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06/15/2026

There’s a predictable comment that always seems to pop up online and in real life every single June: “But isn’t pride a sin?”

As pastors who literally did a whole podcast series on the Seven Deadly Sins, we can confidently tell you: no, guys. Not this kind.

The pride that the church historically calls a sin is entirely about the ego. It’s an anti-God state of mind where we elevate ourselves over other people, believe we are superior to our neighbors, and try to excuse ourselves from the messy work of being in community. It is the total opposite of humility.

But Q***r Pride? That isn’t about superiority. It is the exact opposite of shame. It is a joyful refusal to hide, and a celebration of the exact way God designed you. Loving yourself and refusing to apologize for your existence isn’t a spiritual failure—it is a beautiful way of standing up and saying, “I am proud to bear the image of God.”

If you’ve ever been made to feel like celebrating who you are is a sin, we promise you it isn’t.

Grab a drink and join us. Take what you like and leave the rest.

Episode 366: iSn’T pRiDe A sIn is out now. Link in bio.

***rTheology

06/14/2026

We don’t believe baptism is a piece of fire insurance meant to keep people out of hell.
We definitely don’t believe that if a baby dies before they can be baptized, God shrugs and says, “Too bad.” That kind of transactional, conditional view of God falls apart the second it touches real human tragedy. God doesn’t need baptism.
So if God doesn’t need it, it forces us to ask the hard question: why do we even do it? Who is it actually for?
We think the answer is that baptism isn’t for God’s benefit at all. It’s for ours. It is a physical, tangible reminder for a messy human community that we are already claimed and already loved, long before we could ever do anything to earn it.
We’re wondering: how were you taught to think about baptism growing up? Did it feel like a requirement to stay safe, or did it feel like a gift?
Emmy officially caught us admitting who was right and who was wrong in this clip. Grab a drink and join us. Take what you like and leave the rest.
Episode 365: What Are Sacraments Anyway? is out now. Link in bio.

06/11/2026

We’ve been thinking a lot about what it actually means to receive a gift from God.

It’s incredibly easy to look at grace from a safe distance, admire how shiny and beautiful it is, and just leave it sitting on the shelf where it feels safe. But there is something entirely different about actually opening it up to see what happens. It feels a little risky, but that’s exactly where the beauty lives.

We talk about how the sacraments meet us right in that tension. God does all the heavy lifting—the grace is already entirely ours—but God also kindly gives us a tangible role to play. We get to hold the bread, step into the water, and claim that promise for ourselves. It satisfies our deeply human need to feel like we have a little bit of agency, even when we’re really just opening a gift that God has already handed to us.

We’re wondering: is there an invitation or a gift in your life right now that you’ve been staring at, but haven’t quite dared to open yet?

Grab a drink and join us. Take what you like and leave the rest.

Episode 365: What Are Sacraments Anyway? is out now. Link in bio.

06/09/2026

We get asked a lot why Lutherans only have two sacraments. It’s not because things like marriage, confession, or blessing the dying don’t matter to us. They deeply matter.

But we love the specific criteria Martin Luther set up because it’s rooted in a radical kind of universality. He wanted rituals that were accessible to absolutely everyone, paired with a tangible, physical element you could actually hang onto.

There is zero gatekeeping here. The only thing required at the communion table is that you be hungry. The only thing required for baptism is that you have water. No hoops to jump through, and no religious litmus tests to pass. Just grace, made physical.

If you’ve ever felt like you didn’t quite qualify for the church or for God’s love, we hope this clip reminds you that the invitation has always been for you.

Episode 365: What Are Sacraments Anyway? is out now. Link in bio.

06/06/2026

We like to think we’re being pious, but a lot of times, we’re just swimming in self-righteousness.

When the prophet Micah laid out what is actually required of us, walking humbly was right there at the center. The truth is, you simply cannot be self-righteous and be humble at the same time. They cannot occupy the same space.

And let’s be incredibly honest: self-righteousness is so easy to breathe in. It can easily become a default vice—that persistent urge to enter every single conversation wanting to win it or prove that we are the ones in the right. But when we look back at the roots of our tradition, pride has always been warned against so fiercely because of how deeply damaging it is to our connections.

The need to “win” the room comes from the exact same place that destroys the room. Real humility requires us to stop trying to be the most right person at the table.

Where are you catching yourself choosing the comfort of self-righteousness over the hard practice of walking humbly this week?

We’re trying to breathe in a little more humility and a little less pride. Take what you like and leave the rest.

Episode 364: Rupture and Repair is out now.

06/04/2026

We’ve been conditioned to think that resolving a conflict means one of two things: either we agree to never talk about the hard stuff again, or we sit down and debate it out until one person finally admits they were wrong.

But real relationship work doesn’t look like a courtroom. It looks like stepping back and saying, “I understand why you came in with that energy, and I see how it completely missed what you actually needed from me. I’m sorry I didn’t meet you where you were at.”

One of the absolute hardest, most foundational keys to making repair work is that the connection has to matter more than the point you’re trying to prove. The relationship has to matter more than being right.

And wowzers. Raise your hand if that is incredibly hard to actually do in real time.

Where are you being challenged to lay down the need to “win” an argument so you can actually save the connection this week?

We’re practicing the messy, un-shiny work of choosing each other over our own egos. Take what you like and leave the rest.

Episode 364: Rupture and Repair is out now.

06/02/2026

If every single rupture becomes absolute proof that someone is unsafe forever, we will never be able to build anything long enough for it to matter. Not a friendship, not a family, not a movement, not a care network.

We’ve been sitting with how deeply the systems around us benefit when rupture leads straight to abandonment. The status quo thrives when conflict completely destroys the room, and when people who could actually build things together decide that discomfort means the relationship is over.

But we want to be incredibly clear: repair does not mean staying in harm. It doesn’t mean groveling, pretending nothing happened, or giving someone endless access just because they said sorry once.

Repair means naming exactly what broke, reflecting honestly, owning your part, making amends, and seeing if the relationship can actually hold the truth.

That is a skill. It isn’t a personality trait, a “good person” badge, or something you magically know how to do because you read the right books. It’s a skill, which means it’s something we can actually practice.

Where are you practicing the hard, un-shiny work of repair in your own world this week?

We’re trying to learn how to stay at the table. Take what you like and leave the rest.

Episode 364: Rupture and Repair is out now.

05/23/2026

We’ve created a moral purity code that is simply impossible to follow.

We’ve fallen into this trap where virtue requires absolute perfection. It’s a culture that says if you miss a single step, or if you don’t perfectly align with every single rule, you’re suddenly out. But the reality is that we are people, and we are never going to be perfect. Someone is always going to miss something.

We think it’s vital to remember that Jesus never asked us for perfection. God never demanded that we hold a flawless record just to be worthy of love or community.

When we let go of the exhausting demand to be perfect, we can finally start asking better questions about what faith actually looks like in the real world. It opens up the space to just be human, to make mistakes, and to find grace in the middle of it all.

We’re wondering: where are you holding yourself to an impossible standard of “purity” instead of allowing room for grace?

We’re ready to lay down the rulebook and just walk the road of love. Take what you like and leave the rest.

Episode 363: The Church’s Weird Week is out now.

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