In this episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors, Jason and Christian celebrate the podcast’s 13th episode with a shot of chocolate cake, followed up with a recap of Christian’s trip to Hollywood and Jason’s week getting to know his co-workers: Bow Tie, Old Spice, Senator, et al. After a momentary lapse into what is possibly a quite sexist discussion and a post-mortem analysis of Christian’s inexplicable loss in the “Best Name” category for his chili, Jason and Christian take on a caller question about indoctrination, which leads to a heated discussion over what constitutes indoctrination and whether or not religious people are guiltier of it than non-religious people. After making up, Christian is biebered by redundancy and Christian is biebered by … [Read more...]
Game of Pulpits: Politics and Power at Calvary Chapel
Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa—indeed the movement as a whole—is in a state of disarray. The late Chuck Smith, former pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, has an 85 year old brother named Paul who recently posted a video on YouTube titled “My brother’s succession plan for Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.” (Based on his ramblings in the video about computer hacking and viruses, my guess would be that someone else actually posted it for him.) Paul claims to have spent the last few months of his brother Chuck’s life living with him and discussing the future of Calvary Chapel and has decided that now is the time to reveal the content of their conversations. A quick bit of backstory… For the last decade or so of Chuck’s life, there was no shortage … [Read more...]
Podcast #12: Slingin’ Cars, Avoiding Ebola, and Jason’s Speech Therapy
In this episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors, Jason and Christian start off the show with an experimental shot meant to give them wings. Jason then imparts his best “white-trash scheme” as a free service to anyone needing to send a letter but who is short on postage. As Jason transforms before our ears into a better and better car salesman (and a less and less trustworthy person, obviously), Christian begins Jason’s speech therapy, which, unfortunately for Jason, may last the entire episode. They then check in on the status of Jason’s haters and as a free public service announcement give their listeners a simple way to avoid the Ebola virus. Christian is biebered by (not drunk) ex-pastor Bob Coy, the “Tiger Woods” of Calvary Chapel, while Jason is … [Read more...]
Happy Columbus Day!
I have a hard time believing that people are still celebrating Columbus Day. For whatever reason, it’s still officially a federal holiday. Not a “you get a paid day off of work” national holiday, but a “there won’t be mail in your mailbox” national holiday. With the spread of knowledge as to what really transpired in 1492 and thereafter, it seems inexcusable that Columbus Day would still be a national holiday or even more surprising that people are attacking the "politically correct" movement to change Columbus Day to Indigenous People Day. (Although, I do think we can come up with a better name.) I can only imagine that, for those people, “In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue...” is about the extent of their … [Read more...]
Podcast #11: We Address Our Detractors and Ruin an American Holiday
In this episode of Drunk Ex-Pastors, Jason and Christian analyze why Jason gave up a comfortable job with a high salary to potentially end up sleeping in his car in Christian’s driveway. (Unfortunately, Jason no longer has a car, which is ironic considering his new career attempt.) The ex-pastors then take on Jason’s critics, of which there are many, who seem to delight in his demise and what they consider to be his inevitable downfall. Speaking of downfalls, Jason and Christian also address those particular critics who seem to be lacking the sense of humor necessary to deal with the “Rev. Jason Stellman” being on a podcast called Drunk Ex-Pastors. Their resident heckler “badclowney” is addressed as well as the scorned … [Read more...]
Mobile Phone Users with Class
In episode 10 of Drunk Ex-Pastors, “Free Whiskey, Bad Teachers, and Sex Education”, I relate a story about my daughter having her phone taken away in class last year. The issue was that, while her regular teacher allowed phone usage in class, the substitute she had that day did not, so her phone was confiscated. To retrieve the phone, I had to make a visit to the school, which ended up with me inadvertently making a more public stand against The Pledge of Allegiance than I had intended. Again, the full story is available in the podcast below. (My thoughts on The Pledge of Allegiance are also available here.) However, this brings up another question: should mobile phone usage be allowed in class? I have two boys about to graduate high … [Read more...]
To School or Not to School
In our discussion during Podcast #10 about education, I remarked that I don’t remember much, if anything, that I “learned” in school. As a matter of fact, most of what I know and use now, besides the basics, I learned after I graduated. It’s not because I was a bad student. I actually graduated with honors. It’s because, for the most part, I wasn’t learning, I was memorizing. If I learned anything, it was how to pass a test! During the podcast, I brought up “unschooling,” which is a non-traditional philosophy of education. It’s also an easy idea to make fun of because the idea of not attending school regularly is ridiculous, right? That idea is mostly for religious zealots and militia members, right? Sometimes our conditioning gets the … [Read more...]
Podcast #10: Free Whiskey, Bad Teachers, and Sex Education
In this edition of Drunk Ex-Pastors, Jason and Christian enjoy their first taste of sponsorship, and love it. (Probably because it tastes like Whiskey.) Christian recounts how his family’s recent vacation to Hawaii caused some problems for his daughter at school which opens up a discussion about education in general and how to keep their kids from becoming mindless drones. A listener’s message moves the conversation from education in general to sex education, which causes some disagreement between Jason and Christian. Perhaps it’s because Jason doesn't have all the years of parenting experience that Christian has, or perhaps it’s because Christian’s years of parenting experience have caused him to become jaded. You’ll have to decide. After … [Read more...]
The News’s Skewed Views
One of the questions that comes up in podcast #9 at 28:45 (available for listening below) is whether or not the news media unfairly represents police officers. If you watch the news frequently, the majority of what you’ll hear about the police (minus the occasional feel good story) is negative: cop beats homeless man, cop shoots black man, cop pepper sprays peaceful protestors, etc. A plethora of these kinds of stories being reported will usually elicit cries of bias and misrepresentation. Really, this is a question that can be applied to any group the news reports on: politicians, bankers, Christians, doctors, etc. When the news reports that a politician is taking bribes, that bankers are manipulating the system, that a pastor had an … [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...]
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