Weird Religion

We give in-the-moment commentary on a surprising spoken word track on Lana del Rey’s new album. The material is delivered by the famous and hip Churchome pastor Judah Smith. With Lana del Rey cooing in the background. Some deep moments, some weird moments. Roomful of Teeth, “Pasacaglia”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LlE41gvNcw&list=PLEwLYWjsY88Wj84zSQ0dkiFgFjJpIG4Y2   Jennifer Garner’...

It’s the end of the semester, which means it’s time for a chance hallway encounter that leads to a strange memory and then to reflections on the theological meaning of the proliferation of the codex (i.e., our modern physical book form). Matchbox Twenty, “Downfall” (2002): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aQWA_fAu8M Walmart, “Bible Highlighters and Pens”: https://www.walmart.com/c/kp/bible-highlig...

The paperclipsalypse has arrived, as AI comes to destroy or save the world. Was AI there all along and we just now “discovered” its weird and eternal life? The “paperclip maximizer” thought experiment: https://nickbostrom.com/ethics/ai   Eliezar Yudkowsky in TIME magazine, “Shut it Down”: https://time.com/6266923/ai-eliezer-yudkowsky-open-letter-not-enough/   Scott Aaronson, Shtetl-Optim...

Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News. To solemnly mark the end of this reporting dynasty, we rebroadcast one of our TOP 10 most popular Weird Religion episodes of all time: The 2020 election and inauguration came and went, leaving the predictions of the QAnon prophets…hanging in the air. What happens to a religious movement when its key prophecies fail to come true in real time? Are adherents disappo...

Leah and Brian try the no-dunking challenge to talk about some weirdly religious videos by William Tapley, AKA “The Third Eagle of the Apocalypse.” First up: The Eagle uncovers Satanic messages in Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.” Then, other things are REVEALED. William Tapley, AKA “The Third Eagle of the Apocalypse” in YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thirdeaglebooks   Some background on...

A rebroadcast of one of the top five most popular Weird Religion episodes of all time: on the embattled former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes and her attempt to create—or rather, fake having created—a futuristic blood-testing system. We end up having a gender smackdown conversation about women-on-women violence in the workplace, discussing ancient female fertility figurines and matriarchal societie...

You’re flipping through the channels. On your old cable TV. You see Raiders of the Lost Ark or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade playing on a random channel. It’s in the middle of the movie. Do you select and watch? You do and you know it. Here we invoke a major debate over Dr. Elsa Schneider’s motives in the climactic grail-choosing scene, and daydream about the contents of a new book on Indiana...

When you put religion on TV, you have to get religion consultants. Why even bother being accurate? Does Jesus look at someone to be healed with compassion—or anger? We end with a conversation about the term “minoritized” (vs. “minority”). Review of Brian’s appearance on a Travel Channel show debunking a Phoenician inscription: https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/review-of-america-unearthed-s04e05-p...

This is possibly the weirdest religious moment of the year so far: Buried within a legal brief about an election fraud scandal are the contents of an email someone sent to Sidney Powell, one of Trump’s lawyers, in 2020. The email makes claims about how someone might receive information about a stolen election. Those claims are surprising. The Dominion Voting Systems vs. Fox News defamation suit: h...

Moses sings a song that takes us…deep into the problem of Christian nationalism. Come for the most secretly controversial passage in the Bible; stay for Leah trying to be a therapist for Brian on the problem of hating Christian nationalism but fearing that we need it for social cohesion. And a scholarly theory on the evolution from polytheism to monotheism in ancient Israel. Deuteronomy ch. 32: so...

Here witness the thematic collision between a dustup over a now-deleted Gospel Coalition article about sex and a new Christian dating site for men and women who want to be in what they think are biblically-traditional relationships. The Gospel Coalition’s apology for the article / book excerpt, “Sex Won’t Save You–But it Points to the One Who Will”: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sex-w...

Despite not being known fundamentalist or evangelical influencer royalty, Brian scored an invitation to the 2023 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. We discuss the sights, sounds, beliefs, dress code, costs, content, scandal, and music of the event. Was Brian inducted into The Family? We reveal. Axios article on the new Prayer Breakfast format: https://www.axios.com/2023/01/29/national-pr...

