Theology in the Raw

Jason Soucinek is the Executive Director and founder of Project Six19. Dedicated to talking honestly about matters of sex, sexuality and relationships. Jason has spent almost two decades engaging audiences of all ages and backgrounds. He is an internationally recognized seminar and conference speaker and published writer on issues surrounding sexuality and youth culture. He can be heard on the following podcasts: DriveTime, Sex + Christian Parents, and CPYU’s podcast “Youth Culture Matters”. Jason and I focus largely on the purity movement and where it went wrong. But we did linger on the question of modesty for a bit, which lead to some back and forth pushbacks on each other's opinions.

This episode is a deep dive into the book of Judges with one of the world's leading experts in the book: Dr. Michelle Knight. We focus mainly on Judges 4-5, the story about that BA Woman, Jael, who smashes a tent peg through the skull of a skilled warrior and the follow up poem that celebrates the incident. We also talk about the horrific rape of the concubine in Judges 19 and some ethical problems with the conquest in the book of Joshua. 

Jessie and I met way back in college and have been friends for more than 20 years. Jessie is an author, speaker and the resident “big sis” at LifeLoveandGod.com, a Q&A website for teen girls. She’s passionate about helping girls embrace the God who loves them, and to help them apply His truth to their everyday lives.In this episode, we talk about some of the challenges that teen girls face today, from social media to body image issues to porn and other sexual challenges. We then wade into the controversial area of the so-called “Billy Graham rule” and the issue of modesty.

In the previous episode, I talked about the 3 different views of hell that have been taught throughout church history. In this episode, I briefly discuss why I used to hold to the eternal conscious torment view of hell but have come to believe that the annihilation view of hell is the most biblical. You don’t need to agree with me! But, if you claim to be a Christian, you do need to make sure your view of hell is based on Scripture and not just your church’s doctrinal statement or your tradition.

Most people assume that “hell” means “eternal conscious torment forever and ever.” But the doctrine of hell has actually been widely disputed throughout church history. There are actually three quite different understandings of hell that have been believed and taught in the historic, orthodox Christian church: eternal conscious torment, annihilation, and ultimate reconciliation. 

BJ and I sat down to have a conversation with no agenda in mind. We start by talking about his work as a life-coach and leader at #BuildaBetterUs, we quickly move into talking about church, church structure, and money. Then, we move into talking about the topic of race in Evangelicalism and we pretty much camped out there for the rest of the time.

Laurie is attracted to women. And Matt is also attracted to women. Both Laurie and Matt love Jesus. They’re in what’s called a “mixed orientation marriage” and they talk about how that “works” in this fascinating episode. Their marriage is incredible. Not perfect. No marriage is. But their marriage truly does exemplify the honesty, difficulty, beauty, and meaningfulness that every marriage is supposed to embody.

In this episode, Benjamin and I talk about what happened at Evergreen and some of the cultural implications of these events. We then talk about the so-called “evergreening of America.” In many ways, what went down at Evergreen in May 2017 has become a proleptic microcosm of what’s going on today in 2020. 

Greg and I discuss how Christians should think through issues of voting, politics, Christianity, and how to view fellow believers as...fellow believers, even if they vote differently than us. We also talk about his most recent book: Inspired Imperfection: How the Bible’s Problems Enhance Its Divine Authority. Greg doesn’t believe in “inerrancy” (a certain brand of it, anyway) but absolutely is committed to the Bible’s infallibility and authority. We talk about the difference in this episode.

In this episode, we talk about her work at ReIME, the facts about puberty blockers and cross sex hormones, current problems with how trans* identified kids are being treated, and how we can best care for trans* and gender non-conforming kids.

Bill Henson is the founder and president of Lead Them Home, creator of Posture Shift, and author of Guiding Families of LGBT+ Loved Ones. Bill trains national, regional and local ministry teams across America to extend Christ to LGBT+ persons within a biblical framework. Bill guest lectures at Gordon College and has presented Posture Shift at Denver Seminary and Gordon-Conwell Theo­lo­gi­cal Sem­i­na­ry.

Lesli has been a great friend and mentor over the years. We talk about all things trans*, gender, church, Jesus, pronouns, and all that fun stuff. Lesli is the Gender Identity Ministry Director for Posture Shift and a contributor to the highly acclaimed resource "Guiding Families."

Sean and I talk about his new book "Chasing Love" which is due to come out in Dec 2020. We focus largely on the contents of this book but we also dive deep into the so-called purity movement and clear up some misunderstands. We also weigh the pros and cons of that movement and try to construct a positive way forward.

A.J. Swoboda a brilliant thinker, a relational pastor, and possesses an uncanny ability to think critically about the intersection of faith and culture. In this conversation, we talk about a lot of things related to his own journey of deconstruction and reconstruction, progressive vs. conservative Christianity, politics, and our cultural moment. A.J. has a Ph.D. from University of Birmingham (U.K.) and currently serves as Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies and World Christianity at Bushnell University.

My buddy Ed joins me on the show to talk about Critical Theory and race relations in America. Ed has a Ph.D. in American Cultural Studies from Bowling Green University and basically spent most of his doctoral work interacting with Critical Theory. Ed also has lots of thoughts about the race conversation and race relations inside and outside the church. Heads up: this conversation is super raw, super honest, and a bit of a "rough draft."