Without Works

Amity Armstrong and Lemuel Gonzalez
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Bimonthly

Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, bring you a show of news and culture debunking the errors of fundamentalism and showing the progressive nature of Christianity.

  1. 3d ago

    They/Them

    Show Notes Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today’s painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works. Amity: During a 2021 floor debate in the Texas legislature, state congressman and Presbyterian Seminarian James Talarico declared that God was non-binary. He cited scripture translations to show that God is described, biblically, using both male and female terms.  Since becoming a Senate candidate he has walked back those comments.  Talarico now says that his comments were, ‘intentionally provocative,’ and he made them to show support for the LGTBQ community. He also claims that clips of his original speech have been edited to fit his political rival’s narrative.  Lemuel: Is God is non-binary? As the definition of that term is a gender identity that does not identify as exclusively male or female, absolutely. God does not have a gender because God is above it. God does not reproduce, so God does not need reproductive organs. God is transcendent. God does not indulge in stupid mortal gender games.  To support this point we present the following evidence.  Amity: “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent; hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and it shall he not make it good?” - Numbers 23:19 Lemuel: The Sadducees, an important sect in the Hebrew council of Jesus’ time, did not believe, among other things,  in a life after death. Some of their number tried to publicly embarrass Jesus with what amounts to a thought experiment. They present a situation where a man dies, leaving no issue. According to Moses law, in this situation the dead man’s brother  marries the widow as to father children that inherit dead their father’s goods and property. In this construct seven brothers all marry the widow woman in succession, leaving no issue. If there really was a life after death, who would be her true husband in the afterlife?  Like all of the, ‘gotcha,’ moments directed at Jesus, this one failed. He replied:  **Amity: ** “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures of the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” -Luke 22: 29-30 Lemuel: This story appears in all three of the synoptic Gospels. It suggests that after death we will become genderless ourselves, and operate on the level of purely spiritual beings.  The most devastating blow to the notion of a gendered God comes from a conversation in the Gospel of John. Jesus speaks to Nicodemus, a Pharisee, member of the Hebrew council, and secretly, a supporter of Jesus. This gospel describes a private conversation where Jesus shares with Nicodemus, where he makes the following declaration:  **Amity: ** "God is a spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth;" -John 4:24 Lemuel: Don’t be confused by the use of,  “him,” in that citation. That is the failure of the English language to capture the size, the breadth, the glory of what God is.   Amity: There is a difference between sex and gender - I think it’s important to the discussion as well. Find us on Twitter: @WithoutWorksPod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/withoutworks Email @ withoutworkspod@gmail.com Our Internet home: www.withoutworkspodcast.com YouTube Baptist News YouTube

