares a piece of her journey in life, as an illustration.
14:52 Is there anything else in life that stops us, the way fear stops us?
16:20 Chris brings up Brene Brown, in the context of her teachings about vulnerability. Are vulnerability and courage identical? How are they related? Can a practice of vulnerability be a good seed that bears fruit in the repair of social bonds? Shayna points to Pete Buttigieg as a public figure who is modeling vulnerability.
20:22 Shayna leaves us with the exhortation: Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor let them be afraid. Refusing to be sucked into the culture of fear is a political act.
Is it possible to reflect theologically on the Mueller report into Russian interference in the 2016 election? You be the judge.
We start with the Mueller report, and then take an excursion to the meaning of moral decline and renewal in the current American context.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Our Instagram page, curated with philosophical tidbits and show news, can be found on Instagram at @whatingods.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:16 Shayna forgets Chris’s name.
01:25 Imagine that the Mueller report is not the story, but is only a chapter in a larger story. What would the larger story be?
02:25 If America is in moral decline, how would you characterize the realm of the “moral?” Is it just about breaking rules, or do rules arise from a deeper sense of our interrelatedness?
05:33 Do leaders bear a special responsibility to uphold moral and ethical standards? Why?
10:00 Chris returns to the opioid disaster. Isn’t experiencing one’s individual self as being disconnected from any higher authority, and seeing one’s individual self as being beholden to nothing and to no one, similar in both the power-hungry operative and the suicidal addict?
15:53 What is a functionally nihilistic culture, and what are the signs that we are living in one?
17:15 What is responsibility, and how is it breaking down? “Not my circus, not my monkey.” What happens if we live this way?
22:40 Chris asserts that our politics will change only after our culture changes. True or false?
Today’s show: the phoenix rises from her own ashes, after being consumed in fire. Using the phoenix as paradigmatic, we talk about Notre Dame, the opioid disaster, and the coming of spring to the Northern Hemisphere.
For those of you who have taken time to write a review for What In God’s Name on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify), or also on Facebook: thanks so much. Your reviews help us become more visible to the mysterious algorithms of search engines.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Our Instagram page, curated with philosophical tidbits and show news, can be found on Instagram at @whatingods.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:22 “If all that changes slowly may be explained by life, all that changes quickly is explained by fire.” Is fire just life, speeded up?
02:47 Shayna explains how receiving the news of Notre Dame on fire felt like a punch in the gut. When life goes up in flames, what do we have?
04:04 Is anything permanent? What is the wisdom of embracing impermanence?
05:10 We pivot from the Notre Dame fire to consider the opioid disaster. Chris shares some startling statistics, and the conversation turns to trauma. With the rapid rate of change, are we a society that is in trauma? What can an individual’s recovery from trauma teach us about what will help our society regain health and vitality?
08:45 What In God’s Name is having a funding campaign: support the core values of curiosity, depth, and shining light into the public conversation by going to our website www.whatingods.com, and making a donation through Patreon, or through Filmmakers Collaborative.
11:42 What kind of moment is it, when the ways that we make sense of the world get blown apart? What does that feel like?
14:30 What is the role of having shared stories in a culture?
16:07 “You have to hit the breakdown sometimes, before you get the breakthrough.”
16:22 A consideration of some of the false gods of our current culture, a few of which have to do with hyper-individualism. A problem with an over-emphasis on the individual is an atomized culture of loneliness.
17:44 Chris and Shayna close with good words about new life.
Our conversation with Dan Andrus, fire chief of Concord, the capital of New Hampshire, touches on PTSD in first responders, depression and suicide. Here is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
The Lifeline phone number is: 1-800-273-8255.
Also, in part one of our conversation, Dan mentions 3 firefighters who have faced the life-draining forces of traumatic stress, and the mental health costs in doing so. Those people, and links to their stories, are:
Mike Stevens, Salt Lake City: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/05/18/once-suicidal-a-salt-lake-city-firefighters-got-help-now-hes-urging-other-first-responders-to-consider-therapy/
Todd Donovan, Derry, New Hampshire: https://www.wmur.com/article/event-aims-to-end-stigma-around-mental-health-issues-of-first-responders/24416188
Scott Geiselhart, Frazee, Minnesota: https://seeingincoloragain.wordpress.com/
For those of you who have taken time to write a review for What In God’s Name on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify), or also on Facebook: thanks so much. Your reviews help us become more visible to the mysterious algorithms of search engines.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Our Instagram page, curated with philosophical tidbits and show news, can be found on Instagram at @whatingods.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
03:42 Chris asks Dan how he has managed his own exposure to trauma. In what ways can spiritual grounding and spiritual connection aid our mental health? Our physical health?
04:28 “Christianity is a faith for the broken.” Discuss. Why would anyone want to be taken into “the heart of the world’s brokenness?”
