Humanize Me

Mega is an improvised satire from the staff of a fictional mega church, hosted by Holly Laurent and Greg Hess. In this conversation with Bart Campolo, Holly and Greg talk about satirizing American Christianity, what makes it funny, and the mental gymnastics it takes to twist Jesus into a capitalist. But it doesn't take long before they're also talking - very personally - about being haunted by the evangelicalism of childhood, how to live authentically, recovery from trauma, undoing some of the Christian cultural lessons about sexuality after you're married, marriage itself and more.

In this Part 2 with Mark Oppenheimer, recorded later after both had listened back to their first conversation, Mark and Bart return to take the earlier convo in a practical direction. Including: Facebook versus Letter to the Editor, steel-manning, don’t act in ways you wouldn’t let your kids act, diversity including identity and ideology, features of the 'new puritanism', the importance of hearing from the young and old, keeping kids off social media, how we may be living in the most humorless time in American history, and the importance of being committed to something.

A recent blog post by Esther Perel caught Bart Campolo's eye. In this brief, bonus episode, Bart reads his unauthorized edit of Perel's piece, which is about what we've lost in the pandemic, and how to cultivate collective resilience and 'tragic optimism'. Perel's original essay can be found at: https://estherperel.com/blog/anticipatory-grief?fbclid=IwAR3rD-qfdtNrUdQPgehl2f6156YJOEMTNooRjgZIaOcNtrUw1D5mnXuXxPM

Mark Oppenheimer is a friend of this podcast who is a signatory to a recent open letter published by Harper's Magazine, in praise of open debate and tolerance for differing opinions, and against some aspects of 'cancel culture', dogmatism and censoriousness. In this conversation with Bart Campolo, Mark chats about why he signed the letter, the limits and boundaries of free speech, the likeliest paths to progress, the effects of added scrutiny on writers at present and some of the reasons he thinks liberals have gotten less 'liberal'. Read the letter at: https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/ Read Ross Douthat's 10 theses on cancel culture at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/opinion/cancel-culture-.html

'Hi Bart, I know in your podcast you talk a lot about people in 'suddenly interfaith' marriages, where one is a believer and the other has since left, and obviously there are obstacles, but what I want to know is: Does anything work? Is intimacy possible between people of radically different worldviews?' Bart's perspective: Sometimes. And there are some things that make it harder and other things that make it easier.

Leah Helbling is a close friend of Humanize Me and a member of the team at the humanist community Cincinnati Caravan with Bart Campolo. In this episode, the two chat about Leah's instinct to attempt to 'deconvert' those who are questioning their faith, and Bart's belief that many people are better off staying where they are. The friendly disagreement started when Bart answered a question in Episode 504 from a listener called Craig who found himself in that position.

In this solo episode, Bart talks about seeing the current wave of protest and uprising - the most significant moment ever for the Black Lives Matter movement - in the context of collective trauma.

After talking a bit about insomnia, shaking hands with a local dog owner and dating in the pandemic, we turn to a voicemail asking Bart's opinion of anti-natalism, the philosophical position that ascribes a negative value to having babies.

Where did our popular ideas of heaven and hell come from? Did Jesus teach a doctrine of eternal torture? How did our ideas of the afterlife evolve? Bart Ehrman is the author of over 30 books, including six New York Times bestselling books explaining critical biblical scholarship to a popular audience. In this conversation with Bart Campolo, Ehrman talks about the difference between agnosticism and atheism and why he considers himself both, why the words translated 'hell' don't mean what we think they do, how Jesus talked of 'eternal life', the early church theology of heaven and hell, how Jews of the 1st century understood bodily resurrection, the origin of the devil, our ideas of the afterlife and cosmic justice, whether we should try to deconvert people who are wavering in their faith, and more.

Two questions about missing prayer and church during the COVID-19 pandemic. Includes an update on life during lockdown.