Fractured Faith: A Mosaic of Belief

As America commemorates the 250th anniversary of its founding, Joshua Hopping explores one of the most personal and emotionally complex holidays of the year. As both an American patriot and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Joshua reflects on what it means to celebrate a nation whose birth represents both liberty and loss. Through his own family history—one ancestor who fought for American indepen...

What happens when Indigenous identity, Christian faith, and theological education meet in the same space? In this episode of Fractured Faith, Joshua Hopping reflects on his experience attending the recent NAIITS Symposium and shares some thoughts on the people, conversations, and ideas that made a lasting impression on him. He also introduces listeners to NAIITS and discusses his opportunity to as...

In the years after Jesus’ resurrection, his followers weren’t building a system—they were trying to make sense of something that had happened to them. Faithful Jews began proclaiming that Jesus was Lord, yet they refused to abandon the God of Israel. That tension sparked one of the most profound theological struggles in history. This episode traces how the early church wrestled with the question:...

In this episode of Fractured Faith, Joshua Hopping—Cherokee lay theologian and author—examines the history, theology, and modern impact of Christian nationalism, defined as the belief that the United States is fundamentally a Christian nation. Drawing on historical scholarship and contemporary analysis, Hopping explores how this ideology has intersected with race, Manifest Destiny, slavery, demogr...

In this episode of Fractured Faith, Joshua Hopping — Cherokee author and lay-theologian — examines the question: Is Christianity inherently colonial in nature? With nuance and candor, he explores what is meant by both “Christianity” and “colonialism,” tracing the faith from Genesis through Jesus and Paul while acknowledging its historical entanglement with empire. Offering a “no, yes, maybe” respo...

Can Christians follow Jesus and kill? This episode starts with Jesus’ teachings and example of nonviolence, then shows how many early Christian writers insisted believers could not shed blood. We then recover a forgotten chapter of U.S. history: early Pentecostalism—including major denominations—was widely committed to pacifism and conscientious objection. Finally, we examine how WWII, the Cold Wa...

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase Christian mystic? In this episode, Joshua Hopping—Cherokee Christian theologian, author, and podcast host— explores what mysticism is often assumed to mean and what it has meant within the Christian tradition from the beginning. Rather than visions or spiritual escapism, Christian mysticism is about learning to live attentively in the nearness of God, sh...

What if the Incarnation was never God’s backup plan? In this episode, Joshua Hopping—Cherokee Christian theologian, author, and host of Fractured Faith —explores the ancient Christian conviction that Creator always intended to become human, not simply in response to sin, but out of love and desire for communion. Drawing on Scripture and early Christian voices, this reflection reimagines Christmas...

In this episode of Fractured Faith, host Joshua Hopping—writer, former pastor, and lay Indigenous theologian—explores how Penal Substitutionary Atonement reshaped our vision of God—from a loving Creator into a wrathful judge appeased by blood. He also uncovers how PSA’s foundation in original sin and total depravity distorts not only God’s character but our own sense of worth. For those of us from...

What is hatred, really? And why does Scripture warn so fiercely against it? In this episode, we explore the biblical story of hatred — not just as emotion, but as alienation from love itself. From Leviticus to the letters of John, from Jesus’ command to love our enemies to the wisdom of Gregory of Nyssa and the Desert Fathers, we trace how the early church understood hatred as a wound that disfigu...

What if the atonement is about restoring harmony rather than paying a debt? In this episode, Cherokee Nation citizen and theologian Joshua Hopping shares the Cherokee story of how disease entered the world and explores how it reshapes our understanding of Jesus’ death—not as punishment, but as cosmic healing for all creation. Photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash.

In this episode, host Joshua Hopping — former pastor, church planter, and lay theologian — takes listeners on a 30–minute journey through the many ways Christians have understood the cross throughout history. From the early church’s vision of liberation and union, to medieval debates about satisfaction and love, to Reformation emphases on justice, and even modern explorations of scapegoating and n...

