Banned Books

Featured text: "Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents" — Rod Dreher Remember That Time We Forgot to Remember? In this episode, we continue our reading and discussion of "Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents" by Rod Dreher. What happens when we forget our familial, social, and Christian history? What have been the effects of therapeutic ideology on the churches? What is...

Featured text: "Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents by Rod Dreher" — Rod Dreher The Truth Is Like A Good Steak. In this episode, we continue to read and discuss Rod Dreher's book "Live Not by Lies." Do we hold our pastors to a specific evangelical standard for preaching and ministry? What damage is done to churches whose members don't have a firm theological and moral grounding in...

Featured text: "Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents by Rod Dreher" — Rod Dreher Lies Are Like Hotdogs. In this episode, we continue to read and discuss Rod Dreher's "Live Not by Lies." What harm is done to the churches by abandoning the Truth, and what about a society the lives by lies? SHOW NOTES: Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents by Rod Dreher https://amzn.to/2W...

Featured text: "Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents" — Rod Dreher The Cake Is A Lie. In this episode, we read Rod Dreher's "Live Not by Lies," discuss Vaclav Havel, and how the churches' learned passivity and helplessness have rendered their ministry and outreach impotent. SHOW NOTES: Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents by Rod Dreher https://amzn.to/2Wpmm4W   Masada...

Featured text: "Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents" — Rod Dreher We're Not Going Anywhere Fast, So Keep Going! In this episode, we read Rod Dreher's book on being a Christian dissident, and discuss the myth of progress. What happens when the church adopts the myth of progress and how does it effect its ministry and outreach? SHOW NOTES: Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dis...

Featured text: "Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents by Rod Dreher" — Rod Dreher In this episode, we continue to read Rod Dreher's book "Live Not By Lies." What happens when therapeutics captivate the church's teaching? How do we repent of willfully rejecting the incarnation of God In the Church's worship, and in our vocations? SHOW NOTES: Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Di...

Featured text: "Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents by Rod Dreher" — Rod Dreher It's So Soft, And Squishy. In this episode, we continue to read Rod Dreher's book on being a Christian dissident. We discuss soft totalitarianism and its effects on the church and culture. What happens when everyone has a grievance and nobody can forgive? SHOW NOTES: Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Chris...

Featured text: "Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents" — Rod Dreher Riley and Gillespie spin off into a pastoral debrief on the effects of soft totalitarianism on the Church and Christians within their vocation. SHOW NOTES: Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents by Rod Dreher https://amzn.to/2Wpmm4W   MEN HAVE FORGOTTEN GOD – ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN https://orthochristian...

Featured text: "Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents by Rod Dreher" — Rod Dreher Christians Rush in Where Fools Fear to Tread. In this episode, we read Rod Dreher's "Christian Dissidents." What is totalitarianism? What are the consequences of soft totalitarianism? What is the Christian response to tyranny? SHOW NOTES: Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents by Rod Dreher...

Featured text: "Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents" — Rod Dreher Christians Get Ready, There's a'Change That's Coming. In this episode, we read Rod Dreher's book, Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents. We discuss what happens when society and the churches turn away from God's Word and the Church, and defect, choosing instead to worship and obey people and things that...

Featured text: "Spiritualizing Cowardice: The Christian Bystander Effect" — Garrett Mullet Run, Rabbit, Run! In this episode, we read and discuss Spiritualizing Cowardice, by Garrett Mullet. When we read and consider the life of David, how has the popularity of psycho-therapeutic language and post-modern cultural norms in the past century influenced the way we read and teach on Scripture at presen...

In this episode, we discuss pastoral topics, congregational life, the challenges Christians face today, and how things have changed for clergy and the churches since 2020. SHOW NOTES: Spiritualizing Cowardice: The Christian Bystander Effect https://onthe.rocks/spiritualizing-cowardice/   The Revolution Will Not Be Televised https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revolution_Will_Not_Be_Televised — CONTA...

Featured text: "Tyranny and Resistance: The Magdeburg Confession and the Lutheran Tradition" — David Whitford Enemy at The Gates. In this episode, we read and discuss David Mark Whitford's book, "Tyranny and Resistance." What are Christians to do when state and church unite to enforce laws that are in opposition to God's Word and Christian freedom? SHOW NOTES: Tyranny and Resistance: The Magdeburg...

Featured text: "Luther for Armchair Theologians" — Steven Paulson Breaking Your Rules — In this episode, we continue our reading and conversation about Dr. Steven Paulson's breakdown of Martin Luther's explanation of the two kingdoms. Marriage, children, preaching, serving our neighbor, and standing up to evil. SHOW NOTES: Luther for Armchair Theologians https://amzn.to/3zVq44z — CONTACT and FOLLO...

