October 24 2011

Show open from the Pathway cafe; the failed October 21 rapture date

• Is everything that happens really God's plan?
• Does reading the Bible more make you more liberal?

Produced intro names the on-air crew — Ben Foost, Mike Foost, Dan Hudson — plus special guests Pants Whetstone and Troy Spookenhauser. Ben Foost introduces the show from the Pathway Church cafe: the studio was handed to the church's 24-7 prayer room, so the broadcast runs from the cafe with the video feed compromised. He previews the night — the prayer room, whether everything is 'God's plan,' a survey claiming Bible reading makes people more liberal, an Alabama town offering 'Jesus or jail,' and Dear LFTP advice — and notes the world did not end on Harold Camping's October 21 date. The God's-plan question and the Bible survey are teased here but never returned to.

The 24-7 prayer room concept and the creepy 'Holy, holy, holy' throne room

A host explains the prayer room: for two weeks, around the clock, members sign up for hour-long shifts, writing prayers on paper-lined walls, reading the Bible, or praying before a cross. This year's addition is a 'throne room' evoking Isaiah 6 and Revelation — a raised throne with flowing robes, scripture, and music — and the hosts confess they couldn't lift their eyes in it and felt they had to back out rather than turn their backs. They roast the room's audio-Bible soundtrack, whose flat-voiced readers intone 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty' instead of the jubilant thousands-upon-thousands of angels Revelation describes.

Prayer styles: long stretches, booklets, loud music, and listening

Pants Whetstone, interviewed about his prayer-room hours, says he enjoyed the throne room and spent five or six hours with Engeldinger, watching a Mark Driscoll sermon on marriage and men and talking it through. Dan Hudson's last-minute idea — small booklets for writing down prayer reminders — gets praised, and Dan describes his own sessions: time in the throne room, then mostly sitting, listening, and asking God what he wants. Ben Foost describes cranking worship music loud and pacing, writing first as a 'cleanse,' and argues prayer shouldn't be only face-on-the-ground submission since God made people to go out and interact with others.

Relationship over checklist faith; emptying self and the Holy Spirit's direction

Dan swaps into the prayer room while Mike comes out and reports a short, unfocused half hour — he wasted it hunting the song catalog for the perfect praise song — and admits wanting to sit on the throne-room chair, an urge the others shut down. Mike talks about shifting from a battle-oriented to a servant-oriented posture, and the conversation deepens into relationship versus checklist faith: a host compares rule-based religion to a marriage run on checklists, and the group agrees prayer must include listening, emptying oneself, and letting the Holy Spirit fill and direct daily life. They close on recognizing God at work rather than dismissing it as coincidence, and on not forcing righteousness.

Troy Spookenhauser joins; the throne-chair debate and cafe banter

Troy Spookenhauser joins the show after work and gives his prayer-room impressions, quoting Francis Chan on a renewed 'hunger for God.' The throne-room debate continues — Mike admits the first thing he told Pants was wanting to sit in the big chair, and the others explain why nobody's backside belongs on the symbolic throne of God. Banter about the cafe's purple decor, big windows, and fake trees, plus an expected visit from Mr. Dudenhofer, closes the block before the news segment.

Operation Restore Our Community: Alabama's 'Jesus or jail' offer

• Should an Alabama town offer misdemeanor offenders church instead of jail?

The hosts read a news item: under Bay Minette, Alabama's 'Operation Restore Our Community,' judges let misdemeanor offenders choose jail, a fine, or weekly church attendance for a year, with pastor-and-police check-ins and dismissal on completion, saving the $75-a-day cost of housing inmates. Troy compares it to the Crusades' forced religion; the others push back hard that a voluntary alternative to jail is nothing like taking Jerusalem by the sword. They then wrestle with the receiving church's side — whether offenders should be quietly monitored, whether 'all sin is equal' (one host argues Old Testament punishments were clearly graded) — and land on discreet leadership awareness rather than public announcements, closing with a Shawshank Redemption nod.

Station business; worship posture: raised hands, clapping, jumping jacks

After a station break promoting prayer-room signups and a prayer-room link for the chat, the show runs a stretch without Ben at the helm. Troy thanks Pants on air for helping bring him back to church, then the group compares notes on physical worship expression: raised hands, clapping, standing, even aisle cartwheels and jumping jacks. Most admit their church backgrounds make raised hands feel awkward, but they've grown comfortable doing whatever they're compelled to do — while agreeing nobody should raise a hand just because the person next to them did.

