Rector’s Cupboard Podcast

Losing Religion, Deepening in Faith with Brenda-Lee Sasaki

Christian faith often gets confused with moralism. Moralism is not Christian faith. In fact, moralism is a kind of idolatry, the worship of social structures, rules, or hierarchies of gender or race or belief.On this episode of Rector’s Cupboard we speak with teacher and writer Brenda-Lee Sasaki about moralism in the context of Christian universities.Pushing away from moralism is an often necessary step in spiritual growth. Morality is important in every life, but moralism is a death knell to actual faith.Losing religion (moralism posing as religion) can and often does lead to a deepening of faith.
We talk about arbitrary moral codes at religious institutions, why they exist, what they are intended to accomplish and what some of their negative consequences may be.The conversation is intended to be a particular example of the limits of moral codes and statements of faith.If you sign the document about behaviour or belief, does that really seal the deal?
 
Books and articles discussed in this episode:
 
Liberty University Article – NYT, August 2020
 
Pope Francis on “moral rigidity” - AP News, September 2019
 
After Evangelicalism: The Path to a New Christianity  – David Gushee, 2020
 
I am Not a Godly Woman – Brenda-Lee Sasaki, SheLoves Magazine, March 2019
 
Jean Vanier Article – Globe and Mail Article, Februarty 2020
 
A personal reflection on grappling with the legacy of Jean Vanier - The Conversation, April 2020
 
Tasting Notes:
 
On this episode we tasted Cardhu 12 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky. Apparently, it's smooth with gentle peat, for those whom the gentleness of peat is a deciding factor.

Finding Each Other with John Radford

"Reconciliation in the Aftermath” with guest John Radford.
 
Something has been torn apart. People have been divided from one another. Division is present all around us and it is present in our own lives. We are so easily divided from one another. How might we come together, even with people who hold different views, and goals than our own?Cynical leadership consistently finds the way to use our fears against other people. Hopeful leadership finds ways to call for the recognition of the humanity of each and all for the common good. In this episode we speak with John Radford of Transpectives Mediation. John is a corporate and familial mediator and vocational counselor. He gained his experience working with Desmund Tutu in South Africa during and after Apartheid. For far too long, Christian faith has been distorted and weaponized to keep people apart. John Radford speaks with us about the hope and limits of reconciliation. What does conflict resolution look like? How can absence of conflict at times imply less hope that if conflict were present?John speaks about his experience in South Africa, about the divisions in contemporary society, about Black Lives Matter and about how we can each better recognize the humanity of the other.Here are things that matter in the most pressing geo-political matters and in each of our particular lives.
 
Links and articles referenced in this episode:
 
New Yorker Article on the history of Christianity and white supremacy. A consideration of how Christians have sometimes been the first to stand for division rather than reconciliation. Of course there are also many examples of Christians who have demonstrated the call to bring people together. We include this article out of a desire to come to terms with the reality that our history of faith has so often terribly failed to live up to its highest call of love. This is a consideration of Christianity in the United States. There are similar considerations in Canada in terms of race relations.
Belching and jackhammering 'bad neighbour' earns rebuke from B.C. judge, CBC, August 2020
Desmond Tutu Clip
CNN Cornel West Clip -Be sure to listen to Cornel West speaking with Anderson Cooper on the day of the funeral of George Floyd. West offers a beautiful, hopeful (and realistic) depiction of Christian faith.
 
Episode Terminology:
 
Apartheid: State sponsored segregation in South Africa from the early 1900’s through he early 1990’s. The word means “apartness” in Afrikaans. Apartheid was a political system that maintained the division of white and black. It meant that that the small minority of white people controlled the levers of government and the economy and property rights. Desmund Tutu is an Anglican Bishop who led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as Apartheid was dismantled. Nelson Mandela was jailed during Apartheid and later became President of South Africa.
 
Ngiyakubona: “I see you” in Zulu
 
Tasting Notes:
 
This episode we enjoyed two bourbons from Okanagan Spirits: BRBN Bourbon-Style Corn Whiskey and BLK BRBN Cask Strength Bourbon-Style Whiskey.

