One of the biggest religious storylines of 2023 has been: the huge number of people leaving their faith communities. Because Christianity is the #1 by volume religion in America, the loss has been felt heaviest there. Why has this been happening? And how many have left? A new book shares the latest research, and the data may shock you (= clickbait)!!! We review and comment and teach. 

The Great Dechurching (new book): https://www.amazon.com/Great-Dechurching-Leaving-Going-Bring/dp/0310147433 

Ryan Burge, PhD: http://ryanburge.net/ 

Ryan Burge substack, “Graphs About Religion”: https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/ 

“Good Faith” podcast interview with Great Dechurching author Michael Graham: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-great-dechurching-with-david-french-and-michael-graham/id1594454747?i=1000631285992

Peter’s Choi’s book on George Whitefield: https://www.amazon.com/George-Whitefield-Evangelist-Religious-Biography/dp/0802875491 

Buck Williams: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Williams

Beware, lest ye try to convict others in court, that ye have never sinned! We review some recent weird religious news with an eye toward non-obvious stories. From dreams of living forever to Taylor Swift promoting witchcraft: while away this thirty minutes with us.

Lori Vallow statement, opens with “he who is without sin throw the first stone”: https://youtu.be/uJ4nFtSsa3U

On the woman caught in adultery story: https://www.bibleodyssey.org/passages/main-articles/the-woman-caught-in-adultery-john-81-11/

Bonus story: Natalee Hollaway’s murderer claims to have changed his ways, to born again Christianity: https://www.christianpost.com/news/joran-van-der-sloot-claims-hes-now-born-again-christian.html 

The man who thinks he can live forever: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11679715/Tech-tycoon-45-spends-2-million-year-team-doctors-regain-teenage-body.html

The longevity industrial complex: https://www.axios.com/2023/09/24/longevity-podcasts-huberman-rogan-science

Pastor locks himself into cage with lions to show divine protection: https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/pastor-goes-cage-full-lions-31066685 

Historian Mary Beard on men getting obsessed with the Roman Empire: https://time.com/6317735/men-roman-empire-mary-beard-history/ 

Church buildings going empty: https://slate.com/business/2023/07/church-real-estate-development-west-park-presbyterian.html 

Taylor Swift promotes witchcraft: https://www.movieguide.org/news-articles/taylor-swift-promotes-witchcraft-on-tour-in-willow-performance.html 

Religious Group Shinzo Abe assassination: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/10/shinzo-abe-assassination-japan-unification-church-moonies/675114/

We prepare to engage in the yearly ritual of scholars in our field: the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), abbreviated AAR-SBL…or is it SBL-AAR? The order makes all the difference. Quality tips are shared to survive an academic conference of this type. Brian shares the tale of his first panic attack, and leaks crucial details from one of his conference presentations—about the Puritan leader Cotton Mather and his belief that the bones of biblical giants had been uncovered in America. 

The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL): https://www.sbl-site.org/ 

The American Academy of Religion (AAR): https://aarweb.org/

The annual meeting online program book (you can search presentations by last name and keyword): https://sbl-site.org/meetings/Congresses_ProgramBook.aspx?MeetingId=43 

Cotton Mather: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_Mather 

Bozeman, To Live Ancient Lives: https://uncpress.org/book/9780807896273/to-live-ancient-lives 

Bryce Traister: https://fccs.ok.ubc.ca/about/contact/bryce-traister/ 

The text of Cotton Mather’s first letter to the Royal Society about the giant bones: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2936986?origin=crossref&seq=1 

Gather ‘round for an episode recorded in front of a LIVE AUDIENCE in Portland, Oregon! We take a piece of listener (e)mail and answer the call: to talk about books that have been deeply impactful for our lives and research—books that anyone could read and learn a lot. From classics in the early history of sociology to ritual to women in the church to child sacrifice, it’s a magic carpet ride of books.

