Theology in the Raw - TITR Year end review and looking forward to 2026: Preston Sprinkle

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

In this solo episode, I talk about some of the highlights over the last year of the Theology in the Raw podcast. I give a little insight into how I pick guests, and some thoughts on platforming. We get into some of the stats, and I share some of my favorite positive (and negative) reviews from the Apple podcast app. It's been a great year! I'm glad you're with me. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey friends, happy new year. Thank you to all of you who had been listening to Theology to Ra, whether it's been for the last few weeks or the last few years. I'm always amazed when I talk to people that say, I've been listening to you since 2016, 2017, when the show was barely off the ground, it used to be called, what does the Bible actually say? Remember those days? Most of you don't. I used to do a 15-minute program that used to be on Christian radio, 15-minute program Monday through Friday, 215 in Boise, Idaho, Christian Radio called What Does the Bible Actually Say, where I would challenge some commonly held misconceptions about what the Bible says. It doesn't say. We did that for a couple of years.

That morphed into a podcast. I left the Christian radio station or got left from the Christian radio station and ended up focusing just on the podcast version of that 15-minute radio show. And that morphed into a half-hour weekly podcast where I would kind of, I don't know, what did I do? I think I did lots of like Q&A or just kind of random thoughts. And then I started having guests on. The show has got longer and it going twice a week instead of once a week. I think it was around the time of COVID. And then several years later, here we are.

So I wanted to give an update on the podcast. Look back at this past year and look forward to the coming year in 2026. I think it's going to be a great year. That's what we're supposed to say, right? It's going to be a great year, as if I know. It could be a terrible year. It could be 2020, 2020 all over again. Who knows? Anyway, it doesn't matter. We're Christians. Our hope is in Jesus. And in the end, we will be raised from the dead and reign with Jesus in glory and the new creation. So the mission of Theology and Arrah, the Theology of Raw podcast aims to help believe. believers think Christianly about theological and cultural issues by engaging in curious conversations. That's a key word. You'll hear me talk about that a lot. Curious conversations with a diverse range of thoughtful people, not people I necessarily agree with, not people I bring on to debate. I don't really like debates. I think they can be good and fine and healthy.

I like to watch debates, quite honestly, but I don't personally. love to engage debates, but I do love to listen to different viewpoints. Sometimes it's simply to understand the viewpoint, which we do, which is best happens when we listen to the person holding to a viewpoint. And, you know, in some cases, some interviews are almost like theological journalism where you are letting a person unpack their ideas so that we can understand. understand those ideas. We can study them further. We can think through them. We can critically reflect on them. But we can't refute something until we first understand it. Unfortunately, not everybody engages in different ideas in that way. But I think that's the best way to

learn and grow as a thinker is to actually understand different ideas that are out there from people who hold to those ideas. Now, the one, not one, I wish it was one. The one critique I get. One of the critiques I get, one of the bitty, is that I shouldn't be platforming certain people. Platform. It used to be a noun, now it's a verb, apparently. It used to be, you know, it's funny. It used to be like a left-wing fear. Don't platform those right-wing bigots and Nazis and crazies. Now it seems like it's become more of a right-wing fear. How dare you platform those crazy liberals or anti-Semites and blah, blah, blah, blah.

Actually, I think it's kind of both now, both those who are committed to like a left-wing or right-wing, theological or political ideology. ideology okay ideology um people on both sides kind of get all up on arms and people try to reach across the aisle and have conversations with people they disagree with why because we shouldn't platform certain people namely you shouldn't talk publicly to people you disagree with their ideas are dangerous they're they're harmful is the accusation that um is often slung around sometimes I get those accusations. And I, you know, look, I might resonate with some of those concerns, maybe, some of them, maybe few of them.