The Aftermath

Welcome to Season 2 of The Rector’s Cupboard. 
Many of us have not lived through times like those we are living in now. 
It might not even be possible yet to survey the landscape. When uncertainty and unprecedented occasion confronts us, we can never be quite sure when we can start counting the losses, when we can begin to rebuild. Rector’s Cupboard is about hopeful gospel, hopeful faith. We aim to make a difference for listeners. We hope that we help you to see a faith and worldview that is good news for ALL people, those who share the faith and those who don’t. It is arguably true that we have not faced a time when compassion was more necessary. We can make a difference in the world by seeing the humanity of all people and then by acting in light of such vision.  Our second season will be looking at topics in ways that can give us hope. We will consider suffering and loss. We will look to shine a light on the cruelty of the prosperity gospel. We will talk with an Intensive Care Doctor about physical and spiritual need times of great crisis. We will speak with people who do not believe what they used to in terms of faith. We will talk about community in non-religious societies. We will speak about reconciliation with a local mediator who worked with Desmond Tutu in South Africa. That and much more.  
 
Season 2, episode 1 will be released on Friday September 11. Thanks for listening.  

2020 Annus Horribilis | Episode 3: Christianity and White Supremacy with Dr. Willie Jennings

Recently CNN ran a short documentary series simply called, “1968”. This was a year of great civil unrest, of protests over the Vietnam war, of civil rights protests and of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. We are living a year that might soon become a one word title for a documentary series, “2020”. There is a pandemic, there is protest in the United States unlike that seen since 1968.  This episode of Rector’s Cupboard is the conclusion of a three part series called, “2020: Annus Horibilis; How did we get here?”. The intention of the series is to look particularly at matters of religion and faith and how they have contributed to some of the cultural upheaval we are living through. This concluding episode seeks to offer some insight into how we got to a place where “Black Lives Matter” could be considered a controversial statement. What is being protected? What are people afraid of losing? What do we have to gain? We speak with Dr. Willie Jennings of Yale Divinity School.  Dr. Jennings outlines the concept of “whiteness” and tells us what it has to do with the protection of the status quo. We speak about a positive vision of change and about some of the current incidents and circumstances in the United States particularly. It might be tempting to despair, but even in turbulent times, there may well be reason for hope. We are grateful to Dr. Jennings for taking the time to speak with us. The series ends with a scriptural reflection (a devotion) and a prayer from Dr. Jennings. Our intent is that this will send us into the summer, a summer unlike we’ve lived before, with purpose and with hope.  May God bless you and keep you and may you seek to love all people. 
 
Episode Terminology:
 
Empire and Diaspora: Dr. Jennings uses these terms to outline two competing ways of being in the world. Empire is the way of the dominant, the powerful. Diaspora is the way of the scattered, the cut-off, those who are far from power. True faith, even true humanity is found in the dynamic between the two more than it is on one or the other. In relation to the book of Acts (discussed in the episode); Empire is Roman and Diaspora is Jewish, but then Diaspora is faced with the question of including Gentiles in the community and takes on some of the excess of Empire. 
 
Self-Determination: Means pretty much what you might think, but in the context of this conversation, it is considered as a negative. We cannot be truly human apart from others. We are called to join with others and always called to join across the lines of division that we create.  
 
Whiteness: a central concept for the episode. Whiteness is more about power and control than it is about colour. Dr. Jennings points out that whiteness is not biological. It is a system of domination by people of European descent. A way of seeing and a way of being seen. This is why the first question is not “are you a racist”, but instead, “how have we all been impacted by our socialization in a racist culture?” We have all been impacted by whiteness and Christianity has too often been dominated by whiteness. 
 
Pedagogy: Dr. Jennings and Jason Byassee both work in the field of academics, graduate theological school. So, a word like “pedagogy” is part of their world. Pedagogy refers basically to how we learn or acquire knowledge and ideas. For example, in the United States (and around the world) there has been a pedagogy of whiteness from which people develop views of themselves and of other people. Each school and family and church has a pedagogy, a way of imparting learning and knowledge. 
 