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_Spirit_of_Capitalism

Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elementary_Forms_of_the_Religious_Life

Gianni Vattimo, ideas in this book about the incarnation Brian mentioned: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-future-of-religion/9780231134941

On the “deep incarnation” idea: https://inters.org/gregersen-incarnation

Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ritual-theory-ritual-practice-9780199733620

Jon Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300065114/the-death-and-resurrection-of-the-beloved-son

Anthea Butler, Women in the Church of God in Christ: https://uncpress.org/book/9780807858080/women-in-the-church-of-god-in-christ/

Brian’s third book that we didn’t have time to talk about! Mark Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-origins-of-biblical-monotheism-9780195134803

The aftermath of the July 2023 Congressional UFO hearing has been fascinating, infuriating, mysterious, and ominous. We get you caught up, and present a chilling conspiracy theory about what has become already one of the most famous airplane disappearances of the past several decades—Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 in 2014.

The Congressional UFO hearing on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/KQ7Dw-739VY?si=7iKLViEo9ZS-iy8_ 

Wikipedia page for the whistleblower (David Grusch) claims: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Grusch_UFO_whistleblower_claims

NPR summary of the UFO hearing: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190390376/ufo-hearing-non-human-biologics-uaps 

The Hill article puts the situation accurately in Brian’s opinion: https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4134891-a-monumental-ufo-scandal-is-looming/ 

Jesse Michels interview with David Grusch: https://youtu.be/kRO5jOa06Qw?si=lu69_M0SlBdCh9qE

Joe Rogan interview with Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp: https://open.spotify.com/episode/04gQ8km0XhEitU1Vz4lA3j

Malaysian Air (MH370) mystery on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370 

Netflix show about MH370: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDg0m2Q3H8c

The orbs video where the orbs take the plane: https://youtu.be/iZPHGJHXNXg?si=45OdsZWDvCA0_Q81 

Reddit threads on the orbs video are wild: https://reddit.com/r/UFOs/s/drEbOTTmDD 

Some have compared this conspiracy to the Netflix show “Manifest”: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8421350/

Seems maybe the orbs video has been debunked…but you can always go double conspiracy on it! ​​https://twitter.com/528vibes/status/1693008013278302498?s=20

Article Leah mentioned: “Prophetic Failure and Chiliastic Identity: The Case of Jehovah's Witnesses”: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2776152

Let Halloween feelings shower over you as you listen to this, our Halloween episode. One of us loves the horror genre on TV and movies, and the other absolutely does not. One of us can barely handle even watching the trailer for one of these films.

Children of the Corn (1984): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087050/ 

The Satanic double scene in The Passion of the Christ: https://youtu.be/YgwXF60RTik?si=vEv3anusf4rTpoI7 

The TV version of Stephen King’s IT: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099864/ 

The original Scream, 1996 (opening scene clip): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn5SkCvPEYo 

Signs (2002): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286106/

The Village, 2004 (trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTGyhwvdY6k 

Arrival, 2016 (trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFMo3UJ4B4g

Smile (2022 film) (the trailer we played part of): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcDK7lkzzsU 

The Black Phone: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7144666/ 

Brandon Grafius, Reading the Bible with Horror: https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Bible-Horror-Scripture/dp/1978701683 

NOPE (trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In8fuzj3gck

The Haunting of Hill House (TV): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6763664/ 

Midnight Mass (TV trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89UV8vmWXlY 

The Cabin in the Woods (2011): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259521/ 

Using liking scary movies romantic compatibility: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2582872/Do-like-horror-movies-surprising-questions-tell-relationship-likely-last.html

What would it be like to grow up in a household guided by the principles of Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy? We talk to Things Not Seen radio host Dr. David Dault, of Loyola University Chicago, about being expoed to the ideology of Ayn Rand at a young age. If you’ve ever wanted to know about Rand’s “Objectivist” idea but were too afraid to ask, we’ll take you there. Along the way, Brian mispronounces Ayn’s name, David shares several fascinating and vulnerable personal stories, and we review the dystopian novella Anthem, ending with the hard question: Are these principles of radical self-interest compatible with Christianity?

