The Weight

We are excited to welcome Barbara Brown Taylor to The Weight for a conversation about hospitality and being in the center and being at the edge of a religion--how is it different when you’re the outsider versus when you’re on the inside? How do you let people who believe in something completely different strengthen your own faith? Barbara leaned into these lessons when she taught a Religion 101 cl...

Shownotes: God is not afraid of our exhaustion, grief, and pain. Honest prayers of lament draw us into deeper connection with God and help us cultivate a greater awareness of our needs. As a culture, however, we have withdrawn into numbing habits of distraction. Even the Church often serves as a place of escape rather than a comfortable place to bring our burdens. Where does God meet us in the emp...

Shownotes: According to a Gallup poll released in March of 2021, less than half of Americans belong to a church, mosque, or synagogue. The politicization of evangelical Christianity has resulted in utter disillusionment, specifically among young Christians who were once eagerly committed to the ideals of the faith. Christians and non-Christians alike are longing for truth and openness in conversat...

Shownotes: Among 19-20 year olds, only 1% do not have social media accounts. This statistic emphasizes the ever-growing presence that social media and technology have in our day-to-day lives. While this comes with its advantages, it’s also important to consider the dangers of such constant connection and how to create wise boundaries that help us live a “tech-wise” life. How can controlled usage o...

Shownotes: Chris is joined by contemporary artist Makoto Fujimura, author of Art + Faith: A Theology of Making. His book explores the role of creativity in the spiritual life, and it draws upon quiet disciplines such as awareness and waiting. The meditative space that Fujimura creates for prayer and praise breaks open new avenues to seek the never-ending depths of God’s beauty and grace. Sophistic...

Shownotes: Abortion is a multi-faceted, multi-layered issue that the church often fails to engage with the depth and compassion it requires. Regardless of one’s position on this issue, the stories of those who have struggled with this impossible decision have been discounted in the midst of political fervor. Poverty forces many vulnerable, marginalized women to grapple with the decision to have an...

Shownotes: When we’re struck by unexpected suffering, we ask question after question attempting to find meaning in the midst of our pain. We wonder why this diagnosis, disaster, or death had to happen to us or someone we love. We wonder if God is really good. We wonder if it’s possible to live within our reality and still have hope, joy, and peace. Though these questions are important, our human n...

Chris and Eddie are joined by Aimee Nezhukumatahil, author of Barnes and Noble’s 2020 Book of the Year, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments. Whimsical and introspective, this book inspires the reader to look to the natural world for guidance, curiosity, and delight. Aimee’s work has been integrated into high school, college, and university curriculum as...

Shownotes: When it comes to racial reconciliation, the church is quick to educate its congregants about the power of forgiveness. Pastors often jump to the solution without acknowledging the full extent of the problem. What do we do when we’re enraged by the things we’ve seen or experienced? How do we make a conscious, faithful choice to practice Christianity even when it seems harder than we can...

Shownotes: Christians spend a lot of time talking about what is true or exploring goodness, but we do not spend as much time exploring beauty, aesthetics, and the arts. In a world full of content curated to our specific taste, we need more time and space to fill our souls with the kind of art that breaks open our curiosity and makes us come alive. Where does God meet us in the beauty of our imagin...

Once again, Eddie and Chris are joined by Cal Turner Jr, the former chairman and CEO of Dollar General, a chain of stores founded by his father Cal Turner Sr.  Cal earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Vanderbilt University in 1962 then joined the Dollar General corporation in 1965. His first job was sweeping the warehouse floor, but he worked his way up to being president in 1977 and then chair...

Show Notes: In part one of a two-part conversation, Eddie and Chris are joined by Cal Turner Jr. Cal was the chairman and CEO of Dollar General, a chain of stores founded by his father Cal Turner Sr.  Cal earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Vanderbilt University in 1962 then joined the Dollar General corporation in 1965. His first job was sweeping the warehouse floor, but he worked his way up...

Dr. Brett McCarty joins Chris (no Eddie this week)  in a conversation about the intersection of faith and healthcare, specifically as it relates to the opioid crisis in the US. Dr. McCarty is a theological ethicist from Duke University, where he is the associate director of the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative at Duke Divinity School. He has written essays in  The Journal of Medicine and...