Here's the deal. In my experience, most, in most cases, in my experience, you know, when I, quote, platform somebody or have a public conversation with somebody, when I try to curiously understand what somebody believes where they're coming from and who are you and and what ways maybe has your ideas been misrepresented or you know what i don't know enough about this idea to just come out and critique it i'd rather first again understand before i try to critique or refute it most of the time when i hear people present their ideas in most cases i think they're more reasonable and always they're more human, the person talking about them is more human, then their critics make them out to

be. I think it's natural in our age of algorithms and siloed interaction that we would be led to believe the worst about people that we disagree with. Seeing them is not just wrong, but dangerous and harmful. But in 98% of my interactions, that's not an actual statistic. I'm just giving a ballpark figure there. In most of my interactions with people I disagree with, I always leave the conversation thinking, you know what, that person wasn't as ridiculous I had thought. I might still disagree with some of the things, maybe many of the things they said. But oftentimes, their ideas are, again, maybe disagreeable, but reasonable that they're oftentimes not as outlandish, maybe, as how some of their critics make them out to be. And the person

holding the view as a person created in God's image is always more human than they seem to be when they're just an abstract name attached to an idea when you have a face-to-face conversation. Unfortunately, most of my conversations of the podcast are virtual, so we don't get that full 3D experience, but some of them are 3D. I've been doing more in-person podcast, but I always leave the conversation thinking, wow, that's a real human being. They've thought through this more than I assumed, and while I might still disagree with some things, now I have a better understanding of what this human being actually believes and thinks. And in many cases, those ideas are more reasonable than their critics make it out to be. The fact is, we have many

forces at work to drive humanity apart, algorithms and news sources and social media accounts of political pundits, you know, there's lots of money you made these days when people are driven apart to see people they disagree with as the other. More clicks, more ads, more doom scrolling your way through endless reels and rants. We can keep going down this road and see how it ends. Just get more and more siloed, more isolated, close your ears to any idea of a person that you don't agree with. We can keep going down that road. I doubt. It'll end anywhere near the heart of Jesus. I mean, if I had a farm, I don't have a farm.

I wish I had a farm. It'd be cool to be a farmer. It was that great line in the movie The Natural. I should have been a farmer. Remember that? The Natural. Amazing movie. Robert Redford.

Did you know that? Okay. Side note. Baseball fans. The Natural. Did you know that this is, I got to verify this. I'm pretty sure this is true. That Robert Redford and the coach, I forget the actor's name,

were the same age in that movie. Does you guys know that? Can someone fact check me on that? Because they look like they're like 30 years apart. They're the same age. Some people age better than others. What about if I had a farm, I would bet by far, but thinking that this kind of siloed, polarized interaction

will lead to more hatred, more chaos, division, war, less love of neighbor and less love of our enemies. This is why I've all. always, and always will, refuse to cave in to the anxious fear over platforming, platforming people I disagree with. If a person's ideas are so outlandish and evil, then most people with half a brain will be able to spot it. I mean, shouldn't we bring such darkness into light?

The light exposes evil. So bring it into the light. The fact is, though, most ideas, certainly ones that I have on this podcast, I mean, gosh, most of the people I have on the podcast, I think are not only. reasonable, but are talking about things that are very compelling and true, not perfect, but I, you know, yeah, most of the people have on, I find a good deal of agreement with what they're saying. And, you know, the fact is most ideas aren't as dark and outlandish as their critics make them out to be. Some ideas and people may still be wrong, they may be disagreeable,

but they're not necessarily like evil and harmful and dangerous. Why be scared of disagreeable ideas? I mean, shouldn't we be forced to critically understand and think through? And if need be, refute such ideas? The answer is yes. And if so, or since this is true, then what better way to engage ideas than to listen to the actual person holding to these ideas, listen to them articulate them. Rather than believing their critics, warped summary of what they believe. We need to first understand a person's viewpoint before we can evaluate and if need be refuted. Understanding precedes refutation. And the best way to understand a viewpoint is to curiously listen to the person who espouses it. So I, I'll be honest, I despise the fear of platform. It's my trigger word.

