Theology In Pieces

76 - "Marketing Is Witchcraft" And Other Road Trip Theology w/ Sho Baraka

Send us a Question! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2100783/fan_mail/new] Today, we continue: "Theologians in SUV's Coming Back from the Airport".  Listen in on an unfiltered conversation with Sho Baraka about creativity, Christian hip hop, and the hidden forces shaping the modern church. We start light and personal, talking Atlanta culture and the “many hats” Sho wears as a writer, cultural critic, speaker, and artist. From there, he walks us through his origin story: poetry, West Coast influences, freestyling, and the slow work of developing a voice that doesn’t sound like anyone else. Then we zoom out to the music industry and the attention economy. Sho challenges the pressure to overproduce and to live inside the algorithm, and he names why promotion can feel less like honest communication and more like manipulation. If you’ve ever wondered why so much music feels rushed or hollow, you’ll hear a clear diagnosis and a better vision for making art with patience, maturity, and depth. The conversation gets even sharper as we talk about the Western church, “relevance,” and the danger of being tethered to empire. Sho argues that what masquerades as church can become Christendom, Christianity shaped to please power. He also reflects on justice work, the temptation to let anger become condemnation, and the hard but hopeful path back through confession, repentance, and real community. If you care about faithfulness, public theology, racial solidarity, and the integrity of Christian witness, this one will stay with you.  Sho came to Waco on he and Malcolm's "Good Culture In An Empire" Tour.  If you missed it here, reach out and see if they're coming to your city.  They have dates in Denver and Atlanta already lined up.   Check all things Sho Baraka out at www.shobaraka.com/ [https://www.shobaraka.com/] His Book: He Saw That it Was Good [https://www.shobaraka.com/product-page/he-saw-that-it-was-good] Latest Album: Spotify: Midnight of a Good Culture [https://open.spotify.com/album/4iGpfDIVBa5zVBLeqtXo9q?si=Om4bp0pbRiK0YrbSQfyjrw] / Apple: Midnight of a Good Culture [https://music.apple.com/ag/album/midnight-of-a-good-culture/1831528515] The Bootmaker's Ballad (Music video)  [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n10Mw3i8vm8] If this conversation helps you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Your support helps more people find thoughtful, grounded faith in a loud, fearful world. For more information, you can follow us at https://www.theologyinpieces.com/ [https://www.theologyinpieces.com/]Theology in Pieces on Instagram - @theologyinpieces [https://www.instagram.com/theologyinpieces/] Email us by emailing hello@theologyinpieces.com Malcolm Foley - on twitter @MalcolmBFoley [https://twitter.com/MalcolmBFoley] Slim Thompson on twitter @wacoslim [https://twitter.com/wacoslim] For more information on the church, check us out at www.mosaicwaco.org [https://mosaicwaco.org/]or on instagram [https://www.instagram.com/mosaic_waco/].

75 - Christ Is King? Depends What You Mean

Send us a Question! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2100783/fan_mail/new] “Christ Is King” is everywhere right now and that’s exactly why we needed to slow down and ask what we’re actually confessing. We’re recording during Holy Week, and we feel the tension: the Resurrection is the center of Christian faith, but the name of Jesus keeps getting pulled into arguments about power, violence, and national identity. So we put the slogan on the table and ask whether it’s being used as comfort, as a threat, or as a shortcut to baptize the politics of empire.  We discuss imprecatory psalms, the difference between the oppressed crying out for justice and an empire asking God to bless its weapons.  Also, are there  prayers that God ignores?  Does God listen to the prayers of the wicked? The Pope recently warned that God doesn't listen to those who wage war.  [https://x.com/Pontifex/status/2038209125646016547] We also take a look at our Mail Bag and there is one consistent theme.... $ Hope you enjoy!  Keep writing in!   Sho Baraka & Malcolm's Good Culture in an Empire Event - April 17th! Get your tix.  [https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1985818277926?aff=oddtdtcreator] Resources discussed Power Over vs. Power Under in Two-Kingdoms [https://reknew.org/2017/07/two-kingdoms/] by Greg Boyd The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church [https://a.co/d/0gTScR7y]by Greg Boyd Pete Hegseth's Prayer [https://publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/at-pentagon-worship-service-hegseth] Terrible tweets: "the worst of the worst" [https://x.com/philvischer/status/2036471830274339323] Robert Morris released [https://x.com/AlyssaDegraff/status/2039005173939626229] If this conversation helps you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Your support helps more people find thoughtful, grounded faith in a loud, fearful world. For more information, you can follow us at https://www.theologyinpieces.com/ [https://www.theologyinpieces.com/]Theology in Pieces on Instagram - @theologyinpieces [https://www.instagram.com/theologyinpieces/] Email us by emailing hello@theologyinpieces.com Malcolm Foley - on twitter @MalcolmBFoley [https://twitter.com/MalcolmBFoley] Slim Thompson on twitter @wacoslim [https://twitter.com/wacoslim] For more information on the church, check us out at www.mosaicwaco.org [https://mosaicwaco.org/]or on instagram [https://www.instagram.com/mosaic_waco/].