08:21 Recognizing Dan’s public role as Fire Chief, Chris wonders how free Dan can be with his faith, in his work. Can we preach without words?
10:00 Again the question: what does it mean to be a man in this culture? Chris and Dan explore emotions, strength and weakness, and shame.
12:38 What In God’s Name is having a funding campaign: support the core values of curiosity, depth, and shining light into the public conversation by going to our website www.whatingods.com, and making a donation through Patreon, or through Filmmakers Collaborative.
14:52 What kind of people are seeking to be firefighters today? The conversation returns to vocation: the sense of meaning and purpose in work.
18:04 What does it mean to “save” people? Dan suggests that giving people a second chance has something to do with saving. Could it be that giving people a second chance by resuscitating them from cardiac arrest, can help us understand what Christians mean when they say they have been “saved” by Jesus?
Our conversation with Dan Andrus, fire chief of Concord, the capital of New Hampshire, touches on PTSD in first responders, depression and suicide. Here is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
The Lifeline phone number is: 1-800-273-8255.
Also, in part one of our conversation, Dan mentions 3 firefighters who have faced the life-draining forces of traumatic stress, and the mental health costs in doing so. Those people, and links to their stories, are:
Mike Stevens, Salt Lake City: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/05/18/once-suicidal-a-salt-lake-city-firefighters-got-help-now-hes-urging-other-first-responders-to-consider-therapy/
Todd Donovan, Derry, New Hampshire: https://www.wmur.com/article/event-aims-to-end-stigma-around-mental-health-issues-of-first-responders/24416188
Scott Geiselhart, Frazee, Minnesota: https://seeingincoloragain.wordpress.com/
Dan is a beautiful soul, experienced as a lifesaver and well-acquainted with human suffering. Our conversation covers the opioid crisis, and then pivots to the anxiety and depression that can come with repeated exposure to trauma: PTSD for paramedics and first responders.
Those of you who have taken time to write a review for What In God’s Name on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify), or also on Facebook: thanks so much. Your reviews help us become more visible to the mysterious algorithms of search engines.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Our Instagram page, curated with philosophical tidbits and show news, can be found on Instagram at whatingods.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:10 Chris introduces today’s show and expresses sadness that Shayna is unable to join him today.
03:13 Dan explains how long he has been the fire chief in Concord, and how he got to the Granite State. How would we tell the stories of our lives? How would we tell the story of how we got to where we are? What is a Christian understanding of “vocation,” and how does that offer an alternative to economics-saturated understandings of work?
07:05 Chris asks about the opioid crisis. Dan shares his experiences and observations. For those of you who like statistics, Dan shares some of those too. What despair is in our land, if people are dying in such large numbers from addiction and overdose?
12:18 What In God’s Name is having a funding campaign: support the core values of curiosity, depth, and shining light into the public conversation by going to our website www.whatingods.com, and making a donation through Patreon, or through Filmmakers Collaborative.
13:37 Why is there an opioid addiction crisis in the United States? Why now? How can we understand anxiety and depression philosophically (what do these afflictions say about human being, human nature)? Theologically? What role does pain play in our lives? Should we aim to eliminate all pain? If not, how do we distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable pain?
18:40 Dan turns the conversation in the direction of first responders’ experiences with post-traumatic stress, depression, and suicide attempts. Sometimes the darkness and pain and heartbreak seem to be too big. What resources can we draw on, in order to get through to the dawn?
22:36 “Seeing in color again”: how is this a metaphor for new life? How is this an actual, physical experience of what it means to be transformed? How is this a metaphor for hope?
How much fun to co-create! How much fun to collaborate in thoughtful conversation!
Today’s show is a little shorter than our usual shows. It’s part two of a conversation that What In God’s Name facilitated on February 23rd, in Pembroke, New Hampshire. Our topic was one we have tackled before: toxic masculinity. It’s a topic that touches on many issues in our culture, and often in our news, today.
The nature of the gathering and the make-up of the group naturally led to a more Christian-centered conversation than usual. For our non-Christian listeners, it would be interesting to hear what resonates with you from this show, and what repels.
If you like today’s show, leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify). Post our podcast on your Facebook page.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Our Instagram page, curated with philosophical tidbits and show news, can be found on Instagram at whatingods.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:49 In a short recap from Part One, we lead this show with Chris’s question: can Christian theology help us think about what is healthy masculinity/healthy femininity? Joyce from Dunbarton, NH, responds by inviting us to think of Biblical images of a nurturing God—the quality of supporting and feeding and strengthening the life of others.
02:52 Shayna shares her perspective that what makes for toxic masculinity or toxic femininity is when we feel unfree; when societal expectations, or messages within the family of origin about what is acceptable and what is shameful, constrict our range in expressing our gender. What is God’s relationship to wholeness and individual authenticity? Are there any spiritual dangers here?
