Chats with Larry is a podcast of phone call conversations of Rabbi Brian with his best buddy, Larry Keene, a retired minister and sociology professor.

What has been your experience of other cultures and religions:

As long as everyday Christians avoid the marketplace of ideas, extremist Christians will seem the prevailing voice of Christianity and/or the church. As Bishop Spong has said, religion is like a public pool: all the noise comes from the shallow end.

The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the story of the enlightenment of the Buddha are two of the most famous in the history of religion. Not only that, but even though they arose in different cultures they seem to say the same thing. And what they say resonates with us, no matter our time, no matter our place.

How can we start each day with a step toward qualitative living? Jesus shows us a routine that anyone can personalize toward reflecting his life-model and teachings.

In this new year – just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse — something dark and revelatory already happened on that day. Thousands of insurrectionists stormed the Capitol; wielding clubs, and bats, and – in one instance – a Bible.

The words of Amanda Gorman, Poet Laureate, from her moving poem during the inauguration of Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris as President and Vice-President of the United States of America.

There emerged out of the 2016 election a conspiracy theory that has been a catalyst for a growing and coalescing far right movement that is mainstreaming radical authoritarian nationalists, neo-Fascists, white supremacists, and anti-Semites in the United States.

A 90 minute inter-generational conversation between Ruby Sales and Brittany Packnett Cunningham. This conversation will be moderated by Rev. Traci Blackmon.

What Jesus Means to Muslims, Faith Leaders Promote Vaccine Use and other articles from RNS in December 2020.

How can something be lost if it never existed? Jesus was not the person many Christians make him out to be. He was never a Christian so how can we speak of the Christianity of Jesus? The historic Jesus must be understood as a first century Jew.

Do I stay where I am or do I join a less Christian church? Either way I will feel like an outsider.

It wasn’t until two years ago that I finally understood the magic of Christmas. I tell people with regard to Passover seders that until you’ve been to at least three of them, you don’t really get the genre. I guess I needed a few Christmases of doing it to understand that it’s not about the tree and the gifts.

The historical St Nick and the historical Jesus were real people, born in real places, in real cultures. They were not northern Europeans.

Jen Kidwell brings you the fruits of her expertise. Here are 3 Discussion Guides on Anti-racism: Raising White Kids, Between the World and Me and How to Be an Antiracist.

And will those feet in modern time,
Walk upon earth’s fair mountains green?

John 8:44 has always been problematic for me.  For example, in 8:44 Jesus tells the Jews who don’t believe in him that they are children of the devil.  What is the Progressive commentary on this passage?

Do you treat the world, the universe, reality as a partner with whom you’ve been in a long term relationship?