by Ben Howard Reads of the Week 1) Dirt is Resurrection and God is a Bad Farmer (Homily for the Parable of the Sower) by David R. Henson "That’s the scandal of this parable. God is throwing seeds around like an intoxicated fool at the bar buying another round of drinks that she can’t afford. There’s no limit to the extravagance, to the generosity and love. What kind of farmer sows seeds on the hard path? What kind of farmer plants in the thorn bushes? What kind of farmer tosses seeds among the rocks? What kind of farmer wastes so much? The kind of farmer who doesn’t believe in hopeless causes." 2)Homeless Jesusby Juan Lopez "It’s so easy to have a personal relationship with a Christ you never see. I worship this God as I sit in traffic, I’ve spent hundreds of dollars buying the right music. I’ve bought all the best inspirational books. I’ve attended many enlightening conferences. I pay my tithes faithfully and I’ve seen him bless me abundantly. At least that how I justify the extra pounds I’ve gained since I got married. Meanwhile the debt piles on and I keep pretending I’m walking with Christ." 3)The American Dream: Hobby Lobby, Pro-Life Ethics, and Me by Hannah Ettinger "But what’s more, it’s the result of a complex network of decisions and chess moves by the conservative Christian right set in play for more than 20 years. And I haven’t thoroughly read all the details in the ruling and the dissent by Ginsburg (bless her), but this is personal and I know enough to get myself into a little trouble talking about it, and I need to talk about it." 4)The Most American Way to Watch Soccer by Valerie Dunham "Only in the United States is soccer obscure. Only in the United States are we generally indifferent. And only in the United States could a group of fans turn one of the world’s most accessible games into a carefully guarded gated community. If anyone in that bar was watching the game against Germany like an American, it was the small group of people watching in the corner who thought they were unique for doing it." 5)The Treasonous Love of Jesus (A 4th of July Reflection) by Zack Hunt "But even in the real world, where we are fortunate enough to not live under a foreign conqueror, our faith has become so infused with patriotism that the notion that a person can’t serve two masters – both God and Uncle Sam – is treated like heresy. And we have become so wedded to our politics that we’re blind the countless ways our love for America comes into direct conflict with our love for Jesus." Honorable Mention For the Love of Liturgy by Bronwyn Lea The Graffiti That Made Germany Better by Andreas Kluth
"I can turn beer and wings into obesity. Your move Jesus." - @AngelaEhh "4-year-old: What’s a cubicle?
Me: It’s a place liberal arts majors go to be sad." - @XplodingUnicorn "If the bald eagle sees his shadow on the 4th of July, there's six more weeks of America." - @michaeljhudson Song of the Week "I Wanna Get Better" by Bleachers
Peace, Ben You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology. If you'd like to help us pay the bills, you can donate via the button on the right of the screen.
Contact us at onpoptheology [at] gmail.com. You might also like:
by Ben Howard Reads of the Week 1) Church in the Canyon by Esther Emery "I catch a glimpse sometimes, a little nod and a reassurance that this is, in fact, exactly how it works. We are supposed to do this: to rub up against one another, even in our differences. Sometimes this work is long and slow like sand on the beach. Sometimes it’s all crushed up and wild like a storm. We bump against each other and we strike each other, and it wears away the stone to show the flesh beneath." 2) In Which I Admit That I Didn't Like Paul by Sarah Bessey "But as I worked my way through the passages of Scripture that I used to hate, I began to see Paul more clearly, to understand Scripture even better. I began to see his wisdom, his subversion, his heart. When I looked at his full ministry – how he praised and esteemed women in leadership in the Church, how he turned household codes within a patriarchal society on their head, how he used feminine metaphors, how he subverted the systems, how he passionately defended equality – the verses that used to clobber me began to embrace me." 3) When World Vision Drops Me by Benjamin Moberg "Though I understand that World Vision essentially had a gun to its head after evangelical leaders incited a mass backlash of dropped funds, it doesn’t make what they did right. Their reversal hurts more than anything I read from the evangelicals ranting. It was the kiss of Judas. And in the end, this was simply wrong and ungodly and deeply defeating." 4) Burnout by Hannah Ettinger "Fuck everything, is all I can manage to say, half the time. I hear these stories and I hear the shame and the fear and the massive amounts of cultivated codependency for the sake of crowd control, and that’s all I’ve got. Fuck everything. Here we go again." 