Romance of Orthodoxy: This just refers to a love of a status quo and “proper way of believing” particularly among some religious people. 
 
Charismatic Movement: Charisma (from the greek word) - movement, attracted towards, “charismatic movement” refers particularly to a lively expression of Christian faith that is given to exuberant outward expression in worship, prayer, emphasis on supernatural signs, etc. Often associated with the Pentecostal movement.  
 
Prosperity Gospel: A distortion of Christian theology that works as a kind of transaction between people and God. If you have enough faith then … If you worship properly then … If you believe properly then… Dr. Jennings calls the prosperity gospel “mercantile” because it acts as a kind of exchange as in God will be bound to give you health or wealth if you just say and believe the right things. Prosperity gospel in the end erases the divinity of God by negating God’s sovereignty (freedom) and the humanity of people by brutally condemning those who are suffering as somehow having brought it on themselves. It’s no surprise that prosperity gospel has found its way to the White House with some of Donald Trump’s most powerful “spiritual advisors” coming from this distortion of Christian faith. 
 
Books and articles discussed in this episode: 
Caught up in God - Christian Century, May 2020   
Acts: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, Dr. Willie Jennings White Fragility, Robin D’Angelo 
The Slave Ship: A Human History, Markus Redeker 
The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement Is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II

2020: Annus Horribilis | Episode 2: The Power Worshippers with Katherine Stewart

Religious Nationalism in the United States. 
We speak with Katherine Stewart, author of “The Power Worshippers”. Katherine Stewart’s work has appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, the American Prospect, the Atlantic, and other publications. She is the author of The Good News Club, an investigation of the religious right and public education. 
From the book: 
“Perhaps the most salient impediment to our understanding of the movement is the notion that Christian nationalism is a “conservative” ideology. The correct word is “radical”. 
“This movement pretends to represent the past and stand for old traditions. But in reality it is a creature of present circumstances and is organized around a vision for the future that most Americans would find abhorrent.” 
You may have heard the names, James Dobson, Franklin Graham, Ralph Reed. These are just a few of the influential personalities in the movement of Religious Nationalism in the United States. This movement has had strong impact on the evangelical church in the United States. Religious Nationalism assumes that one particular branch of Christian understanding and those attached to it, should be in power politically and culturally. Donald Trump could not have risen to the office of the president without the support of Christian nationalists. 
Katherine Stewart has spent years investigating the movement. She has attended conferences and church conventions. She has visited the “Museum of the Bible” and the “Creation Museum”. Her book is a thorough look at how the movement began, how it is about politics and power more than it is about faith. To understand how we got to where we are at in 2020, it helps to understand this current manifestation of religious nationalism. 
Books and articles referenced in this episode:
The Power WorshippersThe Good News ClubHow a Data-backed Christian Nationalist Machine Helped Trump to Power - The Guardian, March 2020Bill Barr Thinks America is Going to Hell - The New York Times, December 2019Why Trump Reigns as King Cyrus - The New York Times, December 2018   

2020: Annus Horribilis | Episode 1: American Apocalypse with Matthew Avery Sutton

We speak with author Matthew Avery Sutton about his book American Apocalypse. 
The book is a detailed account of the rise of evangelicalism in the United States. Our consideration is to examine how we got to the religious and political landscape current with Donald Trump being embraced by a large majority of evangelicals. What is the movement about? Where did it originate? How did it move from the cultural and political fringe to the Oval Office? 
Closer to home, what is the history of some of the central beliefs of the evangelical faith? Many people who grew up hearing about end times, the rapture, the sacred/secular divide and the so-called dangers of public education are not necessarily aware of where the beliefs originated. It is a little too simplistic to say that they came from the Bible. They actually came from one particular interpretation of the Bible that was imposed upon all manner of things including world history, political leadership and cultural expression. Much of the movement was (and in some cases still is) homophobic, xenophobic, misogynistic, and even racist. Some would want us to point out here that there was (and is) much good as well, but that seems strange to say after a statement like the above. 
It is not an attack to mention that in regards to the central tenet of evangelical fundamentalism, those who espoused it were, to say it bluntly; wrong. For years and for decades they maintained that, “Jesus is coming again soon.” Very soon. Right away. 
Billy Graham, for over 60 years, never stopped declaring that he was convinced that Jesus was returning within a couple of years.  Even if such declarations get it right eventually; that would be a record of 1500 wrong to 1 right, or 375 wrong to 1 right, however you want to count.  The whole system was built upon this apocalyptic way of thinking and it is not so much that they were wrong just about that, it is that they then built religious, cultural and political understanding on top of this central mistake that has come to dominate much of what people are told is now “Christianity”.  
Maybe it’s time to grow up a little theologically.  
Matthew Avery Sutton books:American Apocalypse Double CrossedBilly Graham was on the wrong side of history - The Guardian, February 2018
This episode we enjoyed Heck Yeah lemon iced tea pale ale from Beere Brewing Co. in North Vancouver.  
 