04:22 David from South Newbury reminds us of the ambiguous nature of many of the men depicted in the Hebrew Scriptures, from Abraham through David. Is Scripture—by giving us some negative examples—pointing us to a more temperate, thoughtful, sensitive, ethically grounded vision of manhood?
06:00 Chris invites reflections on a theology of power as we find it in the New Testament.
06:22 Maureen of Amherst reflects on the ways that Jesus always lifted up the powerless, living out what he received from his mother Mary, and her faith as expressed in the Magnificat. Does Jesus give us the model of what a man ought to be?
08:49 Is a rule of American male culture that if someone “gets in your face,” that the proper response is to “get back in their face?” Do men express aggression more physically than women? If so, is this biologically-based, or nurture-based, or both?
09:38 Gail from Jackson reminds us that everyone in the recorded conversation is white, and that our understanding of masculinity and femininity is coming from inside one context only.
11:08 What In God’s Name is having a funding campaign: support the core values of curiosity, depth, and shining light into the public conversation by going to our website www.whatingods.com, and making a donation through Patreon, or through Filmmakers Collaborative.
12:48 Christine from Ossipee shares her reflections on working in a construction company. Talk is cheap; deeds mean something. Show people that you can do your job, and treat people good.
How much fun to co-create! How much fun to collaborate in thoughtful conversation!
Today’s show is part one of a conversation that What In God’s Name facilitated on February 23rd, in Pembroke, New Hampshire. Our topic was one we have tackled before: toxic masculinity. It’s a topic that touches on many issues in our culture, and often in our news, today. If you like today’s show, leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify). Post our podcast on your Facebook page.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:29 Jeff from Somersworth, NH, leads with the question of literalistic readings of the Bible: already at the heart of where many conversations between Christians—and between some Christians and non-Christians—about society and culture hit a snag. What is the difference between reading the Bible literally, and reading the Bible seriously?
02:40 Linda from Amherst, NH, makes the distinction between some things the Bible says, and how Jesus behaves. What different kinds of moral practices can we see, at different points of the Scriptural witness?
05:10 Dorothy from Jaffrey, NH, draws our attention to historical imagination: the need for us to recognize that a person is always limited to the perspectives of the historical time in which she/he lived. This calls us to bring historical awareness to the reading of Scripture.
06:50 What In God’s Name is having a funding campaign: support the core values of curiosity, depth, and shining light into the public conversation by going to our website www.whatingods.com, and making a donation through Patreon, or through Filmmakers Collaborative.
08:22 Matt, freshly removed to Vermont, shares reflections on the pernicious nature of toxic masculinity. He refers us to the wisdom that, if we are seeing clearly, we see that the evil we abhor is not just out there, but it’s in us too. Is this true about human nature?
11:30 Chris asks: can Christian theology help us think about what is healthy masculinity/healthy femininity? Joyce from Dunbarton, NH, responds by inviting us to think of Biblical images of a nurturing God—the quality of supporting and feeding and strengthening the life of others.
14:30 Shayna and Chris share follow-up thoughts about reading Scripture seriously. Does the fact that no one perspective can grasp truth in its totality, mean that truth does not exist? Does insisting that any reading of Scripture is limited by the reader’s social location mean that any reading of Scripture is just as good as any other?
Be Curious. Go Deep. Shed Light.
Today’s show: The college admissions bribery scheme provides an entry into an examination of the spiritual void, the spiritual hunger, at the heart of American culture.
What does it mean to have integrity?
If you like today’s show, leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify). Post our podcast on your Facebook page.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:31 A quick recap of the college admissions bribery scheme.
02:42 Is this a story about how wealthy people can game the system? Can it also be a story about the desire to fill a bottomless psycho-spiritual hole with worldly idols? Does human nature contain a hunger that the world cannot satisfy?
04:02 Shayna raises the question of entitlement: isn’t this a story about entitlement? Might a sense of entitlement be the ugly face of unfulfilled desires?
06:30 Shayna gives a great definition of integrity. What is the connection between moral/ethical integrity, and spiritual wholeness/health?
09:00 Shayna raises the Michael Cohen House testimony of a couple weeks ago. How does his story and the college admissions story connect?
11:45 Chris reads from David Brooks’ column from the New York Times, in which the columnist connects the Michael Cohen-Donald Trump story to the moral and spiritual voids. How susceptible are we to idols? And how does fear hasten our retreat from integrity?
Be Curious. Go Deep. Shed Light.
Today’s show: the counter-cultural practice of Lent (or, for non-Christians, the counter-cultural practices of intentionality, emptying out, and slowing down).
Join the show today, and take a moment to reflect on the human need for reflection.
