This episode of DXP begins with a caller’s example of situational irony which may or may not make one of us feel like the butt of some cruel cosmic joke. We delve into the issue of whether fictional universes overlap (as in, did Jack Ryan ever watch Star Wars?), and then hear once again from our Tinder-using listener, gaining more insight into the world of online dating. We take another voicemail which springboards us into our main topic, which turns out to be whether the whole theism/atheism issue is all just a big overblown misunderstanding. Like, does dogma trump devotion and does law supersede love? We briefly discuss our former church, Calvary Chapel, and whether the alleged affair of its founding pastor was a scandalous deal-breaker or an opportunity for humanity and grace. Christian’s “Feeding Friendsy” centers on the Christian Right’s support of Donald Trump, and Jason shares some stories about how valets might potentially retaliate against non-tipping patrons. One of our biebers has to do with the logistics or morning intimacy, while the other focuses on supposed national tragedy.
Also, if Jason Bourne ever saw Good Will Hunting we bet he would have thought it was awesome.
Podcast #492: Aging Comics, Brats, and Politics
Podcast #402: Hollywood’s Beauty Standards and the Meaning of Life
Podcast #268: Death and Poo
Podcast #34: Occultism, Religious Persecution, and Rock & Roll
• Ha ha… yeah, we’re old… we’re really, really fucking old…
• “Cosby sweater” now has the same connotation to me as “windowless van”.
• If the girl can swallow a gauge, she sounds like she’d be an awesome date.
• I think we’re too obsessed with labels. We divide ourselves into tribes. Be a good person. Love your neighbor. Love your enemies. Act. Do what is right. Seek justice, dispense mercy, hug an outcast. Feed a hungry person. Fight for a just society. Stand against corruption. If a God exists who is going to send you to hell for not intellectually affirming the right set of doctrines, would you really want to worship that God?
• You shut your whore mouth. There will not be a President Trump.
• I always reread books. The ones I’ve re-read the most are the Count of Monte Cristo, The Lord of the Rings, and Dune.
• Yes, I am a nerd.
• One of these days, I’d like to write a story about a group of evangelical Christians who take a wrong turn during the Rapture and end up in Valhalla and they have to traverse all of the various afterlives to try and get to the Heaven they belong in.
• He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me… I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted…”
• “But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.””
• A perfectly merciful and compassionate deity is not going to look upon a humble heart that serves mankind and loves mankind, but doesn’t know the right beliefs or lacks the capacity to make that leap of faith and consign them to hell.
• Is God a blood god?
• And I just wrote that Last Battle passage about 20 minutes before Jason mentioned it.
• C.S. Lewis was a product of his time and had a bit of racism.
• As long as you use ‘allegedly’, I think you’re legally safe. But IANAL.
• Church politics is brutal, but I still have a hard time imagining a group of pastors blackmailing a head pastor.
• Because beliefs are always more important than actions in American Evangelical Christianity.
• Have you been reading my Facebook feeds? Because that sounds pretty spot on with the conservative responses I get.
• Of course, now that it does come out, assuming it happened, how many will have the response that Christians are a bunch of hypocrites and all he cared about was covering up his sins to avoid bad publicity.
• Look, we all know the routine that happens when you, as a Christian leader, go and do a very serious no-no:
• Step one: Tearful confession.
• Step two: A brief sabbatical to work on counseling and your relationship with your family and heal.
• Step three: Return to ministry in about… oh, let’s say… two months.
• Step four: Write a book about your experience and how you found Jesus… again… and he made everything so much better it’s almost a good thing you did that no-no.
• Step five: Christian talk radio and lecture circuit.
• Christians love a good lurid tale of sin and debauchery that ends with a redemption arc.
• If you can’t see the legal notice, it can’t see you. I think that’s a law.
• Handy tip for would-be criminals: Don’t announce your plan or your mole in the police department on a podcast.
• And that is the creed of EVERY customer service employee: if I couldn’t mock the customers, I would kill them or kill myself. Maybe both.
• And I think a child with leukemia is the worst “DMG” that you’ve mentioned. I hope he goes into remission and I hope his father gets to see him grow up and live a long healthy and happy life.
TCOMC and LOTR for me too. I’ve read Dune, but only once.
My “mole” wasn’t super happy. Ha ha.
I’ll throw this up again for anyone interested. I’m going through the bible. Posts updated daily M-F.
http://houseofthedread.wordpress.com/2016/10/03/the-tldr-bible-joshua-7-9/
God gets pissed at everyone because one guy was a dumbass, and He kills some innocent people. Josh and the other Israelites get in on that action. A worship service is held on a battlefield littered with 12,000 men, women, and children. And Josh wonders why some Canaanites would lie about not being Canaanites to get a peace treaty. (Psst… Josh… could it be because you’re murdering every Canaanite you see?)
I totally agree that it doesn’t matter whether you believe in God or what your theology is, etc. But then the question is what does a belief in God add if it doesn’t get you into Heaven (which I was also taught as a kid) and it doesn’t motivate your compassion? It just seems like an extra thing that’s not necessarily related to your behavior if in fact it doesn’t change your behavior or your motivation for it. More like “grace complements nature” or something.
And on the infidelity question: was the response to infidelity different for men than for women at Cavalry Chapel? It was in my church. And not only was infidelity (in men) fairly easily forgiven, there was huge pressure put on the wife to forgive and stay in the marriage even when she was visibly miserable – sometimes for years even. In other words, it would be fair to say I didn’t really learn much about compassion from my church.
And the no-brainer solution to morning sex is spooning. No concern about morning breath and it’s low-effort and cuddly, for those of us who are not morning people. You can’t really go wrong there.
And Josh wonders why some Canaanites would lie about not being Canaanites to get a peace treaty.
I always thought that was a totally obvious response too! It would be far more surprising if they freely admitted that they were Canaanites.
Christians love a good lurid tale of sin and debauchery that ends with a redemption arc.
To this day I can’t stand redemption narratives – or maybe it’s more that I don’t trust them – no doubt entirely due to overexposure at church. And not just when there’s been some infidelity scandal. If testimony plays a big role in your church everyone exaggerates their sinful “before” state to make a more dramatic testimony and oh my god I can’t listen to one more minute of it. But also maybe because I can’t believe that anyone is ever all bad (except maybe Trump) or all good in either the before or after or that people ever change as dramatically as many redemption narratives require. Incremental change in complicated people with complex histories? Sure. But “I’ve seen the error of my ways and am now a whole new person?” Hmm, probably not. Let’s give it a few months/years to see how it plays out.