74 - Tax The Rich Or Feed The Beast

Send us a Question! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2100783/fan_mail/new] “Christian socialism” can sound like a contradiction if you’ve been taught that Christianity and capitalism belong together. We slow the whole thing down and ask a better question: what does the gospel actually announce, and what kind of economic life should that announcement produce? Along the way, we respond to a debate clip that tries to shrink the gospel into “Jesus’ finished work” while treating justice as merely an implication. We argue that the good news is bigger, more public, and more demanding than that, without turning works into a way to earn salvation. Then we get honest about how systems shape souls. Capitalism is not just private property and Starbucks choices. It’s a moral formation built around profit motive, endless growth, and “voluntary exchange” that often isn’t voluntary when it involves housing, healthcare, wages, and survival. We connect modern wealth to empire history, including the doctrine of discovery and the long chain of dispossession that set the table for today’s inequality. If the top owns staggering wealth while the poor are crushed, the question isn’t only “did you personally exploit?” but “what does it mean to retain excess while your neighbor suffers?” We also define socialism in plain language, talk about why so many “failed socialism” examples ignore U.S. intervention, and bring the conversation back to Scripture: Jubilee, debt forgiveness, gleaning, Acts 2, and Acts 4. Our bottom line is not blind faith in the state but a call for the church to offer a real economic witness in the shadow of empire, so there are no needy among us. Books, Articles, and Notes: John Perkins Stood Almost Alone - [https://www.christianitytoday.com/2026/03/why-john-perkins-civil-rights-stood-almost-alone/](Russell Moore) The civil rights leader treated love of God and love for others as inseparable. Tax the Rich: How Lies, Loopholes, and Lobbyists Make the Rich even Richer [https://a.co/d/03h1bKVK] It's Basically Just Immoral to Be Rich [https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2017/06/its-basically-just-immoral-to-be-rich] Malcolm's Debate [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN0giB3lvmU&t=837s] Thaddeus Williams RECAP of the debate. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slsb3DY3EB8] The Case for Christian Socialism [https://andrewspringer.medium.com/the-case-for-christian-socialism-cad41e19ab4c] Christianity and Capitalism are Incompatible [https://thedawnishere.substack.com/p/christianity-and-capitalism-are-incompatible] Institute for Christian Socialism [https://christiansocialism.com/] If this conversation helps you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Your support helps more people find thoughtful, grounded faith in a loud, fearful world. For more information, you can follow us at https://www.theologyinpieces.com/ [https://www.theologyinpieces.com/]Theology in Pieces on Instagram - @theologyinpieces [https://www.instagram.com/theologyinpieces/] Email us by emailing hello@theologyinpieces.com Malcolm Foley - on twitter @MalcolmBFoley [https://twitter.com/MalcolmBFoley] Slim Thompson on twitter @wacoslim [https://twitter.com/wacoslim] For more information on the church, check us out at www.mosaicwaco.org [https://mosaicwaco.org/]or on instagram [https://www.instagram.com/mosaic_waco/].

