The Magnificast

Hey Folks, we've both been pretty busy this week and we need a minute to catch our breath! Here's a Magnificast Classic episode with Erin Green about her work with REAP. It's a really cool episode and unique project, so give it a listen if you haven't already! Christian universities have a long history of creating the institutional levers and buttons by which they can harass and discriminate again...

This week on the pod we've got Laurel Marshall Potter, a PhD student from Boston College who is currently living in El Salvador, to research the current status of Ecclesial Base Communities (or CEBs). You can read Laurel's work on CEBs here: https://brill.com/view/journals/ecso/18/2/article-p198_005.xml Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.b...

A lot of moral questions revolve around doing or not doing something, but what if the biggest moral problems were actually about the very way we live our lives? Driving, smartphones, food production, etc. are all far more political than most people realize. In this episode, we talk through the book The Imperial Mode of Living by Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen. Get the book here if you want: https:...

This week, we're joined by Jim Hodgson, the Magnificast correspondent on Latin America. Jim has a long history of working with Christian solidarity organizations, like the United Church of Canada, on projects around building Christian solidarity in Latin America. This week, he's back with us to talk about the recent referendum in Cuba on the Family Code. Throughout the conversation, Jim gives us l...

We all know that humans are causing climate change, but in this episode, we're talking about which humans are responsible specifically! throughout this episode, we talk about climate change, colonialism, and solidarity. Here are some articles we referenced in the episode! Jason Hickel - Quantifying national responsibility for climate breakdown Will the People with Guns Allow Our Planet to Breathe...

Jesus is a lot of things to a lot of people, but if you take the gospel seriously, you've got to admit that, if nothing else, Jesus is radical. He's flipping tables, sending the rich away empty, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and casting out demons! Jesus is as radical as it gets. Yet, a lot of Christians don't see it that way. To get to the bottom of it, this week, we talked with Damon Gar...

Folks, on this podcast, we love the parables. This week we're talking about Luke 16:19 the Rich man and Lazarus. In the conversation, we talk about the historical context of the parable, the trope of class inversion, and just why the rich man was hell in the first place. In this episode, here are the books we talk about William Herzog - Parables as Subversive Speech Ernesto Cardenal - The Gospel i...

Jessica Reznicek is a Catholic Worker and water defender who sabotaged the Dakota Access Pipeline and was sentenced to prison time for in 2019. Jessica's story is really fascinating, and her sentencing is strikingly unjust! Listen in as Alex from the Support Jessica Reznicek campaign tells us Jessica's story and explains its significance! Find out more here: http://supportjessicareznicek.com/ Intr...

This week Joe Biden enacted a pretty significant policy around forgiving student debt. You know we love talking about debt on this show, so this week we're getting into it about the weird rhetoric around debt and why Christians ought to be on the side of jubilee! Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-t...

Last week we got really hung up talking about the specifics of growth that we didn't have much time to get into more of the specifics about degrowth. This week we're back with some more about defining degrowth and what degrowth means for anti-imperialism. You can check out the book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3989-the-future-is-degrowth Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by th...

We've already talked about degrowth a bit on the podcast, but why not talk about it some more. In this episode we talk about the book The Future is Degrowth, discuss what growth is and why it's bad, what degrowth is, and how you can bring some of these ideas to church.  You can find the Future is Degrowth here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3989-the-future-is-degrowth You can read Matt's articl...

In this episode, we get back into the conversation about African Liberation Theology by reading Jean-Marc Ela's book African Cry. We meant to talk about an essay he wrote about the Eucharist and the Exodus story, but we got kind of stuck on the Eucharist. We'll be back with more from Ela in the coming weeks!  Read along with us here: https://archive.org/details/africancry0000elaj/page/n3/mode/2up...

Recently everyone's been talking about Christian nationalism. This week we're offering a definitive take that the US is a Christian nation and that's really bad! Christianity isn't our best hopes we have for it, but instead, what it does and produces! Here's the article by Diana Butler Bass we mention.  https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/christian-nationalism-everywhere?r=45vbf&s=w&utm...

You know us; we love learning things about liberation theology. We've talked a lot about liberation theology in the context of Latin America, but we're completely clueless about liberation theology in Africa. In this episode, we read a bit of Emmanuel Martey's African theology: inculturation and liberation to learn something about what liberation theology looks like in South Africa.  You can read...

We love to talk about imperialism on this show and what better time to rehash imperialism in light of John Bolton's admission to planning Coups on TV! This week we talk about John Bolton, coups, imperialism, and the farce of rules-based international order.  Here's the essay from the Monthly Review we mention in the ep - https://monthlyreview.org/2021/07/01/the-new-cold-war-on-china/ Intro Music b...

This week we talk about the EPA decision passed down by SCOTUS and the larger context of ecological guidance in the IPCC report. It all seems pretty hopeless, but Leonardo Boff once again tells us what to do! Tune in and find out! Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by Paul Robeson https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Support The Magnific...

Ryan Cagle is back on the show to give us an update about Jubilee House, organizing, spiritual direction, and RPGs! Put on your robe and wizard hat and get ready for this banger of an episode.  Check out Ryan's project at jubileehouse.co  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by Paul Robeson https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Support The...

After an extremely long break, we've got a guest! This week, we're talking with Hector Acero Ferrer to talk about the recent election of Gustavo Petro & Francia Marquez in Colombia, liberation theology, democracy, and hope!  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Support The Magni...

Well, folks, we're just getting back to it after a long vacation, so we're taking it easy on ourselves and doing a prolonged lock-in episode full of reddit goofs and news updates. We'll be back next week with a more substantive episode!  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Support...

We're still out here doing this Bible study, and this time we're doing a classic, the parable of the talents! You might think God wants you to invest the gifts he's given you so you can grow his kingdom, but guess what, if you knew a ton of extremely niche information about the first century you'd find out you're wrong! Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://the...

Hey Gang, this week we've got a special episode where we chat with our friend Chase from Faith & Capital about a neat book called A Commentary on the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church by the Christians for National Liberation. It's a neat conversation where we just walk through some of the interesting beats within in the book. Check it out!  You can find Chase's podcast here and...

Last week we got into William Herzog's Parables as Subversive Speech to talk about parables and historical readings. This week, we're talking about Matthew 18 and the unmerciful servant. Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Support The Magnificast on Patreon*  http://patreon.com/the...

We've spent more time than usual reading the Bible lately, but, as you might know, reading the Bible can be complicated. To get into how difficult it is, we read William Herzog's Parables as Subversive Speech and talk about the big history behind the context of the parables.  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-...

After a kind of long series of goofs, this episode gets into some brief ideas about organizing your faith community.  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Support The Magnificast on Patreon*  http://patreon.com/themagnificast  *Get Magnificast Merch*  https://www.redbubble.com

Are you still in the May Day mood? Then take a trip back in time with us to last year when we talked about the Haymarket Riot and Dwight L. Moody!  -------- In past eps, we've talked about a lot of the cool leftist Christians involved in the Haymarket riot and the gilded age labor movement, but what about the shitty Christians? This week, we're bringing you a wild story about how Dwight L Moody ma...