This is possibly the weirdest religious moment of the year so far: Buried within a legal brief about an election fraud scandal are the contents of an email someone sent to Sidney Powell, one of Trump’s lawyers, in 2020. The email makes claims about how someone might receive information about a stolen election. Those claims are surprising. The Dominion Voting Systems vs. Fox News defamation suit: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/22/1150647042/dominion-voting-systems-1-6-billion-defamation-suit-against-fox-news-goes-to-tri Who is Sidney Powell? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Powell What evidenc ..read more

Moses sings a song that takes us…deep into the problem of Christian nationalism. Come for the most secretly controversial passage in the Bible; stay for Leah trying to be a therapist for Brian on the problem of hating Christian nationalism but fearing that we need it for social cohesion. And a scholarly theory on the evolution from polytheism to monotheism in ancient Israel. Deuteronomy ch. 32: sons of Israel, or sons of GODS?! https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2032&version=NIV  The new survey, showing 50% of Republicans like Christian Nationalism: https ..read more

Here witness the thematic collision between a dustup over a now-deleted Gospel Coalition article about sex and a new Christian dating site for men and women who want to be in what they think are biblically-traditional relationships. The Gospel Coalition’s apology for the article / book excerpt, “Sex Won’t Save You–But it Points to the One Who Will”: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sex-wont-save-you/  NT Professor Michael Bird’s response to the “Sex Won’t Save You” article, with many links etc.: https://michaelfbird.substack.com/p/tgc-sex-and-christ  NT Professor Esau McCau ..read more

Despite not being known fundamentalist or evangelical influencer royalty, Brian scored an invitation to the 2023 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. We discuss the sights, sounds, beliefs, dress code, costs, content, scandal, and music of the event. Was Brian inducted into The Family? We reveal. Axios article on the new Prayer Breakfast format: https://www.axios.com/2023/01/29/national-prayer-breakfast-congress-leadership Slate on the National Prayer Breakfast schism: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/02/national-prayer-breakfast-family-fellowship-gathering.html Netflix documen ..read more

In February of 2023 students at Asbury University—a Christian college in Kentucky—started a revival, which has gone on for weeks (the “public” phase of the revival ended around Feb. 19th). Professional revival seekers flocked in to participate. We explain what a “revival” is and talk about how observers are thinking about the pros and cons of spiritual revival on this particular college campus. Fox News also used one of Leah’s tweets on the topic (!), so we discuss that as well. Basic info on the revival: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/asbury-university-revival-college-kentucky-going-vi ..read more

An epic thematic bombardment: Living again with Scientology, the fall of man and the curse reversed by avocados, the Black National Anthem, erasing your mistakes on the new Google phone, and Rihanna Live again…with Scientology: https://www.scientology.tv/you-can-live-again/?utm_content=LiveAgain&utm_source=redirect Adam and Eve and the avocado reverses the curse: https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2023/02/12/garden-of-eden-avocados-from-mexico-super-bowl-ad-commercial-anna-faris  He Gets Us, part 49: https://hegetsus.com/en/featured-videos  Google Pixel 7 and erasing your mistakes ..read more

Who are “the Nephilim,” you ask, and why did they create the Federal Reserve? We are so glad you asked and we’re going to tell you—by way of reviewing a most ambiguous Bible story and tracing some of the surprising ways this story is being received today. Genesis 6:1–4 (NRSVue): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+6%3A1-4&version=NRSVUE Numbers 13:31–33: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+13%3A31-33&version=NRSVUE 1 Enoch (see esp. ch. 15): https://www.ccel.org/c/charles/otpseudepig/enoch/ENOCH_1.HTM Book: The Roots of the Federal Reserve: Tracing the ..read more

We take a dive into a strange corner of YouTube, featuring videos purporting to show hitherto unknown or under-appreciated evidence that giant humans lived in the past and their bones have been hidden or covered up by the Smithsonian. Pew Research on YouTube: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/ Heidi Campbell, researcher on digital religion: https://digitalreligion.tamu.edu/users/heidi-campbell “Giant of Japan military parade”: https://youtu.be/-uigLE6EI1g Big Man Japan (2007): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0997147/ “20 Shocking Discoveries of ..read more

Veering wildly between reflections on death and bodies in the contemporary world, jokes about professional wrestling, ambulances passing by, rumination on how ancient people thought about burial and the afterlife, and with a major and free idea for others for a publication (hint: where do people who attend megachurches get buried?)—this is what you need for Halloween. Or any time. We’re back for the 8th season and 4th year of new podcast episodes from Weird Religion. The skulls we’re talking about have their own Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastered_human_skulls Some more on ..read more

Happy summer to everyone! We’ll be back in the fall of 2022 regularly, and possibly with a one-off here or there before then. Stay cool weirdos. https://www.weirdreligion.com/ https://www.instagram.com/weirdreligionpodcast/ https://twitter.com/weirdreligion https://facebook.com/weirdreligion If you’d be so kind as to leave us a review on Apple podcasts, we’d love that. Thank you ..read more