If you like today’s show, leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify).
Post our podcast on your Facebook page.
Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:56 What is this thing called “Lent?”
01:32 Is a memento mori, a consciousness of our death, morbid or freeing?
03:50 How do intentional practices of creating inward space and receptivity promote human flourishing?
05:48 Shayna talks about Jewish practices that are similar to the Christian practice of Lent.
09:30 Chris and Shayna reflect on the seasons of the Christian calendar. How might it be helpful, in efforts to lead a rich and meaningful life, to tell time in a way that points to spiritual movements of the soul?
11:20 The public witness of Christians: what is being communicated by someone walking around with ashes on their head?
13:00 What about non-Christian, non-religious witness: what might that look like? Is it simply part of human nature to need times of intentional reflection?
Shayna returns for the second half of our conversation with Gordon Graham, most recently the Henry Luce Professor of Philosophy and the Arts at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Show dog Arlo remains on vacation.
We continue our conversation about the prospects for public theology in our culture. How do Christian advocacy and Christian witness differ? Finally, what is the real conflict between religion and politics?
Join us in conversation.
“What In God’s Name” will be going on the road, making a community-sourced show in Pembroke, New Hampshire, on February 23rd.
If you like today’s show, leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify).
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:03 Are shih-tzu owners part of a cult?
03:39 How can Christian churches be faithful in not collapsing what is genuinely theological, into the realm of the political? Gordon covers 3 possibilities: quietism; advocacy; and witness. What distinguishes these 3 possibilities?
09:30 Rowan Williams’ distinction between procedural and programmatic secularism: is this a helpful distinction?
11:37 Gordon talks about what he sees as the real conflict between the political and the genuinely theological/religious: where is your ultimate allegiance? Who will speak up when a society is wrongly worshiping something as god which is not God? This leads to a reflection on the veneration of the military in American society, which Chris and Shayna take up in their commentary.
14:39 Chris and Shayna reflect on the distinction between advocacy and witness. Why is there aversion to including political considerations in some religious communities? What are the mistakes that the “left” and the “right” make?
21:05 Shayna and Chris respond to Gordon’s reflections about the excessive veneration of the military in the United States today: what are the theological issues at stake? What do we make of the political dimensions of Jesus’ death on a cross, at the hands of the Roman Empire, within the larger story of God’s redemptive work in the world?
Chris flies solo as Shayna and show dog Arlo are off.
Our guest this week is Dr. Gordon Graham, most recently the Henry Luce Professor of Philosophy and the Arts at Princeton Theological Seminary.
What are the prospects for public theology in our culture? What are the ways of thinking and habits of mind that put philosophy and theology in coach class, and economics and political science in first class? At what level does theology have something relevant to say, in the public space?
This is part one of our interview with Gordon Graham; next week will be part two.
Join us in conversation. “What In God’s Name” will be going on the road, making a community-sourced show in Pembroke, New Hampshire, on February 23rd.
If you like today’s show, leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify).
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:00 An update on our last show, on masculinity: the Associated Press reports on journalistic investigations that have revealed sexual misconduct in Southern Baptist churches over the last 20 years. While Shayna and Chris will sometimes be critical of Albert Mohler’s (President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s) reasoning or theology surrounding public questions, in this instance Albert Mohler’s response to these reports deserves praise.
04:14 Chris introduces Dr. Gordon Graham. Some people have lamented the lack of a theological voice in the public square. Should we lament that lack? What gets in the way of a theological voice getting a hearing? What do we make of the anti-intellectualism of some parts of Protestant Christianity, and the turn away from religion by some intellectuals who see religion as intolerant and narrow?
14:36 Chris interrupts the conversation to set up the second half, which will be: Gordon’s reflections on totalitarian thinking, and the ways that human pride (hubris) shows up in enterprises—both secular and those clothed in religion—that aim to make humanity its own savior. Why are these schemes for human self-salvation doomed to fail?
Masculinity is our topic; an “Answering Albert” segment is our method; the Gillette YouTube video about “toxic masculinity” and the #MeToo movement provides the material.
“Answering Albert” is when Shayna and Chris respond to Albert Mohler’s highly-rated podcast “The Briefing,” both to agree with some observations made by the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and to demonstrate where some of his arguments fall short.
Join us in conversation. “What In God’s Name” will be going on the road, making a community-sourced show in Pembroke, New Hampshire, on February 23rd.
Conversation, dialogue, creative disagreement: ALL OF THESE ARE SO IMPORTANT NOW!
If you like today’s show, leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify).
If you support the What In God’s Name approach to current events and culture, share a show with a friend or co-worker, and encourage them to subscribe. Go to What In God’s Name in audioboom.com, and then use your smartphone’s share features to text the show to a friend.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:18 Introducing the Gillette YouTube video.
