In this episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors, Jason and Christian “drunkenly blather on” about a couple of the podcast’s detractors who have quite clearly never listened to the show. They then tackle one of the more important and volatile topics of the day: the new Star Wars teaser trailer. A caller’s comments then launch them into a discussion about skepticism and miracles, and whether or not Jesus’ miracles can beat up Mohammed’s miracles (and whether or not that would make Christian be a Christian). After a voicemail from someone who is definitely not from England, they listen to another entertaining message from someone who doesn't dislike the podcast a lot, which leads to a discussion about re-evaluating beliefs based on personal experience. … [Read more...]
Some Final Thoughts on Indoctrination…Maybe
One of the things that my co-host Jason and I had to come to an agreement on in episode 13 before we could have a productive conversation about indoctrination was what was meant by the word itself. As it turns out, any dictionary will give you some form of what is clearly expressed in the Merriam-Webster definition of indoctrinate: “to teach (someone) to fully accept the ideas, opinions, and beliefs of a particular group and to not consider other ideas, opinions, and beliefs.” Most other dictionaries have similar definitions. For example, Dictionary.com defines indoctrinate this way: “to instruct in a doctrine, principle, ideology, etc., especially to imbue with a specific partisan or biased belief or point of view.” The feedback I’ve … [Read more...]
Yes by Might, Yes by Power: Lawsuits and Leadership at Calvary Chapel
As we delve into in episode #9 of Drunk Ex-Pastors, the church that we grew up in (Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa) is embroiled in a bitter lawsuit, brought by two of the now-deceased founding pastor’s children, concerning both leadership and ownership of the church’s vast financial resources. My contention was that in the context of a paradigm where the only way to judge a leader’s authority is by whether or not you agree with him, this kind of in-fighting and lust for power is par for the course. Still, it is disheartening to see church leaders behaving with no more dignity and decorum than secular leaders, and for my part, I can totally see how so many of my friends have lost their respect for the Christian church because of the … [Read more...]
Thank God for Hell!
During episode #9 of Drunk Ex-Pastors we fielded a provocative question we received via Twitter: “Since neither Jesus, nor Paul, nor the early church fathers displayed the kind of urgency that a belief in hell as a place of eternal torment would seem to necessitate, is it possible that there is something wrong with the paradigm that insists that hell is in fact a place of eternal torment?” During the podcast, Christian made an interesting point about how upset many evangelicals get when it is suggested to them that their theory of hell is wrong. They clench their fists and dig their heels, as if the suggestion that God might not spend eternity waterboarding people were actually bad news. What do you think? Do you have an opinion … [Read more...]
Podcast #9: Cops, Calvary Chapel, Hell, and Football
In this episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors, Jason presents Christian with a gift that he needs but will never use; the discussion turns to whether or not the police force attracts people who were picked on in school and therefore need to take out their frustrations on the powerless and weak; we discuss the recent controversy surrounding the lawsuit against our former church, Calvary Chapel, by two of its now-deceased founding pastor's children; we answer a Twitter follower's question about whether Jesus and Paul thought hell was a real place of eternal torment; and lastly, Jason exhibits his laser-sharp understanding of how to win at football (besides just shooting lots of homeruns, which is obvious). … [Read more...]
Does ISIS Speak for True Islam?
The latest episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors deals in part, again, with the issue of ISIS (you can click below to hear our full discussion). I just read a very interesting article by Sam Harris called “Sleepwalking Toward Armageddon” in which the author argues a few controversial points, among which are (1) the idea that as long as the West is invoking the “true religion” to combat Islam’s false one, we’ll have no choice but to also and forever combat our enemies with missiles as well, and (2) those who deny that ideas like martyrdom, armed jihad, and hatred of infidels are central tenets of the Koran are as misguided as those who would say that the resurrection of Christ is some secondary or tertiary doctrine of Christianity. I would highly … [Read more...]
Headache’s Gone. . . It’s a Miracle!
If I were to believe the majority of what I hear from Christians, I’d have to believe their lives were extraordinary. Answered prayers, miracles, their best friend (who happens to be the God of the universe) looking out for them all the time. Wow, it sounds awesome! Reality seems to tell a different tale though. I don’t see any difference between circumstances and events that surround non-Christians and circumstances and events that surround Christians. Both groups have sickness, disease, death, divorce, poverty, and depression…and in pretty much equal amounts. Both groups even seem to handle those things similarly. Sure, one group may put on a really brave face and proclaim that their prayers were answered when little Johnny’s cold goes … [Read more...]
Where the Hell are All the Real Christians?
We’ve had almost 300 listens to our third episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors in just a few days (whoa!), but for those of you who haven’t heard it yet, co-host Christian and I debate a religious point that I would be curious to get some feedback on. He contends that 99.99% of fundamentalist Christians don’t actually believe their own rhetoric about hell, for if they really thought that hell was a place of eternal and conscious torment that an unbeliever, who could die at any moment, is constantly only a heartbeat away from facing, they would spend their time doing nothing but pleading with pagans to repent and avoid the Lake of Fire at all costs. I have a couple thoughts by way of response. First, while it is true that every person could … [Read more...]
Vanity of Vanities, All is Vanity!
OK, here’s a question to determine just how vain you are: Would you rather be 25 but look 50, or be 50 but look 25? For my part, I would totally choose the latter which, I guess, makes me super vain. Also, if my outward physical appearance weren’t affected at all by the food I choose to eat, I would just eat pizza and burritos every day, regardless of what it did to my health. And you know those people who claim to be “spiritual but not religious”? I’m pretty much the opposite. Geez, I think I need to seek professional help. . . . … [Read more...]
The Late Great Hal Lindsey
In the 1970s, Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth was the “no. 1 non-fiction best-seller of the decade” according to the New York Times. To summarize, the book interpreted current events through the lens of biblical “prophecy” and convinced a lot of people that they were living in the last generation and that the next big event would be “The Rapture” of the church, or in layman’s terms, all the Christians would magically disappear off the earth. There were elaborate gymnastics done with scripture to try to prove whether or not this would happen before, during, or after “The Great Tribulation,” or in layman’s terms, a seven year shit-storm of god’s wrath upon the earth. Yeah, that’s right, it was categorized as … [Read more...]