Voxology

Mike, Suzie, and Tim discuss the harm caused when fallen pastors turn repentance into a public product, then explore how spiritual abuse can distort biblical interpretation. They consider Jesus as the key to reading Scripture, and share postures that make room for humility, curiosity, hope, and uncertainty.The hosts discuss how spiritual abusers can use Scripture to control, exclude, shame, and equate their own opinions with God’s word.Mike argues that Jesus is the “key to knowledge”: the New Testament presents him as essential to understanding the full meaning of Torah and the prophets.Suzie affirms the value of historical and cultural context, and says she has grown more comfortable with not knowing everything about God.Tim compares growing faith to childhood imagination, suggesting that uncertainty can invite wonder rather than become a stumbling block.Mike reframes certainty as relational faithfulness expressed through action, not simply intellectual confidence.The hosts suggest approaching Scripture with humility, curiosity, hope, gentleness, and openness to learning from other people and communities.Timestamps00:00 - Halloween plans and the episode’s turn to spiritual abuse04:23 - Why a book about a pastor’s fall and repentance raises concerns06:39 - Repentance, restoration, and caring for those who were harmed11:11 - Carl Lentz, celebrity ministry, and systemic failures18:01 - The “key to knowledge” and Jesus’ critique of religious leaders21:18 - How spiritual abuse distorts Scripture23:12 - Reading Torah and the prophets through Jesus29:22 - Wrestling with difficult Old Testament portrayals of God30:38 - Ambiguity, maturity, and learning to live with complexity36:09 - What the Old Testament reveals about God and God’s people38:33 - Childhood imagination, faith, and wonder40:30 - Certainty as relational trust expressed in action44:42 - Humility, curiosity, and hope as ways to approach Scripture51:22 - Gentleness, joyful conviction, and learning across differences54:28 - Agency, unanswered questions, and the value of wrestling56:09 - Aslan, Lucy, and how Jesus grows larger as we growAs 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_marketLearn more about the Voxology PodcastSubscribe on iTunes or SpotifySupport the Voxology Podcast on PatreonThe Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology RadioFollow us on Instagram: @voxologypodcast and "like" us on FacebookFollow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerreMusic in this episode by Timothy John StaffordInstagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

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? Timestamps00:00 - 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 ShemaAs 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! EtsyLearn more about the Voxology PodcastSubscribe on iTunes or SpotifySupport the Voxology Podcast on PatreonThe Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology RadioFollow us on Instagram: @voxologypodcast and "like" us on FacebookFollow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerreMusic in this episode by Timothy John StaffordInstagram & 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.Chapters00:00 Fall break banter and hurricane jokes04:18 The death penalty and public execution06:22 A son’s reaction to televised violence08:04 Burnout and the strain of constant political vigilance09:51 Jesus, peace, and the tension between nonviolence and resistance13:17 Turning the other cheek as creative goodness, not passivity15:15 Local community and faithful action17:07 Why political solutions aren’t the whole answer19:40 The limits of election-cycle thinking21:25 Staying local amid overwhelming news22:26 Anger, the internet, and protecting your attention32:34 Setting boundaries around news and social media36:04 The conversation turns to spiritually abusive leadership36:59 Siblingship instead of status and privilege38:27 Refusing social prestige and choosing low honor39:25 Hiddenness and performative piety40:22 Paul as a model of taking the lowest place43:45 The practice of showing genuine need44:44 Three steps toward becoming like the Pharisees47:05 Judgment, discernment, and empathy48:37 When humility becomes a performance51:07 Transparency versus real vulnerability55:45 Wounds, motives, and church leadership59:52 Preparing to teach without making the platform the center64:17 Suzie on pressure, trust, and teaching70:48 How to discern whose wounds a leader is trying to healAs 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! EtsyLearn more about the Voxology PodcastSubscribe on iTunes or SpotifySupport the Voxology Podcast on PatreonThe Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology RadioFollow us on Instagram: @voxologypodcast and "like" us on FacebookFollow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerreMusic in this episode by Timothy John StaffordInstagram & 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 episode02:20 — Political religion, military rhetoric, and the Bible04:11 — Psalm 33 in context: the verses left out06:15 — “The real battle is spiritual” and the danger of baptizing war language08:14 — The Psalm’s corrective: war horses do not save10:25 — Isaiah 6 misused as a war cry11:12 — The “Office of Religious Affairs” and state religion13:20 — Why they keep speaking up: record-keeping, mockery, and moral witness15:19 — The Cornell assault story and why it matters to churches16:05 — Image-bearing, trauma response, and taking assault seriously17:36 — Women defending themselves in every space19:00 — Why men’s silence is part of the problem20:59 — Purity culture, gendered blame, and church complicity24:29 — Sexual ethics and a theology of the body26:28 — Matthew 23 and Jesus’ warnings about spiritually abusive leaders28:20 — Religious performance, rank, and status31:14 — Phylacteries and tassels: symbols turned into self-display35:05 — Banquets, synagogue seats, and public honor37:19 — A modern reading of Jesus’ critique of abusive leadership39:54 — Titles, respect, and the difference between function and self-importance42:28 — Authority culture and the weight given to pastoral input45:20 — Form, function, and missing Jesus’ point47:00 — Jesus’ correction: one teacher, one father, one Messiah50:55 — Luke 14: take the lowest seat, not the place of honor52:51 — Vocational ministry and the pull of visibility55:44 — Matthew 6: giving, praying, and fasting without being seen57:36 — Church structures, hierarchy, and hard questions60:20 — Momentum, affirmation, and why leaders need mental health care61:48 — Staying close to the poor as a guardrail against status addiction64:33 — Mike’s personal practices for humility and hiddenness67:27 — Trusting communities and cultures over charismatic individuals69:53 — Closing thanks and sign-offAs 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! EtsyLearn more about the Voxology PodcastSubscribe on iTunes or SpotifySupport the Voxology Podcast on PatreonThe Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology RadioFollow us on Instagram: @voxologypodcast and "like" us on FacebookFollow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerreMusic in this episode by Timothy John StaffordInstagram & 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.Timestamps00:00 - 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 CorinthiansAs 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! EtsyLearn more about the Voxology PodcastSubscribe on iTunes or SpotifySupport the Voxology Podcast on PatreonThe Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology RadioFollow us on Instagram: @voxologypodcast and "like" us on FacebookFollow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerreMusic in this episode by Timothy John StaffordInstagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy