Faith, Finances and F*Bombs

Each suspicious about the integrity of their local recycling management, Hartley describes two world views, emphasizing God's economy, and Kevin details last month's view, summarizing the United States economy. This is part two, continuing their long conversation of the previous episode.

Show Notes:

• Municipalities and counties pay for residential and commercial recyclables to be trucked to local and regional recycling plants for processing. Clean batches are sorted and/or compressed into bales of similar plastics, paper, aluminum or glass. The centers sell the cleaned recyclables on the open market to buyers who will process them into recycled materials like plastic pellets or post-consumer paper; these can be turned into new products. This entire process – the processing and creation of saleable recycled goods – costs money. As with any good, profitability requires selling for a higher price than it costs to make. Contaminated batches are harder to process into new products and therefore fetch a lower price on the market, if they can be sold at all. Currently, U.S. recyclables are no longer profitable, and no one wants to buy them.
• China used to buy the majority of the world’s plastics and paper for recycling. Starting Jan. 1, 2018, China banned imports of most scrap materials because shipments were too contaminated; the country no longer wanted to be the “world’s garbage dump.” As a result, the U.S. and other Western nations who had relied on China to offload their recyclables saw a “mounting crisis” of paper and plastic waste building up in ports and recycling facilities.
• Domestically, the closing of the Chinese market to U.S. recyclables bankrupted many domestic recycling programs because there was too much supply and no real demand. This left waste-management companies around the country with no market for recyclables. They’ve been forced to go back to cities and municipalities with two choices: pay a lot more to get rid of their recycling or throw it away. Reports in The New York Times and The Atlantic noted that most are choosing the latter.
• The Parable of the Wedding Feast is one of the parables of Jesus and appears in the New Testament in Luke 14:7–14. He spoke a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the best seats, and said to them, "When you are invited by anyone to a marriage feast, don't sit in the best seat, since perhaps someone more honorable than you might be invited by him, and he who invited both of you would come and tell you, 'Make room for this person'. Then you would begin, with shame, to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes, he may tell you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." He also said to the one who had invited him, "When you make a dinner or a supper, don't call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor rich neighbors, or perhaps they might also return the favor, and pay you back. But when you make a feast, ask the poor, the maimed, the lame, or the blind; and you will be blessed, because they don't have the resources to repay you. For you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous."
• The Parable of the Unjust Manager is a parable of Jesus which appears in Luke 16:1–13. In it, an accountant who is about to be fired repents of his sin, tries to "curry favor" with his master's debtors by asking the debtors to only pay what they owe his master—rather than pay him as well. Although the master has a certain grudging admiration for the manager's "shrewdness," Jesus labels the manager "dishonest:" “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
• The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard is a parable of Jesus which appears in Matthew 20:1-16. Planting, maintaining and harvesting vineyards in first-century Israel was strenuous work requiring hard physical labor in the heat of summer. Often, additional laborers were required to get all the work done. The owner of this particular vineyard went to the marketplace at the first hour of the morning (6:00 ...

Hartley and Kevin discuss White Christian nationalism and how the United States economy reacts during Presidential elections, and the practice of school children's parental behaviors.

Show Notes:

Article referenced in this episode (link): How one evangelical leader uses the Bible to expose the ‘False White Gospel’

Book referenced in this episode: Thinking Fast, and Slow by Daniel Kahneman; Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 2013; 512 pages

The charts referenced in this episode are available to view on Hartley's Web Site.

What do you think?

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Show Credits:

• Announcer: Dr. K.J. Wright
• Podcast Theme: Catch It Music by Coma-Media from Pixabay

Part 1 of 2. In this episode, Kevin and Hartley reflect about "Patriot Day," Kevin addresses expectations connected to the Secure 2.0 provisions and balances the good news for savings accounts against the bad news of fixed mortgages, Hartley critiques a faith-related app in the show's first Pop Culture Review.

Show Notes:

• This episode was recorded on September 11, 2023. This day is officially called “Patriot Day,” (Kevin refers to it as a day of remembrance) a national day of service and remembrance that commemorates the catastrophic events of Sept. 11, 2001. On this day in 2001, almost 3,000 people were killed in a series of coordinated attacks involving commercial airplanes. The attacks started at 8:46 a.m. when hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 11 crashed the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, killing everyone on board and hundreds inside the building. Just 17 minutes later, hijackers crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the World Trade Center’s South Tower, killing all on board and more inside the Trade Center. Thousands more died when both towers crashed down less than an hour after being attacked. The 9/11 attacks weren’t limited to New York. Flight 77 crashed into the western façade of the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., killing 50 people on board and 125 inside the Washington, D.C. home of the Department of Defense. A fourth plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all on board as passengers and crew attempted to wrestle control from the hijackers. Among the fatalities that day were 343 firefighters, 72 law enforcement officers and 55 military personnel.