5) Hearts of Flesh by Rachel Held Evans "Fundamentalism erases people. It erases their joy, their compassion, their instincts, their curiosity, their passion, their selves. And then it celebrates this ghosting, this nulling and numbing, as a glorious “dying to the self,” just like Jesus demanded." Honorable Mention When Christian Women Cheat or Kinda Want To by Grace Biskie I Don't Know If I'm a Christian Anymore by Micah Murray Holy Relics: The Offering Plate by Martyn Jones Tweets of the Week "Tweeting funny jokes on twitter dot come sure is a nice distraction from the imminent march of death." - @ashfein "Growing up I never had a father figure. I was a kid. Why would I have the body of a father as a kid? I'm not even male." - @mrsjohngoodman
"Things took a dark turn at the Kids Choice Awards when the kids voted to declare martial law." - @CelebrityHotTub On Pop Theology Week in Review On Pop Theology Podcast: Episode 54 - Leviticus, An Interview w/ Baruch Levine "This week on the show, Sebastian continues his exploration of the Biblical texts with the book of Leviticus." The Meaning in the Music by Hannah Ettinger "I grew up listening to four musicians. Stephen Curtis Chapman, Out of the Grey, John Michael Talbot and Bob Bennett." A Series of Outright Lies About Millennials by Ben Howard and Sebastian Faust "With the fundamental ethos of the internet in mind, we bring you A Series of Outright Lies About Millennials.Opening Line." Song of the Week "Blue Moon" by Beck
Peace, Ben You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology. If you'd like to help us pay the bills, you can donate via the button on the right of the screen.
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This week on the show Ben talks to Hannah Ettinger and Connor Park about
the new magazine and online art gallery The Swan Children. The Swan
Children was released last week and features the creative works of
artists who grew up in the homeschool, Quiverfull, and conservative
Christian communities. First, we talked to Hannah about the the idea
behind the magazine and the projects genesis. We also discussed her
hopes for The Swan Children and the ideas the magazine is trying to
foster. Then we talked to Connor about his role as Editor-In-Chief and
some background information on the homeschool movement.
You can download the podcast by clicking here.
Or you can subscribe to the podcast by searching "On Pop Theology" in
the iTunes music store. If you like the show, please rate and
review us on iTunes. It's the first step in our secret mission to take over the world. Finally, if you'd like to stream the podcast, you can do that here: Peace,
Ben You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology. If you'd like to support what we do, you can donate via the button on the right of the screen. You might also like:
by Ben Howard Reads of the Week 1) The Ethics of Leaving Fundamentalism by Hannah Ettinger "Fundamentalism isn’t an ideology, it’s a habit of thought patterns. Fundamentalism is based in fear. Fear of not being heard, fear of being invalidated, fear of attack, of erasure, of silencing." 2) Widows and Orphans: On Evolution, Election and Love by Richard Beck "The most altruistic act you can see in the world today, from an evolutionary perspective, is the step-parent, gay couple, or heterosexual couple raising an adopted child. All that love, all that care and all that sacrifice for the child. And none of it conferring any adaptive, genetic or evolutionary advantage. From a Darwinian perspective, that is pure gratuitous love." 3) A City Not Forsaken by D.L. Mayfield "the pageant is chaotic, a gentle fiasco, my daughter refuses to sing and stands with her back to the congregation. i, like the other mothers of the young, have to stand on stage too, am in this pageant myself. we get through it, all mumbles and grins. the children race down the aisle so they can go to the nursery room and play with toys. they are only pretending to be gentle little lambs. was it a disaster? i don’t really know. but i can’t help but think that it is exactly how jesus would have wanted it to be: defiant three year olds, scared two year olds, exuberant babies, awkward middle schoolers, tired and grateful mothers. let the little children come to me, he said, and this morning my church embodied that." 4) The Fall of Christmas by Jamie Wright "When my Christmas tree fell, it was like Christmas fell with it. The surviving ornaments stayed in a pile on the floor, and the tree, now wrenched upright and properly secured, sat untouched with bare spots and bushy places and branches all tweaked out of order. Ugly. It was ugly and sad, and it felt just like Christmas to me... it felt right." 5) Of Santa and Jesus by Ashleigh Baker "I’ve never met an adult who told me the reason he has a hard time believing Christ is because his parents told him about a red suited gift-giver who turned out to be as real as pixie dust. Instead, I talk to adults every single day who struggle with the Truth of Jesus because they spent their young years listening to Christians cut His body to pieces over trees and ornaments and brightly wrapped packages." Honorable Mention Hobby Lobby is Fine With Forced Abortions and Contraception in China, But Balks at Voluntary Contraception for American Women by Fred Clark The Boy at the Door by Jennifer Lutwieler Nelson Mandela and the Mimetics of Forgiveness by Adam Ericksen Tweets of the Week "I'm not sure which I would love more: full communism or just a country