02:08 Albert Mohler’s opening thoughts on the Gillette YouTube video (excerpt from his podcast “The Briefing”). In our age, according to Albert, “no certainty is left certain.” Is this true? If so, how does this put stress on individuals? How does it strain communities?
04:46 Albert Mohler, part 2.
05:26 Chris asks Shayna about this notion that Albert raises, of people who want to do away with “the binary” when it comes to gender. Shayna sheds light. Are masculinity and femininity essential categories for understanding the world? Shayna reminds us of the Mars and Venus book about men and women.
09:19 Albert Mohler, part 3. What is toxic masculinity? Shayna links toxic masculinity AND toxic femininity to lack of freedom.
13:35 Getting ready for the “Answering Albert” foghorn, and why do we so easily use political categories when we’re talking about matters of the spirit and soul?
19:27 Albert Mohler, part 4, the last. What are creative ways to understand the binaries of male and female, day and night? Is it blasphemous to imagine the possibility of being playful in responding to God’s intentions for us?
Today is the Lightning Round.
In 25 minutes, Chris and Shayna take a tour of Aristotle’s taxonomy of good and bad types of government (in honor of the recently ended government shutdown); touch on the chaotic developments in Venezuela; and reflect on the accusations against the giant Chinese telecommunications company Huawei. Finally, Chris shares a couple of Facebook posts from Uncle Mark in West Virginia.
Join us in conversation—respond to what you like, and what you don’t like. Send us an email, maybe we’ll read it on the show. Leave a comment on Facebook.
Conversation, dialogue, creative disagreement: ALL OF THESE ARE SO IMPORTANT NOW!
If you like today’s show, leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify).
If you support the What In God’s Name approach to current events and culture, share a show with a friend or co-worker, and encourage them to subscribe. Go to What In God’s Name in audioboom.com, and then use your smartphone’s share features to text the show to a friend.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:28 Chris explains that he is not funny. 01:04 The recently ended government shutdown prompts Chris to reflect on Aristotle’s taxonomy of different kinds of government. The key question: does the ruler rule for the sole benefit of the ruler (bad government), or does the ruler rule for the benefit of the whole (good government)?
05:41 Chris introduces the “lightning round,” in which Shayna and Chris take different news stories, and see what insight or angle theological reflection might add. (The real reason Chris wants to do this, is so he can insert the thunderclap sound effect.) If a country is in chaos, like Venezuela, does theological reflection allow us to see something we otherwise might miss?
08:23 The thunderclap announces the next topic: the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. Great power rivalry—the United States and China, in this case—spurs tension and retaliation. Our deeply interconnected world: what are the challenges of such a world, and can religion be helpful in forming people who can meet those challenges?
14:29 Uncle Mark in West Virginia re-posted a recent Facebook post of General Colin Powell, who had had a flat tire on I-495 around Washington DC. A man stopped to help General Powell, and they made a connection. Chris and Shayna reflect on this Facebook post, in the context of the question: do we have to experience ourselves and others fundamentally through the lens of political partisanship (the red team and the blue team), or can we find a deeper way to see ourselves and each other?
20:10 The final thunderclap: as we head towards Super Bowl Sunday, we reflect on the deeply human desire to feel like a winner—and the lengths we are willing to go, in order to feel it.
Last Friday, Nick Sandmann and Nathan Phillips stood face to face for a few moments. You’ve probably seen the picture: Nick, a high school student on a school field trip, is wearing a red MAGA hat; Nathan, an older Native American, is beating his drum.
In so many ways, what happened on the Lincoln Memorial steps last Friday, and how people reacted to what happened, is a rich window into our current cultural moment.
Chris and Shayna ask, What In God’s Name was going on? What can we learn? What conversations can we have?
You may not like everything Chris and Shayna have to say in this show. In fact, Chris and Shayna may not have liked everything each of them had to say to each other, DURING the show. And that’s OK!
Join us in conversation—respond to what you like, and what you don’t like. Send us an email, maybe we’ll read it on the show. Leave a comment on Facebook.
Conversation, dialogue, creative disagreement: ALL OF THESE ARE SO IMPORTANT NOW!
If you like today’s show, leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify).
If you support the What In God’s Name approach to current events and culture, share a show with a friend or co-worker, and encourage them to subscribe. Go to What In God’s Name in audioboom.com, and then use your smartphone’s share features to text the show to a friend.
Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Our website: www.whatingods.com
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:52 If you are listening to us for the first time, Chris explains that we’re not on the red team or the blue team.
02:25 A quick recap of the events at the Lincoln Memorial on Friday, January 18, 2019.
03:24 Chris wants to begin with the hat. What does a MAGA hat symbolize? How do we negotiate (or come into conflict about) differing interpretations of a symbol?