73 - Armageddon, Power, And Bad Theology

Send us a Question! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2100783/fan_mail/new] Is this it?  Are we now living in the endtimes?  Has America kicked off Armageddon?  Recently some commanders are framing this war as part of God’s endgame [https://newrepublic.com/post/207270/military-leaders-iran-war-donald-trump-jesus-armageddon]. We take a hard, careful look at how Armageddon is being invoked to bless violence and ask what Revelation 16 actually means. Drawing on Israel’s story at Megiddo in Judges 4–5, we show how John’s apocalyptic imagery points to God’s pattern of deliverance, not a geopolitical countdown. Along the way we confront the claim that any person is “anointed” to light the fuse of history, and we return to Jesus’ own warning: no one knows the day or hour.  From failed predictions and culture-war sermons to modern war rhetoric, we map the through-line: when power borrows God’s name, people get hurt.  We contrast the mountain of Armageddon with the hill of Calvary, where God’s power looks like self-giving love, not shock and awe. Then we pivot to practice—how communities can protect immigrants, rebuild trust, and recover moral credibility before chasing policy wins. The real battle is not a theatrical showdown in the Middle East; it’s the daily war within our hearts against pride, greed, anger, and fear. Come for the scripture, stay for the honesty. If you’re weary of end-times hype and hungry for a faith that resists empire and clings to Christ, this conversation is for you.  Terrible Tweets: Iran is God's plan to start Armageddon [https://x.com/rpsagainsttrump/status/2028874957871026506?s=46&t=Krugcu1bTKRpnPSMcKlWxw] John Haggee's framing... [https://x.com/rightwingwatch/status/2028569888940290294?s=46&t=Krugcu1bTKRpnPSMcKlWxw] Marco Rubio on Radical Clerics leading a nation... [https://x.com/revkimwchafee/status/2028604862112428108?s=46&t=Krugcu1bTKRpnPSMcKlWxw] Paula White's Prophecy over Trump [https://x.com/antitrumpcanada/status/2029188769769730131?s=46&t=Krugcu1bTKRpnPSMcKlWxw] If this conversation helps you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Your support helps more people find thoughtful, grounded faith in a loud, fearful world. For more information, you can follow us at https://www.theologyinpieces.com/ [https://www.theologyinpieces.com/]Theology in Pieces on Instagram - @theologyinpieces [https://www.instagram.com/theologyinpieces/] Email us by emailing hello@theologyinpieces.com Malcolm Foley - on twitter @MalcolmBFoley [https://twitter.com/MalcolmBFoley] Slim Thompson on twitter @wacoslim [https://twitter.com/wacoslim] For more information on the church, check us out at www.mosaicwaco.org [https://mosaicwaco.org/]or on instagram [https://www.instagram.com/mosaic_waco/].

72 - Magic, Myths, and Imagination as Tools of Resistance with Dr. Sorina Higgins.

Send us a Question! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2100783/fan_mail/new] Mortality on the forehead. Stories in the bones. That’s the current we ride as we swap ash-streaked reflections, step behind the scenes of a first Ash Wednesday service, and welcome Dr. Sorina Higgins [https://sorinahiggins.com/]—editor, teacher, and scholar of the Inklings—into a wide-open conversation about imagination, power, and the words we use on each other. We start with the tactile: making ashes from last year’s palms, the awkward tenderness of tracing a cross on a child, and the pastoral decision to preach less and shepherd more. From there, Sorins reframes C. S. Lewis’s “space trilogy” as the Ransom Cycle, where adventure asks real questions: What would an unfallen world look like? What’s the role of science and marriage in a dystopia? How do we name “the heavens” without reducing them to empty space? Along the way we meet Tolkien, Barfield, and Charles Williams, and we learn how their fellowship made room for difference while insisting on beauty, goodness, and truth. Imagination isn’t child's play; it’s a tool of resistance. Sorina maps the ancient debate over images in prayer, showing how sanctified imagination can serve truth. She also draws a bright line between symbolic “magic” in fantasy—think Aslan’s breath as a sign of the Spirit—and real occult practice. Then we turn to today’s landscape: the strange overlap between spirituality and politics, the speed at which online disagreement becomes dehumanization, and what her podcast, Words Do Things, [https://wordsdothings.podbean.com/] has taught her about persuasion, pluralism, and patience. The hardest charge lands at the pulpit: Pastor's Are the Problem [https://sorinahiggins.substack.com/p/pastors-are-the-problem]. We sketch another way—cross-shaped leadership that welcomes those we fear, forms people who can bear difference, and trusts beauty to do its quiet work. We close with a sonnet and an invitation to keep learning. If this conversation stirred you—if you want a church where ash, story, and courage belong together—follow, share, and leave a review. What story is shaping your faith right now? Links: ICE detention camp in Dilley, Texas [https://x.com/allenanalysis/status/2023793938805502340] Caduceus [https://a.co/d/0c3HgTzx] If this conversation helps you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Your support helps more people find thoughtful, grounded faith in a loud, fearful world. For more information, you can follow us at https://www.theologyinpieces.com/ [https://www.theologyinpieces.com/]Theology in Pieces on Instagram - @theologyinpieces [https://www.instagram.com/theologyinpieces/] Email us by emailing hello@theologyinpieces.com Malcolm Foley - on twitter @MalcolmBFoley [https://twitter.com/MalcolmBFoley] Slim Thompson on twitter @wacoslim [https://twitter.com/wacoslim] For more information on the church, check us out at www.mosaicwaco.org [https://mosaicwaco.org/]or on instagram [https://www.instagram.com/mosaic_waco/].