Religiosanity

The recent evangelical longing for the time of Billy Graham makes Pastor Andrew reflect on the historical tone-deafness, and downright insanity, of Graham's (and many other evangelicals') use of the word "crusade" in various titles of events and organizations.

On this episode, Pastor Andrew proposes the idea of taking ON a practice for lent rather than the now cliché, tired, often obsessive compulsive idea of giving UP something for lent, and details the "Five Daily Prayers" exercise that Rutgers Church is taking on for this spiritually significant season.

Pastor Andrew talks with Peter about one of the darkest taboo of religious human sacrifices, difference between a know story of Abraham's attempted sacrifice of Isaac and Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter and its similarity to classical parallel in the sacrifice of Iphigenia. And some remarks about the origins of sacrifices.

In 2017, Trump announced the United States recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and ordered the planning of the relocation of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. On this episode, Pastor Andrew talks about the religio-insanity of justifying such a recognition by citing mythology and legend as if it were history, and fills us in on the historical fact surrounding this...

Pastor Andrew once again takes us on an unexpected journey. This time we learn about an ancient (and at that time most trusted) form of divination called haruspicy, which is basically the "science" of inspecting the entrails of sacrificed animals.

Pastor Andrew pays tribute to Terry Jones, from "Monty Python's Flying Circus," who died this week, by talking about the theological gifts the great movie he directed, "Life of Brian," has to share. The movie got a beating from "church folk" when it came out, but, as Pastor Andrew says, only people who don't understand the Bible would take offense to this marvelous film.

The assassination of Qasem Soleimani prompts Pastor Andrew into a discussion on Zoroastrianism and its influence on Judaism and Christianity.

On this episode, Pastor Andrew answers a listener question: What does Jesus mean by "The Kingdom of God?"

A preposterous assertion from Republican congressman Barry Loudermilk that "Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats have afforded [Donald Trump]" during his current impeachment, prompts Pastor Andrew to talk about the trial of Jesus and place it in some historical context. Plus he tells us about the interesting arc Pilate traveled in some legendary stories from early Christ...

Pastor Andrew has one more chapter in the Sane Christmas series to share wit us. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas depicts the early childhood of Jesus, and it hilariously plays out like a young super hero not aware of his powers. Plus the Pastor explains how these stories help to put the gospel stories in context for him and why that's important.

In this epic final episode in the "Sane Christmas" series, Pastor Andrew finishes taking us through the wonderfully absurd alternate nativity story, "Protoevangelium of James," featuring bitter water, mid wives, frozen time, and "R-rated material!" And he challenges us to embrace the humor and folly of these stories.

Pastor Andrew takes us through a sort of "Christmas pageant for adults" that is "Protoevangelium of James," (from 150 CE)a sometimes wild and, perhaps unintentionally, humorous origin story of both Mary and Jesus. In this first part, we learn about the miraculous way Mary was born and how she met Joseph that takes a radical departure from the circumstances found in the gospels yet still at times a...

Decoding ancient mysteries of Jesus’ birth. In the Gospel of Luke Jesus shares miraculous birth with Hellenistic heroes. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus’ birth is even more enigmatic and remarkable. The Announcement of his birth goes beyond 700 years earlier prophecy all the way to 1,200 years older Cuneiform text of Late Bronze Myth from Ugarit. Join us talking why and how Mary became a virgin aga...

In this third installment of the "Sane Christmas" series, Pastor Andrew takes us on a deep dive into the three different layers of virginity of Mary in relation to the birth of Jesus: virginal conception, virginal birth, and immaculate conception; plus highlights some passages that give us clues into Mary's significance, and also, on the other hand, the power we can find in her unremarkable-ness.

In this second episode in the "Sane Christmas" series, Pastor Andrew illustrates how two Gospels handle "the Bethlehem problem," in other words, how do we get Jesus born in Bethlehem to fulfill the prophecy from Micah?

Pastor Andrew contrasts Christmas celebration traditions in Europe to the odd Santa-fication (Santa-fixation) that has formed in America due to commercial and secular influences. How American #ReligiousIgnorance together with ravenous consumerism and greedy capitalism gave us Santa Claus abomination. #SantaAbomination This is part one of a special "Sane Christmas" series. #

Don't be afraid - here is a foretaste of #BibleClass at Rutgers Church. It is informed by the solid and most recent scholarship but is not afraid to include our personal experiences, current events and #geopolitical context. This is just about one pericope - interpreting the story of the #Demoniac of Gerasa #Healing #Demonism #Occupation #militaryOccupation #Demon #SocialGospel #Demythologisation...

Pastor Andrew recounts his recent trip to Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and surrounding area, and talks about its pueblos, kivas and the importance of valuing the history of Indigenous people.

On this festive 13th episode, Pastor Andrew talks about the beautiful Celtic holiday of Samhain, the rituals and activities that were involved in it, and how it was watered down and commercialized into the holiday we know as Halloween.

Pastor Andrew reads his own dynamic equivalence translation of The Lord's Prayer and discusses his wording choices that bring Jesus' radical prayer into modern times and helps us reconnect with its original meaning. From Pastor Andrew's Blog: Loving God of the highest authority: In other words - heavenly parent. But “father” in the Ancient Near East context was primarily a figure of authority, esp...

In celebration of St. Francis Day (October 4th) Pastor Andrew talks about the effects monotheism and "just me and God" theology have on the environment, and calls for the return to a more animistic approach to faith.

Does number of adherents prove anything? Does popularity correlate with religious, spiritual or any truth? Deep in the monotheism is this insecurity and need for validation through numbers. There are religion (often tribal) which keep people out and then there are religions which try to pull people in (almost by any means) It is a distinction between mission oriented and mystery oriented religions...

Discussion about multiplicity and evolution of Creation stories in the Ancient Near East as well as in the Bible - from the Theogony through Hellenistic bureaucratic speculations of Gnostic provenience. And with our Big Bang theory, are we still explaining our newest technology to explain the bigining of the universe?

In this episode, Pastor Andrew talks about Semitic goddess Anat and her multiple roles as a warrior goddess as well as goddess of love. Some of the portions of these texts speak about divine lovemaking.

Pastor Andrew Stehlik breaks down Donald Trump's insane statement "I am the chosen one" and the equally insane and just plain idiotic claim some evangelicals have that relates Trump with King Cyrus, and he lays out the differences between the tolerant society of ancient Persia and the evangelical/Trumpian idea of America.