Inappropriate Conversations

I'm probably less sure now than I was 7 years ago about whether the Sunday School hour in most Christian churches is the best type of small group. It was the type I was most familiar with then. Now, I'd say the main requirement isn't location or time of meeting, but the ability to speak very freely about a challenging range of topics. Today, that range would include double-standards and miscarriages of justice from the halls of Congress to local district attorneys offices. Any small group that cannot handle conversations like that fails to achieve its mission. And any notion that conversations like that have no place within the church fundamentally misrepresents what "church" should be.

In the process of considering whether the message, or a worship service itself, was fundamentally different inside a sanctuary or some other form of cathedral versus a more ordinary room, my family ended up encountering a church that didn't have a building at all. No sanctuary. No roof over their heads at all, so to speak. And that's where we ended up, too.    TalkBack episodes in podcast form exist largely due to Spotify. That's also among the places the new Harmony Springs Gives Voice podcast can be found.

Whether racism is more prevalent and toxic within, rather than outside, the church?   Robert P. Jones of PRRI   Preview for White Savior: Racism in the American Church

A significant number of Americans, most from the political and religious right, still owe Barack Obama an apology.  When you understand the persecution a group thinks they will suffer, whether based on rational conclusions or not, it provides great insight into what they would do if given ultimate and absolute power. We are wise to be wary. The people who predicted Obama would "round up" both Christians and guns might just pose a similar dire threat to their perceived political enemies. We haven't done a sufficient job of denouncing false prophecies in recent years, and now we must deal with the consequences.   http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/191-false-political-prophecies/  

Consider this the background material for the previous Inappropriate Conversations (#IC #231). Things have not improved in the past five years, and an argument can be made that the standards for law enforcement have gotten worse. I say this with as much sadness as anger, although I'm sure the anger cuts through. It's painful enough to bring even a mildly empathetic person to his knees, at a time in American where that gesture is inexplicably controversial.   http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/157-letting-justice-roll/  

More than five years ago, Inappropriate Conversations #157 was released as an unedited nearly two-hour rant about that state of law enforcement and race relations in America at the end of 2014. Clearly, things have not improved. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves for not taking these issues more seriously. It is, after all, clearly a matter a life and death.   Different Drummer: Dave Chappelle  

More than a dozen years ago, it wasn't unusual for Christian leaders to provide political advice to one another that sounded like this: "Don’t equate the biblical kingdom of God with any human political party or nation" (Andrew Jackson). Many were already violating guidelines like this, but the trespasses would only multiply during the Obama administration. Recent years have been even worse. I have yet to hear a sufficient denunciation of this misbehavior from the same Christian leaders who published original guidelines like this one. Truly, it's a "Get behind me, Satan" moment, reflecting not God's concerns at all (Matthew 16:23). Yet, for the most part, the Church remains silent.   http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/82-pandering-from-a-political-pulpit/  

Pride was the focus for TalkBack episodes released in June this year. (Some of those files were mistakenly deleted and restored in July, despite being originally released in June.) I ended the series with a 2015 episode looking at the "T" of LGBTQ* and my perspective on how simple it is to address people in the manner they prefer.  I was pretty young when my family went to an out-of-town wedding, an older cousin getting married. I must have asked an annoying question that morning because I recall getting a lecture on manners. We had only just met Jim the night before, but I read the wedding announcement which introduced him as James. "The parents of James ..." is typical verbiage. Conversation on the way the church stopped like a needle scratching across a vinyl record. It was a "listen, young man" moment from my mother to me: under no circumstances was I to address the new member of our family as James. He had told us politely and clearly that he prefers to be called Jim "and that is how we will address him

Before traveling to Las Vegas a couple years after this TalkBack recording and later making similar trips to New Orleans for Pride48 podcasting expositions, I made a commitment to myself to participate. I called that episode Proud To Know You. From a TalkBack perspective, it's really Proud To Know You 1.  http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/128-proud-to-know-you/  

Some Assembly Required (A NeoSurrealist Forsaking a Habit for Lent)   Chapter 8 Editor's Note "Darkness Sets In" Life's an Essay Test; We're Obliged To Give Essay Answers Making the Grade "The false assumption most of them make is that Truth is somehow distant, elusive, and concealed. Their Truth must be tracked down, captured, and unveiled."   Different Drummer: Boethius of Rome

