This is more of a bonus episode, not a Truth Conversation or a Truth Talk, but a sermon I preached almost a year ago to the day.  Because of changes in my understanding and interpretation of the world, this may have been the last sermon I will ever preach.  No guarantees of course.  I preached this sermon July 22, 2007 at the First Congregational Church of Riverside.  The sermon is titled, “Something is Amiss.”  I look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback. 

As usual I want to bring to you a couple of recommendations.  The first is quickly becoming one of my favorite sites on the web.  It is freedocumentaries.org.  This site brings footage, ideas, images, and perspectives that won’t be shown by the mainstream media.  One of the most impacting films I have viewed this year is called Earthlings, and it can be found under “Animal Abuse Documentaries”  The film documents how animals are exploited in the food, clothing and entertainment industry, as pets, and for science.  This heart wrenthching documentary can also be found on the HT Blog with along with some other videos worth your time, namely George Galloways rant against Fox News. 

I would like to give a special thanks to Zehender for the song Any Day.  Words and music by Tom Zehnder, BMI and Tim Gibbs Zehnder, BMI.  They can be reached at www.ztheband.com.  

On June 18th, 2007, we were privileged to have a world renown Hindu Priest join us for a Truth Conversation. <b>

Dr. Swami Ramananda has a worldwide following of thousands of people, with ashrams in Pondicherry, India; Los Angeles, CA; and Las Vegas, NV. Swami Ramananda is a joyful and blissful soul. His primary focus is bringing happiness and peace to the world. He was initiated by Sri Anandamayi MA and by Swami Shankarananda Giri, head acharya of the Adi Parashakti Shiva Peetham in India, as the latter's dharma successor. He has been devoted to Anandamayi Ma, his Guru, since he was 17 years old, and has traveled extensively throughout the world lecturing on his Guru"s teachings and holding satsang, devotional services, and giving musical performances, all in service to the Holy Mother. He has studied Indian Philosophy and Yoga, Indian Art, History, and Culture, the Tamil Language of South India, and Goddess worship at San Jose State University, University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Madras, India, from where he holds bachelors and master’s degrees. He completed his PhD in Indian Philosophy and Yoga from Shefferton University, London, in 2002. He is author of "Bliss Now,�? published in 2002 by Select Books, NYC, available in the bookstore on the religion page at hungertruth.com. He recently completed the book “From India With Love,�? to be published soon by Petroglyph Press. He is currently based in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he holds satsang on a regular basis at various yoga studios; works in the field of architectural design and feng shui; and continues to spread the messages of love, bliss, and enlightenment as passed to him by his Guru. Don't forget to check out truthdig.com and rawreplay.com for progressive news, blogs, audios, and videos. Intro Song: David Starfire
"Indian Fever" (mp3)
from "Bombay Beatz"
(Six Degrees Records)

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Outro Song:I-Plant
"Indian Chant" (mp3)
from "Yardub Session 1"
(I-GROW RECORDS)

Directly after our recent June 2nd debate on the issue of hell, Gene Cook, one of the men we debated against invited the moderator, pastor Jason Robertson onto his internet radio program in order to review the debate, step-by-step.  We felt that our arguments were misrepresented and unfairly characterized therefore, Steve Scianni and myself felt compelled to respond point-by-point to their post debate discussion with our own.  In this episode, we play clips of their conversation and follow it up with our conversational sometimes, outraged replies ☺

Listen in as this was a rejuvenating Truth Talk.  I believe most will enjoy, regardless of what side of the debate you are on.  

Consider contributing a buck a show.  This would surely encourage our efforts!  Just use the donate button on www.hungertruth.com. 

Skeletal Debate Art by Eric Drooker

On June 2nd, 2007 at Oasis Church in Moreno Valley, a 3 on 3 panel debate took place on the issue of hell. The question was as follows: Does the Bible Teach that Hell is a place of eternal conscious torment? Former evangelical Christian Steve Scianni, Patrick Navas and myself (Dan Mages) offered arguments that display that the Biblical authors did not believe or teach that hell was as a place of eternal, conscious torment, but a place of complete and total destruction of both body and soul. Gene Cook, Mike Sarkissian and Joel Hughes attempted to uphold that the Bible teaches hell as the place of eternal, conscious suffering. Listen in and decide for yourself which position interprets the data more carefully and coherently.

