Pastor With No Answers: The MIXTAPE Era

A few episodes ago, there were two white guys on this show (one of them was yours truly) and some how we ended up talking about whether or not there was equal opportunity for black people and whether racism still posed problems here in the US of A. It sparked a lot of conversation so I invited my friend Robbie Madison, who is black, to give his perspective of what was discussed. Additional topics...

Family man, Underoath’s Electronics guy, and successful entrepreneur, Dudley catches us up on some of his life. Chris still goes to church, he’s a virtual reality enthusiast, and like many of us, has to be careful with his eating. (Interview at 24 min mark).  Before Chris joins the show, Natalie laments on how Kanye West’s gospel album broke her heart in to teeny tiny, little pieces.  Follow Chris...

Another segment of “Ask Jack,” we talk whether God, along with "Our Father," can also be referred to as "Our Mother." We ponder whether poop and lice were part of the original plan for creation and we ask why Jesus couldn't have just picked one woman to be part of the 12. Things kick off with a phone heckler Joey received a message from back in the summer.  Follow Jack: @j...

A little reprieve from all the blasted spiritual talk. (Interview with John starts at 28:30 mark) Former roommate of Johnny Cash and a friend of Tyler Perry, John Schneider, who played Bo Duke in the hit TV show, “Dukes of Hazard,” has had one impressive journey. We talk about his career, how he’s convicted to live his life, and we reflect on racism and the sensitivity of our current culture.  Joh...

In his book, “In Good Faith: Questioning Religion and Atheism,” Shay incorporates Jewish, Christian and Muslim voices for a fresh, modern re-evaluation of religion and of atheism.  Why does God always seem so pissed? Why wouldn’t God’s existence be made more obvious to everyone so all would believe?  Is Genesis allegorical? Old Testament human trafficking? Are scientists in denial if they deny the...

Introducing some friends of mine who you’ll be hearing more from in “Pastor With No Answers Land.” The three of us met in a house church, we discuss here how that church family functioned as a church recovery group for people addicted to "church anger." We also discuss postpartum depression, an embarrassing podcast blunder of mine, and how John, as a recovered addict, would love to roll...

Joey and John Mark have become friends over the years, also sharing similar paths in personal faith changes and how they view their Christianity. Both have learned how to rest more in their questions, ween off the need of having certainties, and prioritize love over everything. Both also still consider themselves followers of Jesus, enjoy being a part of a church and also understand why many have...

The future will bring about more than most are imagining. Did you know there’s a good chance the prostitution industry will be completely monopolized by SexBots within 30 years? Seen and heard from on BBC, NBC and other media outlets, Mal Fletcher has many subjects of expertise, including social futurism. Instead of Robocop, how about Robopastor? More from Mal Fletcher: http://2020plus.net/robotsv...

Jarrid Wilson took his life last year in September.  A few years back, he hosted this show while my wife and I took the place of “guests," sharing the effects my depression has had on our marriage while Jarrid shares his story of battling depression as well. Lots of laughs, lots of heartfelt introspection, while openly discussing and de-stigmatizing this common sickness that many endure. Inst...

Thomas Oord  (ThomasJayOord.com) wrote a book entitled “God Can’t.”  It’s an articulate  presentation of Open Theism, a belief that supposes for freewill to exist, the future is unknowable, even to God.  So if God doesn’t know the future, this would mean limitations in his power which goes against what most believe about God.  At the same time, this posture is more suitable to make sense of all th...

“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” “Deck the Halls,” and “Holly Jolly Christmas” for many, but for others, it’s nothing but a “Blue. blue, blue blue Christmas.”   Many stories of grief have been shared on this podcast (Episodes 21,22,35,39,122,150) so I wanted to process the in’s and out’s of grief with a professional, especially pertaining to the holidays.  I sat down with a local therap...

The church should be notorious for welcoming questions, having conversations without the short fuses and pretense, and allowing for environments where people are comfortable with being brutally honest.  Because supposedly, we’ve been rescued by love and “perfect love casts out fear,” right?  So what do we have to be afraid about? Today’s guest had questions about sexuality and him merely having th...

