The Mockingcast

Sarah, RJ and Dave talk football , motivation and self-improvement before consulting the NY Times on what suffering people really want. Also, Sarah airs her distaste for the term "Cradle Episcopalian" .

After not-so-humbly bragging about themselves, RJ, Sarah and Dave dive into the Aziz Ansari / #MeToo headlines, which leads into a discussion of their favorite atonement models. Also, RJ sings highlights from The Little Mermaid.

Sitting in for vacationing RJ this week, Dr. Todd Brewer joins David and Sarah to talk about the top theology book(s) of 2017, as well as hopes and fears for the new year. Together they try to answer the question, "what is church for?" Please note: we had some technical issues on this episode, which sadly made a good portion of Todd's track unusable - he had a lot of wonderful things to say!

In our second episode after the hiatus, RJ, Sarah & Dave talk about Persistent Pirates, U2, Facebook Guilt, Exercise Cults, and Christmas. To read the review of U2's new record, click here . To watch/listen to Chamath Palihapitiya's interview about the fallout of social media, click here .[Minutes 20-30 are the most relevant.] To read Zan Romanoff's article about The Consumerist Church of Fitn...

Our first "proper" episode in eight months(!), David and Sarah are joined by new co-host RJ Heijmen, as they talk Disneyland, church types, sexual harassment, male libido, Advent, and the difference between justice and revenge. Click here to read the McSweeney's list. Click here to read Stephen Marche's article about Male Libido (and David's commentary on it. Click here to read Abby Farson Pratt's...

Delivered at the 2017 American Academy of Religion conference (AARSBL) in Boston, MA on Nov. 19, 2017.

Delivered November 19th, 2017 at All Souls Anglican Church in Wheaton, IL.

Delivered on October 15th, 2017 at All Souls Anglican Church in Wheaton, IL.

Closing question and answer session on Saturday afternoon, October 28th, 2017, with four of the speakers at our "500 Years of Grace" event All Saints Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase, MD.

David addresses the crowd on Saturday morning, October 28th, 2017, at our "500 Years of Grace" event All Saints Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase, MD.

Daryl addresses the crowd on Saturday morning, October 28th, 2017, at our "500 Years of Grace" event All Saints Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase, MD. ( www.daryldavis.com )

Sarah addresses the crowd on Saturday morning, October 28th, 2017, at our "500 Years of Grace" event All Saints Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase, MD.

Jacob addresses the crowd on Saturday morning, October 28th, 2017, at our "500 Years of Grace" event All Saints Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase, MD.

Adam opens the second day (October 28, 2017) of our "500 Years of Grace" event All Saints Episcopal Church in Chevy Chase, MD.

Nick opens Mockingbird's "500 Years of Grace" Event in DC.

Drew discusses how Christ keeps our feet moving.

Most people will recognize Stephen King’s It as the one about the killer clown. Which it is. But at 1100 pages, it has to be more than that, you know? In his dedication King writes: “Fiction is the truth inside the lie”—which, I’ll admit, I still don’t fully get—but that’s nevertheless a good place to begin investigating one of It’s running themes: extracting the truth from the lies, particularly...

At last year’s NY Conference we mined deep, but there’s a ton more to share. In this breakout, we will continue to explore the world of obscure Christian funk and electronic music from yesteryear. We will learn about why early Christian hip-hop floundered so after its inception (hint: the reason is theological). And we’ll remember how radical it is to introduce a Moog into your worship band, in 19...

The time for the most wondrous conference – the Mockingbird NYC spring conference – has rolled around again, and the powers-that-be have condescended to let me come and do a breakout session! I’m going to talk about a book I’ve been writing for 3 years now called “The Word of the Cross.” I’m very excited about this material! The Cross is our Solution? The Corinthian church was a mess. There were d...

Perhaps the most basic piece of information about the Christian faith — so basic that in the West it is more assumed than taught, even to the unchurched — is that there is one God. We don’t have to think much about this. When somebody says they are religious, we assume that they believe in one God and not many. People might ask, “Do you believe in God?” or say, “I don’t believe in God,” but the qu...

“The Academy” is a term used by both insiders and outsiders to speak about the world of biblical scholarship. It is a term meant to ascribe prestige and importance to one’s profession and life work. To be a card-carrying member of “the guild” – to use another term of esteem – is to be part of an elite club of professionals trapped by the perpetual need to justify their significance. But to most pe...

Kendall Jenner once said, “The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” Just kidding! It was Maya Angelou who said that. But now that I have your attention, do you agree? Because I’ve had to give this topic A LOT of thought lately. My family was recently uprooted from Atlanta to Sydney, Australia because #grace, and the fallout has been…a b...

This breakout is entitled “The Reformation Today” because “Is the Reformation Over?” has already been taken by everyone writing at First Things or The Gospel Coalition. Also, because at Mockingbird we believe the answer to that question is a resounding “NO.” In order to make my pitch, I believe the shake up at the burger chain Carl’s Jr and Hardee’s has a lot to to say. For seventeen years, Carl’s...

According to the Pew Research Center (see here and here), over half of American adults who were sampled (59%) believe that, in general, science is often in conflict with religion. But “conflict” is only one way of seeing how science and religion might relate. Other possibilities include “independent”, “competition”, “dialogue”, “discussion”, “engagement”, “partnership”, “collaboration”, among othe...

Nietzsche said that he would only believe in a “God who dances.” As Mockingbird devotees, and survivors of three marriages, Debbie and I have come to believe in a dancing God. Yet, this view of God only came after years, many years, in which we didn’t. A romantic courtship, with breathless excitement and anticipation of an American-dream marriage, quickly turned into a marriage of unmet expectatio...