Note that this debate was not about what any individual specifically believes, but a discussion about what the Bible as a whole teaches on the subject. I would like to advise the listener that our debate team was not given an audio copy of the debate so I had to purchase a one from Gene Cook's website. As I was listening through, I noticed that the audio had been edited and portions of the actual debate were left out. I therefore had to take the recording I did from the computer in front of me during the debate and splice them together. This accounts for the two differing qualities of audio during a few segments.

For a great list of articles and links regarding this topic, visit the articles page on the religion page of www.hungertruth.com I specifically want to recommend the articles written by my friend Steve Scianni as I believe he has written some of the best material available on the subject.

Lastly, please consider contributing a dollar to HungerTruth for each episode. Since I put up one or two a month, one or two bucks a month seems like a reasonable price. You can use the donation link on the toolbar at www.hungertruth.com.

Music by:

Download "Church Lady" (mp3)
from "The World As I See It"
by Dennis Ferrer
King Street Sounds

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Stream from Rhapsody

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Flaming Man Art by: Eric Drooker

On Feburary 12th, 2007 I had a truth talk with my T.A of my Paul and the Law course I took at Fuller Theological Seminary, Matthew Barnes. Feeling called to the ministry at a young age, he went to Hardin Simmons University in Abilene Texas. Although raised in a staunch Southern Baptist home, Matt says the school was quite moderate. Realizing he wanted to become a professor, he continued his education at Truett Seminary. Matt studied under Dr. Roger Olson who he says taught him to be critical and open, Dr. Gloer who taught him to be socially aware and deeply spiritual, and Dr. Still who taught him to be meticulous and kind.

In May of 2006 Matt and his wife Alida moved to Southern California from Texas so that Matt could pursue his PhD at Fuller in New Testament under Dr. Donald Hagner. Matt teaches an adult Sunday School class at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena, enjoys playing the guitar, reading fantasy novels, writing in his blog: In The Corner with Matt: Religion, Sports, Philosophy, Life. Recent posts (which was back in February included musings on the anthropology of Second-Temple Judaism, a reflection on the Lenten Season and an evaluation of the Dallas Cowboys last head-coaching change.

You can find his blog at inthecornerwithmatt.blogspot.com. He also has a devotional blog on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/cowboymatt43. Matt can be reached at cowboymatt43@gmail.com.

Listen in as we discuss his theological pilgrimage and dive into an interpretation of the Apostle Paul’s letters which have been designated the New Perspective on Paul. Enjoy….

Check out the Progressive Podcast Network at www. progressivepodcastnetwork.org Don't forget to check out The War On Democracy Podcast at www.thewarondemocracy.com

Music by:

Download "The Lesson" (mp3)
from "True Indeed"
by Surreal & The Sound Providers
Quarternote/ABB Records

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at GroupieTunes

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Close friend Ian Diorio and I hash out some issues in an in your face fashion.  Ian is a former rave DJ and graduate of Hope International University.  He is now studying for his M.Div at Fuller Theological Seminary and is a college teaching pastor at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa, California.  Ian plans on continuing his education doing PhD work at UCLA.

Ian and I have a spirited truth talk as we discuss what it means to posit a personal God, argue the merits of Enlightenment principles, debate the objectivity of experience, the difficulty of reconciling love and justice, and theologize the meaning of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Join in on the discussion at the HT forum at hungertruth.com

A Truth Conversation with Archaeologist Egon Lass.  Egon immigrated  to the US in 1938 and received a Master's Degree in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.  He has worked as an archaeologist in Israel on and off for the last 30 years.  He worked with the team that dated the Shroud of Turin to the Middle Ages, lived with Bedouins while working on a dig of the place of Herod's mother in law and most recently worked with Simon Gibson on the controversial John the Baptist Cave.

Egon has been published in The American Scholar and is the author of two books.  Wrestling with God: Three Mystical Dramas and The Seasons of Tulul which focuses in great detail on the family life, inheritance, tribal relationships, feuding, religious thought and confrontations that Bedouins have with the modern world.  Listen in as he tells his story and the Truth Conversation participants probe his mind. 

