Sep 29, 2016
Cass interviews Pastor Stan Mitchell. His church is called GracePoint right here in the Nashville area, and he’s been a source of a lot of controversy in the last few years, not only in his embrace of LGBTQ congregants but an overall reformation of what it means to be Christian.
Stan started preaching in the Oneness Pentecostal vein at age 16. He didn’t have a skeptical thought toward his Christianity until his early 20s. We were colleagues at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Stan’s personal evolution has brought us today, the most honest version of himself he’s ever lived. He hasn’t lost his faith entirely, but he has lost his certainty. As with so many of the Christians interviewed on this podcast, they deconstruct theology and embrace science and reality to their best ability and find when the smoke clears that there remains a Jesus they can keep and honor and heed. This spectrum of how much of the old narrative is salvageable and redemptive is a recurring question in this movement, and while some of us have burned the whole house down, others find value in sifting through the rubble for keepsakes. Perhaps it’s sentimental; perhaps its comfortable. We don’t care as long as we’re stemming the tide of radical religious fundamentalism and its toxic effect on the survival of our species. At the end of Cass' talk with Stan, Bob and Cass discuss the conversation, and tag onto to the end a 21 minute excerpt from a Pete Holmes episode of “You Made it Weird” w/ guest Hasan Minhaj, a correspondent from the daily show. They discuss these very tensions of anti-theism versus a redemptive post-theism.
We taped these conversations on September 17th, 2016. We hope to encourage people in the process of deconstructing their faith and curb the loneliness that accompanies it. We think the world is a better place when more people live by sight, not by faith. Please subscribe to our podcast, give it 5 stars, and/or leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Our show is available on most podcast platforms. Also, you can support us monetarily in two easy ways: on a per episode basis through Patreon; that’s www.patreon.com/eapodcast, or leave a donation through PayPal at our website, www.everyonesagnostic.com.
Credits:
"Towering Mountain of Ignorance" intro by Hank Green https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3v3S82TuxU
Intro bumper "Never Know" by Jack Johnson
The segue music is by Sam Maher recorded on a handpan in the NY
subway.
Thanks for listening and be a yes-sayer to what is.
http://quillette.com/2016/09/23/is-the-new-atheism-movement-irrelevant/