Live Audience Co-Creation (part one): Toxic Masculinity and How To Read The Bible Intelligently

How much fun to co-create! How much fun to collaborate in thoughtful conversation!

Today’s show is part one of a conversation that What In God’s Name facilitated on February 23rd, in Pembroke, New Hampshire. Our topic was one we have tackled before: toxic masculinity. It’s a topic that touches on many issues in our culture, and often in our news, today.
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Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:

01:29    Jeff from Somersworth, NH, leads with the question of literalistic readings of the Bible: already at the heart of where many conversations between Christians—and between some Christians and non-Christians—about society and culture hit a snag. What is the difference between reading the Bible literally, and reading the Bible seriously?

02:40    Linda from Amherst, NH, makes the distinction between some things the Bible says, and how Jesus behaves. What different kinds of moral practices can we see, at different points of the Scriptural witness?

05:10    Dorothy from Jaffrey, NH, draws our attention to historical imagination: the need for us to recognize that a person is always limited to the perspectives of the historical time in which she/he lived. This calls us to bring historical awareness to the reading of Scripture.

06:50    What In God’s Name is having a funding campaign: support the core values of curiosity, depth, and shining light into the public conversation by going to our website www.whatingods.com, and making a donation through Patreon, or through Filmmakers Collaborative.

08:22    Matt, freshly removed to Vermont, shares reflections on the pernicious nature of toxic masculinity. He refers us to the wisdom that, if we are seeing clearly, we see that the evil we abhor is not just out there, but it’s in us too. Is this true about human nature?

11:30    Chris asks: can Christian theology help us think about what is healthy masculinity/healthy femininity? Joyce from Dunbarton, NH, responds by inviting us to think of Biblical images of a nurturing God—the quality of supporting and feeding and strengthening the life of others.

14:30    Shayna and Chris share follow-up thoughts about reading Scripture seriously. Does the fact that no one perspective can grasp truth in its totality, mean that truth does not exist? Does insisting that any reading of Scripture is limited by the reader’s social location mean that any reading of Scripture is just as good as any other?