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Host Steve Macias & Andrea Schwartz Description How Can We Keep from Singing? The post How Can We Keep from Singing? appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Host Steve Macias & Andrea Schwartz Description Can Bad Philosophy Produce Good Science? The post Can Bad Philosophy Produce Good Science? appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Host Steve Macias & Andrea Schwartz Description How Much Effort Should We Put in to Learning Opposing Views? The post How Much Effort Should We Put in to Learning Opposing Views? appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Host Steve Macias & Andrea Schwartz Description How Should Christians Defend Themselves? The post How Should Christians Defend Themselves? appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Host Russell Traweek Description In this episode, Russell Traweek addresses the Biblical Response to Tragic Circumstances as individuals before even attempt to address others as we look at Nehemiah 1.   The post How to Respond to Tragic Circumstances appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Host Steve Macias & Andrea Schwartz Description Should We Be Planning for Scarcity? The post Should We Be Planning for Scarcity? appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Host Russell Traweek Description Russell Traweek addresses in this podcast as to why some presuppositions made by some trusted pastors and ministries, although true, don’t matter when not properly applied. One can scream, “All Lives Matter” all day, but if you overlook the application when one life, or group is oppressed, then you have a dead faith.   The post Black Lives Matter and Why Some Presuppositions Don’t appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

How Should Christians Respond to Discussions of Racial Injustice? Hosts The Monstrous Crew Description In today’s episode, we had the privilege of sitting down with Shatoyia Bradley, a business owner, fashion designer, writer, editor, wife, and mother for a frank discussion about racism, her experience as a black woman in the church and in America, and loving our neighbors in the context of systemic injustice.  Listen Race and Black Theology Reading List: An Annotated Bibliography   Below is a list of books that I highly recommend. They aren’t listed in order of importance, however, “Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Eddie Glaude, would be a great start.  The typical set of caveats apply to this bibliography, like many others in its category, of course. Black thought is not a monolith; like any tradition, it is less a sustained echoing chorus, and more a long argument over time. Its diversity, breadth, and sophistication cannot be captured in a brief introductory bibliography like this one. The authors on this list have sustained disagreements with each other, and therefore it stands to reason that no reader will agree with the entirety of these texts. Yet we consider this list to be something of a bare minimum for serious discourse about the question of taking black experiences and contributions seriously in Christian theology and ethics. While it is unlikely that any treatment of the experiences of blacks in America will engage all of these sources, it is virtually unimaginable that any responsible treatment of those questions can proceed with reference to none of them. The education of several lifetimes can be accessed simply by consulting the bibliographies of the sources contained herein. The criteria for inclusion on this list are unsystematic and inexact, but we solicited suggestions from friends of Mere Orthodoxy for sources that are written by Christians, substantively address Christian involvement in black racial issues, or are of pressing significance that white Christians can overlook them only at great harm to the power of their own analysis and ignorance of the real issues. The commentary that follows each of these selections below is from these friends. We are grateful for and indebted to them for their suggestions. Omission of any important source from this list ought not necessarily be construed as a sleight against that source. We would be grateful for readers to suggest additional sources in the comments below. The Cambridge Companion to Black Theology An introductory handbook like this one is often an excellent place to start to understand the broad contours of a body of thought, and to find an accessible point for immersing oneself more fully in that tradition. The essays in this volume understand black theology as a global movement, not at all confined to the question of addressing racism in all of its varieties. J Kameron Carter, Race: A Theological Account Carter’s book is arguably the most significant theological account of race in existence. He embarks to treat race as its own properly theological concept and to show how the modern question of race “has its genesis in the theological problem of Christianity’s quest to sever itself from its Jewish roots.” The logic of supersessionism gives way to the logic of white supremacy. Christopher Cameron, To Plead Our Own Cause: African Americans in Massachusetts and the Making of the Antislavery Movement Cameron narrates a history of the contributions of blacks in Massachusetts to the antislavery cause before 1831. He shows how many of the strategies and tactics the later, better-known abolitionists (William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass) took up were indebted to the work of these earlier folks. He is likewise sensitive to the theological questions at play, especially for Phillis Wheatley and Lemuel Haynes. Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Between the World and Me” This book won the National Book Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Written in the form of a sustained letter to Coates’s son, the book is part coming-of-age story, part autobiography, part dystopia that is nevertheless reality. Coates has also written some of the most incisive commentary on racial affairs in America for The Atlantic. Three of those include The First White President, The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration, and The Case for Reparations. Last year he gave testimony at the House Hearing on Reparations (June 19, 2019). James Cone, Black Theology and Black Power and A Black Theology of Liberation If slavery, racism, segregation, and lynching are sins, then Christianity needs to have a way of overcoming them. This overcoming needs to both secure liberation for the oppressed and justification for the oppressors. In these two books, Cone gives a theological account of how this might be possible. Most controversially, and generatively: it requires a God who is with us and for us, specifically, for the oppressed. Thus: a God who is black. James Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree Lynching is the most violent and public instantiation of white supremacy and it is unfortunately still with us. The struggle with how to address it remains with us. Cone gives an excellent starting point. Charlie Dates, “The Most Segregated Hour in America“ This message was given by Charlie Dates at the MLK50 conference, a Christian conference held in 2018 on the occasion of the 50th annivserary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. It echoes MLK’s message to the “White moderate” with powerful and resounding relevance for today. He employs powerful theological concepts and the prophetic preaching tradition to call white Christians to repentance: to attend to systemic racism, to take steps to learn Black history and from Black leaders, to partner with Black churches to address racial inequality and undo centuries of oppression and discrimination. It is steeped in gospel richness and in loving rebukes, and it is a call the church must heed. Keri Day, Religious Resistance to Neoliberalism: Womanist and Black Feminist Perspectives Day has a sophisticated analysis of (1) the structure of neoliberal economics, (2) its underlying logic, and (3) the way this logic threatens to extend to all areas of our lives. Though she doesn’t reduce racial questions to economic ones, she has a compelling account of how they are connected. She then offers a bricolage of responses that involves weaving together resources in theology and political theology, white and black, male and female, but with a special focus on womanist authors. Katherine Gerbner, Christian Slavery: Conversion and Race in the Protestant Atlantic World Gerbner centers religion in her discussion of how racialized slavery developed in the Atlantic world. Christian slaveholders initially believed that slaves could not convert. Protestant missionaries insisted on the necessity of evangelizing slaves, which brought them into conflict with slaveholders. Race came to function as a very useful marker for the boundaries of slavery, religion a useful tool for managing slaves: blacks were marked as ideal candidates for slavery and conversion came to be seen as a way to make them loyal slaves. Eddie Glaude, Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul The central idea in Democracy in Black is that of the ‘value gap.’ Glaude identifies a disconnect between our expressed values of racial equality and the way in which our social practices and institutions reflect a commitment to inequality. Thus, despite civil rights efforts, race “still enslaves the American soul.” Glaude thinks that the right response to the value gap is a revolution that goes deeper than most have gone; right to the heart of American ideology: “American democracy has to be remade.” C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution The Haitian revolution was one of the most successful slave revolts in history. The Black Jacobins is a history of that revolution, told with a central focus on its leader, Toussaint L’Ouverture. James’s interest is very clearly in narrating a history that highlights the agency of the slave revolters. This is also a classic text in, and exemplar o,f Black Marxist historical analysis, weaving racial and economic analysis together without being reductionist about either. Worth reading alongside Oliver Cromwell Cox’s Caste, Class, and Race (which was written by a Christian and focuses on America, though it is perhaps one more reductionist about race) and/or Cornel West’s Prophesy Deliverance (also written by a Christian with a focus on America, and is not reductionist about race). Willie James Jennings, The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race Jennings argues here that “Chrisitanity in the Western world lives and moves within a diseased social imagination.” Racism is not, then, merely personal biases or even an errant political and social structure, but a sustained metaphysical distortion of the created world. Emmanuel Katangole, Born from Lament: The Theology and Politics of Hope in Africa, and The Sacrifice of Africa: A Political Theology for Africa Katangole is Professor of Theology and Peace Studies at Notre Dame, and also holds a joint affiliation with the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. His scholarship focuses on African theology, its religious leaders, and its movements, with particular attention to the interaction of lament and hope. Ibram X. Kendi, Stampe

