Irreligiosophy

Leighton shares his research on the 613 rules that must be kept by all good Jews. Yahweh help us all.

We have guest Abby on to talk all about growing up Jewish, the different flavors of Judaism, her bat-mitzvah, and all things Judaic.

We spend this episode unearthing the truth about the 1987 events that spawned a novel, a TV show, and a major motion picture. Turns out, the real events were dumber than the movie, if such a thing is possible.

Here it is, the long-sought-after, long-withheld episode on Proposition 8. We cover a brief history of the relevant marriage law in California, changes to that law, judgments overturning those changes, voter initiatives overturning the judgments, and now another judgment overturning that initiative. Also, were those gay penguins really gay?

In preparation for the official Prop 8 podcast next week, we briefly discuss the LDS church's political history. We spend the first half-hour highlighting a few episodes of early LDS clashes with their neighbors and eventually the federal government, culminating in the Edmunds-Tucker Act and subsequent convenient revelation to do away with polygamy. The last half hour details more recent forays into the political arena, including the Equal Rights Amendment and Hawaii's gay marriage battle.

Emma saves our bacon this week by providing us with this interview in honor of F You Hosts Day.

This week we discuss Fred Phelps of "God Hates Fags" Westboro Baptist Church fame with estranged son Nathan Phelps. We cover early years, the details of Nathan's leaving the church, and what happened later, as well as details of WBC theology and practices that only a family member could share.

Wherein we explain the roots of the bizarre Mormon practice of baptizing dead people by proxy, featuring a brief guest segment with Jessica, an actual person who got suckered into doing it.

The second part of our interview hits a more personal note. Find out what it was like in the field, how missionaries were treated by the Church they served, the culture shock, and the exit interview experience.

The first part of our interview with ex-Mormon brothers Chris and Mike about their missionary experiences. We start with early church indoctrination and continue through patriarchal blessings, priesthood ordinations, sending the papers in, getting the call, MTC training, and early field experiences.

The second part of our religious podcast takedown means it's Leighton's turn to dissect some terrible Christian podcasts. Also, some Skunk Dicks and another oddball episode in the ongoing Allred saga.

In this first of a two-parter, we encounter some residents of iTunes' Top Ten Religious Podcasts, Joyce Meyer and Mark Driscoll. Driscoll we met in our previous episode about the Podcast Awards, and he doesn't appear to have gotten any smarter in the interim. Joyce Meyers is just like your favorite gramma, if your gramma told you she hated your guts. We also talk about new developments in the ongoing saga of the Allred family.

Guest philosopher Seth discusses his concerns over the loose moral language of the New Atheists.

After discussing one last heresy, Chuck hands the podcast reins with fear and trembling to Leighton, who presents his research into the many problems that result in unifying church and state.

In this episode we cover the docetic and adoptionist viewpoints, which were later deemed heresies by the One True Church, and the changes in the texts of the New Testament that resulted from the attempt to win these arguments by lying. Because if early Christians have taught us anything, it's that winning an argument is more important than the truth.