Pub Theology 1/28/25 -- Truth to power

First a disclaimer: Despite appearances to the contrary, this is neither a book review nor an endorsement of the new book by actor, comedian, and political commentator John Fugelsang titled "Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds." From the title you get the general idea of where the author is going with this. Fugelsang's story is a compelling one. He was raised in a large politically, ethnically, religiously, and racially diverse family as a progressive Roman Catholic by a mother who was a former nun and a father who was a former Franciscan monk. As he puts it in the introduction to his book, "I am here because two people broke a promise to God." What he wrestles with in this book is how to come to terms with, and then fight back against, what he views as the hijacking of Christianity and the abandonment of the faith that Jesus taught by religious and political leaders who have perverted the religion in the pursuit of their own power and selfish interests. In the introduction, Fugelsang writes: "This is a book about what Christianity started out as, what it became, and why it's still worth fighting for. ... The extreme right uses Jesus' name as camouflage. This is a guide to camouflage removal." In building our conversation this week around this book, I acknowledge from the start that none of us have (probably) read it. My copy is on its way thanks to The House of Bezos. In the meantime, you can read Fugelsang's introduction by clicking on this link . You can also watch Fugelsang's appearance on The Daily Show by following this link. But I think we can still have a quality discussion around some of what he raises. First, before we talk about the message, let's talk about the messenger. Fugelsang admits that he is no member of the clergy, nor scholar, nor theologian. So what qualifies him to write this book and level the critiques he makes? In short, does the messenger matter? Some quotes from the book will also serve as spurs to our conversation. “I generally trust people who are seeking the truth; I tend to be wary of those who claim they’ve found it.” “I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.” (Quoting Susan B. Anthony) “In focusing on what cannot be proven, many Christians fall into the trap of a Christianity that’s more about defending the supernatural than embodying the moral teachings of Jesus. It’s not the miracles driving people away from religion, it’s the Christians who don’t live by Jesus’s words about how we’re supposed to treat each other.” “[R]emember—if your church isn’t telling you to love your enemies but keeps telling you who your enemies are, you’re not really in a church.” “And that’s the point. We’re called to follow Christ, not the Bible. In fact, please understand this: the Bible does not tell us to follow the Bible. The Bible tells us to follow Christ. But Biblical Christians follow the Bible. They do not, in fact, attempt to follow Christ.” “Not only are Christians supposed to prioritize following Jesus’s words above the other parts of the Bible, that’s also quite literally why this religion got its name.” “These were the fundamentalists, the power-hungry grifters who took advantage of the fact that most people don’t know the Bible all that well. They were charlatans, frauds, hypocrites, and villains. And they made for great TV.” “Spiritual people use religion to become better people. Fundamentalists use religion to pretend they’re better than other people.” “And I was taught—relentlessly—that Christianity was about the things Jesus prioritized: Service to others. Forgiveness. Caring for the poor, the sick, the stranger, the prisoner. Fighting injustice with nonviolence, like Dr. King and Gandhi. Standing up for the less fortunate, like Dorothy Day and Catholic Charities. Love. Empathy. Compassion.” Obviously, no collection of cherry-picked quotations can capture the totality of Fugelsang's argument. But it can be our jumping off point for discussion. Join us tomorrow evening, Tuesday Oct. 7, starting at 7pm at Irish Tavern in downtown Lake Orion.

This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our services are at 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

This last Sunday's scripture readings featured one of the most oft misquoted lines in all the Bible. You've probably heard this one: Money is the root of all evil. But here's the problem. That's not actually what Paul says in his letter to Timothy (1 Timothy 6:10). Here's the actual line: "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains." A few verses later (6:17-19), Paul continues: "As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life." The disconnect between the actual quote and the regularly misquoted alternative text (I plead guilty to having made this error myself) points, I think, to the complicated relationship that many people of faith, specifically Christians, have with wealth, or perhaps their lack of it. So let's talk about this distinction, and whether it really matters. Why do you think it is the misquote that is so commonly thought to be the actual words from the Bible? What does that tell us about the way we think about the role of money in society? In short, what's the real difference between saying " money is the root of all evil" rather than " love of money is a root ..."? Can we argue that this is a distinction without an actual difference? What makes the love of money more problematic than the money itself? If you had Scrooge McDuck levels of wealth, wouldn't you be swimming in it gleefully as well? So what's the problem there? Can you accumulate McDuck-level riches and still be on the right side of Paul's advice to Timothy? Can you find yourself barely scraping by financially and be on the wrong side? What is Paul warning us against, and how does the warning hit in our own lives. We'll be talking all about it in our conversation this week, Tuesday Sept. 30, starting at 7pm at Irish Tavern in downtown Lake Orion. Join us for the discussion.