06:50 Chris offers a defense of Nick Sandmann, based on his age. To what extent does the young man get a “pass” because of his youth? How do boys learn healthy uses for their male power? Shayna raises the question of respect. If Nick and the others were being disrespectful towards Nathan Phillips, what led to that?
11:11 Chris advocates for not throwing the baby out with the bathwater: there are great cultural treasures that we inherit from Western, European civilization. Are cultural conservatives correct in perceiving hostility toward Western civilization from the political left?
15:12 Chris introduces the “rush to judgment” part of the story. Searching reflections ensue on white privilege, systemic racism, and how best to seek change. Chris and Shayna have different perspectives and find their way back to common ground.
19:22 The conversation turns to how pundits reacted to the video, and Chris reads some of NYT columnist Frank Bruni’s observations. Something is amiss with media in our cultural moment. What is amiss? Frank Bruni says, “Instead of bucking political tribalism in America, we ride it.”
22:33 Shayna introduces the idea of false prophets. Where are the false prophets in our culture?
Welcome to What In God’s Name!
Be curious. Go deep. Shed light.
The core of today’s show is the second installment of Chris’s conversation with Courtney Banghart, head coach of the Princeton University women’s basketball team. Courtney is reflective about her work with young athletes, and about competition and competitiveness as facets of contemporary American culture. Of special interest in this part of the interview, Courtney talks about social media and young people.
At the conclusion of the interview, Chris and Shayna share their highlights from what Courtney had to say, and add some theological reflection.
If you like today’s show, leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts (find What In God’s Name using the search bar), or leave a review on our Facebook page (again, using the search bar).
If you support the What In God’s Name approach to current events and culture, share a show with a friend or co-worker, and encourage them to subscribe. Go to What In God’s Name in audioboom.com, and then use your smartphone’s share feature to text the show to a friend.
Join us in the conversation! We love to hear from our listeners. What aspects of current events and culture are you curious about? What philosophical or theological perspectives do you have to share? Again, contact us through Facebook, through our website (whatingods.com), or send us an email at whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:23 Chris and Shayna begin the show with some much-needed interpretation of what “progressive” Christianity might mean. It is certainly not to be confused with “progressive” politics.
01:41 Shayna offers context on why a show that looks at current events and culture from a theological and philosophical perspective, would interview a women’s basketball coach. What is the intersection?
03:09 The second part of the interview with Courtney begins.
03:28 To compete requires courage. Conversation ensues.
05:33 Would you say that winning and losing is about result, and competing is about process?
08:00 In our culture, it’s a temptation to think of losing as failure. Is losing failure? If not, what constitutes failure?
08:56 How do you balance a focus on process with the need to produce results? Courtney shares her thoughts.
11:22 Courtney raises questions having to do with the mental health of young people within the dynamics of social media, curating an online persona, personal authenticity, and competition.
13:56 The fear of failure, examined.
17:35 Competing at social media: accumulating likes and followers. What are the implications of this dynamic? How do we build or instill or educate our children toward inner strength, the “internal real?”
20.34 Chris and Shayna reflect on losing as failure, and the notion that competing requires courage. From a theological perspective, Chris talks about vocation: God’s calling us to share our gifts in the world, and how that requires courage and involves failing.
23:27 Shayna reflects on the issues Courtney raises about social media and young people. What if you’re not “winning” at social media? What if you don’t have a coach who’s talking to you about creating a stable inner landscape? The theological reminder is that, from the Christian perspective, the love of God holds us, and empowers us, to shine the light of our authentic selves.
Welcome to What In God’s Name!
Be curious. Go deep. Shed light.
The core of today’s show is the first installment of Chris’s conversation with Courtney Banghart, head coach of the Princeton University women’s basketball team. Courtney is reflective about her work with young athletes, and about competition and competitiveness as facets of contemporary American culture.
If you like today’s show, leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts (find What In God’s Name using the search bar), or leave a review on our Facebook page (again, using the search bar).
If you support the What In God’s Name approach to current events and culture, share a show with a friend or co-worker, and encourage them to subscribe.
Join us in the conversation! We love to hear from our listeners. What aspects of current events and culture are you curious about? What philosophical or theological perspectives do you have to share? Again, contact us through Facebook, through our website (whatingods.com), or send us an email at whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:41 Chris has some fan mail to read. (It’s not for him, it’s for the show.)
01:16 Chris introduces the interview with Courtney. What is the role of competition in our culture? How does competition affect who we are, as people?
02:34 Courtney begins talking about coaching, competing, and how competing can affect people.
04:15 Chris wonders what the dynamic is, that leads people and their values to become distorted in the face of pressure to win. Courtney makes the distinction between external result, and process.
06:09 Chris circles back to Courtney’s story and asks: did you set out to be a college women’s basketball coach?