Some Assembly Required (A NeoSurrealist Forsaking a Habit for Lent)   Chapter 7 Mad Scientist Editorial Board meeting: March 24, 1994 Coming Up Next How Am I Supposed To Live Without? "They'll Know We Are Christians" The Least Of These "Are we not, in fact, blaming the Godless for their very Godlessness?"   Different Drummer: Art Eddy

Being active in a church, really active, often involves a spoken or unspoken expectation of very steady attendance. Learning what other churches and denominations are doing can be challenging, if not impossible, in such circumstances. The initial phase of "walking the earth" was eye-opening for this reason. Even the definition of "sermon" raised immediate questions. The first two episodes in Walk The Earth covered what I considered to be easy questions. This question was the first that led me to think I ought to record my answers.   http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/walk-the-earth-3/

Some Assembly Required (A NeoSurrealist Forsaking a Habit for Lent)   Chapter 6 Just Say No, Nancy You're On the Air "Para-Double-Diddle" Cover Version Tell Us What You Think "By bringing the hallucinatory powers of your own brain to bear upon your experiment, you will be able to easily retrace your steps."   Different Drummer: Brook Berringer

Some Assembly Required (A NeoSurrealist Forsaking a Habit for Lent)   Chapter 5 Twenty-something Sexual Revolutionary Critic On Your Way Home Assignment: Aion Noteworthy The Readers' Reply (Letters over 300 words may be edited for length and clarity) "We're going to be jumping around for the next couple of days. Let me have some undivided attention, and I'll give you a feel for what we're referencing."   Different Drummer: Nadia Bolz-Weber

My first experience at Pride48 was last week's TalkBack episode (Walk The Earth #30). It was soon followed by my first event recap show. #IC #172, Proud To Know You 2, covered my thoughts on the trip upon returning. I also mention a corresponding interview on the Ramble Redhead podcast on the same topic. Next on Pride48 is the June 2020 live streaming event, Friday the 26th through Sunday the 28th. I'll be listening, and chatting whenever possible.   http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/172-proud-to-know-you-2/  

My first of more public commitments to being an ally was the weekend of August 28, 2015, in Las Vegas. Walk The Earth 30 is a recording of a live podcast at Pride48 that year. For me, this moment was historic. http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/walk-the-earth-30/  

Have you ever been unexpectedly stuck staring down the barrel of a gun being held by someone who clearly states he has no qualms about shooting you if you don't cooperate? Outside of military-style preparation or perhaps police academy work, I believe it's impossible to predict how anyone would respond in such circumstances. I also found it challenging to assess how I responded for weeks, if not months, afterward. Simple answers rarely suffice. When I tell the story now, I usually present the situation for laughs. Why not? If you can't find the humor, then you don't fully understand it.  My understanding exceeds the platitudes and soundbites of your average person protesting for their "rights." http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/113-raised-on-robbery/   Also: here is a recent panel discussion on the This Week In Gay podcast, covering different topics. Pleased to participate!  

The first venture into TalkBack podcast episodes was thematic, Christmas shows in November-December 2018. It isn't hard to find running themes in past episodes of Inappropriate Conversations. A focus on the impact of gun usage starts here, revisiting October 2015, and will continue later in the month with a story that was 30+ years old in February 2013. I tend to tire very quickly over gun control debates. The conversation always seems to devolve to extremes. Worse, what should be an open discussion on the relationship between rights and responsibilities never starts.  If you make it impossible for people to make you happy, people will lose interest in whether you are happy or not. No, I'm not interested in the happiness of people who love objects and use people. It's true regardless of where such people stand on any political spectrum. Some things, once broken, cannot be restored. http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/173-seeing-spot-run/  

Some Assembly Required (A NeoSurrealist Forsaking a Habit for Lent)   Chapter 4 Did You Hear the One about V-8 Nate? Prior Restraint Premarital Skydiving "Characters don't always say what writers want them to say, and it's ignorant to presume otherwise."   Different Drummer: Jackie Speier

As the old saying goes: the church is not a building; the church is the people. Well, I've been interacting with some of those people in new/old ways lately. The early episode of Walk The Earth was about walking away from one congregation. We had not yet found a new one yet. Now, years later, the church I've since joined is planning to start a podcast. Some of our sessions have been planning, others recording. I'll share links to Harmony Springs Gives Voice when podcasts are posted, probably on TalkBacks like this one. I've also recently joined a panel discussion on the podcast This Week In Gay with religious freedom/liberty among the topics. I'll share that the same way at the appropriate time.  For now, I did need to define "church" if I wanted to talk about walking away from one, either permanently or on the way to something better. http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/walk-the-earth-2/