From Babylon, With Love

The long-awaited second part of my conversation with The Only Dan Bellum… Let’s pod!

Happy New Year, Pod Fam! I am so happy to welcome you to the first part of THE IMPOSSIBLE QUEST TO THE HEART OF THE ONLY DAN BELLUM! Scientology, Thor, Breaking Bad, Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai, Chuck Norris, John Carter, high school hellscapes, and Jesus in your brain… buckle up… it’s 2023… let’s pod!

We conclude our series through Rebecca DeYoung’s “Glittering Vices” with a conversation on Envy. Beware the green eye! Let’s pod.

Black Friday? Cyber Monday? Giving Tuesday? What about SAD WEDNESDAY?! That’s right! TWO sins for the price of ONE! What a deal. Join me and my resilient crew, Laura and Hayden, as we attempt a tour de force of two structurally similar vices–Gluttony and Lust. Let’s Pod!

Join Laura, Hayden, and I as we tackle the deadly sin of Anger for our next installment on Rebecca Deyoung’s “Glittering Vices.” Let’s pod!

Henry Ford once said, “Work is our sanity, our self-respect, our salvation. Through work–and work alone–may health, wealth, and happiness be secured.” In the land of hustle culture and entrepreneurial culture how do we understand the capital vice of Sloth? Is it fundamentally laziness, and therefore is working harder, working more, the remedy? I am thrilled to be joined by...

This week we continue our series through the Seven Deadly Sins by looking at the ubiquitous sin of Greed! Yaaay! As Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” Matt. 6:24

Join us as we officially kick off our series on Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung’s Glittering Vices by going out of order immediately and taking a trip to Vanity Fair… Let’s pod!

Fall is in the air . . . in the form of a soul-crushing California heat wave! But Laura and I managed to stay cool in Papa Billy’s Bat Cave studio long enough to lay down our season opener. We’ve missed our pod family and are thrilled to be back in the saddle bringing you some sweet, sweet pod every other week till kingdom come . . . or graduation in the Spring. So gather your friends,...

We made it! Sort of. Thank you all for your herculean patience. We wanted to get the ‘official’ Season 3 closer out there so we can rest and regroup over the summer. So here it is. Laura and I chat about memory, summer plans, and, of course… Anne of Green Gables. Let’s pod!

Minimalism, maximilism, or something else?  What is our stuff for? Join Laura and I as we try to practically sift through our cultural and personal disposition to our stuff. Let’s pod!

What did Christianity look like at the edge of the world? In a land of wildness and deep magic, a land where the spirit world was known to be nearer and less controllable than many wanted to believe, Christianity took root by matching wildness to wildness, by overwhelming and directing these magical impulses to their proper ends. This St. Patrick’s Day, Fr. Hayden and I revisit the story of...

The Great Fast begins this week on Ash Wednesday, my friends, so I am particularly pleased to bring you this (timely!) conversation with Reverend Butler on the meaning of Lent, how to approach it, and why it is such an important season in the life of the church. We keep the fast so we can keep the feast! Let’s pod!

Prof. Craig Hovey returns to talk about the very difficult set of questions that arise when Christians face, and participate in, a world of violence. Let’s pod.

This week we’re changing it up a bit, sharing a sermon I preached at Generation Church in South Oceanside earlier this year. Generation Church is pastored by Tim Parlier–friend and guest of the pod! Many thanks to Tim and his crew for the invite. I am blessed by the good work the Lord is doing in our brothers and sisters in South O (shout out to Nicole and Christiaan!). Wherever you ha...

You are riding in a trolley without functioning brakes, headed toward a switch in the tracks. On the current track stand five people who will be killed if the trolley continues on its path. You have access to a switch that would make the trolley change to the other track, but another individual stands there… On today’s episode I am joined by Dr. Craig Hovey, Professor of Christian Ethi...

How does the contemporary Christian church recover its witness in a post-Christian society? How does the church resist falling prey to a futile and misguided culture war as well as the failed-but-well-financed McDonaldization of contemporary church forms (re: passive church *attendance*, performance-based “worship experiences,” therapeutic programming, niche small groups, and personali...

This is the second part of my convo with the man himself, Daniel Leetch, wherein we head to Afghanistan, think through fatherhood, and grapple with living a faithful, ordinary life in suburbia.

How does a soldier and survivalist stomach suburbia?  To find out, dive into this two-part conversation with human swiss army knife, Daniel Leetch, as we talk discipleship from Christianland to Afghanistan and back again.  Let’s pod!

On the newest episode of the pod, I am honored to talk with my friend, Maurice Woods, Field Director for Prison Fellowship in Southern California. This is Maurice’s story. But it’s so much more than that, as Maurice would say. This is Jesus’ story. Let’s pod!  

Recently, we have begun to experience the cultural and ecclesial reckoning of a certain kind of masculinity and the fallout of a spiritually fatherless generation. A fatherless generation is many things at once: hurt, needy, suspicious of authority, desperate for approval from authority, passive, aggressive, given to all manner of extremes. On the podcast today, I am joined by Pastor Tim Parlier f...

On this episode we conclude our four-part series on C.S. Lewis’s The Four Loves with a discussion of agape, the love that moves the sun and other stars. Agape is the goal of all human love, but it is also a love demands our complete vulnerability and surrender to experience it. I hope you’ll join Rev. Hayden Butler and I for this important conversation. Let’s pod!

“Eros ceases to be a demon only when it ceases to be a god.”  Join resident Anglican Priest of the Pod, Rev. Butler, and myself as we continue our series on C.S. Lewis’s The Four Loves with a conversation on Eros. Lets pod!

Laura returns this week as we continue our conversation on C.S. Lewis’s, The Four Loves , tackling the challenges and joys of Friendship. Let’s pod! * * Photo: The Inklings