On Pop Theology Podcast: Episode 56 - Jesus Is Better Than You Imagined w/ Jonathan Merritt

by Ben Howard

In this week's episode Ben chats with Jonathan Merritt, author of the new book Jesus Is Better Than You Imagined. Their conversation will cover topics such as the effects of growing up as a preacher's kid, the nature of religious commentary, and the need for mysticism in the church. They'll also talk about the importance of honesty and vulnerability in writing as well as the time he took a ride on Mel Gibson's jet.

You can find Jonathan's book on Amazon and in bookstores everywhere. You can follow him on Twitter @jonathanmerritt and find more of his writing at jonathanmerritt.religiousnews.com.

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:

• On Pop Theology Podcast: Episode 55 - Villainous Villainy
• On Pop Theology Podcast: Episode 54 - Leviticus, An Interview w/ Baruch Levine
• On Pop Theology Podcast: Episode 53 - Christ and Pop Culture w/ Alan Noble

Facial Hair & Christian Resentment

by Dominick Dodgson 

We were a group of seventh-graders on the bus, making our way to the first basketball game of the season. “I think facial hair is gross; it’s so itchy,” I said with a look of disgust.  “I will never grow a beard.” The discussion was around my friend’s illustrious beard that had grown in over the summer. When you’re 12, you don’t really think about the science of puberty. As far as we were concerned, our friend was a master face-gardener, having access to some magical pubescent Miracle-Gro and making sure to water it daily.

I remember how vehemently I reacted to the idea of having a beard. I made a spectacle, cursing facial hair and swearing off it forever. I was better off without it, so there.

The reality was I couldn’t grow a beard.

But deep down, I wanted one. So bad. Yet, rather than admit that I longed for a beard but didn’t have the machismo (or what I later found out to be “hormones”) to get one, it was much easier and better for my ego to pretend I didn’t want it at all.

This phenomenon is what the philosopher Nietzsche called ressentiment (French for “resentment”) and his observation of its prevalence among Christians was one of the main reasons he couldn’t stand them. (For a contemporary example of others being a little upset by this phenomenon among Christians, see the 2004 movie Saved!). Essentially, Nietzsche says, we all want power. But if we are too weak to get it, we pretend we don’t want it at all, in fact, we pretend we want the opposite, both to stick it to the powerful and to save our own egos.

And I have to agree with Nietzsche. We do this a lot and not just with regard to facial hair.

My favorite example is the bumper sticker: “My real treasure is in heaven,” which you’ll most often see stuck to the back of an old jalopy. What does this bumper sticker mean? Forget your BMW, I don’t even want it because my treasure is better than yours, but it’s, er, not quite here yet. BUT JUST YOU WAIT!

When I taught ethics at a Christian university, I would use this example and then ask: “How many of you, if you had that sticker on your car, would turn down a BMW if someone offered it to you, no strings attached?”

Having asked hundreds of students, not one has ever raised a hand. Hmmm.

What happened to real treasure being in heaven? Well, it is, until we get a good job and we don’t need it to be. What happened to suffering being part of what it means to be a Christian? Well, it is, until we can avoid it. What happened to the blessing of being poor?  Well it is, until we’re not, and then of course Jesus didn’t mean that literally. What happened to a church leader’s proclamation “we’re proud to be a small church because it means we are faithful?”  Well that’s true, until you grow, then you’re proud because your growth means you are faithful.

Nietzsche’s point is that Christians don’t seem to take Jesus very seriously, using Jesus’ virtues simply as a placeholder until they gain access to what they really want: money and power. That is to say, he calls out hypocrisy because he sees hypocrisy all around. His call to authenticity and honesty asks us to take a hard look inward, to see if we are simply using Jesus’ virtues as a palliative on the path to our vices.

While many would consider Nietzsche an enemy of Christianity, I call him a prophet. Like the biblical prophets, when it comes to his concept of ressentiment, he holds up a mirror to our hypocrisy and calls us to repentance.

He asks us to admit our desire for beards. And I believe it’s in that place of raw honesty that God begins to work. 

Dominick Dodgson is a professor of philosophy & ethics who consumes pop-culture and pretends it's "research." You can follow him on Twitter @dedodgson and read more posts at www.dominickdodgson.com. 

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:  

• How to Get Abs Like Jesus
• A (Not So) Serious Man
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An Open Letter and An Invitation

I expect you agree

by Ben Howard

When I started this blog I had almost no concept of what I wanted it to be. I knew that I wanted to write and I wanted to watch a lot of TV and I had some vague notions about explaining God and the meaning of life. You know, everyday stuff.

To be honest, I expected that I'd probably write two or three posts and then let things fade to black. That's what I have a tendency to do. No one has ever mistaken me for an overachiever.

But something else happened instead. I'd love to chalk it up to a new found sense of will power, but that's just not the case. No, this blog became my therapy. It allows me to explore questions and emotions, to be eccentric and strange. It allows me dig at issues of significance without having to take things too seriously.

It allows me to be vulnerable. You allow me to be vulnerable.

There are too many places on the internet, too many places in real life for that matter, that make us stay on our guard. There are so many venues where questions are treated with hostility, where eccentricities are met with judgment, where vulnerability is an invitation of abuse.

I promise you that this place, this blog, will not be one of them.

And with that promise, I also offer an invitation. I invite you to become part of the conversation. I invite you, my friends, to ask questions and challenge assumptions. I invite you to laugh with us, cry with us, think with us, and wander with us through the maze of life. I invite you to be vulnerable with us.

Can you feel the love tonight...wait, wrong movie.