Host Gordan Runyan Description Gordan Runyan exposes the foolishness of a congregation bowing to the demands of the State, on the basis of “rendering unto Caesar.   The post Local Pastor Renders Church to Caesar appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Hosts Jerri Lynn Ward & Roger Oliver Description “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:20 Mike Ware, Criminal Defense Attorney and Executive Director of The Innocence Project of Texas discusses the causes of false confessions and wrongful convictions in this episode of Justice in His Kingdom. The hosts, Roger Oliver and Jerri Lynn Ward put this in the context of God’s law and his requirements for justice. For more information about Mike Ware and The Innocence Project of Texas, visit InnocenceTexas.org and MikeWareLaw.com. The post The Innocent Cry Out: Mike Ware and the Innocence Project of Texas Take Up the Cause appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Host Steve Macias & Andrea Schwartz Description How Will We Fight the Battles That Lie Ahead in The Arena of Christian Education? The post How Will We Fight the Battles That Lie Ahead in The Arena of Christian Education? appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Host Steve Macias & Andrea Schwartz Description Can Fellowship Exist in Isolation? The post Can Fellowship Exist in Isolation? appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Host Jason Garwood Description A sermon on biblical, social justice.   The post Black Lives Matter appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Host Steve Macias & Andrea Schwartz Description Is it Biblical to be Patriotic? The post Is it Biblical to be Patriotic? appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Host Gordan Runyan Description Gordan Runyan answers a common question about why his congregation has continued to meet. It’s not because of the “usual suspects.” But at the end of the day, there really is a hill to die on.   The post Why Y’all Still Meeting? appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Host Steve Macias & Andrea Schwartz Description If The State Didn’t Provide Welfare,What Would Happen to the Poor The post If The State Didn’t Provide Welfare,What Would Happen to the Poor appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Spiritual Warfare 101 Hosts The Monstrous Crew Description The devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, as the Bible says. But what does this mean for Christians today, and more to the point, what (if anything) can we do about it? Cover some of the basics of spiritual warfare with Suzannah Rowntree in today’s episode! Listen Transcript Intro The devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, as the Bible says. But what does this mean for Christians today, and more to the point, what (if anything) can we do about it? Welcome to the Monstrous Regiment podcast. Today I’d love to spend some time discussing the subject of spiritual warfare.  Now, by spiritual warfare, I mean specifically the practices of intercessory prayer and verbal rebuke of demonic powers, together with some theological groundwork, since those are the specific areas I’m qualified to comment on. On the more extreme end of demonic activity, topics such as possession and exorcisdim are beyond the scope of this episode. However, I do want to start today’s scussion with an important disclaimer. Spiritual warfare is not simply about confronting demons. Long before we get to that, spiritual warfare is about walking in the Holy Spirit and not giving any ground to the devil in the first place. This is a practical matter of our daily walk in the Lord. It means refusing to tolerate sin in our own lives. It means loving mercy and doing justice. It means having the law of God written on our hearts. It means shining a light on injustice and protecting the vulnerable. Long before we ever get to the point of rebuking demons, we need to be sure we’re walking in the light. Otherwise none of the things I’m about to say in this episode will help you. My interest in the area of spiritual warfare is not merely academic. As an author of historical fantasy fiction, I often find myself writing about the spiritual aspects of things that happened in real world history. I don’t pretend that my stories are strictly truthful, but when I retell history, I’m always trying to say something about what the deeper spiritual realities might have been. Along the way, I’ve learned some things about what the Bible says about spiritual warfare, and come to believe that large parts of the church by and large come to this subject with an attitude of unbiblical fear. For instance, CS Lewis in The Screwtape Letters warns us off paying too little attention to the devil, and in the next sentence warns us about paying too much. With all respect to Lewis, It’s sort of a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t scenario, and I’ve never found this take to be tremendously helpful. I’ve also had people express their concern about my making the topic of spiritual warfare a study at all. Multiple people have told me cautionary tales about Christians whose interest in the spiritual world resulted in their living in constant fear…afraid of demons, subject to demonic attack, unable to function in their lives or ministry. The unspoken assumption is that my own interest will lead me into a similar fear and a similar paralysis, and that if I ever try to communicate what I’ve learned, I’ll be passing on a sort of viral terror… And yet here I am, three years later, in a state of mental health that can only be described as offensively robust, and nobody seems to have caught anything off me, either. Honestly? It was before I learned anything about spiritual warfare that I used to be afraid of demons. As a child, I’d have recurring nightmares in which I could feel myself under spiritual attack and be unable to fight back either by calling on Jesus or running away. As an adult, there’d be times late at night when I’d feel the darkness thickening and wonder if it was my imagination frightening me, or some real spiritual incursion. What was additionally frightening was the idea that maybe I could make myself vulnerable to spiritual attack simply by being sensitive to it. I mean, what happens when you tell yourself not to think about something? You just think about it all the more…and that just makes you more frightened.  