  2. Sep 22

    "Christian" Nationalism

    Show Notes Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today’s painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works. **Amity: ** The Gospel of John relates a story where Jesus is followed by a huge crowd who want to listen to his teaching. Some of them bring sick friends and relatives to be cured.  Seeing the great size of the crowd, Jesus is inspired to care for them. He asks his disciple Philip a rhetorical question, “Where will we find enough food to buy for these people?” Philip replies that it would take much more money than they could raise. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, finds a boy in the crowd who is willing to share his lunch: five barley buns, and two small fish.  The rest of the story is well known. What happened directly after Jesus fed the enormous crowd, with twelve baskets of loaves and fish left over, is just as important.  “After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.”  -John 6: 14-15 Lemuel: Christian Nationalism is an ideology that promotes Christian values, so called, in laws and into the government, to the derogation of other religions and ideas. This means that a particularly narrow, and more often outright false, interpretation of Jesus’ teaching is applied to lawmaking,  government institutions, and public life in a Procrustean way.  Interpretation is the key: A small group of ignorant men, and do not be mistaken; they are men, acting in the interests of themselves and other men, have ignored the teachings and story of Jesus, in favor of a restrictive interpretation that acts in opposition to the Gospel’s moral demands on us. The story of the five thousand fed shows Jesus giving to everyone in the crowd. He does not withhold food to those who did not make a public oath of loyalty, he did not withhold a miraculous cure for ailing foreigners in the crowd. Whoever came to listen, young, old, man or woman, jew or gentile, everyone was fed. Every single person ate, with baskets gathered up after. No one was in want.  Amity: The Gospel of John tells another story. In this Jesus, after his arrest,  is taken to Pontius Pilate by temple authorities to be executed. There is no charge they can make to the Roman Governor to interest him, as he has no particular investment in their laws. To push Pilate to act they tell him that Jesus claimed to be king of the Jews, an utter falsehood. Pilate asks Jesus about this, and they have this exchange:  “Are you King of the Jews?” “Is that your own idea,” Jesus replied, “or did others talk to you about me?” “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it that you have done?” Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is from another place.” Lemuel: The meaning is clear. The Gospel message is not to be attached to any government. God’s house is much bigger, more inclusive, than anything founded on spurious constitutions that declare freedom and equality, while building on the ruined homes of Indigenous people, with slave labor.   If Jesus wanted kingship, he would have taken it during his life on earth. He certainly doesn’t need it now. https://thehill.com/opinion/6075328-huffman-no-prophets-bestseller/

  3. Aug 3

    No Girls Allowed

    Show Notes Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today’s painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works. Amity: At the recent Southern Baptist Convention, a gathering of the United State’s largest Protestant denomination, (at present 46,402 affiliated churches) an amendment was presented. The, ‘Truth and Unity,’ Amendment to the Church constitution includes the following directions. Affiliated Churches under the Convention banner were obliged:  “ … not to act to affirm, appoint, or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, specifically preaching to the assembled congregation.” This is being promoted by Al Mohler, misogynist and President of Southern Baptist University, in Louisville Kentucky. He says:  “There’s a great line that divides liberal and biblical evangelicalism, and you can see it on this very issue. The trajectory of liberal denominations is clear.” Lemuel: These amendments require a two thirds majority to be added to the Constitution. An earlier attempt to amend the constitution in 2024 failed. Two successive votes of the two thirds majority. The penalties for rejecting the decisions of the convention include being unfellowshipped; that is, being removed from the organization.  In a recent interview on the subject, Albert Mohler clarified his position further. He said:  “The Purpose of this amendment is, to make very clear, we do not want to go the way of liberal Protestantism or for that matter, even other denominations we think are wrongly ordered in having women as pastors of Churches.” Amity: Since approximately 2023, 206 churches have been disfellowed around these topics. In 2023 the Saddleback Church in California was, “disfellowshipped,” from the Southern Baptist Convention primarily for ordaining women. Local Church bodies were able to disfellowship the first Baptist Church of Decatur in 2009, The Druid Hills Baptist Church in 2010, and The Greater Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church of Lynchburg in 2015, for the same reason. Local Church organization led the charge in these cases. Now the SBC as a whole wants to amend their constitution to keep women from any position of authority.

