Occupy Today Occupy Today

Sex and intimacy - that's what we're talking about! Why are they two separate but equally important issues? We unpack a lot in our longest podcast yet and make it easier to swallow by presenting it in two parts. There's even space for that awkward silence when we ask, "Was it good for you?" Hold on to your socks, this is Part 2...

Sex and intimacy - that's what we're talking about! Why are they two separate but equally important issues? We unpack a lot in our longest podcast yet and make it easier to swallow by presenting it in two parts. There's even space for that awkward silence when we ask, "Was it good for you?" Hold on to your socks, this is Part 1...

With six out of the eight of us present for this “Getting to Know You” episode on Occupy Today, we share how each of us has been directly affected in some way through Adoption, with Scott and Sophie getting ready to have their second child (through embryo adoption!). Most surprisingly, all of us had a story to share, and no two stories were the same. Join us as we explore how adoption has impacted our lives. The journey towards family often takes surprising, and beautiful, turns.

Like most of America, we have found ourselves increasingly disturbed by the immigration crisis at our southern border, particularly where children and parents are being separated by the recent “Zero Tolerance” policy. Our discussion in this episode of Occupy Today isn’t so much about providing armchair solutions but rather an introduction into how we look at the “others” in our midst. We look forward to revisiting the issue in the coming weeks and months as the crisis evolves, especially as Justin and Jennifer were unable to participate in this discussion.

Welcome back to Occupy Today! We're so glad you’re on this journey of spirituality and activism with us – and when and where those two things intersect.

Our nation continues to be gripped in a heated debate over gun control. Where do "Rights" and "Responsibilities" align? To have honest dialogue, especially on such controversial topics, requires vulnerability – going to the places where stories are no longer anecdotal or hearsay but personal experiences, reflections and fears. Again, this isn’t so much a discussion to provide answers but rather a conversation to open our eyes and ultimately our hearts to another’s experience and perspective.

Welcome to our first ever podcast for Occupy Today. Please be gentle!

Today’s topic? Well . . . let’s just say we try to butcher a very sacred theological cow… Penal Substitution*. It’s a great launching point for discussing justice, wrath, judgment, punishment and all sorts of related things. Jumping into the Deep End? You bet!

Season 1 Episode 1: Burning Down The Sacred Cows
* “Penal substitution derives from the idea that divine forgiveness must satisfy divine justice, that is, that God is not willing or able to simply forgive sin without first requiring a satisfaction for it. It states that God gave himself in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer the death, punishment and curse due to fallen humanity as the penalty for our sin…While penal substitution shares themes present in many other theories of the atonement, penal substitution is a distinctively Protestant understanding of the atonement that differs from both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox understandings of the atonement.” [Wikipedia]

“Among the many problems of Calvin’s theory of the cross, one is that it turns God into a petty tyrant and a moral monster. Punishing the innocent in order to forgive the guilty is monstrous logic, atrocious theology, and a gross distortion of the idea of justice. This debate — billed as “The Monster God Debate” — was recorded and eventually viewed thousands of times online. Over the next year I received hundreds of correspondences from people around the world relieved to learn that Good Friday was not the day when God killed his Son. What Jesus did on the cross is far more mysterious and beautiful than simply offering himself as a primitive ritual sacrifice. Ritual sacrifice may appease the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, but it has nothing to do with the Father of Jesus. The cross is a cataclysmic collision of violence and forgiveness. The violence part of the cross is entirely human. The forgiveness part of the cross is entirely divine. God’s nature is revealed in love, not in violence. The Roman cross was an instrument of imperial violence that Jesus transformed into a symbol of divine love.” ~ Brian Zahnd, Who Killed Jesus?