David Dault: https://www.luc.edu/ips/about/faculty/daviddaultphd.shtml

Things Not Seen Radio: https://www.thingsnotseenradio.com/

Ayn Rand on the pronunciation of her first name: https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2011/1015/Six-things-you-probably-didn-t-know-about-Ayn-Rand/The-name-s-not-Ann

The Ayn Rand Institute: https://aynrand.org/

Max Stirner: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/max-stirner/

Ayn Rand’s Anthem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_(novella)

“Paul Ryan and Ayn Rand” (Washington Post): https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/what-ayn-rand-says-about-paul-ryan/2012/08/13/fd40d574-e56d-11e1-8741-940e3f6dbf48_blog.html

Matthew Sitman, Know Your Enemy: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/know-your-enemy/id1462703434

Jordan Peterson on Ayn Rand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9aHYj93xJY

As longtime Weirdo Listeners know, we don’t always have guests—but when we do, they win awards. Or they should. New York Times contributor Sam Kestenbaum won a 2023 Wilbur Award this past spring and now an AAR Journalism Award for a captivating article on Kathryn Krick—a Christian social media celebrity and charismatic preacher who frequents parks in the Los Angeles area to perform healings and exorcisms. The article is called “Demontime: How a former actress-turned-Christian EDM singer from small-town New York became a Pentecostal faith healer for the TikTok era”: https://thelandmag.com/krick-ministry-faith-healer/.

—> In honor of the awards, we’re rebroadcasting this, one of our most popular eps from 2022! In which we talk with Sam about the article and the person behind it. 

Updated Notes: Kathryn is still going strong…

Kathryn Krick on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ApostleKathrynKrick [[where the majority of her activity seems to be now?]]
Kathryn Krick on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@_apostlekathrynkrick [[she seems to have stopped posting new material here??]]
Sam Kestenbaum on Twitter: https://twitter.com/skestenbaum
Kathryn Krick’s church webpage: https://5fchurch.org/leadership
Interview with Sam Kestenbaum: https://therevealer.org/insights-from-a-religion-reporter/
Sam’s website: https://samkestenbaum.com/ 
Sam’s Wilbur Award: https://religionnews.com/2023/03/28/religion-communicators-council-names-2023-wilbur-awardees/
Sam’s AAR award: https://aarweb.org/AARMBR/Publications-and-News-/Newsroom-/News-/2023/2023-Journalism-Awards.aspx

Rebroadcasting a popular season finale from several years ago. Aliens are the quintessential sci-fi topic. Leah admits she used to watch Alf. Brian watched Alf too! We all did. Was The History Channel ever really respectable? The true utopian technology prophets will tell us when everything has been illuminated at the same time. Is it possible that…

UPDATED SHOW NOTES

Ancient Aliens is doing live shows now, on tour: https://bit.ly/46rjfsE

Ancient Aliens on the History Channel: https://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens

To celebrate what appears to be a departure of people of some amount from “Twitter” (now “X”?!), we run to the new “Threads” app and find dueling weird religious stories to share: (1) Leah finds a joke that leads to rumination on “premillennial dispensationalism” (2) and Brian offers an engaging TikTok sermon by “Real Talk Kim.”

Threads has lost 80% of its daily users: https://gizmodo.com/threads-has-lost-more-than-80-of-daily-active-users-1850707329

Musk erodes Twitter’s brand with X thing: https://time.com/6297303/twitter-x-rebrand-cost/

Leah’s rapture joke Thread: https://www.threads.net/@drleahpayne/post/Cvca3OrACHj/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D

One third of pastors share end-times theology of “Left Behind” (in 2016): https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2016/april/sorry-left-behind-pastors-end-times-rapture-antichrist.html 

Premillennial dispensationalism: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/003463730910600105 

Brian’s Real Talk Kim Thread: https://www.threads.net/@realtalkkim/post/CvFP7Vuv_5m?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D; if the Thread link doesn’t work, it’s here on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@realtalkkim/video/7257640531201625390?lang=en 

Real Talk Kim: https://realtalkkim.com/

Real Talk Kim talking about her life: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=309314860357378

Rebroadcasting because we are jonesing for a new season of Stranger Things. Monsters, the 1980s, neon clothes, loaded memories of teenage drama, and a time when malls ruled supreme over the lives of adolescents. We talk about the Cold War and the child abduction fear craze in the 1980s and wonder: Why are we looking back on this era with fondness, exactly?

UPDATED SHOW NOTE

Stranger Things Season 5 (the final season) updates: https://www.popbuzz.com/tv-film/stranger-things/season-5-release-date-cast-plot-trailer/ (Terminator legend Linda Hamilton joins the cast in an undisclosed role; production suspended currently due to strike; was scheduled to begin filming in June 2023; S5E1 titled “The Crawl”; S5 storyline will take place entirely in Hawkins, with Will Byers as the main focus…)