Voxology

The Bible can open the kingdom—or slam the door shut. In this episode, Mike, Tim, and Suzie explore Jesus’ warning to religious leaders who use Scripture to exclude, shame, and control, and ask why that warning still feels so relevant today. Looking at Matthew 23 and Luke 11, they unpack how the Pharisees are accused of rejecting Jesus, twisting Torah, and using religious authority to reinforce their own righteousness. The conversation connects those ancient warnings to spiritual abuse, political anger, online outrage, and the ways faith can be used either to bring people closer to God or push them away. Together, they consider what it means to “nullify” Scripture, how to recognize when a teacher is clarifying its message or obscuring it, and why lament, community, and peacemaking matter in a culture overwhelmed by grief and conflict. At the heart of the discussion is one searching question: Is our use of the Bible shaped by Jesus’ way of mercy—or by coercion and shame? Timestamps 00:00 - Fall break check-in and podcast banter 00:54 - Family trip to Columbus and Dave & Buster’s 02:19 - 30A, post-hurricane tourism, and fall break 03:53 - Hannah calls in after an eight-mile run 05:31 - Tim’s fall break, the Dodgers, and the Guardians 06:51 - The kindness mob story 09:34 - How positive and negative social media cascades spread 10:27 - Listener feedback about current events and Scripture 13:28 - A school shooting and the need to lament 15:23 - Making space for communal grief and prayer 19:35 - The search for peace 21:33 - Matthew 23 and shutting the kingdom door 23:59 - The “key to knowledge” in Luke 25:26 - Three ways the Pharisees closed the door 27:22 - The healing of the blind and mute man 28:44 - Jesus’ power, the Pharisees’ accusation, and blasphemy against the Spirit 31:59 - Ceremonial washing and the tradition of the elders 34:21 - Corban and honoring parents 36:36 - The sinful woman in Luke 7: judgment and mercy 38:29 - The woman caught in adultery 40:45 - Spiritual abuse and distorted readings of Scripture 44:30 - Susie on blocking others from a kingdom one has not entered 45:57 - Leaders preaching against what they have not faced in themselves 48:15 - Peacemaking, shalom, and responding to chaos 50:06 - Jesus, shame, and writing in the dust 51:35 - Mercy, wrath, and the death penalty debate 53:16 - The wounds teachers bring to their interpretation of Scripture 54:34 - Filters, theological posture, and interpretation 57:48 - Jesus clarifies Torah rather than obscuring it 58:18 - The “key to knowledge” and a cruciform way of reading the Bible 60:01 - Closing thanks and the Shema As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram. We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV. Our Merch Store! Etsy Learn more about the Voxology Podcast Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio Follow us on Instagram: @voxologypodcast and "like" us on Facebook Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Today, Mike, Tim and Suzie wrestle with two difficult questions: How should Christians respond to public cruelty and political turmoil? And how can church leaders avoid using power to heal their own wounds? The conversation moves from the death penalty and immigration enforcement to Jesus’ teaching on peace, then turns to humility, vulnerability, and spiritual abuse. They consider why “turn the other cheek” is not a call to passivity, how anger might become fuel for healing rather than outrage, and why local community matters for discernment and action. The conversation also examines the temptations of spiritual leadership: status, performance, and the difference between transparency and real vulnerability. Chapters 00:00 Fall break banter and hurricane jokes 04:18 The death penalty and public execution 06:22 A son’s reaction to televised violence 08:04 Burnout and the strain of constant political vigilance 09:51 Jesus, peace, and the tension between nonviolence and resistance 13:17 Turning the other cheek as creative goodness, not passivity 15:15 Local community and faithful action 17:07 Why political solutions aren’t the whole answer 19:40 The limits of election-cycle thinking 21:25 Staying local amid overwhelming news 22:26 Anger, the internet, and protecting your attention 32:34 Setting boundaries around news and social media 36:04 The conversation turns to spiritually abusive leadership 36:59 Siblingship instead of status and privilege 38:27 Refusing social prestige and choosing low honor 39:25 Hiddenness and performative piety 40:22 Paul as a model of taking the lowest place 43:45 The practice of showing genuine need 44:44 Three steps toward becoming like the Pharisees 47:05 Judgment, discernment, and empathy 48:37 When humility becomes a performance 51:07 Transparency versus real vulnerability 55:45 Wounds, motives, and