Found in Translation

Episode Highlights Perseverance amidst systemic injustice and economic exploitation; Importance of communal care and addressing chronic illness with dignity; Wealth as a chronic illness in spiritual and social realms; Church discipline and communal accountability for the wealthy; False security of hoarding wealth and exploitative systems. Allegiance to people and justice over economic stability. R...

Episode Highlights The "desire for pleasures" James condemns isn't about sex — it's about golden toilets, rent-gouging, and union-busting. Your 401(k) might be morally complicated. "The world" James warns against isn't a vague spiritual fog — it's redlining, ICE raids, and every system where one human decides they matter more than another. Public prayer was never me...

We had an absolute blast recording this episode at the Queer Christian Fellowship Conference in Portland, Oregon. Rather than talk about the clobber passages used against queer folk, we wanted to explore how the LIT Bible opens up new insights into moral courage and resisting scapegoating in Hebrews 6. ... Follow the slide deck: https://tinyurl.com/NoMoreSacrifice Read LIT online:   https://litbib...

Episode Highlights Dehumanizing words vs taboo words; What kind of speech disqualifies someone from church leadership; "you piece of 💩" vs "look at that 💩" Competitive self-promotion in tension with maturity; Open-mindedness, not certainty, as a mark of Christian maturity; The role of power and hierarchy in how we speak. ... Read LIT online:   https://litbible.net/james-3 More ab...

Episode Highlights The importance of avoiding the word faith in translation; What James probably meant by faith ; Comparing what James and Paul each meant by works ; Classism and power's role in James' exhortations about modesty; The importance of solidarity with the poor in shaping our faithfulness. ... Read LIT online:   https://litbible.net/james-2 More about the LIT Bible:   https://ww...

Episode Highlights The Letter of James is best understood through the lens of 1:27. Doubt in James is not about uncertainty in belief. Caring for orphans and widows is a central call of the faith. Avoiding the oppressor's mindset is the flipside to helping widows and orphans. ... Read LIT online:   https://litbible.net/james-1 More about the LIT Bible:   https://www.litbible.net/translation-co...

Episode Highlights Is there a unifying theme behind James' meandering letter? Why did this letter piss off so many church leaders over the millennia? What can we learn about early Christianity from James? Why was James so fixated on power relationships? ... Welcome to Season 8 of Found in Translation! We're thrilled to spend the next several weeks exploring the memorable, passionate, no-BS...

We've been recording three seasons at once! James is coming soon, then 1 Corinthians and some bonus episodes on the translation commitments . We're so, so stoked. Most exciting: we're recording our first LIVE episode at the Queer Christian Fellowship Conference in Portland, happening January 22-25. www.qcfconf.org for more! We hope to see you there. Read more of the Liberation & In...

Episode Highlights Anti-Caesar coding throughout the story; how much better the gospel is apart from Christian supremacism; how to understand the great commission through a liberation & inclusion hermeneutic; identifying the inclusive center in the literary structure of Matthew; empathy and compassion are central to the gospel. ... Our returning guest co-host today is Kalie Hargrove (she/her)....

Episode Highlights for Matthew 27 Pilate and the banality of evil; The enduring temptation of revering the violent; Disability injustice in the church and the Bible; Solidarity is central to salvation; Manipulating crowds into bloodlust is as old as time; Scapegoating vibes on Good Friday; Jesus' crucifixion was (like) a lynching; The varying reasons for Jesus' crucifixion; The meaning Jes...

Episode Highlights for Matthew 26 The Eucharist is about an ever-widening belonging in God, and Matthew structured his entire gospel around it. The challenge of soothing nerves when confronting state violence. The cyclical nature of domination and liberation in the Bible and history. Resisting the antisemitic lure of seeing the Pharisees as the baddies, not just one set of antagonists. Jesus behav...

Episode Highlights for Matthew 24 and 25 "I understand that reference" – How Jesus used loads of metacultural nods to embellish his alarm toward his neighbors' self-destructive nationalism; the intersection of the Black church and Anabaptism; the Bible is holy because it is a library of testimonies of the losers; Jesus' advice for getting through apocalyptic times; immigrant-love a...

Episode Highlights What Jesus knew would get him killed; Why he was fiercest to those – the Pharisees – with whom he was most theologically aligned; The similar anger we find in ourselves toward evangelicalism going after Christian nationalism; The importance of rebuking the temptation to read these passages antisemitically; Why religious fakers pissed Jesus off so much; How truthfulness and no-bu...

