Ethicist, David Gushee, says we are seeing the emergence of a new kind of loveless Christianity. But those who practice it say their anger, culture warring, and pursuit of power are actually how they’re loving their neighbors. Then, Skye talks to actor Rainn Wilson, best known as Dwight Schrute from “The Office,” about religious pluralism, spiritual narcissism, why Hollywood misrepresents Christians, and how he became a follower of the Baha’i faith. Wilson’s new book is “Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution.” Also this week—A.I. has rewritten Genesis to be vegan-friendly, and does God really hate yoga pants?
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Our full discussion on yoga pants
0.00 - Intro
2:33 - Theme Song
2:55 - Sponsor: Faithful Counseling
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4:03 - A Vegan Bible
15:23 - Yoga Pants & Christian Modesty
25:37 - Christianity without Love
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43:14 - Interview Intro
48:26 - Rainn’s journey to becoming Baha’i
53:30 - Why people are shifting away from religion
1:02:43 - Avoiding “self-help” spirituality
1:08:35 - How can people of different faiths work together
1:22:55 - End Credits
Links mentioned in news segment:
PETA Rewrites the Bible With ChatGPT: ‘A Loving God Would Never Endorse Exploitation’
‘Women’s leggings are too revealing’: Men of the Christian right deem yoga pants too scandalous to wear outside
Christianity without love
Other resources:
Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution by Rainn Wilson
The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity by Skye Jethani
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I appreciated the conversation between Rainn and Skye. Skye always does a good job reading books before interviewing authors and then taking the time to come up with good questions & discussion points based on that. It seems like the two of them really hit it off, and I hope they do end up doing a panel or service project or something together like Rainn suggested.
'Be unapologetic about your faith' wow. That's amazing to hear esp from someone who's not even a Christian!
And I loved 'let your heart burn in loving-kindness for everyone who comes across your path'. Wonderful stuff.
After listening to your most recent podcast and hearing the part about the Vegan Bible, I felt compelled to comment. Yes, what PETA did was wrong and is only making Christians less likely to go vegan BUT how can you not agree that factory farming is indeed animal exploitation/cruelty which is 99% of the farmed animals? We were called as Christians to have dominion over animals and I don’t think God is too thrilled seeing how we are currently ruling over them. And also to address Skye’s point about animals eating other animals: yes, that’s true but we as humans have a conscious which is something other animals do not have. Why should we eat meat/dairy because of the pleasure…
Here is another instance of us overcomplicating simple things.
Contrary to what some (referenced in the Loveless Christians article) might suggest or openly espouse, love does not equal hate. Love does not look like hate. Love does not sound like hate.
Christ was endowed with perfect knowledge of people's circumstances and motivations and was uniquely capable of judgment, and yet He loved and loved and loved, without seeking to humiliate or dominate wretches like us.
So, to answer your question, is "anger, culture warring, and pursuit of power... actually... loving [our] neighbors"? No, it's not.
Fantastic episode! I appreciate the alternative for Patreon subscribers to skip the commercials, but it's more difficult to listen through Patreon.