What In God's Name

Wonder and awe. It’s the season.   Today on the show we take an appreciative look at wonder: what does it look like, what does it feel like, and how does the psycho-spiritual stance or attitude of wonder help equip us to be better participants in social life?   What In God’s Name continues to celebrate being one year old! We give thanks to you, our loyal, thoughtful, caring, and supportive listene...

Is Donald Trump evil? What In God’s Name has, to this point, steered clear of directly addressing questions that arise from the character and leadership of our president. Today, we bring the tools of moral theology, in order to enter into a deeper consideration of the meaning of this presidency. Shayna begins with a consideration of the creative power of words; we pivot to corrupt uses of words, e...

Happy Thanksgiving! Today we consider what it means to give thanks, and the spiritual ramifications of a posture of gratitude. George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation also helps us see where we are, by being a landmark from where we’ve come. What In God’s Name celebrates being one year old today! We give thanks to you, our loyal, thoughtful, caring, and supportive listeners. Our fall fo...

Part Two, today, of our conversation with Randy Mayer, who leads a humanitarian relief ministry to migrants coming across the border in the desert area of Arizona. His church is The Good Shepherd, UCC, in the Santa Cruz valley not far from Mexico. Listen to Part One of our conversation with Randy, on the show released last week on November 14, 2019. Our fall focus on increasing our listenership wa...

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding DACA, the Obama-era policy that defers action on the deportation of young people who were brought to this country unlawfully as children. Keeping with this theme of border and immigration issues, today on What In God’s Name we talk to Randy Mayer, who leads a humanitarian relief ministry to migrants coming across the border in the dese...

Today’s takeaway: Narcissism sucks! And other deep thoughts about excessive self-love in our culture today. Our fall focus on increasing our listenership was a success: thanks to you, our listenership is up 40% since last spring, and 60% from where we started in Season One. We are a small show, and we are growing. We believe we are offering something valuable to the public conversation, and our gr...

What do our cultural practices around Halloween tell us about who we are? Is Halloween just another way for us to become numb, or do our Halloween practices contain kernels of unfulfilled desire for deeper living, and lives that matter? Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you t...

Bonds of affection in American democracy: did Walt Whitman have insights into what will make American democracy work into the future, or is he hopelessly out of touch with the modern world? Shayna and Chris discuss Whitman’s theology, his vision of the human being, and his vision of human connectedness within the context of American self-governance. Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. W...

While this installment of What In God’s Name was recorded before Atatiana Jefferson was shot by a Fort Worth police officer in her home, Shayna and Chris are talking about systemic racism this week, as part of their reflections on the similar case of Botham Jean, and his murder at the hand of Amber Guyger. Brandt Jean (Botham’s brother) spoke words of forgiveness to Amber Guyger at her sentencing....

What In God’s Name has a conversation with Mark Koyama, Tina O’Neil, Sarah Ellis, and Mona Brooks of the United Church of Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Our conversation: their community’s religiously anchored response to the number of Americans killed by gun violence in 2019. In this second part of our conversation, visual artist Mona Brooks talks about the physical, tactile dimension of this project an...

What In God’s Name has a conversation with Mark Koyama, Tina O’Neil, Sarah Ellis, and Mona Brooks of the United Church of Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Our conversation: their community’s religiously anchored response to the number of Americans killed by gun violence in 2019. Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your fav...

Hurrah! Shayna is back, and gets to have a say about the recently enacted climate strike, while Chris asks questions about the place of human beings on the planet: where do we fit? Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you think is interested in a different way of understanding w...

Shayna needs to miss a second show, but will be returning next week. Chris considers the practice of journalism in America today, in preparation for the What In God’s Name interview with Jeff MacDonald, coming up in October. Here at What In God’s Name we are realists about truth, not relativists: truth has an independent existence apart from any one individual’s perceptions (for example, people te...

Feeling the side effects of chemo-therapy, Shayna has to miss today’s show, so Chris flies solo in a show that asks the essential question: If you don’t think that climate change is an emergency, does that make you a climate denier?  Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you thin...

To begin Season Two, Chris and Shayna go to a Trump rally to talk with people in line waiting to get in. Our questions: What makes America great? What attracts you to a Trump rally? Our fall focus is increasing our listenership. We need your help: please consider sending an email with a link to one of your favorite WIGN shows, to someone you think is interested in a different way of understanding...

In this summer “in-between” seasons show, Chris invites Shayna into a deeper consideration of “culture,” and the observation attributed to Andrew Breitbart that “politics is downstream of culture.”  We also tease some upcoming fall shows: a collaboration with the Harvard Interfaith Forum, and an interview with journalist and minister Jeff MacDonald, who covered the Boston Marathon bomber trial for...

We recorded this show before the most recent mass shooting in El Paso. That murderous violence, part of a pattern of white nationalist violence in our recent (and not-so-recent) past, underscores the What In God’s Name conversation about What powers are currently at work in the American spirit? What values do we believe in? How can a sense of the Transcendent (in both non-religious and religious c...

When bad things happen, where is God? Is God dishing out punishment? These questions arise as Shayna shares her news that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer and will be undergoing treatment over the summer. How do we manage when life gets difficult? How well does our culture do, in times of difficulty? What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political an...

The Doctrine of Discovery (1493) was a papal bull authorizing Christian conquest of non-Christian lands. Could this 15th-century Roman Catholic document be influencing how we in the industrial and post-industrial West are treating the world and nature’s goods? A recent report from the United Nations working group IPBES on biodiversity is the occasion for these theological reflections. What In God’...

Franklin Foer’s article in the March 2019 Atlantic Monthly “How Kleptocracy Came to America” provides the jumping off point for today’s show. You don’t need to read the article to understand today’s show, but if you’re curious, here is the link: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/how-kleptocracy-came-to-america/580471/ What elements of American culture over the last quarter centu...

Andrew Breitbart famously, and correctly, said that politics is downstream of culture. Today, Shayna and Chris evaluate fear’s role in our culture, and how a culture of fear produces a politics of fear. What In God’s Name approaches current events and culture not from a partisan political angle, not from a money/economics angle, not from a techno-scientific angle, but from a theological and philos...

Is it possible to reflect theologically on the Mueller report into Russian interference in the 2016 election? You be the judge. We start with the Mueller report, and then take an excursion to the meaning of moral decline and renewal in the current American context. Be in touch. Our email: whatingods@ribeye-media.com Learn more. Our website: www.whatingods.com Our Instagram page, curated with philo...

Today’s show: the phoenix rises from her own ashes, after being consumed in fire. Using the phoenix as paradigmatic, we talk about Notre Dame, the opioid disaster, and the coming of spring to the Northern Hemisphere. For those of you who have taken time to write a review for What In God’s Name on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, or Spotify), or also on Facebook: thanks so much. Your reviews help us be...

Our conversation with Dan Andrus, fire chief of Concord, the capital of New Hampshire, touches on PTSD in first responders, depression and suicide. Here is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ The Lifeline phone number is: 1-800-273-8255. Also, in part one of our conversation, Dan mentions 3 firefighters who have faced the life-draining forces of...

Our conversation with Dan Andrus, fire chief of Concord, the capital of New Hampshire, touches on PTSD in first responders, depression and suicide. Here is the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ The Lifeline phone number is: 1-800-273-8255. Also, in part one of our conversation, Dan mentions 3 firefighters who have faced the life-draining forces of...