Host Dick Staub is joined by a live audience at Taproot theatre in Seattle’s Greenwood district who had just seen the theatrical production of C.S’ Lewis’ The Great Divorce (adapted by George Drance). This work of fantasy portrays Christian perceptions of the life after death allegorically and  follows one individual’s journey from hell/purgatory (”the grey town”) to heaven and salvation. We are joined by three esteemed guests , Rabbi Mark Glickman (Congregation Kol Shalom on Bainbridge Island, WA) Rev Patricia Hunter (An associate in ministry at Mount Zion Baptist Church, Seattle, WA.) and Taproot co-founder and Director Scott Nolte.

 

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Dick Staub welcomes you to the annual Theology of Academy Award Nominees show in which we ask three questions of the best picture nominees: 1) Where is God or Who is God in this film? 2) What is the human condition/dilemma addressed in this film? 3) What is redemption in this film and how is it found? On our panel is Jeffrey Overstreet, film critic and  author; Jennie Spohr, producer of The Kindlings Muse and Gregory Wright, managing editor of Hollywood Jesus.com & Past the Popcorn   and publisher of W. John MacGregor’s West of the Gospel, due to be released this summer. The ten nominees are: Avatar: An Education; Up in the Air; Inglourious Basterds; A Serious Man; Hurt Locker; Up; District 9; Precious and The Blind Side.

 

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Host Dick Staub discusses a film the NYT describes as  “A big, warm hug of feel-better entertainment and a community salve.” The film tells the story of New York-based actor James Lecesne, choreographer Gerry McIntyre and musical director Randy Redd Who embark on a journey to New Orleans  to see how they can help in the aftermath of Katrina.  The artists quickly discover St. Mark’s Community Center at the edge of the historic French Quarter.  It had been hit hard and forced to close, leaving a tremendous hole in the neighborhood’s heart. Why not mount a Broadway production with local teenage talent a raise money for the community? Writer/Director Hilla Medalia and Producers John and Ed Priddy are our guests as we discuss this thought-provoking, heart-warming story.

 

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Dick Staub interviews Ralph Winter, a Hollywood film producer who has produced blockbuster movies such as the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Star Trek series.  Films on his resume, stretching back to 1982, have earned more than four billion dollars at the box office worldwide. Winter is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

 

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Dick Staub discusses The Gospel According to Motown with guests Dr. Jeff Keuss a professor at SPU and an engaging interpreter of theology in popular culture. Rev Jennie Spohr ordained Presbyterian pastor, producer of the Kindlings Muse and a gadfly on a myriad of issues and Chris Estey who has been writing about music in Seattle since 1986. He has written for The Rocket, The Stranger, Seattle Sound Magazine, and other publications. He has worked at labels since the late 90s. (Or the alternative bio: Driving Mrs. Estey crazy with music and conversation about it; giving her a break tonight by talking about it with other people someplace else besides their apartment.) Motown was a record company founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. More than a record company it was really a movement that played an important role in the racial integration of popular music featuring African-American artists who achieved crossover success. It launched The Motown Sound ~ soul music with a distinct gospel and pop influence.

 

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Read Christmas Staublogs Past and Present.

• Order one of Dick’s books for Christmas! Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters OR

The Culturally Savvy Christian: A Manifesto for Deepening Faith and Enriching Popular Culture in an Age of Christianity-Lite:

Dear Friend of Staublog & The Kindlings

“In a poem every word must pull its own weight,” so said Irish poet Micheal O’Siadhail, as he and I talked over coffee about the cheapening of words in today’s culture.

It strikes me that the words that matter most, the Christmas words, are being robbed of their rich meaning in our casual gift card use these days.

Peace. Joy. Love. Thanksgiving. For these words to carry their own weight in the Holiday Season and year around, this is my prayer. The spiritual substance of these hoped for not yet fully seen gifts from God are ours when we allow God’s spirit to carry the weight of our lives, the burdens of our souls and all our heartaches and fears.

Read more

In her book Fingerprints of God NPR religion correspondent Barbara Bradley Haggerty set out in search for a science of spirituality. Interviewing leading neurologists, physicists, psychologists and a burgeoning breed of scientists intent on researching the physical imprint of the spiritual, her book offers a travelogue through the world of research into the reality of the unseen. In this podcast host Dick Staub discusses her findings with Adrian Wyard, founder of counterbalance.org, Reverend Jennie Spohr and Cindy Fitch, professor of biology at Seattle Pacific University.

 

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Host Bill Hogg & panelists Dr. Allyson Jule author and Co-Director of gender Studies Institute at Trinity Western University; culture watcher, movie critic and Charlton Heston fan boy Peter Chattaway ; award-winning screenwriter  Kevin Miller who has appeared as Lex Luthor on Smallville. In this show thee panel discusses TITLE:  Everything You Wanted to Know About the Devil but Were Afraid to Ask . C.S. Lewis: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel and excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” Listen in as the panel weigh in on contemporary depictions of the devil and reflect on what C.S. Lewis , M. Scott Peck and the Scriptures say about Satan.

 

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Welcome to The Kindlings Muse @ Earl Palmer Ministries. This event is taped for podcast in front of a live audience at the Burke Museum Café on the campus of the university of Washington. Each month we feature the Reverend Earl Palmer selecting and then discussing a book thinking Christians ought to read. In this show host Dick Staub and Earl Palmer discuss Three Ways to Understand the World as explored in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. With the publication of this book, in 1962, during the brief Kruschev thaw, Solzhenitsyn became an international sensation. The story is set in a Soviet labor camp in the 1950s, and describes a single day of an ordinary prisoner.

 

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Welcome to The Kindlings Muse @ Earl Palmer Ministries. This event is taped for podcast in front of a live audience at the Burke Museum Café on the campus of the university of Washington. Each month we feature the Reverend Earl Palmer selecting and then discussing a book thinking Christians ought to read. In this show host Dick Staub and Earl Palmer discuss The Defiant Traditionalist Who Believed in God: Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton

 

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