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October 22, 2013 by Karl Stevens

Episode #36: The Father Knows Best Homeless Camp in the Woods

This week Karl and Laurie wonder how to avoid paternalism when working with homeless people, especially when most shelters are very rule-based organizations.  How do you tell a man who’s twice your age that it’s time to turn off the TV and go to bed, and still somehow demonstrate that you respect him as an autonomous adult?  We use Alex Morris’s 2010 New York Magazine article “A Homeless City in the Woods” as a jumping off point.  Then we go on to discuss this week’s Gospel, Luke 18:9-14.  You can listen to the podcast here or by subscribing through the iTunes store.

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October 15, 2013 by Karl Stevens

Episode #35: Will we have back fat in the Kingdom of Heaven?

Well, will we?  Does God, who knows every hair on our head and loves us absoultely, even love the parts of our bodies we don’t like?  And is this an excuse not to exercise?  This week Karl, Jared, and Ben discuss A.J. Allen’s Facebook journal in which she confronts every negative thought she’s ever had about her body and affirms its beauty.  And we spend some time with the Gospel for this coming Sunday, Luke 18:1-8.  You can listen to the podcast by clicking here, or by subscribing through the iTunes store.

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October 3, 2013 by Praxis

Episode 34: Your own personal Drag Jesus

Ben and Kaeliegh were left alone in the Green Studio this week and got to thinking about Disney Princesses, Drag Queens, and role models for the Church. Our conversation was sparked by Joy Martin Malone’s article “Why Drag Queens are better role models than Disney Princesses” and the fierceness of her favorite drag queen, Sharon Needles. Conversation covered the concept of the Transgressive Christ, role models for young women and gay men, the role of shaman tha drag queens play in our culture, and much more. We then took at look at the upcoming gospel,Luke 17:5-10, where Ben brought up Marxist Feminist Biblical Hermeneutics. The two then found that their kingdom moments both involved the coverdale psalter. A major lesson from this could quite possibly be to never leave two seminarians alone in a recording studio… or maybe it should happen more often. You can listen to the podcast here or by subscribing to Word and Table on iTunes.

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September 24, 2013 by Praxis

Episode #33: Adverts as Icons???

This week Jared, Laurie, and Ben take a look at The Scarecrow, a short film and advertisement put out by Chipolte. Jared gives a rallying defense of GMO crops, while noting the ethical issue involved in their use. Laurie makes sure that we stay on topic with how this ad plays into our life as Christians and Evangalist. Our reflections on the Gospel has Jared bringing home what it means to really be in Christian Community with one another and God and Laurie makes us aware how this weeks parable is a story that is fully relavant to our greater community in a very literal way. Special shout outs are made to Chabad, an evangelical Jewish group, for their technological savy as well as to Bishop Geralyn Wolf’s book Down and Out in Providence. Join the conversation and listen to what we have to say here or by subscribing to the iTunes store.

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September 17, 2013 by Karl Stevens

Episode #32: Youth Riot in the Pews

In this week’s podcast, Karl, Ben, and Laurie talk about Ben Boruff’s article in Ministry Matters “How to Rid Your Church of Young People.” Does the old institutional church, the church of the 40s and 50s, have anything to say to people under thirty (or even to some people over fifty)?  How can the old heirarchies, the old assumptions, and the old structures of a declining and mourning church accept the leadership of people who never knew about or cared about the mainline protestant heydey?  We all get frustrated and mildly indignant, which is great fun.  Plus, we talk about Luke 16:1-13, the poetry of Malcom Guite, and other fun things.  You can join us by listening here or subscribing through the iTunes store.

You can read Ben Boruff’s article here.

You can find out about Malcolm Guite here.

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September 11, 2013 by Praxis

Episode #31: The Future is the Past, Technology and the Church

This week Karl, Laurie and Ben delve deep into the meaning of new technology to the church.  Is it the same as the meaning of old technology?  We say that we’re people of the book, and that’s even more literal than it sounds.  If Christianity was the first religion to take advantage of the new technology that was books – the binding together of separate pages that replaced the old system of scrolls – than our faith began in a technological revolution.  How does the new technological revolution change and inform the church?  You can subscribe to the podcast through the iTunes store or listen to it by clicking here.

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September 3, 2013 by Karl Stevens

Episode #30: Rushing to Leisure

In this week’s podcast, Karl, Laurie and Ben talk about leisure, using Jenny Diski’s article in The New Statesman, “Learning How to Live,” as a jumping off point.  Why is it that we feel dread when we’re unoccupied?  And did paleolithic people really get it right, with all their fish catching and nut eating?  Was Jesus in favor of leisure, and how would he have answered the oft-voiced question at parties, “So what do you do?”  Our discussion of this Sunday’s Gospel, Luke 14:25-33, casts some light on these and other weighty matters.  Listen to the podcast here or by subscribing through the iTunes store.

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August 27, 2013 by Karl Stevens

Episode #29: What’s In It For Us?

In this week’s podcast we discuss the imminent conflict in Syria.  Is it possible to separate our Christianity from our American citizenship?  Or should we acknowledge the power and prestige that such citizenship brings us, and try to use it for good?  Is that what the United States and our NATO allies are doing as we move towards some form of intervention?  All right, none of us being policy analysts, we may be way in over our heads.  But the world might be as well.  Join us as we use Fred Kaplan’s Slate piece as a jumping off point, and then go on to discuss Luke 14.  You can listen to the podcast here or by subscribing through the iTunes store.

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August 21, 2013 by Karl Stevens

Episode #28: Stop Swearing At Us, @#*#&@#!

In this week’s podcast Ben, Karl and Laurie swear up a blue storm.  Okay, actually, we don’t.  But we do discuss R. Eric Tippin’s article inRelevant, “Is Swearing a Big Deal?”  What, if anything, is truly profane in our world, and how do we, as Christians, react to that profanity?  And then we ask an even bigger question when we get to our discussion of Hebrews 12:18-29.  How do we come to know God in a new era and context?  You can listen to the podcast here or by subscribing through the iTunes store.

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August 14, 2013 by Karl Stevens

Episode #27: The Luminous Part of You

In this week’s podcast Karl and Laurie talk about George Saunders’s commencement speech, delivered at Syracuse, in which he says: “What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded…sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.” How well can Saunders’s simple and kind spirituality speak to a secular world? And why is it that many church-goers fail in kindness so routinely? Is there a way to reclaim a spirituality of kindness within the church? Join us as we discuss these weighty matters, and Hebrews 11:29-12:2. You can listen to the podcast here or by subscribing through the iTunes store.

Here are links to stuff we discussed in this week’s show:

Saunders’s commencement speech

Slate’s Double X Gabfest

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