Snarky Faith

With the recent move of the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, many evangelical leaders are hailing this as a major victory for the Christian faith and President Trump. Before they begin to bask in the afterglow of their own self-congratulations, bigger questions remain. What has this move actually accomplished? What about the Palestinian Christians? Has scripture been fulfilled? Will Jesus retu...

This week, we'll sit down with Josh Naaman, the author, host and sole creator of the podcast The Belief Books . Beliefs inform our actions and Josh believes that analyzing these beliefs helps progress humanity leading us to interact with each other and the Earth in more positive ways. With this project, Josh seeks to talk about and explore beliefs through conversations with people from a wide spec...

This week, we'll break down Trump's executive order on religious liberty and why it's a bad idea for America and Christianity. Evangelicals rejoice every time orders or legislation like this are signed. If they actually understood the fundamental issue with proclamations like these, they would realize that they are very un-Jesus-y. They are damaging to the focus of the Christian faith and also sul...

The legacy of Evangelicalism is pretty grim. With the culmination and climax of their pursuits in the man and character of Donald Trump, any amount of spiritual or ethical morality has been long evaporated. Their quest for power has come with many costs, the most paramount being the erosion of congregations across America. Evangelicalism is a cancer to Christianity. When it comes to cancer, it mus...

This week, we'll hold the mirror up to American Christianity letting its followers have a look at the monster they have created in the name of Jesus. We'll take a scattershot approach delving into the Christian news media and letting their own pressing articles and news to inform us about the most important issues within the faith. We'll skewer through their hypocrisy. When you take a look at Chri...

Christianity’s obsession with the ‘end times’ is nothing new. From Tim LaHaye to Jim Bakker, it's rapture porn at its finest. This eschatological obsession abdicates its followers from actively engaging in the world around them. It’s a spiritual Brexit of sorts, where we look to the heavens and ignore the problems here on Earth. This theological strand makes a faith that brandishes itself with a p...

With all that is crazy and ugly in American Christianity, there is always hope. After all, Jesus didn't come to start a new religion or jumpstart an old one. He wasn't into nationalism or populism. He was never about getting rich or powerful. Jesus came to give us a different way to engage with the world, a new set of Kingdom-minded ethics that will always be in conflict with the prevailing empire...

Easter is now weeks passed. The annual pep rally for Jesus is now a fading memory. It's a sad state of the church when Christianity has become a spectator sport where the faithful are now just really consumers. With most churches in America investing countless hours and funds to put on a self-serving benefit concert in the name of Jesus, what are they actually left with? In the wake of Resurrectio...

Gaslighting happens when you don't expect it; that's why it works so well. We've become accustomed to hearing phrases like "alternative facts" from the White House, but this type of manipulation happens every day, even in churches. With the recent scandal at Willow Creek and countless others, we've seen powerful men, systematic coverups, and smear campaigns that seek to quiet the accusers. It does...

America has a history of using faith to justify a whole host of sins. Topping that list is racism. It's our country's original sin. With that being said, how can Conservatives idealize America as a country founded on Christian values? Jesus certainly wasn't a racist, so why do so many of his followers still cling to hatred and bigotry? It just doesn't make sense. A majority of American Christianit...

There is a toxic culture swirling around American Christianity. No, not that one. No, not that one either. Okay, fine. There’s a myriad of toxic issues with Christianity in America, and today we're going to delve into the cult of Christian celebrity. It’s one of those silent faith-killers that most engage in but never realize it is happening. In the shallow end, it’s simply idolatry, but if we go...

Christian film has gotten a bad rap. Too often do we overlook the quality of faith-based films. I’m just kidding. This isn’t that kind of show. This week we are joined by Brian Skutle, a film critic at Sonic Cinema, and we talk through all of the ways that Christian films suck. These films make the critical mistake of putting the message over the medium as they sermonize their way through the cell...

Kirt E. Lewis is ex-military, an ex-pastor, an advocate and an author recovering evangelicalism. Aren't we all? Join us as we talk about his journey in and out of evangelical Christianity. We’ll discuss the problems with toxic and misguided Christianity and Donald Trump's America as well. Krit has background working with Wold Relief in refugee resettlement in California. He has a heart for the imm...