In this special episode of "Fractured Faith," Joshua Hopping addresses a listener's question about the 1,000-year reign of Jesus and "Satan's little season" mentioned in Revelation 20:6-8. He provides an overview of the four major end-times views: historic premillennialism, dispensational premillennialism, postmillennialism, and amillennialism. Joshua also discusses how...

As a child, author and former pastor Joshua S. Hopping grew up surrounded by Zionism – both in the church and through his family. However, as he grew up and started to study both the Scriptures and history, he discovered that the Faith is much more mysterious and nuanced than the end-time charts of Zionist dispensationalism premillennialism. In this episode of Fractured Faith, Joshua unpacks the c...

In this week’s episode of Fractured Faith, host Joshua Hopping talks about the history behind the creation of the bible. Namely he dives into questions like: Where did we get the 66 books of the bible? When were they bound together as one volume, i.e., the Scriptures? Does all church tradition have the same bible? If not, what are the differences? Are there books missing from the bible? Etc. Lots...

The nations of Israel and Iran have been in the news a lot recently along with lots of people talking about the end times and biblical prophecy. In this special episode of Fractured Faith, host Joshua Hopping is joined by Dr. Juan Lopez (biomedical engineering) from central Mexico to about Christians in the US and Mexican are responding to the wars. And, true to form, there is a bit of history abo...

For many people within conservative Evangelicalism the only parenting advice they ever received was “don’t spare the rod.” In this episode of Fractured Faith, Angel Ford (mother, mental health expert, and pastor) and Joshua Hopping (father and former pastor) talk about their journeys in shifting from only knowing about corporal punishment (spanking) to embracing a gentle parenting style. Angel als...

Are children born evil? In this episode, Joshua Hopping shares his story about having to rethink the doctrine of total depravity which taught to him that his children were born evil and full of sin. Drawing on church history and the scriptures, Joshua unpacks this doctrine while offering an alternative rooted in the bible.

How does Adam’s sin affect us today? Is sin physically passed down from generation to generation? If so, how? The doctrine of ‘original sin’ was developed in the 4th century partly as a response to these questions along with some others. However, not every tradition within Christianity has agreed with the answers provided by ‘original sin’ nor have they agreed upon the definition of ‘original sin....

Tithe and offerings are a standard part of many churches in the US as money is required to keep the lights on, care for staff members, or just to feed the hungry. Yet the manner in which churches (and other non-profit organizations) ask for money can be harmful and, in some cases, downright spiritual abusive. In this episode of Fractured Faith, Joshua and Angel talk about the biblical view of givi...

What happened to Jesus between his death on the cross and when he walked out of the tomb on Easter Sunday? Was he just dead? Or was he up to something else? And, perhaps even more importantly, how do these questions help us reindigenousize hell? In this special Easter episode Joshua Hopping talks about the Harrowing of Hell from a Cherokee perspective to decolonize the afterlife. Enjoy and don’t f...

Hell – a place of eternal conscious torment in the afterlife for people who do not follow Jesus – is typically seen as a core doctrine of the Christian faith. But is it? Is it possible to be a Christian that does not believe in hell? In this episode of Fractured Faith, Joshua Hopping and Angel Ford dive into the doctrine of hell to better understand the biblical and historical origins behind the f...

According to Gallup poll, church attendance has been dropping in the US since 2009 with COVID being the last straw for a lot of folks. To repopulate churches, pastors have begun to talk more and more about the importance of church attendance. Yet for some, organized religious gatherings bring up painful memories or just don’t seem relevant anymore. Join co-host Joshua Hopping and Angel Ford as the...

For decades the American Evangelical church and the far-left atheist community have both belittled and demonized anyone who does not adhere to their view of family planning. Rather than helping reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, this culture way has removed the nuances, struggles, and pain associated with family planning. Not ones to stay away from controversial topics, Joshua Hopping ( In...

What happens when a pastor deconstructs? In this episode of Fractured Faith, Angel Ford interviews Joshua and Emily Hopping about their journey from Third Wave Evangelical pastors to being skeptical of the church gathering itself along with moving to a LGBT affirming position of marriage. Though the conversation goes on longer than pervious episodes, every minute is valuable as the Hopping’s journ...