What happened when I started to learn about spiritual warfare was that I realised it doesn’t work like that. Spiritual warfare is ethical-judicial: you can’t summon demons just by thinking about them, and unless you are actually giving ground to the devil by sin in some area of your life, you don’t have to worry about him. These days, when I wonder if something is a spiritual attack or my own hyperactive imagination, I don’t spend any time worrying about it one way or another, and I don’t even bother turning on the light anymore. I just announce my authority in Christ to the darkness, turn over, and go back to sleep. Our Authority in Christ I certainly don’t dismiss my friends’ stories about Christians who come under spiritual oppression because of fear. After all, I’ve felt the same kind of thing myself. But the answer to this problem is not to keep the church of God in ignorance. The answer is to give us the weapons we need to fight back. The answer is not to run from the fight because we’re weak, the answer is to put on the armour of faith and win the fight. You may not be aware of this, especially if you’ve grown up in the reformed or cessationist churches, but the church actually does have at least one handbook on spiritual warfare, the book of Ephesians – there’s actually another, Revelation, but we’ll get to that later. If you aren’t intimately familiar with Ephesians already, I’d encourage you to open it up so you can see what I’m talking about. In Ephesians, the main theme has to do with the mysterious unity that exists between Christ and the Church. Paul starts by telling us, in Ephesians 1:3, that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Then he spends a great deal of time explaining how this can be. Jesus chose us before the foundation of the world, redeemed us, filled us with wisdom and prudence, and adopted us into the Father’s family. The bottom line is, all things have been put under Jesus’ feet. And we are Jesus’ body. I don’t think Paul is mixing his metaphors here at the end of chapter 1, I think he means that when all things are put under Jesus’ feet, they are also put under us, as his body. So, because we have union with Christ, we have the authority of Christ. Ephesians 2:6 makes it even clearer: having been raised up from our deathly sins, we are, right now, being made to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  Part of the Heavenly Council So…what does it mean to sit in the heavenly places with Jesus? Allow me to make a detour. In recent years, a lot of historical research has been done on ancient Mesopotamian mythology, which has shed some very interesting light on certain passages of Scripture. Scholars have noted that in ancient Mesopotamian and Ugaritic literature (that is – the literature of the ancient Syrian city-state of Ugarit), there’s this concept of the “assembly of the gods” or the “host of heaven” or the “divine council”. The Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible states, A particular form of consultation … reappears at Ugarit and in the Bible: the high god calls for some god to volunteer to resolve a crisis; different members of the council may be proposed and prove inadequate; finally, when all appears lost, a winning proposal is made and accepted, and the saviour is commissioned…In general, it was in the supreme council that the destinies of individual gods, of cities, and indeed all of humanity were decided. In Ugaritic literature El presides over the council. Now, of course I’m not saying that Mesopotamian mythology has the force of Biblical revelation. However, these mythologies arose very early in history, shortly after the tower of Babel, at a time and in a place when rebellious mankind would have still remembered a great deal of truth about the spiritual world and how it worked. Scholars agree that there’s a very similar concept of the divine council in the Bible. In 1 Kings 22, the prophet Micaiah describes Jehovah seated on his throne in the midst of his court, asking one of the host of heaven to volunteer to deceive King Ahab. A spirit does so, and becomes a lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab’s prophets. A similar commissioning ceremony happens in Isaiah 6, with the Lord asking for volunteers to go to prophesy to Israel, and this time Isaiah volunteers and is commissioned. Another happens in Job 1, with a spirit accusing Job and being sent to test him; and there’s another similar scene in Zechariah 3, when the accuser – this will be translated as Satan in your bibles – rather than a name, the word may simply be a title similar to “prosecutor” – when the accuser brings an accusation against the high priest Joshua, and the Lord overrules the accusation and commissions Joshua to bring forth a future saviour. There are other Old Testament references to the divine council, some of them not always evident on a surface reading. Psalm 89:6-8 asks, For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? You may be surprised to learn that the original Hebrew of this passa

Host Steve Macias & Andrea Schwartz Description Do Regulations Make Us Safer? The post Do Regulations Make Us Safer? appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Host Steve Macias & Andrea Schwartz Description Why is Grandma in a Nursing Home? The post Why is Grandma in a Nursing Home? appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.

Hosts Jerri Lynn Ward & Roger Oliver Description In this episode of the Justice in the Kingdom podcast, Dr. Stephen Baskerville, social scientist and retired professor at Patrick Henry College, discusses his book, The New Politics of Sex: The Sexual Revolution, Civil Liberties and the Growth of Government Power. Our focus in this podcast is the deterioration of civil liberties through the politicization of criminal justice. New crimes are invented and vaguely defined. Due process is ignored. Accusations by a favored group become proof of guilt for the targeted group, mostly entirely heterosexual men. What mistakes are conservatives making and what can we do to reverse the trend? What can Christians do? For more information about Dr. Baskerville you can visit his website here. The post The New Politics of Sex: The Sexual Revolution, Civil Liberties, and the Growth of Government Power with Stephen Baskerville appeared first on Reconstructionist Radio Reformed Podcast Network.