This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our services are at 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

Every now and again, your friendly staff here at PubTheo pays attention to the Sunday sermon, and in the process gets a little topic inspiration. Fr. Andy was preaching on the parable of the shrewd manager, Luke 16:1-3, (or unjust steward, depending on which list of parables you are looking at), and he made an interesting point about the trouble with taking the parables at face value. This is something that we spent some time talking about in the early days of Pub Theology conversations. Basically, why can't Jesus just give us the message straight rather than talking in riddles and stories that leave key points up to our own interpretation? In short, why doesn't he just tell us what to do already? One of Andy's points, or at least from my vantage point in the pews, is that the simple interpretation of the parables of easily digested morality tales can lead us to draw some very odd conclusions about what kind of behaviors are or are not in line with the Gospels. In the case of the parable in question, you could walk away believing that God will reward you for profiting from dishonest business dealings. This tells us something, I think, about both the perils and promise of stories, which is what the parables are. Stories with a purpose. Storytelling is probably one of the oldest, if not the oldest (along with song) of human cultural practices Those entrusted with the responsibility of handing down stories hold exalted roles in society, whether bard, or skald, firekeeper, or griot. It's still left to the listener, though, to draw meaning from those stories. Neuroscientist Emily Falk, in this episode of the podcast Hidden Brain , (this part comes at about the 40-minute mark) argues that stories have the ability to help us avoid defensiveness when presented with information we might otherwise perceive as criticism or negative feedback. She argues that our brains reason differently when challenging ideas are presented in a story rather than stated directly to us as facts. We're going to spend some time in our conversation this week talking about the power of stories and the lessons we learn from them. What role have stories played in your life? What's the first story you remember hearing, or reading for yourself? When you hear or read a story, or for that matter see a play, or watch a TV show or film, are you attuned to the possibility of meanings beyond the straightforward lines of the narrative? Is it just entertainment, or is there something deeper going on? If you look for meaning in stories, or if you unexpectedly get smacked in the head by a meaning you weren't anticipating, what are the lenses that bring those meanings into focus for you? If someone asks you to share your story with them, what do you think they are looking for? Join us for a discussion of stories and more tomorrow evening, Tuesday Sept. 23, starting at 7pm at Irish Tavern in downtown Lake Orion.

This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our services are at 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

Due to a long weekend of travel and a job that actually requires my attention, your faithful team here at Pub Theology hasn't found the time to work up a full-on topic for tonight's discussion. But have no fear! There is a plan! As we've done a few times in the past, we will take an open-mike / dealer's choice approach to our conversation this evening. We'll have some discussion prompts and conversation starters lined up in advance, but we'll also have the freedom to follow the thread of conversation wherever it decides to go. Join us for mystery of it all tonight starting at 7pm at Irish Tavern in downtown Lake Orion.

This Sunday, all are welcome to join us for a morning of worship and fellowship. Whether you are with us in the sanctuary or joining from afar, your presence strengthens our community. Our services are at 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. We warmly welcome those who cannot attend in person to join us via our live stream.

You've probably heard it said that a change of scenery is all that's needed to get a little perspective. That everything looks different with a change of scenery. Musician and singer-songwriter Kurt Vile has said that for him, a change of scenery is a source of inspiration. And here's a take on changing scenery from humorist Lewis Grizzard. He says, "Life is like a dogsled race. If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes." To mark the start of our 13th year of Pub Theology conversations, we're going to talk about this idea of a change of scenery, and it's only fitting that we do so with a little bit of a change of scenery ourselves. For this week's discussion (and hopefully for the rest of this PubTheo season and maybe more) we're moving back to downtown Lake Orion. We'll be meeting at Irish Tavern, on North Broadway, after spending the last several years up in Oxford. This new location should be a familiar venue for PubTheo veterans. We met there for a number of years in the long-ago pre-pandemic days when it was 51 North Brewing. While we'll spend some time catching up with each other after our long summer hiatus, we are going to dig a little deeper into this idea of change of scenery. What does that notion mean to you? When someone says, "I could use a change of scenery," what do you think they are getting at? In other words, what does a change of scenery mean to them? More importantly, have you ever felt like you could benefit from a change of scenery, whether big or small? And what does that mean to you? When that feeling comes on, what do you do in response? What are your experiences with a change of scenery? Does it provide perspective? Does it fuel your creativity? Or are you harnessed on the third row of the dogsled team, with a view that doesn't change and that you feel powerless to do anything about? We're going to talk about all of this in our conversation this week. Join us at Irish Tavern as we return to Lake Orion tomorrow evening, Tuesday Sept. 9. The discussion starts at 7pm.