Featured text: "Luther for Armchair Theologians" — Steven Paulson I've Got a Gun aka The Whole Armor of God. In this episode, we read and discuss Dr. Steven Paulson's breakdown of Martin Luther's explanation of the two kingdoms doctrine. Faith, family, and false idols form the backbone of our talk. SHOW NOTES: Luther for Armchair Theologians https://amzn.to/3zVq44z — CONTACT and FOLLOW BannedBooks...

Featured text: "Democracy in America" — Alexis de Tocqueville In this episode, we read and discuss Alexis de Tocqueville's apology for religion's relevance to politics in Democracy in America. What happens when the two kingdoms are divided or collapsed into each other? SHOW NOTES: Democracy in America, p.330 (PDF) http://seas3.elte.hu/coursematerial/LojkoMiklos/Alexis-de-Tocqueville-Democracy-in-A...

Featured text: "Tocqueville's Faith" — Alexis de Tocqueville Faith in What? Faith in Who? In this episode, we read Robert J. Delahunty's article about Alex de Tocqueville's faith. Tocqueville is a remarkable study in Enlightenment faith because he straddles the line between Christianity and the Enlightenment: Law and religion, belief and despair that concerns the relationships between Church and S...

Featured text: "God is Not Great" — Christopher Hitchens "Remember again part of our charge against religion, our belief that it is fundamentally wicked and antihuman, is precisely its eschatology. Religion is predicated on the idea that our time here is short and should be shorter, that our job is to bring on the end of days. This is just a veil of tears and guilt and shame. This, the only life w...

Featured text: "God is Not Great" — Christopher Hitchens "We were baffled by climatic and cataclysmic events: earthquakes, tidal waves, storms, lightning. All of this was to us terrifying. Religion works as an attempt, then, to make sense of things. We are pattern-seeking mammals, after all. It's a good thing that we are, because if we weren't pattern-seeking mammals, our curiosity would have no o...

Featured text: "God is Not Great" — Christopher Hitchens Christians Aren't Good, or Moral. In this episode, we continue to read and discuss Christopher Hitchens' speech on religion and morality. Does religion delete our need to confront reality? SHOW NOTES: "God is Not Great" https://ffrf.org/outreach/awards/emperor-has-no-clothes-award/item/11978-christopher-hitchens   Hitchens books: https://amz...

Featured text: "God is Not Great" — Christopher Hitchens God is Good… or Not. In this episode, we read and discuss Christopher Hitchins' speech about religion and morality. What's the point of attaching the forgiveness of sins to morality? SHOW NOTES: "God is Not Great" https://ffrf.org/outreach/awards/emperor-has-no-clothes-award/item/11978-christopher-hitchens   Hitchens books: https://amzn.to/3...

Featured text: "A God Torn to Pieces: The Nietzsche Case (Studies in Violence, Mimesis & Culture)" — Friedrich Nietzsche The God that won't stay dead. In this episode, we wrap up our discussion of God, Nietzsche, and how Jesus fights against our attempts at self-atonement. SHOW NOTES: A God Torn to Pieces: The Nietzsche Case (Studies in Violence, Mimesis & Culture) https://amzn.to/3fXcir1   A God...

Featured text: "A God Torn to Pieces: The Nietzsche Case (Studies in Violence, Mimesis & Culture)" — Friedrich Nietzsche God is Dead again, because of us. In this episode, we discuss whether Friedrich Nietzsche was closer to the kingdom of God than most modern Christians, and how we can learn from him. SHOW NOTES: A God Torn to Pieces: The Nietzsche Case (Studies in Violence, Mimesis & Culture) ht...

Featured text: "A Prayer for Memorial Day" A Prayer for Memorial Day. Donavon Riley and Christopher Gillespie read and reflect on a Memorial Day prayer from the Lutheran Book of Prayer — on the sacrifices made for freedom, the place and limits of civic duty, and the grace by which we are saved through faith in Christ apart from our works. SHOW NOTES: A Prayer for Memorial Day https://blog.cph.org/...

Featured text: "Nietzsche and Christ" — Terry Eagleton God is Dead. In this episode, why the New Testament is more radical than Friedrich Nietzsche in its critique of false religion and false gods. SHOW NOTES: Eagleton - Nietzsche and Christ http://trinitycollegechapel.com//media/filestore/sermons/EagletonNietzsche231108.pdf   Terry Eagleton bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Eagleton   1979...