Today’s guest says “not so fast” in regards to last episodes liberal handling of wife to husband submission.  These verses, according to him, are clear and consistent enough to grapple with. Instagram account: www.instagram.com/PWNApod Current DonorSee: https://donorsee.com/pwnahelps Get notifications each time we start raising money to get more information on our current opportunity to “save the...

It almost feels archaic to follow these instructions but many couples raised on fundamentalism perceived these passages as instructions for a healthy marriage and many still do.  Our two guests, Trisha Wilkerson and Ellen Mauro, join SvenZone to discuss insight on how they arrived at a different place. Once gaining a way more robust, rich outlook on marriage, neither adhered any longer to the simp...

Jack Hoey joins us to discuss shortcomings on doctrines of God, his take on speaking in tongues, and the relevance of the Old Testament Law post resurrection of Jesus.  We also have some fun pondering God’s omniscience and how incredibly that may play out in every day life. Instagram account: www.instagram.com/PWNApod Current DonorSee: https://donorsee.com/pwnahelps Get notifications each time we...

Therapist, Andrew J. Bauman, unapologetically lays out the current epidemic of womanizing. So how about the men who are sincere in their desire to honor women but may not be aware of the blind-spots that keep them from doing it? How do we honor female beauty but not mentally devour it? Bauman outlines how even the “good guys” have issues with this that need to be acknowledged, dealt with, and humb...

A large part of western Christianity has made Jesus a life coach who gives us an agenda to follow, spiritual requirements to check off of our list; and are missing the point. What if the real point was receiving hope and passing that hope along to others? Instead, we are all busy trying harder and either getting full of pride because we’re mastering the ways of Jesus or getting full of despair bec...

Author of this book, Steve McAllister, lived his life without money for one whole year. He’s got some very interesting thoughts on focusing on the red letters of Jesus, dismantling our male-dominance culture and even ideas about universal basic income. He believes we are living in great times of dismantling corrupt governmental structures for the sake of amazing change for this world.  Read this b...

Logan joins Jared and Joey to discuss their top 50 bands, today they work through #’s 41-50. But before we do that, Joey rambles a bit about how faith fundamentally has to start with mystery. There’s some bonus material at the very end as Joey talks music with Matt Johnson (author and drummer of former Tooth and Nail band, Roadside Monument) and reminisces about the early glory days of the Christi...

5 questions, two smart guys (Dan and Jack) answering them. This was recorded in the winter of 2019.  Instagram account: www.instagram.com/PWNApod Current DonorSee: https://donorsee.com/pwnahelps Get notifications each time we start raising money to get more information on our current opportunity to “save the day” for team humanity. Text PWNAd to 31010. Join us as a patron! https://www.patreon.com/...

Most of us are familiar with Catholicism and Protestantism but Easter Orthodox, not so much.  Matt Hinton and Father Chris, both in the band Luxury (first two releases on Tooth and Nail Records) drop in to school us all on the second largest sect of Christianity.  After a lengthy discussion of its origins, we look into eastern orthodox approaches to scripture, the afterlife, the rapture, evangelis...

These are my words, not hers, but it’s true.  Each of us who uphold the bible as a special book are all doing the best we can to make sense of it. Even when one is convinced God is guiding her personally,  he is still making a decision to trust that gut feeling and believe that specific way.  Sidenote: humility would always serve us well when considering anything involving “hearing God.”   Bonnie...

Jack Hoey joins us again to help us make sense of Jesus being fully God but not fully knowing. And why should we listen to Paul’s other teachings when he was erringly convinced on a very significant belief that Jesus would come back during Paul’s lifetime? We also talk a lot about mega churches, their eventual demise and even an Old Testament passage that endorses abortion.  Follow Jack @jackthele...

*Special note below on this episode* We talk about a famous pastor of a huge church with a former intern who learned the culture of this church from being on the inside. From staff being required to stand up when this Pastor walks into a room to him being presented in the same light as prophets in the bible, many are left wondering, who is this guy and how can some one be so far off the mark of Je...

Jared (Joey’s bro) comes on to discuss Joey’s latest season of struggle with mental illness.  They both process whether podcasting in hard times like these is a net positive and reflect on privacy in the context of their personality differences.  Joey shares “Depression Journal Part 3” and psychiatrist, Dr. Ara Darakjiian shares his expertise in the context of mental illness, including medicine’s...