Ravel

It was a special day in the Rettinghouse home! Emily got to be part of baptizing her daughter--and thought it was a good space to explore. We tell the story of our own baptisms, learn just how many Protestants actually practice infant baptism, and discuss the importance of voluntary consent in adult baptism. We get to explore the background Jewish practices and ideas of consecration, purification...

Happy Thanksgiving! We could have easily done an entire episode about the benefits of gratitude, but we chose to spare you. Instead, we're talking food! Stephen has a sneaking feeling lately that our whole world is about being able to acquire and enjoy food, so naturally we get pulled into thoughts on food drives and church driven charity. Mentioned in the episode:  Ishmael by Daniel Quinn Follow...

Will a church that doesn't evolve with modern technology survive? Certainly some have and some haven't. So Josh leads us in a discussion of tech, the metaverse church of the future, and the humble website. Emily talks about her experience in church leadership with certain apps and platforms, including voting at the UMC General Conference. And Stephen shares some insider knowledge having once been...

Keller‘s Couch is a mixture of talk show vibes and improv comedy. Episodes include interviews and ridiculous, witty, lame jokes. Tune in every couple weeks for new episodes! Learn more and subscribe by visiting us at highline.network/shows/kellerscouch ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

STARTER PACK: Meet Me At The Hot Topic Emily dives straight into what may be our culture's most controversial subjects! We discuss how we were raised to think about abortions and the shortcomings of polarized arguments that often talk past each other. We ravel out the meaning of "pro-life" and attempt to untangle the thin basis for theology among these debates. Mentioned in the episode:  Who Lives...

Stephen brings a classic word study on the idea of "submission". First, in the context of marriage, we discuss the outsized impact a simple phrase like "wives submit to your husbands" has on the culture in gender roles and divisions of labor. Then we discuss church authority! And tune in for an embarrassing story of teenage Stephen talking back to his mom! Mentioned in the episode:  Ephesians 5:21...

In anticipation of the spooky holiday, we thought we could talk about magic! Why were Christians so scared of D&D, ACDC played backwards, or Harry Potter in the times of "satanic panic"? What is there to fear? Why are we terrified by what some call black magic while some of us believe in miracles and other God sanctioned supernatural events? Mentioned in the episode:  Harry Potter Series by J....

Of course, from guilt, we have to talk about grace! Emily leads us through a discussion on grace, it's unmerited nature, and how it might just be another word for love. We get to talk about Paul's vested interested in grace as a concept and how grace may be the New Testament word for what the Hebrew bible calls "mercy". Mentioned in the episode:  Methodist Book of Discipline on Grace Acts 9 - Paul...

STARTER PACK: I Need Something Life-Giving Feeling the sting of a guilty conscience for talking too much, Stephen wonders where guilt comes from and what we can do with it? How does shame factor in? What about repentance? Is guilt a psychological feeling we evolved through socialization or is it the Holy Spirit identifying where we are breaking a moral code? Mentioned in the episode:  Romans 3:23...

STARTER PACK: The Apologists Can't Hurt You Here We cast lots to choose a topic today, since Josh is so full of ideas, he didn't know which one to select! The fates had in mind a conversation about faith and the interplay with reason and rationality. We discuss our shifting among the colors in spiral dynamics, the relevance of reason in the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, and Kierkegaard's "leap of faith"...

STARTER PACK: We Clearly Disagree Emily gets us back in to the swing of things by asking the question, "do animals go to heaven?" Which of course draws us into conversation about the afterlife, being consistent in our theologies, and whether Harambe is in heaven looking down on us with love. We ravel out the "purpose" we or animals will have in heaven, the puzzling reality of carnivorous creatures...

Dixie Lee Henning discusses the wins and losses of translating beloved fictional books into movies. Covering major plot points, subtle character development, popular fan theories, and what you might have missed if you've only seen the film. Learn more and subscribe by visiting us at highline.network/shows/authorsintent ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

After a 2 month maternity leave from the podcast, Pastor Emily is back! We recorded this episode in the library of Emily's church and in person for the first time ever! Josh and Stephen reflect on the past 8 episodes of guests. Emily comes with a report on her wonderful baby and brings notes to debrief about the episodes we made without her! Mentioned in the episode:  Setting the Table by Danny Me...

We are concluding our guest host series with Stephen's partner, the "Reverend" Dixie Lee Henning! Having experienced a confusing series to fertility struggles throughout her life and two miscarriages with Stephen, Dixie wonders why our culture in the church and at large don't talk much about it. This is an emotionally hardhitting episode with high highs and low lows. Grace and peace. Connect with...

STARTER PACK: Press F To Doubt Rounding out the crew from the IN2 Podcast, Alex Falcongrove joins Ravel to ask the question, "What do we do with the mad that we feel?" After we tip the scales from Christian to Agnostic, what do we do with the baggage we were taught to carry? Connect with Alex on Twitter and Instagram ! Follow the IN2 Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and on Instagram and Twi...

Rounding out the crew from the Whiskey Bench podcast, Kat Dwyer joins Ravel to discuss her spiritual journey from being raised Catholic in church and private schools, moving from that context to the very Protestant Calvary Chapel, and now how she is thinking about her relationship to her faith and the church. Connect with Kat on Twitter: @KatJDwyer ! Follow the Whiskey Bench wherever you listen to...

Another guest host from the IN2 podcast, Kevin comes on to talk about separating the "spiritual" from the "religious". We dig into the ubiquity of spiritual experience available to us from sports, concerts, and communities and how it's problematic for the church to claim a monopoly on spiritual experience. At the very least, churches should be honest about the manipulation used on Sunday mornings...

STARTER PACK: Press F To Doubt Continuing our guest host series, Tracie Falconburg joins us to talk about being in relationship with those embarking on a deconstruction journey. Tracie shares the story of when her marriage felt threatened by evolving beliefs in her husband and how they overcame doubt in their relationship by choosing to grow together no matter what. We discuss the fear and risk in...

STARTER PACK: The Apologists Can't Hurt You Here "Pops" comes from the IN2 Podcast ready to talk about all things science. We dig into the philosophy of faith and science, listening to God's creation as a mode of learning truth, the evolution of our species, the new meaning for the "Fall" in the Garden of Eden, the inspiration of inerrant Scripture, and much more! Follow the IN2 Podcast wherever y...

Stephen Torna joins Ravel to discuss the parallels between American politics and American Christianity. We attempt to diagnose the aligning of "progressive" or "conservative" Christians with their respective modern political parties and dream about what it would be like for faithful people to break out of that binary. With his own interests in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Torna brings a unique p...

We kick off our guest host series with Katie Falcongrove! She brings a question about our youth group experiences and we discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly. We get into the fun games we played (and some gross games!), the way groups were separated by age and gender, the use of metaphors in purity culture, and our complicated feelings about our leaders. We also make an attempt to build our per...

STARTER PACK: Meet Me At The Hot Topic In today's episode and Emily's final taping before maternity leave, she brings a wide-ranging discussion on capital punishment. We ravel out many thoughts on the nature of justice and the Foucaultian concepts of the monastic cell in our modern culture. We ask questions about whether we are choosing to follow the model of Jesus or the Bible itself when they ap...

Josh is curious to find where culture and religion overlap and intersect. Is at "at large" somewhere or does the venn diagram lie within every individual? We try to define culture as the atmosphere between two or more people and look to identify markers of unhealth that could poison an otherwise healthy culture. And we ask if it's possibly to humbly share that which matters most to you without an...

 Stephen attempts to pitch clever names for the phenomenon of theology taking root and bearing fruit. The "head theology to heart theology pipeline; the "orthodoxy to orthopraxy" pipeline; the "apologetics to mysticism" pipeline. We explore the dualism between the head and heart in our culture and discuss what it means to be in a spiritually "dry season". Mentioned in the episode:  Pipeline Tweet...

Today we attempt to ravel out the ties among spirituality, mental health, and demonic influence. Where can we draw the line between psychologizing something spiritual and spiritualizing something psychological? What are the markers we can look at for true demonic influence? We then wrap up on discussing healthy self-care and our favorite practices. Mentioned in the episode:  The Happiness Lab: PJ...