In this episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors Christian, despite his best efforts, continues to be used by God, an arrow in the quiver of the Almighty if you will (this goes for Jason as well, but unlike his agnostic co-host, he is merely indifferent about this rather than annoyed). The DXPs then discuss the film Fifty Shades of Grey and try to determine whether to dislike it because it’s so rapey, or simply because it sucks. Their attention then turns, as it should, to the power of the Big Paleo lobby whose “scientific research” into the “existence” of “dinosaurs” makes them the single greatest threat to our way of life since The Pentavaret itself. The issue of Christian privilege is then discussed (as well as the Fundamentalist martyr complex … [Read more...]
Podcast #31: Nihilism, Dinosaurs, and Church Dress Codes
In this episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors, Jason renounces Christianity and decides to try nihilism on for size (God, he has learned, is only worth worshiping if he makes our lives easy and comfortable and gives us everything we want). But don’t worry, we’re sure he’ll return to the fold. Christian then recounts a harrowing tale from Vegas involving a Scandinavian snowman on the attack, and the DXPs delve into the thorny issue of whether believers should be “against” dinosaurs, or just ignore them altogether. The discussion turns to gambling and whether it’s really as sinful as religion has portrayed it over the years. Speaking of religion, we learn in this episode what’s really behind Christian’s utter disdain for Jesus (hint: it involves … [Read more...]
Podcast #19: Judging by the Cover, Miracles, and Fluid Dogma
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...]
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...]
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...]
Podcast #3: The Ice Bucket Challenge, Unbelieving Believers, and 36k Foot High Side Boob
In this edition of Drunk Ex-Pastors, Christian explains the "Ice Bucket Challenge" to Jason (call him dense, but it's not apparent to him how pouring ice water over his head will help cure a disease); they soften their stance on the Michael Brown shooting a tad; they argue about whether more than one church-goer in 100,000 actually believes the things he claims to; Christian continues his complaint about air travel, this time focusing on overly-talkative slash voyeuristic travelers sitting next to him, and Jason accidentally (but kind of on purpose) endorses Huxley's description of dystopic culture, except it's not stupid people at the bottom of the food-chain, it's unkempt ones. And they consign the other to hell several times. … [Read more...]