church leadership 59:52 Preparing to teach without making the platform the center 64:17 Suzie on pressure, trust, and teaching 70:48 How to discern whose wounds a leader is trying to heal As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram. We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV. Our Merch Store! Etsy Learn more about the Voxology Podcast Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio Follow us on Instagram: @voxologypodcast and "like" us on Facebook Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Warning: Strong Language. This episode opens with a critique of political religious rhetoric, then turns to sexual abuse, church complicity, and why image-bearing, body theology, and accountability matter. The conversation also explores Matthew 23 and Jesus’ warnings about religious performance, status-seeking, and spiritual abuse in leadership. Mike, Tim, and Suzie react to Pete Hegseth’s religious language and discuss how quoting Psalm 33 and Isaiah 6 out of context can be used to baptize militarism, and then connect the Cornell University sexual assault story to broader questions of human dignity, trauma, and the failure of men and institutions to intervene. CHAPTERS: 00:00 — Opening banter and setting up the episode 02:20 — Political religion, military rhetoric, and the Bible 04:11 — Psalm 33 in context: the verses left out 06:15 — “The real battle is spiritual” and the danger of baptizing war language 08:14 — The Psalm’s corrective: war horses do not save 10:25 — Isaiah 6 misused as a war cry 11:12 — The “Office of Religious Affairs” and state religion 13:20 — Why they keep speaking up: record-keeping, mockery, and moral witness 15:19 — The Cornell assault story and why it matters to churches 16:05 — Image-bearing, trauma response, and taking assault seriously 17:36 — Women defending themselves in every space 19:00 — Why men’s silence is part of the problem 20:59 — Purity culture, gendered blame, and church complicity 24:29 — Sexual ethics and a theology of the body 26:28 — Matthew 23 and Jesus’ warnings about spiritually abusive leaders 28:20 — Religious performance, rank, and status 31:14 — Phylacteries and tassels: symbols turned into self-display 35:05 — Banquets, synagogue seats, and public honor 37:19 — A modern reading of Jesus’ critique of abusive leadership 39:54 — Titles, respect, and the difference between function and self-importance 42:28 — Authority culture and the weight given to pastoral input 45:20 — Form, function, and missing Jesus’ point 47:00 — Jesus’ correction: one teacher, one father, one Messiah 50:55 — Luke 14: take the lowest seat, not the place of honor 52:51 — Vocational ministry and the pull of visibility 55:44 — Matthew 6: giving, praying, and fasting without being seen 57:36 — Church structures, hierarchy, and hard questions 60:20 — Momentum, affirmation, and why leaders need mental health care 61:48 — Staying close to the poor as a guardrail against status addiction 64:33 — Mike’s personal practices for humility and hiddenness 67:27 — Trusting communities and cultures over charismatic individuals 69:53 — Closing thanks and sign-off As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram. We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV. Our Merch Store! Etsy Learn more about the Voxology Podcast Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio Follow us on Instagram: @voxologypodcast and "like" us on Facebook Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

The best way to expose spiritual abuse is not by making Christianity smaller, but by making it more like Jesus. This episode follows a lively three-way conversation with Mike, Tim Stafford, and Suzie P. Lind about complementarianism, spiritual abuse, and what Jesus means by mercy over sacrifice. The discussion also widens into how churches create heavy loads through subculture, calling, gender roles, and expectations around community.They move from a listener email about complementarianism into a broader argument about how Jesus frees people instead of exhausting them with rule systems. Along the way, they connect Sabbath controversies, neighbor-love, and the body metaphor in First Corinthians to the everyday ways Christians can either burden or bless one another. Timestamps 00:00 - Opening banter and political outrage over absurd public symbolism 03:31 - Listener email on complementarianism as a whole worldview 06:10 - Suzie on how deconstruction is often the real “choice” 10:46 - Tim questions racial and global inconsistencies in complementarian teaching 15:36 - Heavy loads, Pharisaical teaching, and Jesus’ mercy framework 18:31 - What mercy over sacrifice could look like for neighbors with different identities 22:20 - Healing on the Sabbath and the shriveled hand story 24:52 - “It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” as Jesus’ core principle 25:51 - How spiritually abusive systems add rules, shame, and fear 30:57 - Opposite of loads: blessing and empowering people 32:30 - Ways churches imply you must swallow everything or not belong 35:26 - “Gift projection” and forcing your calling onto everyone else 36:59 - The myth of “full-time ministry” versus ordinary Christian vocation 40:47 - Unity as family, not uniformity 42:17 - Turning implications into commands, like “your body is a temple” 43:17 - Examining our own hearts before calling out the load we place on others 46:27 - Redefining gospel, salvation, and what “first importance” really means 48:34 - When theological nuance leaves people unable to read Scripture with confidence 50:13 - Confession and accountability as communal, not individual, work 51:30 - First Corinthians and the body metaphor as a better model for discipleship 53:21 - Justice, guilt, and how load-bearing can happen even in good intentions 54:43 - How “we’re not program-driven” can still burden people differently 56:19 - Enneagram, temperament, and center-set community across differences 58:14 - Introverts, presence, and why every body part matters 60:09 - Closing reflections on the brutal beauty of community in First Corinthians As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram. We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV. Our Merch Store! Etsy Learn more about the Voxology Podcast Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio Follow us on Instagram: @voxologypodcast and "like" us on Facebook Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

This episode opens with a lively point counterpoint about whether Christianity has failed, then moves into a thoughtful listener question about complementarianism, egalitarianism, and why some disagreements feel anything but friendly. From there, the conversation shifts into a teaching-heavy look at Matthew 11 and 12, where Jesus’ “easy yoke” is unpacked as mercy over burden, not zero-effort religion. Mike, Tim Stafford, and Suzie each bring a distinct voice: Mike steers the theology and text, Tim presses the conversation from a justice and power angle, and Suzie names the lived experience of women navigating church systems. Timestamps 00:00 - Cold open: “Christianity has failed” 03:45 - A listener question on complementarianism and why the disagreement feels fake to some women 09:21 - Susie’s response: friendship, trust, and why fellowship has levels 12:20 - The danger of treating everything as first importance or nothing as important 14:42 - Why the biblical case for women in leadership still matters missionally 16:09 - Women in leadership, abuse culture, and why hierarchy can create bad fruit 17:45 - Tim’s alt festival update and the conversation shifts into what kinds of churches he will not attend 18:43 - Why churches that marginalize people are non starters 22:23 - The “slippery slope” argument cuts both ways 23:30 - Matthew 23: heavy loads, hypocrisy, and spiritual abuse 24:57 - Torah was a gift, not the burden Jesus condemned 26:23 - Sabbath, Jubilee, and the radical generosity of Torah 28:51 - Matthew 11: the context for Jesus’ invitation to rest 34:42 - “Come to me” and the burden of the Pharisees 37:06 - Susie on legalism, hustle culture, and the simplicity we complicate 39:40 - “Come to me”: a rabbinic invitation to become Jesus’ student 41:11 - What a yoke meant in rabbinic teaching 44:22 - Why the crowds did not fully understand Jesus at first 46:24 - Status, knowledge, and why learnedness can become a burden 47:22 - Jesus as gentle and humble in heart 49:46 - “Easy” does not mean effortless 52:39 - Matthew 12 begins: Sabbath, hunger, and grain fields 55:22 - Why Sabbath became a major identity marker after exile 57:19 - The written Torah versus the oral tradition 58:45 - David and the consecrated bread 59:43 - Priests working on the Sabbath and Jesus’ greater-than-the-temple claim 61:13 - “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” 62:10 - How Jesus reveals the true nature of Torah 66:41 - Sabbath was made for humans, not humans for Sabbath 68:24 - Torah as a shape for mercy, not a cage against mercy 69:47 - Teaser for next week: mercy, sacrifice, and modern spiritual abuse 71:43 - Annie Dillard’s warning about the power invoked in church As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to [email protected], and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram. We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV. Our Merch Store! https://www.etsy.com/shop/VOXOLOGY?ref=shop_sugg_market Learn more about the Voxology Podcast Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio Follow us on Instagram: @voxologypodcast and "like" us on Facebook Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy