Snarky Faith

The role of leadership within the church shouldn't be a controversial topic (or require a penis). If we followed the ways of Christ, leadership would look more like service. Yet, over 2000 years of church history seems to indicate Christianity has its priorities messed up. From the patriarchy devaluing and crushing women in the church to congregations that worship their pastor as a celebrity, the...

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." -Ferris Buller Slowing down is not easy. It almost seems antithetical to the way life moves. In culture, we're told to do more, be more, and achieve more. When do we find time to rest? It's even worse when it comes to faith. Religion tells us we're not enough and often guilts us into more busi...

Much breath has been spent on this show talking about the intersection between politics and religion. Typically, when mentioned it's in the negative and is a perversion of the faith for the sake of power. Think the Moral Majority or anything MAGA for perfect examples of that. Too often, as progressives, do we play it conservative in this regard because we don't want to want our faith to trample on...

"It’s just death and resurrection, over and over again, day after day, as God reaches down into our deepest graves and with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead wrests us from our pride, our apathy, our fear, our prejudice, our anger, our hurt, and our despair." -Rachel Held Evans Standing in the aftermath of Easter, it's easy to be cynical as we look at what the church has become. Jesus...

This is not the Easter episode you expected, but it may be the episode that you need to hear. Here we are again at Jesus's annual coming-out party and the American church is still clueless as to why Easter should matter. It's not a Sunday morning extravaganza or the Super Bowl of Christianity. It's also isn't merely another High Holy Day on the liturgical calendar either. Christianity has gone thr...

Prolific author, teacher, podcaster, Keith Giles joins us today to talk about reading scripture correctly, atonement theory, and his new book, Jesus Unforsaken. The book challenges many assumptions was it asks the essential question, "what if Jesus didn't die to save us from God?" Jesus Unforsaken is an essential read. I thoroughly enjoyed it, devouring it over two days. In the book, Giles takes a...

"The very sight of God causes delight. At the sight of God the mind can do nothing but delight."  ~ Thomas Aquinas Most days, I'm mired in the push and pull of life and I don't think I know what the sight of God looks like. It's easy to get busy. It's easy to get tired. It's easy to get distracted. Then, before you know it, you're miles down the road but felt like you were asleep at the...

While conservatives are having a cancel-culture-fever-dream over Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato Head, and whatever else they're faking outrage over, insidious things are happening on the state level of government. This is why we need to talk about H.R. 1. and why it's important for all Americans - especially ones that claim to the Christian faith. With all this talk of canceling, there are many GOP-control...

Preacher's Kid by Semler, whose artist name is Grace Baldridge, hit No. 1 on Tuesday (Feb. 9) in Apple's iTunes store. It marked the first time an LGBTQ+ artist has topped the album sales in Christian music.  Preacher's Kid isn't your typical worship album. It carries a parental advisory for explicit lyrics and speaks openly and rawly about Baldridge's evolving faith since her youth. For me, it wa...

Another week, another public sex scandal for the Christian church. With the posthumous news of Ravi Zacharias being a predatory creep and rapist, we see another pastor with a platform fall. For a group that claims to have the truth, they don't know how to deal with sex. It's easy to blame celebrity culture on the powerful failing publicly, but I believe that's cheating to distract from the real pr...

Join me today as I talk with the director, Rocky Roggio, about her upcoming film 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted a Culture. 1946 is a new documentary that investigates how the word “homosexual” was incorrectly entered into the Bible, and the grave consequences it had on religion, culture, politics, and the LGBTQIA+ community over the last century. The documentary explores exactly what ignite...

“Some of us believe that God is All-Power and can do all, and that God is All-Wisdom and knows how to do all. But that God is All-Love and wants to love all, here we restrain ourselves. And this ignorance hinders most of God's lovers, and I see it...” - Julian of Norwich Too often do we play fast and loose when we talk of love. I love baseball. I love pizza. Or we think about love in an unrealisti...

“What’s translated as ‘charity’ in the Bible is ‘agape,’ which literally means love... We do have a responsibility to help the poor and those in need. That means taking care of them yourself—giving money yourself, giving your time, your efforts, not someone else’s.” - Michael Tanner Welcome to our 300th episode of Snarky Faith! Thanks so much for being a part of this ride! In today's show, I'll re...