Another mass shooting, another day in America. This is becoming all too common. The shooting in Parkland, Florida is just a symptom of a larger problem plaguing America. This week we’ll talk about the tone-deaf response from many Christians and the NRA funded enablers in Congress. This isn’t the world our children deserve, but unless we make a change, it’s the one they will inherit. We mourn the l...

This week, we sit down with author, Chris Kratzer. Chris was a pastor for 22 years before he had enough of the hypocrisy and bigotry in the church. He completely walked away from ministry and almost everything Christian, yet he couldn't shake his love of Jesus. His message of grace may be in line with orthodox Christianity but not so much with evangelicalism. Captured by the pure Gospel of God’s l...

It’s no surprise that Evangelical Christians get labeled as anti-science and anti-thought. They’ve practically given themselves this label as a badge of honor. They reject science as an affront to their own religious beliefs and faith. They've learned to not think. Does it have to be that way? Today we’ll talk about two alarming trends within conservative Christianity: anti-vaccination and anti-cl...

Let’s talk (again) about American Christian hypocrisy. Yes, I know this is not a new topic for the show, but damn, damn, damn, is it applicable in terms of the religious right defending Trump on his new Stormy Daniels scandal. It’s always funny to see how faith can be so flexible when it comes to pushing forward your crooked agenda for power. So here's my new message to them: DON'T PREACH TO ME AN...

Let’s talk (again) about American Christian hypocrisy. Yes, I know this is not a new topic for the show, but damn, damn, damn, is it applicable in terms of the religious right defending Trump on his new Stormy Daniels scandal. From the likes of Franklin Graham to James Dobson, it’s an all-out defense of a degenerate and dimwitted President. Why would we see these so-called pillars of conservative...

With the rise of authoritarianism, nationalism, xenophobia, and bigotry in America, we are reminded of other similar tumultuous, dark times in recent history. From the systematic extermination of Jews in the holocaust to racial segregation and discrimination of African-Americans, let's return to the lives and divine works of Detrich Bonhoeffer and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Both men faced great op...

Let’s talk about what happens when you mix the American educational system with a snake oil sales(wo)man with a twisted sense of entitlement and a broken lens of faith. Betsy Devos has proved, thus far, to be a nightmare Secretary of Education. The problem lies in toxic religious ideology and how it frames the way people like Devos view the world. The Religious Right and their hateful emissaries a...

Good riddance 2017. With every new year, we are often filled with hope for new possibilities. So in this time of reflection, we must also be reminded of what brought us to this point of absolute Christian and political insanity in America. Before the year ended, we were handed a new ‘tax bill’ that seemed to only solidify Trump’s agenda that only the wealthy and corporations mattered. The rise of...

We made it. I'll be honest, I had my doubts. Looks like we finally made it out of 2017. It's been a rough ride, but we did it! Trump didn't get the best of us and now we're awake, aware and ready for what's next. Let's take a little look in the rearview mirror as we rewind through some of the snarkier highlights from this past year that include Trump at Trump Tower and our friend Christopher Malon...

Oh, Christmas. What have you become? We're told that there's a war over you. Others claim we can't be merry with you either. The sad fact of the matter is, you've been lost for quite some time. It was never about religious nostalga, black Fridays or a fat guy in a sleigh. It was supposed to be about the beginning of something new - a different way to engage the world around us; a different way to...

Let's talk about Christianity's misguided obsession with the nation-state of Israel. Much of this romantic, idealized crush comes from a very limited reading of scripture. To many conservatives, the idea of using context in the reading of holy texts is an affront to their cultural Christian bias. We can either relish in being uninformed and stay in our own echo chambers of faith or we can look to...

Things in life are rarely as simple as black and white. With the Christian faith,  we love to create easy binary viewpoints. It's either this or that. Things are either good or bad. It's one of Christianity's biggest blind spots because life is rarely that simple. Any theology that discounts the nuance of life, is probably bad theology. This week on the show, we have activist Logan Isaac discussin...