Inappropriate Conversations

TalkBack: Walk The Earth 1

When a new member of a church pledges to join a congregation, the public statement is often about supporting the church with prayers, presence, gifts, and service. At the point of deciding to leave a particular church, though, that pledge gets called into question. For some, leaving a congregation can reflect an abandonment of everything, all of that plus belief itself. For my family, though, the tension was more about whether the commitment was to a particular local church or something different, something more.

This episode, #wte 001, started the series of questions in a spinoff podcast of Inappropriate Conversations
simply called Walk The Earth.

224: Some Assembly Required, chapters 1 & 2

Some Assembly Required (A NeoSurrealist Forsaking a Habit for Lent)

Note: explicit language throughout

 

Chapter 1

What the Anti-Formalists Thought

Bennie's Got It

Pop Quiz

Homegrown

My Brunch with Nicole

"You always do this to me. First, you bring up something offensive. Then, you tell me to stop you before you go too far. But how can I?"

 

Chapter 2

R.S.V.P.

Cat Burglar

Diary of a College Graduate

Backroads

Telemarketed

"Film Break"

"Whether the goal is to become a member of the Christian Community, or the cat-killing community, or simply the campus community, there is a compelling degree of comfort to be found in membership."

 

Different Drummer: Ze Frank

Dear Kitten ads

Walk The Earth 58

Whether a mission statement is necessary, and what role does it play in the mission itself?

 

July 2010 on Inappropriate Conversations

A conversation from before Inappropriate Conversations existed

TalkBack 138: Missing Someone I Never Knew

Now that I've committed to TalkBack episodes being part of the structure going forward, along with new episodes of both Inappropriate Conversations and Walk The Earth, it's a good time to note that no past podcast I've ever recorded seemed quite as set for a reprise as this one, #IC #138. I am surprised that six years have gone by since I was slightly shaken by the news that someone from my high school graduating class had died. Hillary wasn't the first, there have been others since 2014, and inevitably more to come. It seems that Hillary took the chance to tell her story, though, on stage, a year earlier. We are blessed to live in an era where missing that event, and missing the actual events even at school, isn't the last word. To some degree, podcasts and YouTube videos are preserving a record. For now. 

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/138-missing-someone-i-never-knew/

 

223: Torment As Tactic

Seems to me, our society collectively complains about how the quality of our discourse has devolved while also avoiding even talking about potential solutions. Some seem just as legalistically obsessed with the First Amendment being a hard-stop to even common-sense standards of decency as they, or perhaps others, are about the Second Amendment. Just as you can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater where there is no fire or danger, you also cannot threaten to attack someone merely to silence their opinion or prevent them from raising their voice. Here we are, though, living in a society where harassment is accepted with a shrug and bullying is almost praised when it is an effective tactic. The situation is deplorable, but we have learned in recent years that using that particular term to denounce horrible misbehavior doesn't seem generate appropriate attention toward the problem. 

I would humbly suggest that we have the tools, the technology, to address this issue. Despite our discomfort about law enforcement overreach and spying on citizens, it is possible to identify the people chasing families off their phones and out of their homes. The time is coming when such investigations may be crucial, if it is not already too late. I recommend prison time and heavy fines for the offenders, too. Unfortunately, it's hard to find better, more nuanced answers at this time. We are, after all, at the start of a national election year in the United States. Safe to say this situation is going to get worse before it gets better.

Different Drummer: Sarah Bessey

TalkBack 40: Other High Crimes

With the second Senate impeachment trial of my lifetime scheduled to start any day now, I've chosen to schedule this TalkBack episode in advance for future release. That's a risky move. Who knows what might happen between now and then? To me, that's one of the challenges of dealing with current events on a podcast intended to be more evergreen than the news of the day. And the impeachment covered in this podcast is more than 20 years old now!

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/40-other-high-crimes/

 

TalkBack 15: Declaring War on 'Just Say No'

From an endgame perspective, the so-called "war on drugs" was never intended to generate the equivalent of permanent prisoners of war in the form of mass incarceration, but that is probably the true face of the political strategy that seemed to directly target my generation. The focus came after the Summer Of Love crowd, hitting instead the younger brothers, sisters, and cousins. It's hard to cite any wins because "Just Say No" as a campaign was far more about the image than the results, pure style over substance. Perhaps it was only about winning electoral strategies. I say this because I first had to resist this facile nonsense before I could commit myself to truly resisting any temptations to "experiment" with drugs. 

Yes, "temptations" is plural. This issue was never so simple that "just say no" was credible advice. And that was just part of the problem that persists today. Other parts include the false equivocation about the relative dangers of different substances, and whether keeping people alive long enough to get the help they truly need was ever among the goals (hint: evidence suggests it was not).

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/15-declaring-war-on-%e2%80%98just-say-no%e2%80%99/