When is a podcast a podcast and when is it a conversation?

Sam Harrelson on October 23, 2015

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Thomas Whitley and I are really enjoying doing this podcast… we missed last week’s episode and it felt (to me) like a big part of my week wasn’t complete. As I said on another podcast that had me on as a guest today, we don’t really think of Thinking Religion as a podcast as much as it is a conversation we’d be having anyway. Thomas and I are just letting you be voyeuristic and listen to a little snippet of that much longer weekly chat (our chats routinely go 2-3 hours, so this 45 mins or hour of a produced show is one conscious part of that).

It’s probably why we don’t have guests on as well.

Anyway, it’s a good listen (I think):

Download available here

My Sermon from Emmanuel Baptist Today

Sam Harrelson on October 18, 2015

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Here’s my sermon from this morning at Emmanuel Baptist Fellowship in Lexington, SC entitled “You Don’t Know How to Serve.”

Download here.

The basic idea is that Mark 10:35-45 is not about sin or atonement, but about subverting hierarchies.

Why are churches struggling in 2015? Because churches are supporting the systems that Jesus attempted to break down. In that paradigm, churchers aren’t needed, churches are bitter, and churches don’t matter.

More resources on this theological topic from Brothers Kris and Willie:

Funky Little Emmanuel

Sam Harrelson on October 14, 2015

Will Emmanuel ever be a megachurch? No. It’s not a splashy place that is known for its rock band or stage settings or theatrical services. There’s no “Shine Jesus Shine” here. It’s not “easy” and it gets into your soul in ways that you don’t understand at first. Going to Emmanuel on just Christmas morning and Easter is impossible.

Instead, Emmanuel is a strange and wonderful little church. I use that term deliberately.  It’s a group of dedicated people from across socio-economic status, genders, colors, sexual orientations, political perspectives, religious theologies etc and it’s a place that changes who you are and how you think about God (whether you believe in a god or not).

Most of all, it’s a place where people pull up their socks, roll up their sleeves, and get to work doing what needs to be done.

The Apostle Paul would have been proud. I know I am. Now back to work.

“And that’s when Merianna Harrelson’s phone started blowing up. “I had church members calling to say ‘what are we going to do to help?’” said Harrelson, pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Lexington, S.C. “There was one woman who was taking on water at her home, and she was asking how she could help.”’

Source: S.C. churches stepping up to help flood victims | Baptist News Global

Americans Don’t Understand What it Means to Be Pastoral

Sam Harrelson on September 22, 2015

We too easily understand the differences between “conservative” and “progressive” but our churches have taught us very little about what being “pastoral” actually means…

“Americans are often tempted to read Francis as a “progressive” pope who has tossed out the conservative playbook of Church leaders past. After all, he’s thrown down scathing critiques of global capitalism, pushed for radical reform on climate change, and shifted the Church’s tone on issues like homosexuality, divorce, and abortion. So as pundits map his views, many conclude that he’s pushing the church into uncharted territory. But as a 15th-century Vatican cartographer might have put it: hic sunt dracones.”

Source: When Does Pope Francis Arrive in the United States, Washington, D.C., New York, and Philadelphia? – The Atlantic

Essential reading as Pope Francis lands in the United States today to begin his tour of the country.

On Invoking Galileo and Columbus in Your Arguments

Sam Harrelson on September 22, 2015

“If you are arguing against climate change, vaccines, evolution, etc. you do not get to invoke Galileo because in any accurate analogy, you are the religious fanatics (or the astronomers who blindly clung to Aristotle).”

Source: No one thought that Galileo was crazy, and everyone in Columbus’s day knew that the earth was round | The Logic of Science

If only I had a dime for every time I’ve encountered the “Yeah? Well, everyone thought Columbus was nuts too!” or “Yeah? Well, Galileo was right despite what all the scientists of his day said!” in a conversation.

Margaret Atwood: Double-Plus Unfree

Sam Harrelson on September 18, 2015

Though our digital technologies have made life super-convenient for us – just tap and it’s yours, whatever it is – maybe it’s time for us to recapture some of the territory we’ve ceded. Time to pull the blinds, exclude the snoops, recapture the notion of privacy. Go offline.

Any volunteers? Right. I thought not. It won’t be easy.

Source: Margaret Atwood: we are double-plus unfree | Books | The Guardian

Part of my daily tension as someone who loves my whirring gadgets and gizmos and on demand lifestyle-thru-technology.

Now you can donate to a political candidate through a tweet. Why aren’t churches using this?

Sam Harrelson on September 15, 2015

We’ve teamed up with Square to enable anyone in the US to make a donation directly to a US candidate through a Tweet, starting today. This is the fastest, easiest way to make an online donation, and the most effective way for campaigns to execute tailored digital fundraising, in real time, on the platform where Americans are already talking about the 2016 election and the issues they are passionate about.

Source: Political donations, now through a Tweet | Twitter Blogs

I wonder if this will get any coverage during tomorrow night’s Republican Presidential Debate?

Regardless, you can also send me money at my “cashtag” if you’d like to test the system: $samharrelson.

But seriously… why don’t more churches and non-profits use this??

 

U.S. Poverty Shifts Since 1960

Sam Harrelson on September 10, 2015

“Since President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the War on Poverty 50 years ago, the characteristics of the nation’s poor have changed: A larger share of poor Americans today are in their prime working years and fewer are elderly. In addition, those in poverty are disproportionately children and people of any age who are black, Hispanic or both.

But perhaps just as striking is that the geographic distribution of the poor has changed dramatically, too. A new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data finds that the South continues to be home to many of America’s poor, though to a lesser degree than a half-century ago. In 1960, half (49%) of impoverished Americans lived in the South. By 2010, that share had dropped to 41%.”

Source: How the geography of U.S. poverty has shifted since 1960 | Pew Research Center