  4. Jun 17

    A Calf By Any Other Name

    Show Notes Amity: (standard disclaimer) The views and opinions expressed by the prophet Moses and his interpretation of the Lord of Hosts, is his own and do not reflect the policy, position, or opinions of Without Works. Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today’s painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works. Amity: Fifteen feet tall, twenty-two if you include the plinth, bronze and covered in gold leaf referred to as Don Colossus - a statute of Donald Trump, raising a defiant fist to the heavens, commemorating the moment after a failed assasination attempt during the 2024 Presidential campaign has been erected at the Trump National Doral golf club in Florida  Mark Burns, “pastor,”  of Harvest Praise and Worship Center in South Carolina, was in attendance at its unveiling. He insisted that the installation of the statue was, “a celebration of life and a powerful symbol of resilience, freedom, patriotism, courage, and the will to keep fighting for America.”  Pastor Burns felt it was necessary, unprovoked, to inform his followers on X “Let me say this plainly: This statue is not a golden calf. We worship Jesus Christ and him alone. This statue is not about worship. It is about honor.” So let’s discuss the Golden Calf - what it is and what it isn’t Lemuel: The story of the Exodus from Egypt is central to world religion and culture. The Hebrew people, led by Moses, are liberated after four hundred years of captivity in Egypt. They follow Moses through the desert, through the sea, and through the desert again.  Moses is directed to return to Mount Sinai, where he had his original communication with God. He is to go alone to the mountain top, and receive directions for the future and the law to govern the hebrew people.  For forty days and forty nights, no one was allowed to go near the mountain. The people were told to wash their clothes and abstain from sexual relations on pain of death. God descends onto the mountain in a terrifying display of thunder and fire, and Moses goes up  to meet him.  The hebrew people, huddled in camp, wait for Moses' return. Days pass. Weeks pass. Some of the people gather together and demand that Aaron, Moses’ older brother and spokesman, make them a God they can see and worship. They believe that Moses, already elderly, may be dead. They want to appease this terrifying God who they believe has struck down their leader. Aaron asks for the gold earrings and jewelry they brought from Egypt. He melts these down and makes a golden calf.  The worship of this calf quickly turns from genuine adoration to revelry and this infuriates God. God commands Moses to return to his people, and in his wrath threatens to wipe them off the face of the earth, making Moses alone the father of the new Hebrew nation, the nation he had promised the patriarch Abraham. Moses is able to talk God out of this plan, and makes his way down the mountain. Moses, seeing the wild orgies carried on, becomes so furious that he shatters the stone tablets on which God had carved the ten commandments. Moses , anticipating God’s further anger, takes a terrible action. He separates the faithful from the idolaters, arms them, and insists:  **Amity: ** “ ... “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other , each killing his brother, friend, and neighbor.’ The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand people died.” **Lemuel: ** The calf is melted, ground into powder, and the survivors are compelled to drink it. Even those survivors  are punished: God sends a plague.  Amity: Welcome to the Old Testament.  The first and second of the Ten Commandments are: ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” and, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.” This might seem strange when the high church, Catholic and Orthodox, use statues and icons as part of their worship.  Lemuel: Those images are used to focus worship. They are meant to anchor wandering minds during prayer. The use of the images as sacred beings  is what God objects too. Ascribing God’s plans and actions to an idol is also something God objects too. Representative sculpture is not.  God instructed Moses, for instance, to have two angels carved into the lid of the Ark of the Covenant.  Amity: The image of God has changed since Moses’ time. He is no longer seen as an impetuous mirror of our desires. At least he shouldn't be. The God who would insist on the slaughter of his own people in an effort to winnow the survivors to create a complaint remnant is no longer the God that true Christians worship. In that extremely black and white world, the worship of a God other than the one we are pledged to is infidelity. Oath breaking.**