Mike's Wednesday-night church visit and the end-times lady

Mike tells a story from his week out of town: at a Wednesday-night Bible study walking through the book 'The Story,' he sat next to a woman who warned him the Lord's army would advance the next week — from China, from Florida, and via the Vietnamese from the California side — with earthquakes and the dead rising. He played along politely, concluded she was the congregation's lone end-times enthusiast, and the timing — days after Harold Camping's failed October 21 prediction — gives the hosts a springboard into how the deceived stay deceived because deception demands nothing of them.

Christ's return, Gethsemane, and how much deity Jesus set aside

• Was Jesus' anguish in Gethsemane about the cross or about becoming sin?
• How much of his deity did Jesus set aside to become man?

Riffing on the end-times lady, the hosts imagine Christ's return — one pictures an eight-story horse, then unpacks the symbolism: kings rode horses as conquerors, while Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey as a humble man. Troy asks about Gethsemane — whether Jesus' anguish was fear of the cross or of becoming sin — and the group agrees it was becoming sin and separation from the Father, citing Lee Strobel's 'The Case for Christ.' They debate how much deity Christ set aside (one argues he chose not to use it; another that he still knew men's thoughts), and reject the 'poor Jesus' framing: the crucified Christ is the same conquering king who knowingly took the beating.

Persecution, heaven, hell, and the heaven-bucks wedding guest

• Would you accept a heaven with everything but no Jesus?

The conversation turns to persecution — Christians being killed and raped in Egypt and other Muslim-majority countries — and whether the hosts would go if called, concluding God calls people where they are and 'forcing righteousness' is telling God what to do. They trade simple truths: Satan didn't create hell; God made heaven and hell and puts Satan there; nobody parties with friends in hell. A host shares the wedding analogy from a sermon: heaven is God's wedding, and trying to pay '$20 at the door' misses the point — echoed by Francis Chan's 'Crazy Love' question of whether you'd accept a Jesus-less heaven. The block dissolves into the 'heaven bucks' Book-of-Life bit, with joke aliases for Engeldinger (Roust and Hammer, Buford, Spankel Linger).

Dear LFTP: a mother fears overreacting about her husband's touch on their preteen daughter

• Dear LFTP: how should a mother address her husband's inappropriate touch of their preteen daughter?

The hosts read a Dear LFTP letter from a mother whose preteen daughter Avery told her that her father smacked her bottom and played with her jeans' back pockets, saying she's 'his baby girl' — while the mother, herself abused as a teen, fears overreacting. The room lands on a clear line: whatever a daughter feels is inappropriate is inappropriate; positive touch like hugs stays, and the wife must talk to her husband without accusing. They read the 'secular' answer aloud — trust her gut, tell Avery no one may touch her unwillingly, and insist on professional counseling if he resists — and agree, while flagging the letter's aside about the couple's weak sex life as something to be mindful of but not to weaponize.

Dear LFTP: the unemployed, depressed alumnus resenting successful peers

• Dear LFTP: how should the unemployed, depressed alumnus deal with resentment toward successful peers?

The second Dear LFTP letter comes from a prestigious-college graduate, 35 years out, with no job, debt, depression, and phobias, resentful that the alumni magazine only publishes successful peers and that Facebook friends are doing well. The hosts roast the writer's victim posture — 'John' becomes the stand-in for everyone-has-it-better entitlement — while conceding times are genuinely tough. The secular advice noted that others share the feeling, which the hosts read as a window into the Occupy movement's victim mindset.

Dear LFTP: the chronically borrowing neighbor; is punching someone for Jesus ever OK?

• Dear LFTP: what should the letter-writer do about the chronically borrowing neighbor?
• Is it ever acceptable to punch someone in the face for Jesus?

The third Dear LFTP letter complains about a frugal non-working neighbor who constantly borrows — most recently socks for her daughter's dance recital — and asks whether to confront her or just refuse future requests. The hosts split between 'keep handing it over' and calling the absent husband, then spiral into a long comedic debate: is it ever acceptable to punch someone in the face for Jesus? Citing the temple tables and Ananias and Sapphira, they land where one host started — only if the Holy Spirit genuinely says so; until then, talk to the guy, don't hit him. The show closes the bit by inviting sock donations.

Outro: station links and Troy hums the close

A host admits he can't fire up the outro music, so Troy hums the close — a 'Wild World' refrain — while the others plug the YouTube channel, thepathonline.org, and the podcast download for next Monday. They sign off with one host joking he'll see them 'if I don't have a restraining order against me.'