the Wikkid podcast

Is spirituality really about finally winning, or surrendering, a battle with one's self?

How are you going to hope if you don't want to have a long, hard look at something things that could do with fixing?

In which I argue that faith isn't a blind guess, nor it is wishing, and that indoctrination is something others do, for their own benefit, and not yours, to force the appearance of faith when it isn't occurring. Tom Wadsworth's views on "worship" are gone into a bit.

Now on YouTube! This season will mainly involve me summing up my current positions on some of the primarily philosophical, theological and doctrinal ideas tossed around in previous seasons. If you'd like to have your voice heard in upcoming episodes of the podcast, either literally, or with me reading your comments, hit me up at WikkidPersonAtGmailDotCom.

Subtractive virtue. Trying to live The Good Life by removing things from yours.

Drums recorded in shipping containers. Jonathan Haidt says we're 90% chimps and 10% bees. Laws and rules as weaponized disgust responses. Being a different person with an entirely different set of values, priorities and ethics when part of a group, as opposed to as a private individual. The Doctrine of Separation. Taught overtly or only by example, does your group live as if other Christians are i...

In the penultimate episode: People like blaming young people for stuff, and young people sometimes blame themselves. (For parents divorcing, family vehicles needing repair, and church splits.) Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition, and The New King James Revised Standard Amplified Message Version. Geoff literally causes a division before age 20. Church communities as great buckets for hid...

In this antepenultimate episode: "Canada Bill" Jones and why he played a poker game he knew was crooked. Have you ever attended a church that openly preached that their group was the only right one, or at least the rightest one by far in the area? (Or did they just live like this was the case?) In Brethren circles, non-membership has its privileges. Sports and poker metaphors. Teaching people they...

This week, the Wikkid Podcast gets NSFW (Not Safe For A Worship Service). Kristian Kitsch. Kristian Krap so crappy you can't decide whether you're too Christian or too cool to own it. Heathen spatulas. Should there be Christian Archie comics? What would a Christian version of The Archies band play like, Sugar, Sugar? Growing up with that sacred/secular line. A discussion of two paintings, on an au...

Sometimes, in a lot of church flocks, certain sheep just... vanish, never to be seen again. And sometimes people are kind of glad, especially if they are boring, annoying or discontented sheep. And sometimes that sheep is you. Additional Musicians George Turcotte: drums Troy Tuttle: additional rhythm guitar

Trying to get to know the Unknowable a bit without claiming to know all the right answers. Growing up with an all-inclusive Universal Belief Package, you tend to walk around acting like you have all of the right thinking about anything much that matters much. Especially eternal stuff. Some of us were champions at that. This is about the process of repenting of unearned certainty of this kind. Addi...

Reaching some conclusions about worship. Realizing that, given how different various people's preferences are as to worship styles, and how opinionated they are as to what they like, I had no idea what God might or might not like. If worship is for his benefit rather than our own, then surely everything's not equally good? (He didn't much like Cain's bloodless, vegan sacrifice, did he?) Can worshi...

Why can't we just get along? Ecclesiastical war. Is all the dividedness actually worse than putting up with some guy you believe is wrong about something? Did the apostles foresee streets lined with unaffiliated churches that have little or nothing to do with one another? Additional Musicians George Turcotte: drums Troy Tuttle: additional rhythm guitars Bill Ranger: bass guitar and backing vocals

A song presenting the unpopular idea that perhaps, all too often, church attendance is more about making much of Christians rather than much of God. Working on mixing a drum kit without it blasting the whole mix full of low midrange mud. All the different musical approaches to a single religious song. Should the worship team try to outdo Lady Gaga? The vegan, bloodless sacrifice of Cain. The idea...

The pre-episode for the upcoming Season 5, which will deal primarily with troubles connecting to church and worship services, and also with church splits/divisions. A bunch of backlogged thought and life updates.

In the last, partly ChatGPT-scripted episode of season 4 of The Wikkid Podcast, and perhaps the last episode of the pod: Can one be happy, even when living alone without a bunch of bratty kids asking for money? Hatewatching nerd properties. Cats and car woes. Doubt. Animals who may pee on your stuff. How weird can you get, living alone in the woods? Additional Musicians Tyler King: bass guitar Tha...

In this penultimate episode of Season 4, we address the longing, but often the folly, of wanting to get back in touch with someone, a relationship with whom is demonstrably going nowhere fast. Going back for afters? Some folks are so determined to keep reaching back out, that restraining orders are required. Trying to leave a rough recording of an old song mostly the way it was to begin with, for...

Mid-life crises. Car troubles. Painter's tape as a guitar-playing aid. I can't quit you: Relationships with people who aren't over their ex. Betweeness. What hath God promised? Gloomy, doomy piano chords. Additional Musicians Evan Sauve: drums

Do our beliefs choose us, rather than the other way around? Doubt. People dumping you and getting right on with their lives like you never existed. Trying not to be superstitious as to one's belief in God. Car woes. From the darkness of future past: The return of Joel. Additional Musicians Evan Sauve: drums

Telling people at work you're fine when you're really not. Me and Bruce Lee. Cats might be love from God when your Kung Fu and your church upbringing aren't working out for you. How not to read the bible. A song with a whole bunch of eff words in the middle, but nary a corrupt communication in sight. Additional Musicians Evan Sauve: drums

Some stuff in your life really didn't work out. So you have to wonder: did it have to be this way? Did people and groups help make it that way? Why does God let crappy things happen to sad people? What does He have to say for Himself, if anything? Susan Isaacs tells her "Central Park" story from her book Angry Conversations With God . Michael talks about what happens when you try to date people th...

The Wikkid Podcast adds more cowbell and gets friendzoned this week. That is to say, it explores that experience of having grown very close with someone, a romantic relationship seeming to you to be starting out well, and suddenly being told you should be "just friends" instead. And then, instead of that meaning "sod off and leave me alone," it means you're around to provide the usual shoulder to...

"I love you just the way you are. You're beautiful inside and out. Now... I was wondering if you'd mind changing a few things? I have a list." Dealbreakers vs. negotiables. More home drum recording. Church fashion doesn't fly in all venues. Looking for a fixer-upper? Additional Musicians Evan Sauve: drums

This Wikkid Wednesday, we take a serious look at humour. Teasing: key relationship tool or a terribly dangerous thing to play with? The therapeutic powers of The Doctor Demento Show. Humour as shot of whiskey. Food sensitivities and emotional sensitivities. Additional Musicians Evan Sauve: drums

A short one. Silliness and sour grapes. "Treat 'em mean to keep 'em keen"? Clockwork lupines. Do people really want what they tell Cosmopolitan they want in a relationship? George adds a lot to this song. Basing expectations for men on 80s sit-com dads. Being good at stuff men aren't supposed to be good at. Do nice guys finish? Additional Musicians George Turcotte: drums, banjo, bass guitar