A Christian and an Atheist Walk into a Bar Neil Newton and Philip Thompson

We were determined to do another holiday special and this year we wanted it to be about the Magi/astrologers in Matthew 2, which is technically not Christmas but Epiphany. The season of Epiphany begins on January 6 and runs all the way to Ash Wednesday (which this year is also Valentine's Day, so Ash Valentine's Day!) so we are getting this baby in right under the wire!

In this Epiphany special we discuss the wise astrologers from the East, Herod and other tinpot despots, and weird divination practices that hang around in the Bible even though they're not strictly sanctioned. We'll also discuss the meaning of tarot cards, modern day astrology, and a little quantum mechanics and chaos theory.

What we're drinking in this episode
Neil: Los Angeles tap water (!)
Phil: Lemon Zinger

We wanted to do an episode on Critical Race Theory because it’s one of those phrases that has come to mean everything except what it is. We draw a careful (and we would argue obvious) distinction between discussing the history of race relations in the U.S. and Critical Race Theory as a  discrete legal movement addressing racism in the American system of justice. Along the way we dive into controversies surrounding important Black Christian writers like Jemar Tisby and Esau McCaulley and critique some of the gratuitous attacks on their work. 
So this one has been a long time coming. How long, you ask? So long ago Neil was attending a Dodgers/Pirates game in LA that very night. How long, you ask? So long ago running against “the woke mind virus” seemed like a winning strategy for Ron DeSantis. And yeah, the episode runs kinda long, but we hope it’s worth the wait for our regular listeners. If not, here are…

Three books that are better ways to spend your time than listening to this podcast:

Critical Race Theory: an Introduction by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic

The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby

Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope by Esau McCaulley

What we’re drinking

Phil: Mighty Fortress Imperial IPA from Acrospire Brewing in Glenshaw, PA

Neil: whatever he got at the Dodgers/Pirates game later that night

With both the writers and now the actors who play Neil and Phil on strike, it’s taken a while to get this episode (which was recorded on Easter Sunday 2023) out. Fortunately, the episode was completed by AI and we think you’ll notice a big improvement over the organic episodes. 
In Season 2 - Episode 3, “Neil” and “Phil” discuss the increasing brazenness around racism and fascism and explore the role disobedience plays in the story of creation and fall in Genesis. I, your Robot Overlord… uh… Neil and Phil… come to some surprising conclusions.

What we would be drinking if we were not a disembodied sentient computer program:
Phil - Blackhat Schwarz Bier, Akronym Brewing 
Neil - Tenshen red wine

Humans don’t like being told what to do. Shocking, we know!
In Episode 2 we explore one of the three freedoms David Graeber and David Wengrow postulate in The Dawn of Everything, the freedom to disobey.  We start with how the freedom to disobey is expressed in the Old Testament prophets' relationship to the priesthood and the monarchy, and do a deep dive into I Kings 22 where Ahab and Jehoshaphat plan a battle with Aram. Only one prophet, Micaiah, is willing to say anything contrary to what Ahab wants to hear. (It’s a wild passage and Phil has never heard anyone preach on it in a lifetime of church attendance.)
We then explore how the freedom to disobey applies to contemporary issues like voting rights and in particular, the many problems with taking away the franchise of convicted criminals—even after they have completed their sentences. 
No beers for this episode. Neither of us were in the mood to drink, which is a shame really.

Season 2, Episode 1 is finally here! And y’nz are not gonna believe it, but we have…A PLAN! This season we will use the amazing book by the late David Graeber and David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything: a New History of Humanity to frame many of our discussions about  the Bible. We love this book — enough to shamelessly crib from the title for the name of Episode 1. We spend a good bit of time discussing the book and why it’s important, and we give particular attention to what Graeber and Wengrow describe as three freedoms that are a common pursuit across human history and prehistory. They are: 
freedom to move away or relocate from one’s surroundingsfreedom to ignore or disobey commands issued by othersfreedom to shape entirely new social realities, or shift back and forth between different ones.But the big question is: what does this possibly have to do with the Bible or religion or Christianity? After some general examples of where we see these freedoms expressed in the Bible, we dig into a truly wacky and wonderful passage from Genesis 30 in some detail. We think it turns out to be a fairly fruitful approach and we hope you’ll agree. 
What we’re drinking
Neil: XinguPhil: Dragon’s Milk White

In this bonus episode, Neil and Phil compare the story of Hannah in the book of I Samuel to the story of Mary in the gospel of Luke and draw out some themes that turn out to be important throughout the Bible. In the course of the conversation, they discover that the Old and New Testaments have surprising parallels to the Peter Green and Buckingham/Nicks eras of Fleetwood Mac. And speaking of music, as an homage to Vince Guaraldi’s classic music for A Charlie Brown Christmas they’ve composed a jazzy, Christmas Special theme featuring Phil on electric guitar and drums and Neil on mandolin and electric bass. 
Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to everyone!