While there have been many other voices highlighted here in the past nine months, mine has been the dominate one. I will still be writing regularly, but I've also been working behind the scenes for the last few weeks to bring in a great group of outside writers who will be contributing regularly. Some of them will be familiar, some of them will be new. Some of them you've already been introduced to over the past two weeks.

I'm saying all this because I don't want this space to be about me. I want it to be about us. I want to offer to you what you have all so graciously offered to me.

I want this to be a community. A community that loves each other, accepts each other, and tells each other the truth, even if we don't want to hear it. I want this to be a community that plays together, that creates together, and that helps each other work toward that never-ending goal of shalom.

You have been my friends and I invite you, we invite you, to become our family.

Peace,

Ben

You can contact me via Twitter @BenHoward87 or via email at onpoptheology [at] gmail.com.

Also, I invite you to join the On Pop Theology Facebook page, and post pictures, links, comments, or even just your personal reflections.

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Melky Cabrera Is Bad At Lying

by Ben Howard

Melky Cabrera.

I'm going to assume that unless you're a serious baseball fan or an avid reader of ESPN you have no idea who this is. That's okay.

How about some quick background on The Melk. Melky came up in the Yankees system and was always considered a player on the borderline between being a starter and a backup. He was best defined by the word, Meh.

“Is he a good hitter?”

“Meh.”

“Is he a good fielder?”

“Meh.”

“Will he help us win?”

“Meh.”

My favorite Melky moment came when he played for my favorite team the Atlanta Braves in 2010. Melky ran down a ball at the warning track in left-center field and proceeded to throw the ball in an arc to slighty center-er field where there was no one at all. The batter scored. How do I feel about Melky? Meh.

But then last year, Melky started playing well. This year, he played so well that he was named an All-Star. Huh?

Then this weekend the other shoe dropped and Melky was hit with a 50 game suspension because he tested positive for a banned substance. Excess testosterone was found in his system.

Now, Melky isn't the first player to take drugs to be a better player. As an economic decision, it's pretty defensible. Break the rules, make tens of millions of dollars. No judgment here. You tried to break the rules and you got caught.

But that's not how Melky took the news. Nope, not even a little bit.

Instead, in a series of misadventures that can only be described as Quixotic, Melky paid for a website to be created. And on this website there was a product. What kind of product? A fake product. A fake product that Melky claimed he took and caused him to fail his drug test. Yeah.

Apparently it took Major League Baseball investigators very little time to deconstruct Melky's brilliant facade. Is he good at subterfuge? Meh.

It always amazes me how athletes, or anyone really, reacts when they're caught red-handed. I think everybody knows at some level that the best possible reaction is to tell the truth and try to push your way through the awkwardness and the consequences that might come. Just deal with it head on, but then that wise voice in your head gives in to that much louder voice that just screams, “Lie!”

And so we get Melky's fake website. And Tiger Woods driving an SUV into a tree as his wife attempts to beat him with a golf club. And Presidents debating the meaning of the word is. And whatever other absurdities we've tried to concoct to cover over our own inadequacies and failures. Every one little more than a joke in hindsight. A fraud perpetrated in our minds that no one else believes.

Honesty is such a simple thing, yet at the same time it is so deeply profound. It reinforces the dignity of our humanity and allows us to engage others on the same level. I will be honest with you and I will hope you are honest with me. Even the pain that occassionally comes from honesty feels better than the unsteady doubt fostered by the possibility of a lie.

This all seems so trite. Your mother told you that “the truth shall set you free,” but sometimes the simplest things are those that are most difficult to hold within our grasp. I wish I could promise you that I'm always going to be honest, but I can't. I just don't think life works that way. I wish it did.

Peace,
Ben

Note: More than likely, I'll continue to look at this idea of honesty/apologies later in the week. I'd really appreciate any comments or insights you might have on the topic.

When he isn't criticizing baseball players for cheating and then elaborately lying about it, Ben likes to read the works of Jonah Lehrer and James Frey. That's some real honest writing. You can follow his literary pursuits @BenHoward87.

An Honest Political Statement

by Ben Howard

This post is going to be about politics. So please, before I say anything, close your eyes, close your minds, and prepare your responses. I know I would.

It's a fairly universal sentiment that politics have become too toxic. In fact, it's so universal that it has become cliche. Everyone seems to universally agree that our current conversations and our current way of discourse are inherently unproductive. Everyone also seems to agree that they're trying their best to overcome this. Everyone is pretty sure we'd be able to get a lot done if the other guy would just stop being so stubborn about everything.

They don't want to listen.  They have a closed mind.  They're bigots.  They're racists.  They're radicals.

I've spent a lot of my time in graduate school writing about the concept of sin. The idea is fascinating to me. I'm not particularly interested in ways to avoid sin, or any of the morality of whether X or Y is or is not a sin, to me that misses the point.

Sin is inevitable and universal. It is pervasive and there is no one who does not bear responsibility. It is toxic and it coats everything we do, even when it's good.

I don't say that to be depressing. I say it because I think embracing that inherent, inevitable, universal brokenness allows us to approach each other in humility. It allows us to encounter God's grace with wonder. It allows us the freedom to not be perfect.

The first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem. The first step in redemption is repentance.

I think the first step in creating a healthy political environment is admitting we have a problem. And I'm the problem, even if I don't think I am.

My opinions are not objective.

I am not emotionally detached from my political beliefs.

I am unsure whether I love those with different beliefs in the same way as I do those who agree with me.

I am angry and I am afraid.

I am not honest about how my anger and fear affect my beliefs.

I am broken and in need of redemption.

I welcome you to join me.

Peace,
Ben

You can follow Ben on Twitter @BenHoward87.