I don't have a lot of trigger words. platforming, I think, might be one of them. Don't platform that person. Yeah, yeah, you know, I get that critique from time to time. It's probably at the top of the critiques I get. And it always flurrs up around the time of the Exiles Conference. In fact, almost every year, almost every year, I've had, you know, a speaker or two even dropped out. He's like, I didn't know, you were platforming that person.

They're going to stand on the same stage that I'm standing. And I'm like, yeah, you guys are like two days apart. You're not even, you know, probably won't even see each other. Well, they're on the same stage as me. Okay. And certainly people that criticize the conference, none of whom have been to it, well, you know, go on their Twitter account and accuse me of platforming certain people. It comes, it's funny, it comes equally from the left and the right.

I'll get back-to-back critiques from people that are on different. sides of the political spectrum, basically saying the same thing about different people that I'm platforming. So I simply don't believe in it. I just, I don't, I don't believe in that fear. So when people throw accusations like this at me, all I hear is Charlie Brown's teacher yelling at me, wow, wow, wow, wow. I'm like, I just, I don't, I just don't, it's just like it goes in one, it goes in my deaf ear and out my good ear. I'm deaf in my left ear. So, I mean, honestly, I think that recent, left and right fear, fear of platforming. I think that's what's actually dangerous and harmful

for the church. We need more curious listening to different ideas, not fewer. Now, when I posted these thoughts on in the theology in the Rock community page for my patrons, shout out for my patrons. Got a lot of people supporting the podcast, which is why I'm able to do it because it's really expensive to run the podcast. It takes a lot of time. And so thank you to those who support the podcast. If you would like to become part of the Theology Rock, this is my commercial break. If you like to become part of the Theology Raw community, head over to patreon.com forward slash Theology and Raw. Contribute for as little as five bucks a month and become a Patreon supporter. I love, I absolutely love interacting with people through that

platform. This isn't a sell. I guess it could, I guess it could be a sales, a sales point for you to become a Patreon. That's not the purpose though. I truly, it's such amazing people. I just have so many amazing conversations with those of you who are part of that community. And as you know, some of you listen are like, hey, didn't you write this stuff out of platforming? So yeah, just basically, for those of you don't know, I just kind of summarize a post that I gave through the Patreon community called Why? I forget the title. It's something about platforming. Anyway, one of the questions that came up in response to that post was, would I platform?

form a Christian nationalist on theology in a awesome time. I don't know if it was a question. I think it was like, hey, you should platform, quote unquote, platform a Christian nationalist on theology in the raw sometime. So I don't know, I want to respond to that because some people will say, okay, okay, so you just got to have anybody on? Would you have David Duke? Would you have, you know, this person or that person?

You know, and no, there's kind of probably a lot of people I wouldn't, I'm going to avoid the word to platform. There's probably a lot of people I wouldn't have on the podcast or various reasons. But it wouldn't be out of a fear of platforming. You know, as far as, quote, platforming a Christian nationalist or having a Christian nationalist on, you know, I'm not opposed to this. Why not? I wouldn't not have a Christian nationalist on the show out of fear of platforming. However, there are certain people and ideas that.

that I'm particularly interested, or interested in or not interested in discussing on the podcast for various reasons. So one of my main, so just to give you a little insight on how I have people on and why I have certain people on, the main criterion for me deciding who I want to have on the podcast is do I find them or their ideas to be interesting, something I want to know more about, something I'm intrigued about, is it a topic that I either know a lot about and want somebody else to come on and talk about this awesome idea or an idea I don't know a lot about, but they're an expert in a certain area.