  5. May 27

    Saint Columba Catholic Church

    Show Notes Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today’s painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works. **Amity: ** Saint Columba Catholic Church was founded in 1898, the result of a collaboration between Sacred Heart Church, Oakland and Saint Joseph the Worker Church in Berkeley. The founding pastor was Father Martin Whyte, formerly Assistant Pastor of Sacred Heart. The original population of St. Columba Catholic Church was about 100 mostly Irish families. Following the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906  the parish became 35% Italian, while the Irish population decreased to 20%. In the two decades after that earthquake, the number of African American parishioners grew.  On September 1, 1981, Father Paul Ross Vassar was assigned as pastor.  His 13-year tenure was highlighted with a vision for liturgy that reflected the African American Catholic experience.  Fr. Vassar initiated the St. Columba Annual African American Celebration, in conjunction with African American History Month (February), drawing nationally renowned African American speakers.  Part of that celebration was – and continues to be—the Rawn Harbor Workshop Choir Experience; noted Catholic Liturgist Rawn Harbor would present a week-long workshop for choirs and singers from throughout the diocese. The church is well-known for its social justice advocacy, including "Black Lives Matter" signage and support for the LGBTQ community. Each year, since 2004, white crosses have been erected on site to commemorate homicide victims. There is a commemorative community service at St. Columba each December, in which family members and friends meet and remember those lost to gun violence.. Lemuel: Tuesday morning, May FIfth, Adian McAleenan, a pastor at Saint Columba, noticed the desecration before morning mass. Sixteen of the memorial crosses had been ripped up and broken, a memorial fountain for the victims of the balcony collapse that killed six Irish students, was knocked over, and an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe torn from place. No motive for the vandalism has surfaced, no manifestos were left behind.  Church volunteer Pam Sanchez Hernandez said of the vandals, "However deeply troubled they are, they need help. That's probably their way of saying I need help, by being destructive like this." Amity: This demonstrates the nature of Saint Columba; the attitude is service to the congregation and to community at large. We hear conservative voices complaining about the persecution of the Christian faith, and the erosion of Christian values, but when those values are expressed through compassion, mercy, and social justice, they are open to attack. Rather than asking for persecution, or even as some MAGA leaders have, the prosecution and or execution of the vandals responsible, they want to help restore that person or persons balance.    In Micah, Chapter 6: verse 8, the prophet describes the will of God towards his people:  “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Find us on Twitter: @WithoutWorksPod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/withoutworks Email @ withoutworkspod@gmail.com Our Internet home: www.withoutworkspodcast.com Amity: We are also reachable at withoutworkspod@gmail.com,  on twitter @withoutworkspod and on Facebook at Without Works podcast.  https://www.ktvu.com/news/columba-church-oakland-vandalized https://oaklandside.org/2026/05/07/st-columba-catholic-church-vandalism-oakland/ https://www.ktvu.com/news/columba-church-oakland-vandalized**

  6. Mar 29

    Leading With Love

    Show Notes There are many things we could talk about these days. Today we choose the threats and hatred targeted at one seminarian by a “pastor” - James Talarico, senate candidate from TX vs. Brooks Potteiger The Hill The Seattle Times

  7. Feb 17

    Church Protests

    Show Notes Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today’s painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works. Is it ever wrong to invade the sanctity of a church? We’re talking about the constitution and the actions of Jesus. And in this case, they are in sync.  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/withoutworks Email @ withoutworkspod@gmail.com Our Internet home: www.withoutworkspodcast.com**

