Warning: Explicit discussion of sexuality.  In this episode, we pick up with some listener questions, including questions on imposing morals through politics, the term “woke-ism,” friendship, and masturbation. We talk more about Critical Race Theory, cancel culture, consent, and holding our opinions lightly. We finish by each answering this season’s question: What story is your life telling?

In this episode, Anne and Muoki discuss the famed “future spouse lists” that they were instructed to make in their high school years inspired in conservative church circles. We laugh at some audience responses, tally how many people got what was on their shopping list, and share criteria that we believed essential as teens but now make us shake our heads. We discuss the cervical spine challenges of romantic relationships with a significant height differential (gotta have your chiropractor on retainer). We riff about marsupials.

Today we are joined by Manny Cumplido. Manny is a husband, father, pastor of West Newbury Congregational Church, and our hosts’ former classmate. Manny shares his experience of becoming a pastor of a new church during the pandemic and preaching his first sermon following the murder of George Floyd. He talks about what it means to be sown in weakness and raised in power, how he understands that exchange in light of his own life, this past year, and most recently, the death of DMX. Manny explains the four thresholds of faith (shout-out Don Everett), and we discuss our shared Pentecostal/Charismatic roots, and how we keep those roots alive today. Find Manny on Twitter: @cumplidomanny Five Thresholds of Conversion: https://vimeo.com/98177104 Book: Don Everts, I Once Was Lost

Today we are joined by Kisuk Kim. Kisuk is a spiritual director, an extrovert, a health tech professional, and a dog owner. After Anne and Muoki recover from their dog-envy, we chat with Kisuk about competing values of self-actualization and success. Kisuk shares about the expectations he experienced growing up in an immigrant family, and the challenges of blending those expectations with the idealism of his college years. We discuss the notion of calling, the emotional pressure of meeting the world’s needs, how social media amplifies that pressure, and the struggle of finding the intersection of our influence and our passions. Kisuk drops some wisdom about multigenerational living, and the importance of deliberately working out our values.

In this episode, Muoki and Anne welcome Zack Miller, a long-term missionary to Nazareth with Young Life. We discuss how he found himself doing missions work after college, stumbling into leadership, and the importance of taking responsibility for yourself and for others. Zack is in process of beginning a new project combining soccer development, overseas missions, and leadership training. Check out his project here, and consider supporting: Missionary Athletes International

In this episode, Muoki and Anne reflect on our society’s inability to engage meaningfully on race, especially in the wake of recent tragedy. We discuss how our Christian ethics - imago Dei, compassion, and advocacy - can and should inform the way we engage (shout out to Dr. Patrick Smith, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Miroslav Volf). We talk about the parable of the Good Samaritan and how that applies to dealing with racism, the difficulty with enacting solutions to identified problems, being a guest and a host in conversations with the ideological other, and what it means to live wisely in an unjust world. Episode shoutouts: Dr. Patrick Smith videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uayMyjFUQSc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNsxRD9ed8U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXu5Xqy_px8&t=2s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzsJNnW4Wzw&t=1996s Charles Mills Lecture: https://youtu.be/78wzAfQu9Mw Systematic Theology:  Eleanor Stump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw1I0DrK6rE&t=1932s Katherine Sonderegger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iRUyIYokgk&t=1295s Miroslav Volf: Exclusion and Embrace Dustin Ward and It Is Time Now LLC: https://www.itistime.me/

TW: Sexual Assault Anne and Muoki are back after a one-week break, and Anne after almost 3 weeks! They talk about the recent death of music and culture icon DMX, and reflect on how his faith journey can inform our own. Anne also leads a powerful dialogue on the topic of deconstruction, what it means to have faith authentically, and so much more.

Dustin Ward is a husband, father, former pastor, and the founder and president of It Is Time, an LLC based in Maine devoted to ending racism and promoting racial equity. Dustin shares with Muoki about the experiences that led him to founding It Is Time, and how that business has given him access that he previously did not have as a Black pastor in White Evangelical spaces. Muoki and Dustin discuss how the American education system has failed to prepare Millennials for the modern economy. Dustin explains the relationship between embracing uniqueness and experiencing belonging. They share about Black identity in interracial marriages, and having biracial sons. Dustin shares his racial equity expertise on the subject of faith-based organizations and other institutions. Muoki explains why everyone is “late” to the race conversation. Connect with Dustin Ward at: Website: https://www.itistime.me/ Twitter: @itistimeme Instagram: @itistimeme Facebook: Dustin Ward

Matthew Brake is a theologian, writer, professor, DC Comics aficionado, and coffee addict. In this episode, Matthew and Muoki discuss identity politics, the decline of public discourse, and all of the dysfunction that ensues. They begin by discussing a piece Matt recently wrote on the resemblance between the comic Final Crisis and the worldview of the Religious Right. He delves into the historical origins of the Religious Right and the schools of thought that maintain it, and he and Muoki offer some critiques of the identity politics of the Left. Muoki talks about the necessity of having public discourse in a way that doesn’t instantly devolve into tribalism but seeks greater understanding. Matthew talks about how virtue signaling in relationships often backfires for the Left. Bonhoeffer and #TheSnyderCut get shout-outs. Connect with Matthew Brake at: https://popularcultureandtheology.com/ Twitter: @popandtheology Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PopAndTheology Email: [email protected]

In this mini-episode, we introduce Krystal, our Air Force 1 wearing, Prada bag toting production intern. We also wax a bit philosophical and psychological about the year of the pandemic and how it's shaped, and shaping us.