For instance, just off the top of my head, I mean, there's probably a thousand episodes I could here, but like just recently I had on, it's not released yet, they'll come out in 26. I had on Dr. Lee Warren, who's a neurosurgeon. And he wrote a book called, oh, I forgot the name. Dr. Warren, apologies. Something about self-brained surgery or something like that. It was fascinating. So here's the guy, is a neurosurgeon, a solid Christian, who's taken all of his knowledge of neuroscience and the brain, and applied it to thinking Christianly about how to self-diagnose

your rational and emotional thinking. It was a fascinating conversation. Do I agree or disagree with what he said? I don't have the knowledge base to either agree or disagree. His ideas seemed incredibly reasonable and compelling. And I was just like, man, this is,

what a fascinating conversation. Have somebody with a knowledge base that I don't have talking about idea that is very fascinating. So I had them on eagerly. And I'm so glad I did because it was a very, very interesting topic from somebody who knows a thousand times more about the topic than I do. I wouldn't. So if, you know, people send me requests every day, like, you should have this person on,

that person on. And sometimes I take it. I've had several people on because people reached out and said, hey, you should have the person on and I'll check them out. And I'm like, hey, this sounds interesting. And I'll do a little more reading, a little more digging. And I'm like, wow, this. would be interesting. I would not have somebody on if I'm simply just uninterested in their

ideas. There's been some well-known Christian writers and authors and speakers that, you know, whether they reach out or the publicist reached out. And some of them I end up saying no. Just because I'm like, you know what? I'm just, I'm just not interested in that topic. That is not a critique of the topic. It's certainly not like a morally evaluated. the topic, I'm just kind of like, I'm just not, I don't know, it's just not, it's not, not doing it for me right now. Maybe, maybe some point down to future I would, I would, I might be interested in that topic. But right now, it's just, it's not, of all the different people I could talk to, I want to talk to people that who have ideas that I think might be interesting.

I also wouldn't have somebody on if I share like too many disagreements with the viewpoint, because in the, I, like if I already know about, about the top, if I don't know, if I don't know much about a topic, then that's when I kind of turned into like theological journalist mode. I'm like, hey, that might be a really bad idea, but I don't know enough about it to say it's a bad idea, you know? So then I might have somebody on just to help educate me in what this topic even is. And why do they believe it? What are the arguments for and against? And in that case, I often tell people like, okay, can you steal man the opposing argument? Because until somebody can really truthfully and fairly represent the best counter arguments to their view.

They probably don't fully understand the view they're trying to hold the view they hold to and are trying to promote. But if it is a topic that I do know a bit about and I'm like, oh man, yeah, I really disagree with that viewpoint. Then I, again, this is just kind of a personal preference. This isn't the way I think everybody should do it. But for me personally, if there's so many disagreements with the viewpoint that I already have, then the conversations, it's just going to be a debate. And I really, I personally don't love engaging in debates. What? I read a critical review of Theology Draw where somebody misquoted me saying, I don't think debates are good or I don't believe in debates. That's not what I said.

I actually enjoy watching debates. I watch debates at least a few times a week. I listen to a lot of a Pierce Morgan. Do you guys listen to Pierce Morgan as podcast? And he always has like, you know, the most hottest topic in our cultural moment, the hottest topic of the day. And he'll get like two or four people on different sides of the debate, yelling and screaming at each. Most of the time, they end up yelling and screaming at each other. It's really annoying. But sometimes they can engage in a healthy debate. And yeah, I watch those all the time.

I do not very often, but I'll mess around on YouTube and find. different debates, political debates, sometimes theological debates, and it helps, if it's a well-run debate, then it helps me kind of see both sides. But typically, like, debates fall into trying to convince, trying to prove your viewpoint to be right and make the other person look wrong and stupid. And you will use rhetorical tactics to wiggle out of good questions. sneak out of places where you've been cornered and can't really respond. And I just, I think most kinds of public debates end up being very performative. My dog's trying to get out of my office.

He was sitting there on my feet and now he took off. But he was able to nose open the door. I don't know how he did that. My dog's like crazy smart. Yeah. So I just, I don't love the performative nature of debates. I love debates where each side is genuinely trying to like listen to the other person.