• Additional commentary and reflection on the app Text With Jesus:
  • It is worth considering what our society reflects knowing people are willing to employ a Silicon Valley tool in place of something so profoundly human and freeing and beautiful: the quality of accessing God through prayer.
  • Isn't seeking to communicate with (and control) God through a handheld device similar to offering requests for health and prosperity to totems and golden calves created by ancient metal workers?
  • A person truly formed by prayer will protect and cultivate the spiritual encounter, appreciate and accept the mystery of Jesus, allow Jesus to be himself.
  • Prayer is a human experience. Everyone can do it any time they want.
  • The fact Text With Jesus has been created and is being consumed reveals how deeply married/codependant/intertwined we Americans have become to our smartphones.
  • Hartley and Kevin address, only through light inference, why people should be careful and dubious toward this app's insistence that its content is "Bible-based." There is an embarrassing level of biblical illiteracy among all people, including Christians and the pious, when preference is given toward avoiding uncomfortable truths in favor of what one wants to hear.
  • The app aligns with our clinical culture, which emphasizes personal affirmation and physical and mental wellness

Comment—Please reach out to us and tell us what you think:

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Connect With Us:

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Show Credits:

• Sounds by Zapsplat
• Additional Sound Effects from Pixabay
• Announcer: Dr. K.J. Wright
• Podcast Theme: Catch It Music by Coma-Media from Pixabay

The Market is high but the Holy Spirit is low on the fandom list. In this episode — if you hang around long enough — you'll hear an unsolicited apology to their listeners, an accidental conversation about self-awareness, and why Hartley and Kevin appreciate women's bathrooms.

Show Notes:

• The referenced quote (corrected and expanded here): "50% contend that the Holy Spirit is not a real, living being but is merely a symbol of God’s power, presence, or purity" is stated in Arizona Christian University Cultural Research Center's American Worldview Inventory 2021 and can be found by clicking this link.
• True growth in Spiritual Transformation cannot happen without Self-Knowledge, Self-Examination and Confession. This is why Hartley discusses a small part of this process in this episode. One moves toward spiritual wholeness through an intentional practice of allowing God to show you the strengths of your personality and how you are living those well, as well as how the compulsions of your false self (your 'shadow side') are playing themselves out in your life. The practice of noticing might not seem like much, but it can open up avenues and opportunities for change, and help you discover a truer response which comes from love and faith and being given over to God.
• This is the third episode to include the nuisance of imitation advertising. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to return this podcast to an ad-free experience soon.
• The podcast EnneagramU can be discovered on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, vufaith.com or wherever you listen.

What do you think?

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Leave a comment via Email | [email protected] — no listeners have to date, so you can be the first.

Show Credits:

• Sounds by Zapsplat
• Musical underscores by Zapsplat
• Additional Sound Effects from Pixabay
• Announcer: Dr. K.J. Wright
• Podcast Theme: Catch It Music by Coma-Media from Pixabay
• Disclaimer Theme: Night Bossa by OYStudio from Pixabay

The 5th of July! This week on the podcast, Hartley and Kevin have fun with a fireworks theme. They reminisce over explosive experiences, discuss the rockets and dive bombs on the market, and share past and present smoke bombs.

Show Notes:

The "Talley Trilogy" of the late playwright Lanford Wilson:

• Talley and Son, Setting: Lebanon, Missouri, July 4, 1944 (Premiered: 1985)
• Talley's Folly, Setting: An old boathouse in rural Missouri, July 4, 1944 (Premiered: 1980)
• 5th of July, Setting: Lebanon, Missouri, July 5, 1977 (premiered: 1978)

Hartley references the article detailing the signal of the final evacuation of the Vietnam War.

God as a consuming fire is not just about his judgment or discipline. It is also about his glory and majesty.

There is something majestic and awesome about the presence of God, his glory consumes everything around it. When he shows up, nothing else can stand in his presence. We become like Isaiah in his vision of the Lord.

“’Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty’” (Isaiah 6:5).

The overwhelming majesty of who he is will cause you to bow, whether you like it or not. This is why God is a consuming fire. Hartley encourages listeners to go before God in worship and prayer remembering who he is, why God is a consuming fire: He is trying to burn away the things that harm you and prevent you from being what he wants you to be.

Comment—What do you think?

X / TweetTM to us | @FaithMoneyBomb
Leave a comment via Email | [email protected]

Connect With Us:

Hartley Facebook / Twitter / Threads
Kevin Facebook / Blog

Show Credits:

• Sounds by Zapsplat.com
• Announcer: Dr. K.J. Wright
• Music Credits
  • Podcast Theme: Catch It by Coma-Media from Pixabay
  • Transition Theme: For Elevator Jazz Music by Music_Unlimited from Pixabay