Rector's Cupboard: Special Series

Three Episodes, "Annus Horribilis, 2020 Horrible Year, How Did we Get Here?" Each episode will examine a particular area of faith and culture.First: the history of evangelicalism, with Matthew Avery SuttonSecond: religious nationalism in the United States, with Katherine StewartThird: the connection between Christianity and white supremacy, with Willie James Jennings These episodes can go a long way in helping us move past some negative or fearful ways of seeing things and open up the way for a more hopeful, positive faith.Our three guests have written and spoken extensively in Rolling Stone, The Guardian, New York Times, Christian Century, and appeared on multiple media outlets. We are grateful that they were interested in speaking with us.Will it take courage to listen? Not really. But we're hoping that listening shakes you up a little to move towards better ways of seeing things and better ways of seeing people.

Technology, Humanity, and Faith with Dr. Jason Byassee and Andria Irwin

with Jason Byassee and Andria Irwin        Every single one of us has had to embrace technology in ways that we hadn't before during this pandemic. We sit down with Jason Byassee and Andria Irwin. Jason and Andria are completing a book about technology and the church. We speak with them about how the things that we make make us, about attention span, about community. What is a mature way to speak about technology being mindful of its cost and limitations while still grateful for how it help us?
 
Jason Byassee - Vancouver School of Theology
Andria Irwin - Highlands United Church
In this episode our tasting is a Bourbon Blood Orange Wheat Ale from Bridge Brewing Company.

Saints or Savages: Host Only Episode

This episode was recorded on May 25, 2020 before the news of the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. 
 
Todd, Allison, Amanda and Cupboard Master Ken get together (distanced, of course). We ask each other, for your consideration; Why would people argue over wearing masks? We look at the ways people respond in times of danger or crisis. An upcoming book by Rutger Bregman seeks to show that for the most part people help one another. What does this say about human nature? What are the implications for faith? We argue that there is a better way to relate to people than to start with the assumption that people are basically bad. Noting that there are instances of oppression, hate and even evil in the world, we consider the concepts of fear and division. 
The tasting for this episode is a Rose Wine from the Okanagan in BC called Diabolica. Fitting for this episode’s conversation. Check out Diabolica Wines here 
Rutger Bregman review – Times of London   
The Guardian article - Regarding shipwrecked boys
The New York Times article - Regarding encounter in Central Park 
Book discussed, Marilynne Robinson, “The Givenness of Things”, particularly the chapter “Fear”

Archbishop Melissa Skelton

The Cupboard welcomes Archbishop Melissa Skelton (Diocese of New Westminster, Province of BC and Yukon). We speak about the place of the church in a “Post-Christendom” world. Archbishop Melissa has had vocation in business and in the church. She has worked as a brand manager for Procter and Gamble and has also worked with Tom’s of Maine. 
In her vocation in the church she has worked at Trinity Church in Manhattan and at St. Paul’s in Olympia, Washington. Currently Archbishop Melissa is also Rector at Christ Church Cathedral on Burrard and Georgia in downtown Vancouver. 
Host banter about a great NYT article (clink here to read it) on a restaurant closure in New York City.