Theology in the Raw

Abigail and I talk about all things related to gender, postmodern feminism, and the ontology of trans* identities. We discuss the meaning of sex and gender, the relationship between body and soul, the possibility of an intersex condition of the brain, whether brains are male and female, intersex conditions, gender stereotypes, and how all of this relatest to the anthropological understnading of trans* experiences.  Dr. Favale is dean of the College of Humanities and Associate Professor of English at George Fox University. She graduated from George Fox University with a philosophy degree in 2005, and went on to complete her doctorate at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where her dissertation was granted the Samuel Rutherford Prize for the most distinguished thesis in English literature.  Dr. Favale is an active writer in multiple genres. Her literary criticism has appeared in various academic journals and essay collections. In 2017, she was awarded the J.F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction. A lifelong Christian, Favale entered the Catholic Church in 2014, and her memoir about this transition, Into the Deep, is forthcoming from Cascade Books.Dr. Favale’s first book, Irigaray, Incarnation and Contemporary Women’s Fiction(Bloomsbury 2013), examines religious themes in the work of contemporary women novelists. This book was awarded the 2014 Feminist and Women's Studies Association Book Prize. Abigail has also written short fiction for several literary journals, such as The Potomac Review, Talking River Review, zaum and  Melusine. In 2013, Abigail was a regular online contributor on gender-related issues for The Atlantic  Monthly; her essays have also appeared in First Things, PopMatters and Geez Magazine. Support Preston Support Preston by going to patreon.comVenmo: @Preston-Sprinkle-1 Connect with Preston Twitter | @PrestonSprinkle Instagram | @preston.sprinkle Youtube | Preston Sprinkle Check out his website prestonsprinkle.com If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to leave a review.

Back by popular demand! John C. Bivona is an infectious disease expert and he gives us an update on all things pandemic related. The efficacy of vaccines, what we know and don’t know, should kids get vaccinated, are you immune if you’ve already had Covid, whether Covid was leaked from the Wuhan lab, what we know about the Delta variant (and other variants), vaccine hesitancy, and much more.  John is a Senior Biosafety Officer for The University of Chicago – Howard T. Ricketts Laboratory, a Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, as well as a Registered Biosafety Professional with ABSA International (American Biological Safety Association). John was a lead trainer with the Duke Infectious Disease Response Training (DIDRT) Program, funded through an NIEHS-NIH Grant, that was designed to prepare workers at risk of infectious disease exposure. Additionally, he is a certified HAZWOPER/HAZMAT Trainer. John has over 15 years’ experience working in high containment laboratories (BSL3) with high consequence pathogens (i.e. anthrax, plague, highly pathogenic avian influenza, Brucella abortus), with an effective history of training lab workers, clinical care workers, first responders, first receivers and custodial workers to safely work with and control high consequence pathogens such as MERS, SARS and Ebola. Support Preston Support Preston by going to patreon.comVenmo: @Preston-Sprinkle-1 Connect with Preston Twitter | @PrestonSprinkle Instagram | @preston.sprinkle Youtube | Preston Sprinkle Check out his website prestonsprinkle.com If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to leave a review.

In this episode, I talk to Dan White about what it’s like burning out of ministry and how to cultivate healthier rhythms to prevent this from happening (again). Part of the problem is the internet and social media. Our prefrontal contexes never rest! We’re constantly bombarded with stuff to process. And COVID only exacerbated this problem. During COVID, many churches played into the consumeristic mindset of people by producing MORE content, more sermons, more stuff for people to consume. But now that the COVID dust has settled, many people aren’t coming back to church. Why is this? How can we “get people back?” Or--is that even the right question to ask? 

A.J. was the lead pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church, a few years after Rob Bell left, and talks about how he approached ministry in this unique church. We also talk about different theological traditions, political division, patriotism vs. nationalism, and A.J.’s transition to pastor an Anglican church.

Samuel Sey is a Ghanian-Canadian who lives in outside of Toronto. He’s written extensively on race, racial justice, abortion, critical race theory, and other issues related to faith and culture. He challenges us with a perspective on race that’s different from what you will hear on most mainstream media outlets.

Daisy is a YouTuber who used to identify as nonbinary, then transgender, and now reidentifies with her female biological sex. In this episode, we talk about her story, the nature gender dysphoria and social dysphoria, some of the gender ideology that she used to believe in but no longer does, the massive role that the internet played in her journey and transition, and what kind of advice she’d give to parents with trans identified kids. 

Scott is a fully transitioned 48 year old FtM transman with 3 teenage kids, and he’s pretty fired up about how the medical industry has failed our trans*-identified kids. Scott holds some pretty unpredictable views. Though he’s a transman, he believes that trans*-identified kids are in no position to transition, and that parents of trans* kids should not use their pronouns or do anything that would encourage their transition. In fact, Scott is very critical of several aspects of trans* ideologies and is passionate about the truth of human nature and the medical pros and cons about transitioning. Scott is the founder and president of Trans Rational Educational Voices (https://www.trevoices.com), an organization aimed at helping to stop medical transitioning for trans* identified kids (among other things).

Street Hymns is an Christian, artist, musician, leader, and a member an elite Battle Rap team called The IV Horseman. In this episode, we discuss how Street’s been able to embody the gospel in Battle Rap, reaching a culture where the gospel is not traditionally known. Upper middle class suburban versions of the gospel have little hope of making an impact in the urban context where Street and his team minister.

My patreon supporters sent in a ton of questions for me to respond to, so I decided to respond to them publicly! Some really complex questions here.  If you want to join the Theology in the Raw community, head over to patreon.com/theologyintheraw

Clip taken from Show #860

Ed is an expert in CRT and has some super nuanced and wise thoughts about race relations in America. This is a super raw and uncut convo, y’all. Bear with us. We’re all on a journey.

This conversation will be difficult to comprehend for some of you, but it’s important to understand how some fundamentalist Christians think. We also talk about the history of evangelical approaches to homosexuality and the role that the Ex-gay movement has played in this trajectory. Oh, and we also bring up C.S. Lewis’ struggle with Sadomasochism (think: 50 Shades of Grey). Anyway, lots of interesting stuff in this episode! 

In this episode, Heather and I talk about...pretty much everything. But we also discuss her forthcoming book It’s Not Your Turn, which helps us to respond well to those times when it seems like everyone else is flourishing in their gifts and seeing success--and you’re not.

In this invigorating conversation, Dr. Edwards discusses his views on race in the church, the pros and cons of how the church has handled this topic over the last year, and his mixed views on multi-ethnic churches. We then get into a discussion about slavery in the Bible and answer some difficult questions about a difficult topic.

Darren was a teaching pastor at Willow Creek, then decided to plant a church in Franklin, TN, which ended up growing into another Mega Church. In this episode, we talk about his interesting and unpredictable journey, what it’s like pastoring mega churches and planting churches, and how he navigated the very difficult year of 2020.