Episode Highlights The queer theology anthem that happened to be Jesus' favorite song lyric Jesus' street pageantry entering Jerusalem parodying the imperial occupation; Merch tables in the part of the temple dedicated to hosting outsiders; Jesus' mounting sense of his looming lynching; Jesus' GTFO clapbacks; and much more Our guest co-host is Naphtali Renshaw (she/they). Naphtali...

Why did Jesus' thoughts on divorce and marriage cause his disciples to question whether anyone can get married? Why did Jesus respond with this thing about three kinds of eunuchs? Does being a not-dickish partner render someone a kind of eunuch in the eyes of patriarchy? Does Jesus reinforce patriarchal ideas of marriage or deconstruct them? How sexually engaged were eunuchs in Jesus' day?...

Why is Jesus so reactive to his students' difficulty with understanding his vocation? He seems grumpy at times. How does Jesus plan to escalate his confrontation with the Roman Empire and their local enablers? How is Jesus' strong words against harming children a fierce rebuke to queerphobic parents? and more! Our guest cohost is Avery Arden (they/zir). Avery is a genderqueer autistic mini...

Jesus' cousin gets impulsively murdered in jail by a tyrant for calling out his BS – just what you'd expect from an authoritarian. Later, Jesus surfaces an abundance of food, feeding thousands – what if this miracle had something to do with mutual aide? Finally, Jesus calls an indigenous woman a "household pet," and her response jolts him to remember God's abundance. Was Jesus...

Jesus continues spreading compassion, care, and joy among his most vulnerable neighbors – but the religious professionals won't have any of it! They're using the Bible as a weapon rather than a sacred gift meant to help us pursue shalom . This week in Matthew 12-13 we explore a few of these stories, and the cryptic parables Jesus tells in response. Episode highlights Compassion should take...

Need to know the best Bible translation if you care about LBTQ inclusion, liberation vibes, basic Greek fidelity, and low-cringe? We present our Bible Translation Tier List! We're vibe-ranking them based variously on: Do they translate faithfully about LGBTQ kin being included in God? Was any of it actively translated to justify domination, authoritarianism, or sexism? Is it lovely? What's...

Jesus is bringing together his crew and sending them to get in good trouble. Familiar tales, sure. But is there something about how Jesus organizes, how Jesus relates, and how Jesus teaches that is instinctively anarchist? Teaching after teaching and tale after tale, he's challenging all the fixations that oppressors leverage into fear to secure power. And oppression, I heard a fella say, is t...

Bounary-transgressing love and overcoming ableism are at the heart of the very first stories Matthew tells about Jesus after his big Sermon on the Mount. There's oodles of anti-authoritarian mischief and delightful queer energy brimming in these tales. Episode highlights: ableism and leprosy, Jesus' massive shoutout to a queer Centurion, the only person in the Bible outside the holy family...

Can you read the Sermon on the Mount apart from Mammon? Maybe, but we don't recommend it. Jesus' teachings on everything from fasting to how to pray to not judging pops into 3D when read through the lens of how Mammon works. Episode highlights: trusting how the poor hear Jesus, it takes a community to resist Mammon, embracing Christ class consciousness, and the most boring question you can...

The short answer to the title's question is, Yes, totally. But it wasn't just about lusty glares. Jesus dared us to pluck out anything within us that objectifies or commodifies another. It's part of his most famous spiel, "the sermon on the mount," which is most clearly presented vision for how his followers should live. Not a set of rules to obey, but a trajectory of faithfuln...

The anti-authoritarian, justice-y vibes dance off the page as Jesus goes through a communal preparation ceremony in the wilderness with his cousin and then is tempted by the Accuser to embrace domination. It's a spicy set of stories, brimming with loads of wit and wisdom for times like ours. Our guest cohost this week is the delightful and delightful Mae Forrest Barnes (she/her). Mae writes at...

What if the birth of Jesus wasn’t just sweet and sacred—but strategically subversive? In this episode Aaron J. Smith ( www.aaronjsmith.net ) joins as guest co-host to take a hard look at Matthew chapters 1 and 2 through the lens of power, empire, and authoritarian fear. We trace the political tension that pulses beneath every angelic message, Herodian sh*tfit, and nativity set piece. This isn’t ju...