Hey all! Our apologies about this last week. We had some conflicting schedules and were unable to record on the evening we usually do. So…we will be picking up the discussion on “Sin….what is it?” this upcoming Thursday. So think about it a little more, check out the discussion on the forums and tell us your opinion!

On a somewhat unrelated topic, I thought I might point us to something on Ben Meyer’s website that I thought you might find interesting. Kim Fabricius has been famous on Ben’s site for writing “Ten Propositions on ____”. You fill in the blank. In this particular post, he wrote Ten Propositions on Darwin & Diety. It is a dense post, so make sure you have time to really read it well:

http://faith-theology.blogspot.com/2009/02/ten-propositions-on-darwin-and-deity.html

Let me know what you think! I was especially interested with Proposition #9.

Z

Definition Of Sin

The First Link When you search in Google for Definition of Sin.  Very straight forward look that uses the 10 commandments as the base of Gods moral that we should follow.

How can we know right from wrong without some kind of “LAW” passed down from God?   It kind of makes sense why people often tend to lean towards legalism even though it is restrictive.  Sometimes I think legalism is more about people feeling comfortable because we know what to do, than leaders trying to controlling the herd.

Unbelievalbefaith.com received the following email from an individual named jpeg.

This video is from West Virginia in response to gay marriage legislation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vQm0hJ8Dd0

I really wish that organizations such as this would be as passionate about poverty, mental illness, lack of housing, child welfare as they are about gay marriage. If churches like this (i say like this because I don’t think it reflects all congregations) concentrated even 10% of the money and effort they spend into combating gay marriage into poverty, can you imagine what a difference that would make?

It’s unbelievable to me that fundamentalists spend so much of their energy on abortion and homosexuality. It seems so misdirected.

From a different perspective, watch this video.

http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/divorce

I had a conversation recently and asked this person, who is a supporter of LGBT individuals, about my own biases towards those that are transgendered. I told her that it’s hard for me — and I recognize this — to see it as okay and that they’re ‘normal.’

She said that’s completely okay to admit. And then she said something that really stuck with me:

“It is hard to understand where everyone comes from. Especially when someone else is so completely different than your life experiences.

But when I see someone that is forward and exuberant about who they are, I want to give them a high five. They are so courageous for being honest and open about their sexuality, their personhood.

There’s enough people in this world that will pass on judgment. Most people wouldn’t be honest about who they are. Enough will judge them — I want to support them.”

I wish we’d spend as much time talking about our neighbors struggling with making ends meet, the man or woman on the street asking for money, the single parent that’s at his or her wits end as we would abortion and homosexuality.

-jpeg

In this fifth episode, we will explore ancient and modern conceptions of divine sovereignty, asking questions like:

- What does it mean (or has it meant) to say that “God is in control”?

- Is the very concept of divine sovereignty antithetical to the idea of human freedom? And from such a question, we may wish to ask, what is freedom?

- Alternatively, a la Marx, in what way are conceptions of divine sovereignty actually just the human being’s use of God as an excuse to quetionable action which in turn alienates both themselves and others out of realizing the importance of their own concrete action (or perhaps, their own “divinity” as Marx would say). In other words, such a person might say, ”if God has it all figured out in advance, all I need to do is figure out what God’s will is and then make it happen!”

- Does the Christian God, epecially as exemplified in Jesus, depict a God of manipulation and control, or is Jesus an example of a different kind of sovereignty? (This is what I am exploring in the title in reference to Weakness)

- Beyond divine sovereignty, what do we think it means to talk about sovereignty in the context of states, and governements. Furthermore, how have the conceptions of state sovereignty either influenced or been influenced by conceptions of divine sovereignty?

- Why does any of this matter for living “the good life” or the ethical life?

Please feel free to preempt our show with comments and debates on our forum! We look forward to it!

Show Notes:

Rube GoldBerg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg
Book References:

God and World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology of Creation by Terence E. Fretheim – Pages 270-272.
The Road: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road

This episode is 58 min long.

[podcast]http://unbelievablefaith.com/wp-content/audio/UFaithEp005.mp3[/podcast]

I found the video God On Our Side and loved it. Dylan plays around with the lunacy of believing that God is somehow primarly associated with or devoted to a human country or political organization. My favorite (and most haunting) line:

“Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don’t count the dead
When God’s on your side.”

Listen, read, and enjoy:
With God On Our Side

Oh my name it is nothin’
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I’s taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I’s made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don’t count the dead
When God’s on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I’ve learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It’s them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we’re forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God’s on your side.

In a many dark hour
I’ve been thinkin’ about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can’t think for you
You’ll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I’m leavin’
I’m weary as Hell
The confusion I’m feelin’
Ain’t no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God’s on our side
He’ll stop the next war.

Copyright ©1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music

Lyrics from: http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/god-our-side

I found this quote from Karl Barth interesting and so thought I would share it. Aside from the gender un-neutral language, I think this quote is quite profound and poses some interesting questions surrounding the nature of Christian dialogue about the Gospel, especially as it pertains to dialogue with other faiths. Thoughts?:

“The Gospel neither requires men to engage in the conflict of religions or the conflict of philosophies, nor does it compel them to hold themselves aloof from these controversies. In announcing the limitation of the known world by another that is unknown, the Gospel does not enter into competition with the many attempts to disclose within the known world some more or less unknown and higher form of existence and to make it accessible to men. The Gospel is not a truth among other truths. Rather, it sets a question-mark against all truths. The Gospel is not the door but the hinge. The man who apprehends its meaning is removed from all strife, because he is engaged in a strife with the whole, even with existence itself. Anxiety concerning the victory of the Gospel — that is, Christian Apologetics — is meaningless, because the Gospel is the victory by which the world is overcome. By the Gospel the whole concrete world is dissolved and established. It does not require representatives with a sense of responsibility, for it is as responsible for those who proclaim it as it is for those to whom it is proclaimed.”

Karl Barth — The Epistle To The Romans, pg. 35.

We talk about numerous things including evolution, ego, and the email we received about the Adi Da faith know as Adidam.

This episode is 1 hour and 2 min.

Enjoy

[podcast]http://unbelievablefaith.com/wp-content/audio/UFaithEp004.mp3[/podcast]