The Magnificast

We've made it over 100 episodes without ever talking about China, but today's the day folks. We're talking about K. H. Ting, an incredible leader in China's Three-Self Patriotic Movement, a group of Protestants determined to figure out how help build socialism in China and disentangle Christianity from Western capitalism. Warning: we might appeal to much to your carnality in the beginning. Music by Amaryah Armstrong and theillalogicalspoon.

Isn't it weird that our podcast is about Christianity and the left, but it looks and sounds so different than the Christian left you might read about it major journalistic publications? We think so too! In this episode, we round up a few articles about the Christian left and try to get to the bottom of it. We also talk about the Justice League getting saved. Intro music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by theillogicalspoon

On this week's episode, we talk with Greg Hillis about Thomas Merton! You might know him as a best seller in the Christian life section at your local book store, but, as it turns out, he's good!

Just try to fail to see how great this episode is! This week, we're talking about what Althusser thinks about church! Spoiler: if you want to help the church then you'd better help the working class. We were inspired by the description of an upcoming retreat whose theme is "Another church is possible," organized by Friendly Fire, Christians for Socialism, and the Minneapolis Catholic Worker (https://friendlyfireretreat.herokuapp.com/index.html)! Speaking of, you should try to go, and if you can't, you should toss some cash toward the organizers to sponsor those who need assistance: https://chuffed.org/project/friendlyfire Music by Amaryah Armstrong and theillalogicalspoon.

Love Jesus? Hate prisons? Do we have a website for you! This week we're joined by Hannah Bowman, organizer of Christians for the Abolition of Prisons (https://christiansforabolition.org)! Hannah has been working with and for prisoners for years, and she thinks Christians should be on the front line of abolishing a system that Christians created. Also she's good at theology! If you didn't get enough of Hannah here, you can check out her interview on Theology and Socialism too: http://theologyandsocialism.libsyn.com/theology-and-prison-abolition-interview-with-hannah-bowman Music by Amaryah Armstrong and theillalogicalspoon

This week Matt and Dean come to you live (pre-recorded) from Toronto! This episode is another socialism 101 episode that focuses on primitive accumulation and Dave Ramsey's financial advice.

What's the deal with capitalism? And socialism...and communism... These are big terms that mean a lot of different things. We can't nail down every definition, but we try our best to sort these terms through with good old-fashioned Magnificast rambling. Also we brought some leftover Hundo reddit Qs. Is this witchraft, or sorcery, or whatever? Music by Amaryah Armstrong and theillalogicalspoon

This week, we talk with Sargon Donabed, author of the book "Reforging a Forgotten History: Iraq and the Assyrians in the Twentieth Century." Sargon tells us some of the history of the Assyrian people, an indigenous people to West Asia/North Africa who are often overlooked and misunderstood. We also talk about how the Assyrians do and don't show up in the academy and in public discourse, what role media plays in shaping our understanding of the WANA region, and how non-Assyrians can do better when it comes to showing solidarity. There's also some bonus stuff on "panenhistoricism," which is the coolest methodology word you'll learn this week for sure. The suggestion for this episode and for reading Sargon's book came from our new friend Meia, who blogs at ninwa.home.blog. Meia is an Assyrian who spent a lot of time helping us put this episode together. In her blog "WANA Christianity and Western Leftism," she explains the left's general ignorance and failure to acknowledge the persecution of minority Christian groups like Assyrians. We encourage you to read Meia's post in full, and also to check out her patreon for more! https://ninwa.home.blog/2018/12/22/wana-christianity-and-western-leftism/ https://www.patreon.com/ninwa Music by Amaryah Armstrong and theillalogicalspoon.

This week on The Magnificast we celebrate Dean's birthday and talk about Ernesto Cardenal's recent rehabilitation. We get into what this means and learn some cool stuff about Cardenal's life and Solentiname! intro music by Amaryah Armstrong outro music by theillogicalspoon

We did it everyone. We made it to ~The Big Hundo~, 100 straight weeks in a row and the Magnificast train is still a-rollin'! To celebrate, we start by going back to reddit where we met and tackle some of the most pressing theology questions we could find. Then we think through some of the theology questions sent in by listeners and prove once and for all that we're no good at theology. Thanks for coming along on this bizarre podcast adventure! Intro music by Amaryah Shaye Armstrong. Outro by theillalogicalspoon.