08:48 Courtney shares the story of meeting Katie Couric at an awards dinner in New York.
10:00 Chris brings the conversation back to this notion of defining ourselves from the inside, and allowing ourselves to be defined from the outside—in effect, allowing others to define us. Courtney makes the observation that in American culture we do a lot of comparing and measuring ourselves against others. “Who you are is way more important than what you’ve done.”
13:25 Chris asks: How do you keep yourself grounded? What practices do you engage in? Courtney answers, and a reflective dialogue on gratitude ensues.
17:40 When a young woman leaves your program, what do you want her to know about winning?
21:21 Part One of the interview with Courtney ends (Part Two will be next week’s show, January 17th).
22:49 Chris and Shayna return to the topic of gratitude. Why is gratitude a spiritual practice?
24:30 Shayna reflects on the dynamic of focusing on team vs. focusing on each individual player. Is there a gender difference here?
Two parts to today’s show: the government shutdown prompts Chris to offer solution-based therapy for the US House of Representatives; and Shayna and Chris respond to Albert Mohler’s reflections on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the premier of WIGN’s first “Answering Albert” segment.
Be curious. Go deep. Shed light. These are our core values.
Join us in the conversation! We love to hear from our listeners. What aspects of current events and culture are you curious about? What philosophical or theological perspectives do you have to share? Contact us through Facebook, through our website (whatingods.com), or send us an email at whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Please invite your friends and family to subscribe to “What In God’s Name” (go to https://www.whatingods.com/how-to-listen/. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you access your favorite podcasts.
In the context of the current government shutdown, Chris proposes three interventions that would strengthen the US House of Representatives, and Shayna offers a fourth. Then, Chris and Shayna take some time to help listeners understand what the “Answering Albert” segment is about, and why it’s an important periodic part of the show.
After playing a clip of Albert Mohler’s podcast on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Shayna and Chris take turns surfacing their philosophical and theological differences with Albert. Moral philosophy, and the use and misuse of Scripture, are two topics of conversation.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:22 Arlo is available for stud services. (Arlo is our show dog, Shayna’s shih-tzu).
02:12 The government shutdown prompts Chris to offer solution-based therapy for the US House of Representatives. These 3 interventions won’t solve the shutdown, but they will help make the House of Representatives more responsible to people, rather than moneyed interests, over the longer term.
05:47 Philosophical questions at issue with regards to Congress are: how do human beings respond to power? Does power corrupt people? Shayna then makes a movie recommendation.
07:12 Here begins the second, and distinct, part of today’s show. December 10, 1948, was when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was ratified. Chris introduces that topic, and the What In God’s Name segment “Answering Albert.” What is the proper role of religious voices in the public square of a pluralistic society like the United States?
11:55 Dramatic music signals the beginning of our 3 and 1/2 minute Albert Mohler clip. Listen for the foghorns at 14:40 and 15:13, indicating WIGN’s theological disagreement with Albert Mohler.
15:18 Shayna respectfully calls out Albert for epistemological hubris, and at 16:12, Chris respectfully calls out Albert for missteps in reasoning.
18:09 How should we read Leviticus? Shayna answers.
19:51 What does an educated reading of the Bible look like? And why is that important, even for people in our society who are not religious?
21:52 “You can be good, and not be religious.”
22:54 Chris and Shayna conclude with a generous interpretation of Albert Mohler’s reflections on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
What in God’s name is happening with Facebook?
The Senate Intelligence Committee releases a report on the Russian government’s disinformation campaign, and its efforts to influence the 2016 election. We’ve got non-partisan reflections on Facebook, the internet, and the vulnerabilities of an open society.
Be curious. Go deep. Shed light. These are our core values.
Please invite your friends and family to subscribe to “What In God’s Name” (go to https://www.whatingods.com/how-to-listen/.
Leave a comment on our Facebook page. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you access your favorite shows. We want to be in conversation with you.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:29 Chris riffs on what it means to build bridges. It doesn’t mean shying away from disagreement.
01:32 Chris reads an email from friend of the podcast Kyle, from Seoul, South Korea, responding to our recent shows on Christmas. Listen for the surprise music that accompanies Kyle’s email.
03:49 Facebook is in the news. What is the similarity between the Russian government’s disinformation campaign on social media platforms like Facebook, and the 9/11 hijackers? What are the different forms that destruction can take?
08:53 Shayna raises questions about openness and vulnerability, both personally and societally. How does our vulnerability affect how we carry ourselves in the world?
12:44 Chris returns to Russia. The Putin regime will not be persuaded by refined theological reflections on vulnerability. What then?
14:31 Shayna points out that one response to efforts to sow discord, is to build the habits of mind of a free and resilient people. What is the difference between disagreement and discord?
We’ll be off the 27th of December; our next show will be January 3rd, 2019.