Show Notes: In this episode, Eddie and Chris are joined by Melissa Maher, Lead Pastor at Mercy Street in Houston, Texas. Mercy Street is a sister church to Chapelwood United Methodist Church in Houston and began out of a ministry of love. Mercy Street seeks to create a safe harbor of hope and transformation so all may experience the radical grace of God. Put more simply (and boldly at mercystreet....

Today’s guest is Dr. Michael Battle, an Episcopal moral theologian whose work centers around the spirituality, life, and work of Archbishop Desomd Tutu of South Africa. Dr. Battle discusses his most recent work, Desmond Tutu: A Spiritual Biography of South Africa’s Confessor , and touches on how Archbishop Tutu saw forgiveness, reconciliation, and the work of the Holy Spirit in the world. Dr. Batt...

Show Notes: Today we are joined by Dr. Derwin Gray, Lead Pastor and Co-Founder of Transformation Church in Indian Land, South Carolina. Dr. Gray played professional football in the NFL following his graduation from Brigham Young University in 1993. After his NFL career, Dr. Gray graduated magna cum laude from Southern Evangelical Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree. He received an honorary d...

Shownotes: In this Holy Week episode, Chris and Eddie are joined by Kavin Rowe, author of Christianity’s Surprise: A Sure and Certain Hope. After 20 years of scriptural immersion as the George Washington Ivey Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School, Rowe began to discern the growing significance of Christianity’s groundbreaking impact when it first entered the world. His b...

Show Notes: What does it take to imagine a world without war? How do we begin to believe that as a possibility? Eddie and Chris begin a series on war with guest Stanley Hauerwas, noted theologian and ethicist. Dr. Hauerwas asks us to contemplate the hard questions of war and nonviolence, but he knows the answers don’t come easily. Dr. Hauerwas is a long-time professor at Duke Divinity School and D...

Show Notes: In the final episode of our series on consequences, Eddie and Chris welcome Susan Bradley and Bob Norman, two members of Oxford University United Methodist Church who have extensive experience in the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi--the opposite side from our previous guest, Merrill Nordstrom. Susan grew up in Meridian, Mississippi, and received her underg...

In today’s episode, Chris and Eddie continue the discussion of justice and mercy with Federal Public Defender Merrill Nordstrom. Merrill is a lifelong member of Oxford University United Methodist Church, the church Eddie and Chris currently serve. She graduated from the University of Mississippi Law School in 2002, and worked as a public defender for Lafayette County until 2019, when she joined th...

The death penalty is a controversial topic, especially for Christians--people who see the reign of God as one of forgivenss, restorative justice, and mercy. How do we reconcile ending someone’s life with the all-encompassing grace and love of Jesus Christ? Today’s guest, Dr. Jenny McBride, talks us through those conflicting concepts. Jenny is Associate Dean and Associate Professor at McCormick The...

Eddie and Chris revisit the conversation on  social innovation with Greg Jones. Greg is the President of Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and is an author, speaker, minister, and the former Dean of Duke Divinity School. The theme of his appointment at Belmont is “Let Hope Abound,” and he is using that theme to create an ecumenical, Christ-centered culture for the flourishing of all peop...

Eddie and Chris continue the conversation around deconstruction with Sarah Heath. If the name sounds familiar, she was one of our very first guests, way back in Season 1.  Sarah is a United Methodist clergywoman who is going through her own season of deconstruction and trying to figure out how, exactly, to do that as a pastor--how to navigate the difficulty of being a person and a pastor who is go...

In this episode of our series on deconstruction, guest Dave Stovall explains what deconstruction means to him: examining your faith, studying scripture, and pulling out all the parts that aren’t Biblically sound--the parts of faith that come to us from popular culture, from our families, from our friends--and then building your faith back up on a much stronger foundation. It’s less about starting...

How do we deal with seasons of doubt? How do we wrestle with the big questions of suffering and pain within the context of God’s never-ending love and come out with a firmer spiritual foundation and a stronger sense of God’s grace and work in our lives? Can we even admit our doubt, and if so, is it productive to our lives as Christians? In this episode, Eddie and Chris are joined by Dominic Done,...