where people don't get fired for accidentally saying 'fuck' on TV." - David Sessions (@davidsess) "'God bless us, every one. Or don’t or whatever.' –Indifferent Tim" - Tyler Clark (@TylerLClark)
"The pernicious influence of My Little Pony which teaches kids that 'ponies' are cute and lovable, not the slaves of bloodlust that they
are." - Alan Noble (@TheAlanNoble) On Pop Theology Week in Review Survival of the Guiltiest by Lane Severson "God has blessed me with a wife and five children. But when the zombie apocalypse happens, they are out of luck because this guy could never make a fire, or build shelter, or fashion a weapon to fight off zombies – much less figure out how to wipe our seven butts without glorious Charmin Ultra Soft." Christianity Needs Celebrities by Ben Howard "A celebrity is not so much a person as it is the persona, the mediated representation and distillation of the person who inhabits the role." I Like Christmas Without the "Christ" by Ben Howard "I have a lot of nostalgia for Christmas. I vaguely remember going to see Santa at the mall when I was little and squinting at him, cocking my head to the side, trying to contemplate how he got into our house since we didn’t have a chimney. I was very worried about our lack of a chimney." The Best of On Pop Theology 2013 "It's almost the end of the year and if I've learned anything from the internet it's that lists are the best-est thing in the whole wide world. With that in mind we wanted to take this time to highlight the best of what has been written and recorded here at On Pop Theology." A Series of Outright Lies About Christmas by Ben Howard and Sebastian Faust "So with the fundamental ethos of the internet in mind, we bring you A Series of Outright Lies About Christmas." Song of the Week "No Rest" by Dry the River
Peace, Ben You can follow On Pop Theology on Twitter @OnPopTheology or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OnPopTheology. If you'd like to help us pay the bills, you can donate via the button on the right of the screen.
Contact us at onpoptheology [at] gmail.com. You might also like:
by Ben Howard Reads of the Week 1) Saying Grace: Paula Deen, Progressives, and Race by Maria Dixon "Progressives Christians love to talk about grace except when they have
to extend it to someone who has offended their political reality. The
grace that we proclaim that washes us clean and entitled us to a new
life is for everybody as long as they have not offended our politics." 2) Privilege Says... by Christena Cleveland "Privilege says I’ll only listen to oppressed voices if they offer practical solutions to the problems that they describe." 3) Only The Lonely by Stephen Fry "Loneliness
is not much written about (my spell-check wanted me to say that
loveliness is not much written about – how wrong that is) but humankind
is a social species and maybe it’s something we should think about more
than we do. I cannot think of many plays or documentaries or novels
about lonely people. Aah, look at them all, Paul McCartney enjoined us
in Eleanor Rigby… where do they all come from?" 4) The Worst Easter Ever by Zack Hunt "The
drive back was the loneliest two and a half hours of my life. My
emotions were so raw I couldn’t even bring myself to turn on the radio. I
didn’t want to hear anyone experiencing any sort of joy when I was
hurting so much. So I sat in silence with nothing but my thoughts and
the constant reminder of a wife wrenched in pain on a couch that was
getting further and further away with every mile that I drove." 5) Growing Up in SGM by Hännah Ettinger "I’ve watched my friends leave SGM for good and deal with obvious culture
shock of attending churches where grace is preached. I’ve listened to
them struggle to unlearn the name Sinner and try to grow comfortable
with the taste of the word Saint." Honorable Mention
Babel, or God Is a Saboteur by Amanda Taylor "A
few weeks ago in Brussels I watched a man get bludgeoned nearly to
death in the middle of a busy market street."
On Breaking the Slump by Ben Howard "Over
the winter, my favorite baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, signed free
agent center fielder B.J. Upton to a five year contract worth $75
million dollars." Song of the Week