They're curious about what the other person believes. They're not trying to win the argument at all cost, but most debates, most professional kind of debates don't do that. So all that to say, I think, you know, debates, I think there's a place for debates and I enjoy listening to them, even though they can be annoying sometimes. But me personally, like I don't, I don't, I like written debates, where I have time where I have like a couple days to really process and think through how to

respond to this argument. I could, if they say a point, I have time to kind of look it up. Like, is that point valid or is there evidence against that point? But that kind of thing, kind of patience and thoroughness typically doesn't happen in like a live public in the moment debate. So I don't, if I know I'm going to disagree with the person significantly, then it's just going to turn into a debate. Hold on. I got let my dog out. Hold on a second. Take. Sorry, my dog out of my office and then nosed his way back in.

Sorry, close the door tight. Yeah, so that would be one reason why I wouldn't want to have somebody on. I'm like, this is just, it's going to turn into a debate. and I don't particularly enjoy those settings. And related to this, you know, if I know another viewpoint has so many holes in so many aspects of the evidence that is used to support that view, then it would be nearly impossible to have, I don't know, I feel like it would be nearly impossible to have a healthy dialogue when every sentence I'm having to say, hey, well, stop. Hold on. I disagree with that premise. Here's

why. And then, okay, well, blah, blah, blah. Like, hold on. Stop. Like, you said this and that doesn't make, you know, or if I just let them talk for five minutes, I'm like, all right, I have like 31 things to respond to here. Like, how do we even do that? So I don't, some people enjoy those experiences. And again, I watch people online. They're so good at saying, well, five seconds ago, you said this and 15 minutes ago you said this. So let's go back and revisit that point. And usually they don't. They try to wiggle out of it and about all the, you know, all the rhetoric kind of takes over a genuine search for truth. But yeah, so that would be another reason why I wouldn't want to have somebody on. Or if I just don't know enough about the topic, if I know it's a very controversial topic,

and I'm like, I don't know enough about this topic. I feel ill-equipped to even offer a pushback where it need be. I've made the mistake. Okay, so, and so I, that would be a reason why I wouldn't want to have somebody on. And I've, I've, I've made that mistake in the past, before, where I've had somebody on opening up a really controversial topic. And I wasn't as equipped as I needed to be in order to be able to critically interact with the person or at least raise some pushback questions. What about this? What about that? So, or, you know, if somebody has a viewpoint that is so extreme, then it would take me just too much time to prepare like to prepare for it and to go do all the research and find out all the questions I should ask

then that that wouldn't be interesting to me so again would there are there people I wouldn't want to have on yeah there's lots of people I wouldn't want to have on but it's not out of a fear of platforming can women be leaders in the church pastors overseers teachers preachers and elders this is a question that I have long been interested in but haven't studied it out for myself. And as always, the strength of our passion should match the depth of our study. So this is what I did. I spent over three years researching what the Bible says about women in leadership. And I wrote a book about my conclusions. It's called From Genesis to Junia. And on a search for what the Bible really says about women in leadership. And in it, I thoroughly examine all the main

passages and arguments on both sides of the debate and try to treat them as fairly as I know how. The book comes out in March, March 3rd, but you can pre-order it today, wherever books are sold. Okay, let's get to some stats. Theology and Raw stats, folks. I do this every year where I look at top episodes, downloads, and the demographics of Theology and Raw. So, total streams, well, let me, let me first of all, say, I don't, I'm not a numbers guy. I don't look at numbers. podcast stats. I don't even know how to do it, honestly. I just have my amazing producer, send me all the stats at the end of the year, say, hey, give me some stats because some people like to hear numbers and I want to see where we're at. So total streams for 2025 through mid-December. Two, or wait, two million eight, two million eight hundred and eleven thousand and 34 streams. So just over 2.8 million streams. That million sounds like a big number. I don't