In February of 2023 students at Asbury University—a Christian college in Kentucky—started a revival, which has gone on for weeks (the “public” phase of the revival ended around Feb. 19th). Professional revival seekers flocked in to participate. We explain what a “revival” is and talk about how observers are thinking about the pros and cons of spiritual revival on this particular college campus. Fo...

An epic thematic bombardment: Living again with Scientology, the fall of man and the curse reversed by avocados, the Black National Anthem, erasing your mistakes on the new Google phone, and Rihanna Live again…with Scientology: https://www.scientology.tv/you-can-live-again/?utm_content=LiveAgain&utm_source=redirect Adam and Eve and the avocado reverses the curse: https://www.si.com/extra-musta...

Who are “the Nephilim,” you ask, and why did they create the Federal Reserve? We are so glad you asked and we’re going to tell you—by way of reviewing a most ambiguous Bible story and tracing some of the surprising ways this story is being received today. Genesis 6:1–4 (NRSVue): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+6%3A1-4&version=NRSVUE Numbers 13:31–33: https://www.biblegatew...

We take a dive into a strange corner of YouTube, featuring videos purporting to show hitherto unknown or under-appreciated evidence that giant humans lived in the past and their bones have been hidden or covered up by the Smithsonian. Pew Research on YouTube: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/ Heidi Campbell, researcher on digital religion: http...

Does voting count as a religious act—especially if you go behind a curtain to do it? We discuss a candidate’s wife recently declaring that she and her husband “love Israel more than a lot of Jews do,” and the authoritative, beguiling voice of the possibly-once-Buddhist Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. Civil Religion: http://www.robertbellah.com/articles_5.htm   Oregon Mail Voting: h...

Veering wildly between reflections on death and bodies in the contemporary world, jokes about professional wrestling, ambulances passing by, rumination on how ancient people thought about burial and the afterlife, and with a major and free idea for others for a publication (hint: where do people who attend megachurches get buried?)—this is what you need for Halloween. Or any time. We’re back for t...

Happy summer to everyone! We’ll be back in the fall of 2022 regularly, and possibly with a one-off here or there before then. Stay cool weirdos. https://www.weirdreligion.com/ https://www.instagram.com/weirdreligionpodcast/ https://twitter.com/weirdreligion https://facebook.com/weirdreligion If you’d be so kind as to leave us a review on Apple podcasts, we’d love that. Thank you!

In late 2021, the soap opera Days of Our Lives revived its most iconic and beloved and controversial storyline: the possession of Marlena, aka the Mardevil. We review, with memories of childhood summers, wild Days plotlines, a debate in the comment section, and a sociological theory of possession. Highlights from the 1994–1995 Mardevil plot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOhSYgDMLmw   John...

When you need a compelling authority figure character on TV or movie screen, you get a priest—or a professor. We reveal four of our favorite professors on screen, and chat with a special guest whose scholarly speciality is analyzing the way professors are depicted in movies. Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR7Kh77aNnU David Duchovny )as himself) and Ji-Yoon...

It’s time for a news round up: Come to hear about AI coming to life, as a child; stay to hear about the Army’s new recruitment video with ghost and witch vibes. Stay longer for the Mithradites of Fond du Lac, Disney religion, and the apocalypse happening on TV on the dystopian show “Masked Singer.” Google engineer thinks AI came to life: https://twitter.com/tomgara/status/1535716256585859073?s=21&...

Few things can rile the Christian faithful like a new Bible translation (see, e.g., John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, etc.). The scholarly and ecumenical translation of choice, the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), got a haircut of sorts; it’s called the NRSVue (ue = “updated edition”). We give a review. Resources mentioned in this episode: NRSVue in full on Bible Gateway: https://www.biblegateway....

Brian has a confession that will shock the world of the News Roundup. Leah offers absolution. Give us a shout on Twitter if you finished this ep and we will celebrate you. STORIES DISCUSSED (yes actually) Mythical root axe: https://www.npr.org/2022/05/13/1098545920/kansas-man-finds-ax-tree-root-handle-reddit-thor   Far Right American Christians converting to Orthodoxy: https://www.npr.org/202...

This week, we tell the strange tale, via Twitter thread, of a man who brings his childhood imaginary friend back to life…through AI. The friend happens to be a microwave, who is also a WWI veteran. What could go wrong? (So many things.) Lucas Rizzotto’s Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/_LucasRizzotto/status/1516205625662836739   The video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1G5b_2PYj...