Virtue In The Wasteland Podcast

Another show in the Wrong Side of History series, we sit down with a native Hawaiian and a missionary to the Navaho Nation to discuss the ways in which Western Christians have made mistakes, but also some positive contributions, to first nations people around the world, especially in US states and territories. De Lude III (Native Hawaiian) serves the Native Hawaiian people on the island of O’ahu, the third largest and most densely populated island comprising the state. Having received his master’s in Lutheran education and serving many years as vice-principal, Clarence is now enrolled in the Cross-Cultural Ministry Center (CMC) Program at Concordia University, Irvine, Calif., leading to ordination.   Tim Norton and his family serve the Navajo Nation – the largest Native nation both in terms of population and area of more than 25,000 square miles. Tim works with Louise Lee (Navajo), who also serves with Lutheran Indian Ministries at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, Navajo, N.M. Tim is enrolled in the Cr

LA Country music, religion, hipsters, and making sincere music.   samoutlaw.com virtueinthewasteland.com

Music and book suggestions to change things up for you this summer.  Don't get into a rut.  We created a playlist on spotify to sample some of the stuff we mention: https://play.spotify.com/user/virtueinthewasteland/playlist/6DfJ5Lp4JWdYQhCPDdjVkI You can find a full list of readings on our website: virtueinthewasteland.com  

Climate change, desertification, ethics, ecology, fisheries, and caring for our neighbors around the world.  Dr. Bignmami is a marine biologist, specializing in the relationship between fish and the acidity of our oceans. Another episode with the "wrong side of history" theme. virtueinthewasteland.com

If we look at our landscapes, our cities, our churches, and our homes, we can tell what we value.  Indeed, we can determine who our real gods are.  From cathedrals to bank buildings, we have, as a race, shifted our allegiances (sometimes from God to mammon).  Dan and Jeff banter about Mirecea Eliade, the layout of a home, and though we only use the term once: cultural Feng Shui.  

Commencement speaches tend to be salads of platitudes and cliches.  But one great one was offered by David Foster Wallace ("This is Water").  We share our advice to students who graduate this year, but also to anyone who wants to reset, wake up, and live well.

Fighting, our fights, and the Crusades.  This is part of our recent theme: "The Wrong Side of History." Historian and scholar of Islam, Adam Francisco (a Faithful Mask Fellow) joins us to reset our understanding of the history and legacy of the crusades.  

We bring Rev. Dr. C. J. Armstrong back to help unpack the ways in which religious communities and other groups maintain their identity, struggle with welcoming outsiders and maintaining identity, and appear to the outside world.  We go into the concept of taboos in Freud and Alasdair MacInytre, and spend some time giving a brief history of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod, as a case study for this topic.

This is a brief show that we hope to elaborate on later. (Dan's edit: a show on which we wish to elaborate later).  In some ways it was occasioned by a comment by Jesse Nigro, posted to a 1517 Legacy blog post by Jeff. How is it that two guys in a conservative and sometimes prickly denomination are simultaneously irenic.  We ultimately argue that by being confident in our confession, we can be in dialog with people from radically different perspectives.  It's not that we jump on the fad of the hour, but rather that because of our anchor, we need not fret when strange winds blow.     virtueinthewasteland.com faithfulmasks.org 1517legacy.com  

Narrative, fiction, stories, and myth. Why do stories matter? What do they say about society and ideology.  Come find out.    We mention Casey Abrams, George Washington, Cato, Into the Woods, John Milbank, Radical Orthodoxy, postliberalism, Turretin, ACTC, Stephen Jay Gould, and Enlightenment.

How should we talk to our children about dating?  How should we date ourselves? Dr. C. J. Armstrong comes along for the mellow ride, as a chapperone. Courtship, love, romance, sex, adolescence, and flirtation.

Onanism is an old word for masturbation. Why?  What is the historical background to the ways in which the church has understood sexuality, the body, what is normal, and how to talk to young people about sexuality.  We discuss the origins of the Graham cracker, grain based cereal, and 19th century health fads. This is the first in a series of shows dedicated to evaluating whether the church has been on the wrong side of history and learning how we can apply lessons from the past to our cultural engagement today.

Don't listen to this one first, if you've never heard the show before.  We've been busy, so this show checks in and answers some mail that's been piling up.  Is Dan really a Republican?  What have we been reading?  Why are we in LA?

Hear what some sharp students and Faithful Masks Fellow Dr. Kristen Koenig have to say about hearing President Obama at the 50th anniversary of the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  Martin Luther King Jr., Al Sharpton, Barack Obama, Rosa Young, Concordia Alabama, and more.   This is episode 114. virtueinthewasteland.com http://www.ccal.edu

A discussion of political, cultural, or religious code words and signs that separate the in group from the out group. virtueinthewasteland.com  

Dr. Uwe Siemon-Netto, author of Triumph of the Absurd, discusses ways in which we can apply lessons from Vietnam for today's crises.  

Introverts, introversion, C. G. Jung, dreams, and how to live an optimal life as an introvert or someone who loves an introvert.  What is the MBTI test and does it matter? Should it lock us in to patterns of life?  Dr. Cosgrove is a Prof. of Psychology at Concordia University Irvine. virtueinthewasteland.com This is episode #111.  

We're not giving up on this show.  But we are talking about ways in which giving something up for a time might be good for us. Just days after Valentine's Day, we ask what's up with Lent? Is it worth giving a shot?  Even if we aren't Roman Catholic?  Or even religous at all?   Jeff explains why he has recently changed his favorite holiday from Ash Wednesday to an unlikely day on the calendar (for him).  Dan goes deep into major artists in popular culture, like REM and the Pixies.  Listen to find out how (or whether) this all fits together.

A Valentine's day bonus.  Sociologist Kristen Koenig joins us to deconstruct relationships in contemporary culture, the holiday called Valentine's day, the nature of passion, eros, love, commitment, and our era's dissolution.   This is episode #109 virtueinthewasteland.com

We try to move past the meaninglessness of some ideologies, past the cheap hope of the positive thinking movement, and on to a path to hope.  We have an ethical obligation to hope until its last embers have been extinguished.  Patience, friends. Things are going to be fine.  There's a crack in everything, as Leonard Cohen says, but that's how the light gets through.   This is episode 108. virtueinthewasteland.com faithfulmasks.org