podcast

The UMC Deal-broker - Kenneth Feinberg

The UMC is recently atwitter about a proposed protocol of the future of the denomination. This post is not about the specifics of the protocol but in the one person who was able to broker such a deal between a diaspora of UMC theological ideas.

Kenneth Feinburg is a facilitator to a number of difficult and painful experiences. He got his start as a mediator in this capacity by happenstance by working to help Vietnam veterans gain compensation from a government that was resistant to payout. He also had a large role in the compensation for victims of 9/11, the Pulse night club shooting as well as many others.

I was turned on to him and his work through a podcast called Startup. If you are interested to hear more about this fascinating man please give a listen:

"The Lonely American Man" and The Church

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Listening to podcasts is my stereotypical millennial habit. Of the podcasts I listen to, Hidden Brain is among the most consistently good and I would recommend every episode Hidden Brain puts out. However, I believe the March 19th episode is one that I would recommend for you to listen to right now. In fact you can click the audio player below and listen right away.

The show has two titles - The Lonely American Man and Guys, We Have a Problem: How American Masculinity Create Lonely Men

I was convicted in listening to this episode as a church leader because much of what is missing in the lives of men is present within the walls of a church. We as a church have failed not just to "make disciples for Jesus Christ" we have and are failing at the basic levels of community. 

At this time I do not have any solutions to what ails us, but I was struck at one study cited in this episode. Specifically the people in the study do not have a fear to have a conversation with a stranger, but there was an overwhelming fear to start a conversation with a stranger. 

I am not sure how others start conversations, so perhaps if you have gotten this far you can leave a comment about how you start conversations with people.

Source: Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Occam's razor, Hickam's dictum and Christianity

Occam's razor is that principle that is often understood being that "among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected." To put it another way, all things being equal, simpler explanations are generally better than more complex ones.

Needless to say, Occam's stranglehold on how we understand God is rather strong. It is how theologians talk about the mystery of something like the atonement but we teach it by way of 3-4 theories. Or we talk about the mystery of the trinity but boil it down to that like an egg or water (see here for a silly little video on why those metaphors are "heretical")

Christians try our very best to try to communicate to the world the vast mystery of the creator of the world can be understood and, the most simple explanation tends to win out because we all prefer Occam to Hickan.

"Hickam's dictum is a counterargument to the use of Occam's razor in the medical profession. The principle is commonly stated: "Patients can have as many diseases as they damn well please"." (wiki)

This sounds weird but the point that Hickam was trying to make is that patients can have many different symptoms that are unrelated and cannot be diagnosed under one simple, elegant explanation for instance Saint's triad.

Christians are not unlike other people in the world in that we desire a simple answer to the questions of the world. We long for someone to just tell us why something is the way it is or what we are supposed to do. We willingly accept someone citing scripture at us, giving us a response that is so tight that is might as well be a package tied up with a bow. The answer looks nice, it is elegant and makes sense. Classic Occam's razor.

The reality is, if Occam's razor does not hold for medicine then it surely does not hold for theology. No matter how elegant the answer may be, when we are talking about God - it is never that simple. Cite me the chapters and verses, point out the creed, quote the theologian, articulate the church council, all of these actions are efforts to prove the razor.

The preachers and teachers that give you a razor's answer provide great comfort. I am a razor pastor myself. However, in my more antithetic moments I will share that I don't have the simple answers. And in my even more truthful moments I will share I don't have the simple answers because no one has them.

Simple answers don't exist when we are talking about God. They never have.


Hickam's dictum was introduced to me via this wonderfully fantastic podcast episode of "Reply All" - Boy Wonder

Podcast Recommendations

If you are not into podcasts, or even know what they are, then I hope you might see this post as a "recommended for you" post. If you are into podcasts I hope that there is at least one one this list that you have not listened to. Finally, if you have any podcast recommendations yourself, I would love to hear from you in the comments section.

First a quick introduction of podcasts:

Oral Tradition + Radio + Learning + Entertainment = Podcasts

You can locate podcasts on places like iTunes or Google Play on your phone. Podcasts are free downloads you then can listen to when you have time. 

With that out of the way, here are a few recommendations to you to listen to: