The Magnificast

You know we love books, so this week we're reading Leonardo Boff's Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor and talking about liberation theology, ecology, the poor as a protagonist class, and more!  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Support The Magnificast on Patreon*  http://patreon.c...

This week on the podcast we're continuing our theme of talking about money and economics in the context of the Bible. This time, we're talking about Jubilee and what it means to do that work in 2022! We mentioned a lot of cool stuff in the podcast, so here are some links!  Get the Geez Magazine Jubilee issue here: https://geezmagazine.org/magazine/issue/geez-63 Find out more about the Committee fo...

Hey folks, our episode for this week is a bit late, so we're one from the archives that we know you'll like! In this episode, we talk with Daniel Saunders about his new essay on commodity fetishism and Christianity. You can find his essay here: https://danielsaunders.blog/2021/04/16/ideology-fetishism-apophaticism-marxist-criticism-and-christianity/ Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by...

This week on the show, we're talking about a really neat book called Revolutionary Forgiveness: Feminist Reflections on Nicaragua by the Amanecida Collective. The book is a reflection on 13 theologians who took a number of trips to Nicaragua in the early 80's. The book highlights a lot of interesting interactions between Christianity and politics during the Nicaraguan Revolution.  Find the book he...

Last week, we talked about the Beatitudes and how to take them seriously means you can't really be a capitalist. Yet, many right-wing Christians do read the Beatitudes and other admonitions of wealth and still find ways to be capitalists. In this episode, we talk about the hermeneutic process of ignoring wealth as a problem in the bible. Here are the articles we dunked on: https://www.acton.org/pu...

Have you ever read the bible? Dang, there's a lot of stuff in there. But, in the gospels, we get some really good words straight from Jesus that people call the "Beatitudes." The beatitudes are a sermon the Jesus preaches that tells you exactly where and with who God's priority lay. This week we talk about the Beatitudes and some of the things liberation theologians have said about them.  Intro Mu...

Earlier this week, Dave Ramsey and many other right-wing Christians were musing about whether the markets were moral. Don't listen to them! Listen to us. We unpack Dave Ramsey's bad takes about being a landlord and the economy and give our own good take.  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technifi...

Theology? Yeah, it's boring. Liberation theology? It's DANGEROUS--well, at least according to the CIA! This week we take a look at a few right wing documents from the 1980's that recognize that liberation theology was a possible threat to US hegemony. 

Ho ho ho, it's Christmas time! This week, we're taking it a little bit easy with a Christmas party. In this episode, we dial it back and answer some hot reddit questions and we talk about current events! We hope you have a good Christmas! 

The final week of advent is all about love! As we're heading into Christmas, we talk through Christian love as a political idea. Let's go!  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Support The Magnificast on Patreon*  http://patreon.com/themagnificast  *Get Magnificast Merch*  https://w...

We've got the joy joy joy joy down in our hearts...Well, we're trying our best. It's the Joy week of advent and we're talking through how to be joyful at the end of the world.  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Support The Magnificast on Patreon*  http://patreon.com/themagnificas...

Alright folks, it's the second week of advent and now we're thinking about peace. In this episode, we consider peace as a political idea and talk through some of the big picture stuff about pacifism and violence. Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Support The Magnificast on Patreo...

It's not Christmas yet! It's Advent! Advent is the time where we're getting in the spirit of Christmas and getting our brains right before the birth of Jesus. Advent is 4 weeks long and traditionally has weekly themes (Hope–Peace–Joy–Love.). For this Advent, we're just following along with the themes of the liturgical calendar and talking about hope!  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music...

When it comes to activism, people are always talking about human rights, but what are these things anyway? In this episode, we get into the political philosophy discourse around rights. In the episode, we talk about What's Wrong with Rights? Social Movements, Law and Liberal Imaginations by Radha D'Souza (https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745335414/whats-wrong-with-rights/), Marx's Critique of the Go...

Yesterday, we went to a solidarity protest downtown Toronto to show solidarity with the land defenders in Wet'suwet'en territory. There’s a lot going on in that situation, but the gist of it is that Coastal Gas Link is trying to run a pipeline through their territory without the consent of the indigenous people there. This past week, the people resisting the pipeline evicted Coastal Gas Link and g...

When it comes to Christianity and politics everyone loves to talk about the "political imaginary." This week we're going to talk through the political imaginary and what it's all about! To do that, we read a really fascinating article called Bhima Koregaon and the “Powers of the Other Shore by Saroj Giri you can read the article here: https://monthlyreview.org/2021/10/01/bhima-koregaon-and-the-pow...

This past week, Qanon believers from across the US gathered in Dallas TX to witness the return of JFK Jr. That's wild, right? But what's even wilder is that Qanon is a thoroughly Christian movement! Last week we talked a bit about the Christian right rehabilitating itself, but this week we're talking about what they're trying to rehabilitate themselves from.  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outr...

Woke culture, critical race theory, postmodernism, Christians have a history of locating struggles in culture rather than politics! In this episode, we talk through the culture war as it's presented in Peter Wehner's The Evangelical Church is Beaking Apart. ( https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/evangelical-trump-christians-politics/620469/) Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro mus...

In this episode, we talk through Pope Francis' recent address to popular movements. As it turns out, the Pope is good and we're here to tell you about it. Also, it's really hard to make sense of anything of this without socialist politics. Read the Pope's address here: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/pont-messages/2021/documents/20211016-videomessaggio-movimentipopolari.html I...

Liberation theology isn't just a thing that happened in the 60's and 70's. Many of the folks involved in liberation theology are still around and publishing, but their voices are strangely missing from contemporary conversations around Latin American politics. In this episode, we get a little cranky about the lack of coverage around liberation theology and talk about why it matters.  Intro Music b...

It's the spookiest time of the year! So, we're going to put a pause on all of the politics talk and direct our attention toward some fun and spooky stories about saintly apparitions and think a little bit about death!  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Support The Magnificast on...

We've spent a lot of time trying to figure out some of the politics around evangelicalism, but we've never really talked through the exvangelical response to evangelicalism. In this episode, we work through deconstruction, evangelicalism, and some of the weird cultural artifacts that emerge around it.  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.b...

Just a week ago, we passed the 20th anniversary of 9/11. To mark the occasion the worship leader and failed Republican politician Sean Feucht, of Bethel Church fame, held an event at the national mall in DC. The event was part of his “let us worship” tour that has been taking place around the country to protest COVID restrictions on churches. Notably, Donald Trump joined the rally through a pretty...

Hey, isn't debt as an idea and as an economic reality pretty messed up? It is. In this episode, we talk about debt in Christianity and economics and how both ideas intersect and break our brains.  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Support The Magnificast on Patreon*  http://patre...

Christian universities have a long history of creating the institutional levers and buttons by which they can harass and discriminate against their LGBTQ+ students. But, that's not the end of the story! A new project is engaging with these universities and organizing LGBTQ+ students on their campuses to start fighting back! This week, we talked with Erin Green, an organizer, with REAP (Religious E...