Well, it’s happened, folks. We’ve been cancelled – by ourselves. No, not really, but we do have two big announcements to make. First, CJ will be stepping down from co-host to occasional guest host (and he will be sorely missed). And second, after next week, we will be taking a hiatus as Isaac adjusts to dad life and ponders whether he likes Brian enough to keep podcasting. We’ll be back with new formats and new ideas or we’ll drift off into the ether. In the meantime, we reminisce over what we’ve accomplished, give some simmering church takes, and answer some mailbag questions.

Until We Get Canceled is a Crate Original from Crate Media

Content Warning: We discuss gay conversion therapy and Netflix’s documentary Pray Away in this episode.

The documentary, Pray Away, follows four members of Exodus International, a global conversion therapy advocate. This was going on behind our backs all along. So few were aware of how prevalent it really was. So much of the anti-gay movement was tied up in fears around the AIDS epidemic, and the church drove a big part of that. We discuss some of the history surrounding the documentary, how gay conversion therapy still exists today, and whether – in light of this – the church is salvageable, or if we should just burn the whole thing down.

Resources:

• Send questions to cancelbag@gmail.com to be part of our mailbag episode
• Read: The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Until We Get Canceled is a Crate Original from Crate Media

This could be the one that gets us canceled. Who’d have thought it would come to the point of defending a Will Willimon article? The article is presented as a conversation between Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon on the dangers of providing pastoral care and, honestly, they bring up some good points. 99% of seminarians expect to go out challenging people’s theological beliefs and pushing boundaries, but when they get there they find that it’s not what people want. On top of that, pastors are not trained as counsellors. Pastoral work should be the job of the whole church, and that shouldn’t be a controversial thing to say. Maybe the reason people are upset is they feel like their cushy jobs are being exposed?

Resources:

• Send questions to cancelbag@gmail.com to be part of our mailbag episode
• Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon on the dangers of providing pastoral care

Until We Get Canceled is a Crate Original from Crate Media

We’re coming to you with some hot evangelical gossip! Former Chicago Cub and 2016 World Series MVP Ben Zobrist and Faith Hill’s stunt double Julianna Zobrist have canceled their marriage. As the divorce filings became public, details are starting to come out and they’re saucy stuff. The intersection of sports, pastors, and grinding on the dancefloor was too juicy to pass up. We break down the dish, rank this in the pantheon of evangelical scandals, and dive into the NBA finals.

Resources:

• Send questions to cancelbag@gmail.com to be part of our mailbag episode

Until We Get Canceled is a Crate Original from Crate Media

Ryan Cagel is a habitual church worker, Christian – sometimes against his better interests – and game designer. He’s planting a faith community structured around mutual aid and solidarity in the backwoods of Alabama, known as Jubilee House. It’s focused on anti-racist, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and anti-capitalist work. Everyone has their preconceptions of what The South is like, but Alabama has a long history of radical thought and the people there tend to help those in need. No one is coming to save The South, so it’s up to them to save themselves. We talk about some of those misconceptions, the history of pentecostalism, and marrying anti-capitalism with the church.

Resources:

• ryancagle.com
• jubileehouse.co
• Send questions to cancelbag@gmail.com to be part of our mailbag episode

Until We Get Canceled is a Crate Original from Crate Media

Bad faith arguments on Twitter do actual harm. We talk about a recent Vox article detailing the fallout surrounding Isabel Fall over a short story titled “I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter.” The story takes a common transphobic meme and turns it on its head by applying it literally to a science fiction world. Isabel, a trans woman, received threats and backlash over the story she published in January 2020, causing her to not only check into a hospital but make the decision to halt transitioning. We talk about the difference between paranoid reading and reparative reading, and how well-meaning people can still do a lot of damage when they aren’t conscious of where they divert their energy.

Resources:

• Send questions to cancelbag@gmail.com to be part of our mailbag episode
• How Twitter can ruin a life: Isabel Fall's complicated story
• That Twitter Thread (On Criticism) Jan 31, 2020

Until We Get Canceled is a Crate Original from Crate Media

Friend of coal miners, Nathan Thomas, joins us for some lukewarm Appalachia takes. He’s involved in a mutual aid organization in West Virginia, and we talk about how that’s structured, what they do, and what it takes to keep it running. As Nathan puts it, “There’s no tech bros coming to save Appalachia, so we are the only help we have.” Capitalism has a way of telling us that taking care of others comes at the risk of ending up with nothing ourselves, but that’s a trap we can’t stand for. Nathan also explores separating volunteer work from evangelism, how the church can make people feel more welcome, and the idea of building your own church instead of deconstructing what already exists. No theology, just vibes.

Until We Get Canceled is a Crate Original from Crate Media

Ever since we talked about “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” a few months back, people have been howling in anticipation of our thoughts on the finale. We give our latest takes on the MCU’s role in the military industrial complex, how they present leftist movements in the meda (and what that likely says about how all media will present them in the future), and the entertainment that is keeping us alive, this late into the pandemic.

Until We Get Canceled is a Crate Original from Crate Media