“A cult is a religion with no political power." - Tom Wolfe In a post-Christian, post-Trump world, how does one talk about Jesus? Living in a society in which a large swath of the population believes in an alternative reality is challenging. It feels like the cults had exited the shadows and entered into the mainstream. With the drumbeats of QAnon muted in the backdrop, America needs to take a lon...

“Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.” - Not Saint Francis of Assisi, but still a great quote   In a post-Christian post-Trump world, how does one talk about Jesus? It seems impossible, especially when Christianity has become synonymous with nationalism, hate, bigotry, and misogyny. So, I am here to call an audible and declare that Christian witness in America is dead, or may...

Join me as I sit down with author Brian Zhand and filmmakers David and Kathi Peters about their upcoming documentary, Postcards from Babylon . Postcards From Babylon is a documentary featuring author and pastor Brian Zahnd as he investigates possibly the most important question for the church in North America today, a church often characterized by Christian Nationalism:  How does the church stay f...

Right now, you'd assume that American Christianity is shameless based upon how much they've bent and contorted their beliefs and morals to encapsulate their love of Donald Trump. For a group that acts shameless, they sure peddle in guilt and shame on a Sunday to Sunday basis.  For far too long, has shame been used control structure to keep congregants in the pews complacent and coming back each we...

2020's been wild year for all the wrong reasons, but I am thankful to have you along for the ride. This week, here's the most listened to episode of the year. Enjoy and I look forward to more snark in 2021! Cults and conspiracy theories are both founded on lies, but they also play heavily against people's fears and insecurities. You could say that cult leaders use misinformation and paranoia to ma...

Hurting people ask heart-felt questions about God and suffering. Some "answers" they receive appeal to mystery: “God’s ways are not our ways”. Some answers say God allows evil for a greater purpose. Some say evil is God's punishment. The usual answers fail. They don't support the truth God loves everyone all the time.  God Can't  gives a believable answer to why a good and powerful God doesn't pre...

Keith Giles was formerly a pastor who walked away from organized church over a decade ago to start a home fellowship that gave away 100% of the offering to the poor in the community. Today he is the author of the best-selling “Jesus Un” series of books, including "Jesus Unexpected; Ending The End Time to Become the Second Coming" which is available now on Amazon. He’s also a host on the Heretic Ha...

This week's episode is a call to action, as we tell the story of Muhammad Kamran. I hope that you will listen and join us to help save him and his family. Muhammad was an interpreter in Afghanistan for U.S. troops and the War on Terror for over ten years, but, now, he's been in hiding for six years in Pakistan after he and his family fled Afghanistan for their lives. They are still trying to find...

On the show, I spend plenty of time mocking and making fun of modern "prophets." They're typically unhinged and typically wrong. Very rarely, though, do people keep receipts on them and their past prognostications. I'm a fair person, and turnabout is fair play, so today's show will be able predictions and thoughts from back in 2015. From the Snarky Faith archives, I've dug out an old show with me...

Screw off. Piss off. This is not going to be a show about being thankful. 2020 is not the year for Thanksgiving. And even after the election, the prospect of spending time with reality-denying family members does not seem like holiday cheer. Am I wrong? After the election, I've heard the call to embrace the other side and welcome them back to reality. That's not how redemption works. While the con...

For too long have people given the so-called prophets of modern Christianity a free pass. It's far time that we look at the biblical model of prophets and call a holy bullshit on Christianity today. In the wake of the U.S. presidential election, multitudes of prophets have been proven wrong. They have only spoken nonsense and sold it as orthodoxy. I don't know about you, but selling lies as the wo...

Today, we rejoice as a dark period of America is over. The orange stain on history has been vanquished, and the world is all set right again. It's time to sing kumbaya and live in a utopia! I'm only kidding. Yes, Trump has lost, and we rejoice in that, but the real work remains. How do you clean up four years of mess? Well, first, we celebrate the moment. Then, we, we look towards the future and b...