Does a public Christianity that is hollowed out by consumerism help us see the need for a pluralistic, inclusive spiritual revival in our society? This question and more, in this second part of our show “Christmas is dying, and Christmas will never die.”
Be curious. Go deep. Shed light. These are our core values.
Please invite your friends and family to subscribe to “What In God’s Name” (go to https://www.whatingods.com/how-to-listen/). The bigger we grow our audience, the better we are able to make the argument to potential partners and funders that there is an appetite for searching, open-ended conversation on current events and culture from a philosophical/theological perspective.
We want to join with all people of good will, who desire to strengthen our connections to one another and create a healthy society, for us and for our children. That doesn’t mean having easy or cheap agreement: it means engaging in searching conversations where differences are lifted up, and used creatively to deepen connections and shed light.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
01:05 Shayna asks: For those for whom Jesus is God incarnated on Earth, was that event an answer to the people’s lament of that time? And if so, how do we account for God’s presence or absence from the world now?
02:31 Chris characterizes Shayna’s view of human nature as being “rosy,” and faces the consequences. “This Harley momma ain’t so much into ‘rosy.’”
05:35 Saying “Merry Christmas” versus saying “Happy Holidays”: some further thoughts on when to use one or the other. When we greet people, who is the greeting for?
11:08 “I smell smoke,” says Shayna. “I’m thinking,” answers Chris. Chris shares his gut feeling that our society needs a spiritual center, a feeling accentuated in this time of year when public Christianity seems hollowed out of spiritual value. Shayna asks why it needs to be just one, singular, center—why not plural centers? Searching conversation ensues.
15:43 Can faith communities be places where we learn to get along with, if not love, people we disagree with? And then, can people who have developed these muscles within faith communities help this diverse country, religious or not, do the same?
19:10 If anyone wants to breed their dog with Arlo, our shih-tzu show dog, Shayna declares him eligible. Contact Shayna on our Facebook page, or via email whatingods@ribeye-media.com.
Christmas is dying, and Christmas will never die: that is the thesis for this show. Shayna and Chris talk about the importance (or not?) of the story of Jesus' birth as a defining feature of Christmas. To form, Chris reveals his usual lean towards emphasizing the darker side of human nature, while Shayna argues for a more hopeful view of humanity. Consumer culture receives a predictable critique, but even more: we link consumer culture to the unhealthy denial of darkness within human lives, which makes the season of Advent a countercultural gift that the Christian church brings to the “happy clappy” North American shopping scene.
A personal note on the podcast: As we build our audience, we hope that you, our listeners, can recommend What In God’s Name to your friends and family. The bigger we grow our audience, the better we are able to make the argument that there is an appetite for searching, open-ended conversation on current events and culture from a philosophical/theological perspective.
Of course that’s not going to happen if we make a crappy (to be blunt) podcast. So give us feedback, to help us achieve excellence. Email us at whatingods@ribeye-media.com. Leave comments on our Facebook page. Suggest topics for shows. Shayna and I enjoy our conversations with each other, AND we want to be in conversation with you.
Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show: 00:40 What In God’s Name—is our audience a niche audience? If so, how big is the niche? 03:00 Christmas is dying, and Christmas will never die. Discuss. 06:43 The Christmas that will never die: what Christmas is that? Is it the story of the baby Jesus that will never die, or is it the spirit of giving that will never die? Or is it something else entirely? 10:49 The misappropriation of Christmas by consumer culture: does every kiss really begin with Kay? 13:08 Chris introduces Charlie Brown and Linus into the conversation. 15:46 Saying “Merry Christmas” versus saying “Happy Holidays.” 17:24 What is Advent?: the countercultural movement towards going into the dark.
Welcome to What In God's Name! Be curious. Go deep. Shed light.
Our first show begins a conversation on climate change. It soon becomes apparent that a deeper consideration of this issue touches on other basic questions:
What are the limits to human knowledge in predicting the future, and how do those limits affect our ability to act?
Does a theological perspective that sees nature as God's creation preclude partnerships between religious and non-religious people on environmental issues?
What is necessary for humans to bridge the gap from merely knowing what is good, to actually doing what is good?
What is politics for? When might a strict libertarian philosophy be unhelpful?
To go to particular parts of the conversation, we include the following timecodes:
00:32 Chris asks: Is climate science perfect? Does it matter? 05:47 Connecting with people who care for the Earth but who do not share a Judeo-Christian theology of Creation. 08:06 Human nature: what incentives do we need in order to do what's right? How much more pressure do we need to feel, in order to change? 09:57 Shayna lifts up the "intersectionality of oppressions": how different kinds of exploitation have common roots. 12:11 Political philosophy: the limits of libertarianism; discerning when the scale and scope of government is helpful in solving problems.