My Very New Testament

Farewell! 

We'll be back on December 5th. See you then!

It's like, Jesus worked SO HARD to do these miracles, you guys. And none of you will even BELIEVE! 

In which we read ANOTHER birth story from the ancient Roman world. Also, David warbles a brief excerpt from the Book of Mormon musical, so there's that.   Sources: Suetonius' "Life of Augustus," from The Twelve Caesars. http://tinyurl.com/manyomens 

In which we learn that apparently, Dom's father had better WATCH OUT. 

In which we delve deeply -- perhaps TOO deeply -- into Bailey's past: her fundamentalist upbringing, her Vision Forum years, and her faith transitions during college. 

Our guest today is Bailey Steger of Weareezer.com (a site that has our hearty endorsement, by the way!), and we have a RICH BUFFET of subjects to discuss: where does the idea of demons even come from? How does faith healing work? Why can't David tell the difference between Saul and Solomon?  Will we reach definitive answers to any of these? Of course not! But we'll have a fun time arguing about them. 

Sproing... sproing... sproing... OW! Also: demons.

In which, FINALLY, the Talmud is quoted at length and we learn that King David "would doze like a horse."    SOURCES: Mark Twain on Christian Science --  http://tinyurl.com/TwainCS 

Does God hate KJV-only Christians? And should they be anxious about His fiery, barely-suspended wrath, which hangs over their heads by the slimmest of threads? Listen to find out!

Fair warning: this episode is not for tender ears. Topics include abortion and sexual assault, both of which really DO come up when you dig into Matthew 5 a bit, but neither of which is especially funny.   SOURCES:   http://fiddlrts.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-duggars-how-fundamentalisms.html ; http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-terror-arrest-20151231-story.html

In which, apparently, some kind of sermon begins. I guess it's famous or whatever.  SOURCES: The OCD book mentioned by Dom is "Triggered: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder."  Here's the Mormon Stories series on scrupulosity (highlight: "I want to make it clear to our listeners that curing your child's OCD is NOT a matter of yelling at them in just the right way...").   Nouthetic counselors would beg to differ with that statement, but then again, confrontation is the only tool they HAVE. Speaking of nouthetic counseling, the two-week training program David mentioned really does exist, but he's been unable to find the pdf again. He'll keep looking, but in the meantime you can marvel at the fact that this course EXCEEDS the standards set by the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors for basic training programs (see p. 11 -- the standards call for 40-60 hours of training, plus 10 hours observing a "qualified" counselor).   For still MORE on nouthetic counseling, see th

In which David keeps mispronouncing "Esau," yet still expects you to believe him when he tells you what a midrash is.  Later, he'll confidently state that "the Decapolis" -- well, you'll hear it yourself, but he's off by almost 500 years, a few hundred miles, and a couple-three cities besides. But hey, we did say he's coming into this blind. Very, very, very, very blind.  SOURCES: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Lukumi_Babalu_Aye_v._City_of_Hialeah (for the actual opinions, see https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/508/520/case.html)

In which David explains: no, no, you've got it all backwards -- the Pharisees were the LENIENT ones. Will he persuade you? There's only one way to find out! SOURCES: On Ultra-Orthodox smartphone bans: https://www.theverge.com/2015/10/27/9620752/whatsapp-hasidic-jewish-internet-ban On Prosperity Theology: https://www.lausanne.org/content/prosperity-theology-a-largely-sociological-assessment

In which we discover that Toddler Dom had the VERY BEST mental image of the Exodus. Also, we learn that potatoes are the Devil's apples. SOURCES: For more on how potatoes were introduced to Russia, and who DOESN'T want to learn more?, here you go!  http://www.russianlife.com/pdf/potatoes.pdf  BibleHub on Matthew 2:23: http://biblehub.com/matthew/2-23.htm 

In which David detects a bait-and-switch, and a French peasant saying is mentioned. The Devil is involved! He so often is. Citations: "Peasants Into Frenchmen" by Eugen Weber (http://tinyurl.com/yb9fktfs)

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