In this episode, I have a Truth Talk with Ethicist Kent Sensenig. Kent was born in Saigon, Vietnam when his parents served as Mennonite missionaries for 10 years. He went to Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA. where he received a B.A. in Liberal Arts with minors in both Spanish and Peace and Justice. He did a cross-cultural semester in Chile and lived a year in Washington DC as part of an urban studies program called Washington Study Service Year which included an internship with a Central American refugee advocacy organization. He spent another off-campus semester in the mountains of Oregon in a "great books" program called the "Oregon Extension."

Kent continued his education at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart Massachusetts where he received an MA in Theology in Ethics. He is now a 4th year PhD student in Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA. He possesses a special interest in "historical Jesus" studies, peacemaking, political ethics, ecological ethics, and Islam. He spent 3 years as a research associate with Fuller's Muslim-Christian Conflict Transformation grant and published an article in 2006 called "An Abrahamic Paradigm for Just Peacemaking Practices.

Outside of his formal education, he spent 6 months as a volunteer with Mennonite Central Committee in Bangkok, Thailand working for a human rights organizations advocating for Burmese exiles and persecuted minorities. He took a 2-week solitary visit to the Occupied Territories of Palestine with the Palestinian Christian liberation theological organization Sabeel. 

Kent also spent 10 growing seasons working on "community-supported agriculture" on organic vegetable farms in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Iowa where he headed his own CSA for three years. His wife of 10 years, Jennifer, is an ordained Mennonite pastor.

Finally, he plans on teaching at a theological graduate school in Ethiopia this summer. Listen in as we here his story, discuss animals rights, sustainable agriculture, the patenting of seeds, the ethics of Jesus, the morality of his God, and lots in between.

 

Download "Peace And Justice" (mp3)
from "Original Sounds Of The Zion Remixed"
by Zion Train
Universal Egg Records

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody
• Stream from RealNetworks / Rhapsody
• Buy at GroupieTunes

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This is the third and last part of a Truth Conversation with Unitarian Scholar Sir Anthony Buzzard.  His books, articles, and other audios are available at restorationfellowship.org. 

This is the second part of a three part series of a Truth Conversation with Unitarian Scholar Sir Anthony Buzzard.  He can be reached at www.restorationfellowship.org. 

Sir Anthony Buzzard was born in Surrey, England and educated at Oxford University and later at Bethany Theological Seminary in Chicago. He holds Master's degrees in both languages and theology. He came to the USA with his wife and daughters in 1981 and has taught Bible at Atlanta Bible College (formerly Oregon, IL Bible College) since then. He has a number of books including The Doctrine of the Trinity: Christianity's Self-Inflicted Wound and Our Fathers Who Aren't in Heaven: The Forgotten Christianity of Jesus the Jew, and most recently The Amazing Aims and Claims of Jesus: What you didn't learn in church.  He has many articles published in international theological journals and is co-editor of A Journal from the Radical Reformation. In 1996 he was a nominee for the Templeton Prize for progress in religion.

Listen in as we had a big turnout with some heated opposition from Conservative Reformed Christians, some of whom I've personally interacted with and debated in the recent past on the very issues discussed in this podcast, primarily whether the Hebrew Bible and NT Texts teach that Jesus is YHWH, the one God of Israel.  This is a fascinating discussion as we hear the story and background of Anthony and then jump into the issues.  This is a three part series. 

You can contact Anthony Buzzard at www.restorationfellowship.org

This is a continuation of the Truth Talk with Former Christian, free-thinking atheist Steve Scianni.

In this Truth Talk, I sit down with one of my closest friends Steve Scianni. His story is quite challenging to theists who take his journey seriously. He was once a soul winning Evangelical Christian but over the course of 5 years and a lot of reading, he moved into agnosticism and finally negative atheism that is that there is no evidence for God, not the positive affirmation that there is no God. He will share his journey and we will discuss issues that relating to his pilgrimage including the doctrine of eternal torment, leaps of faith, doctrinal statements, the psychology and sociology of religion.  This is a two part series about an hour apiece.  Join in on the conversation at the HT forum or comment on one of Steve's posts on the HT blog at hungertruth.com.  We would love to hear from you.     

This is the introduction to the HungerTruth podcast.  Listeners are introduced to the different kinds of podcasts which will be released, including both Truth Conversations and Truth Talks. The 5 HungerTruth principles are discussed at length and the foundation for all subsequent podcasts is laid down. Listeners are encouraged to engage in the issues discussed on the podcast at www.hungertruth.com at the HT Forum.