  8. 12/25/2025

    Playing a Victim

    Show Notes Lemuel: Imagine for a moment that you are a junior psychology major at a 4-year university in an upper level psychology class called “Lifespan Development.” You are given an assignment. You are to read an article and write a 650 word reaction paper demonstrating that you read the assigned article and includes a thoughtful reaction to the material presented in the article. The rubric is specific. 10 points will be deducted if your paper is between 620 and 649 words and no credit will be given if under 620 words. There should be a thoughtful discussion of some aspect of the article such as a discussion of why you feel the topic is worthy of study, or not or an application of the study results to your own experiences. The best reaction papers illustrate that the students have read the materials and engaged in critical thinking about some aspect of the article. There will be three metrics evaluated: does the paper show a clear tie-in to the article, does it present a thoughtful reaction or response to the article and is the paper clearly written. The abstract of the assigned article is as follows:  The current study examines whether being high in gender typicality is associated with popularity, whether being low in gender typicality is associated with rejection/teasing, and whether teasing due to low gender typicality mediates the association with negative mental health.  being typical for one's gender significantly predicted being rated as popular by peers, and this relationship was moderated by gender. Finally, low gender typicality predicted more negative mental health outcomes for boys. These relationships were, at times, mediated by experiences with gender‐based teasing, suggesting that negative mental health outcomes may be a result of the social repercussions of being low in gender typicality rather than a direct result of low typicality. Amity: Now that you know your assignment, imagine that you submit the following essay as your reaction paper. “This article was very thought provoking and caused me to thoroughly evaluate the idea of gender and the role it plays in our society. The article discussed peers using teasing as a way to enforce gender norms. I do not necessarily see this as a problem. God made male and female and made us differently from each other on purpose and for a purpose. God is very intentional with what He makes, and I believe trying to change that would only do more harm. Gender roles and tendencies should not be considered “stereotypes”. Women naturally want to do womanly things because God created us with those womanly desires in our hearts. The same goes for men. God created men in the image of His courage and strength, and He created women in the image of His beauty. He intentionally created women differently than men and we should live our lives with that in mind. It is frustrating to me when I read articles like this and discussion posts from my classmates of so many people trying to conform to the same mundane opinion, so they do not step on people’s toes. I think that is a cowardly and insincere way to live. It is important to use the freedom of speech we have been given in this country, and I personally believe that eliminating gender in our society would be detrimental, as it pulls us farther from God’s original plan for humans. It is perfectly normal for kids to follow gender “stereotypes” because that is how God made us. The reason so many girls want to feel womanly and care for others in a motherly way is not because they feel pressured to fit into social norms. It is because God created and chose them to reflect His beauty and His compassion in that way. In Genesis, God says that it is not good for man to be alone, so He created a helper for man (which is a woman). Many people assume the word “helper” in this context to be  condescending and offensive to women. However, the original word in Hebrew is “ezer kenegdo” and that directly translates to “helper equal to”. Additionally, God describes Himself in the Bible using “ezer kenegdo”, or “helper”, and He describes His Holy Spirit as our Helper as well. This shows the importance God places on the role of the helper (women’s roles). God does not view women as less significant than men. He created us with such intentionally and care and He made women in his image of being a helper, and in the image of His beauty. If leaning into that role means I am “following gender stereotypes” then I am happy to be following a stereotype that aligns with the gifts and abilities God gave me as a woman. I do not think men and women are pressured to be more masculine or feminine. I strongly disagree with the idea from the article that encouraging acceptance of diverse gender expressions could improve students’ confidence. Society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic and severely harms American youth. I do not want kids to be teased or bullied in school. However, pushing the lie that everyone has their own truth and everyone can do whatever they want and be whoever they want is not biblical whatsoever. The Bible says that our lives are not our own but that our lives and bodies belong to the Lord for His glory. I live my life based on this truth and firmly believe that there would be less gender issues and insecurities in children if they were raised knowing that they do not belong to themselves, but they belong to the Lord. Overall, reading articles such as this one encourage me to one day raise my children knowing that they have a Heavenly Father who loves them and cherishes them deeply and that having their identity firmly rooted in who He is will give them the satisfaction and acceptance that the world can never provide for them. My prayer for the world and specifically for American society and youth is that they would not believe the lies being spread from Satan that make them believe they are better off as another gender than what God made them. I pray that they feel God’s love and acceptance as who He originally created them to be.” Lemuel: Now imagine that you get a 0 and your non-binary teacher explicitly states that the failing grade was not based on your personal beliefs, but because the paper "does not answer the questions for this assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive". A second instructor subsequently assesses the paper, and left comments agreeing, saying that the paper "should not be considered as a completion of the assignment" Now, imagine complaining that you were targeted and failed based on your personal beliefs and you are a victim of religious persecution.  Did I mention that your teacher is non-binary, the paper is only 3% of your grade, and that you went to Turning Point USA immediately after submitting your complaint to the school without receiving any feedback  The Paper In Question AP News The Oklahoman OU Statement KFOR

See All (83)

About

Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, bring you a show of news and culture debunking the errors of fundamentalism and showing the progressive nature of Christianity.

Information

  • Creator
    Amity Armstrong and Lemuel Gonzalez
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    83
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2019
  • Show Website
    Without Works