know where that compares with other podcasts. I know some of the most top podcasts in, like in the world. I think Candice Owen is at the top. Candice Owens at the top of that. Others like Joe Rogan, Theo Vaughn, Tucker Carlson. I mean, I think some of these people, get like they might get that per episode just so you know um some people say theology dera is like really popular everything it's actually not oh that for a selling point it's actually not it's it's um it's like a mid-level podcast in terms of popularity in the christian world even there it's it's ranked it'd be ranked in the top 100 sometimes it breaks 50 i think thank. I don't know. But it's not. Like if you think, like, if some of you listen to like Theo

Vaughn or Joe Rogan or whatever and like, and you listen to Theology and Ra, don't, don't think like Theology and Ra's like anywhere near that. But anyway, those are the numbers to about 2.8 million streams. Top episodes. Drummer, please. The number one streamed episode was from April 7th, New Creation, Resurrection and God's Ultimate Homecoming with NT. Right. Coming in at 46,000 sorry, 36,000 streams. Number two, Jesus, or sorry, living a Jesus-shaped life with Lisa Harper. That was a fun conversation.

I hadn't talked to Lisa before, and we've actually kept in touch since that episode, and she is really amazing. In fact, she endorsed my forthcoming book from Genesis of Junior, and it might have been one of the most, yeah, one of the most amazing. endorsements, I think, if ever had in a book.

So thank you, Lisa, for that. Number three, a raw conversation about women in ministry, Dr. Sandy Richter. Sandy is amazing. Kind of like a patron saint of the algebra. Number four, is this number four? One, two, three, four. Yeah, fourth, discipleship failed leadership and an insider's perspective on Mark Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Griskel in Mars Hill with Dr. Gary Pashir's.

That one got me some emails. Thanks. Thanks, Gary. Some of you listen to you're like, yeah, the e-mails for me. There are some things said that I didn't like in that episode. So, anyway, love Gary. Fifth, are Catholics and Protestants really that different in their understanding of salvation with Dr. Matthew Bates? That was number five.

I don't need to read all these. I'll just use number six, seven, eight, nine, and ten episodes by number six. Ashley Anderson, number seven, Nancy Percy, number eight. Robin Perry on Even Junkle Universalism. Number nine, John Eldridge, experiencing Jesus in Age of Distraction. And number 10, N.T. Wright, again, N.T. Wright, and the Vision of Ephesians.

Now, some of this isn't fair because some of these episodes came out, like, last spring, and they've had several months to gain streams. Whereas, like, this final one, N.T. Wright, and the vision of Ephesians came out November 13th. So this is the only one on the list that came out after July, and it already made the top 10. And there's actually a few more recent ones with Andrew Rallera and Caitlin Chess and Mark Yarrhouse that are getting a lot of streams. And so they will probably surpass some of these. So anyway, if you didn't catch those episodes and you want to check them out, go scroll back and check them out. Theologna Rha was played in over 116 countries.

I love that. I love the global nature of that. Now, it could be just one play by one missionary in South Sudan or something, representing South Sudan. So it's not like 116 countries are avid listeners of Thealgerna. But the top countries are, you guessed it, United States coming in at just under 80% of the listening audience. Canada, number two, at 8%. United Kingdom, number three, at 3.8%. Australia, then New Zealand, South Africa, and then Germany.

Is Germany? Yeah, Germany would be the highest country that is not an English-speaking country. Did I get that right? Yeah. So that's kind of cool. Top states. Top states that are streaming the odds and around. California, Texas, Texas, Washington, North Carolina, Georgia.

Ohio and Colorado top cities top cities is really interesting to me okay top cities number one Chicago that makes sense it's what the second biggest city in the country um but then Portland Portland shout out to you Portland oh my word Portland is a medium-sized city what is it a million or something is it I don't it's not New York or Chicago or Los Angeles but it's the second there's more streams coming out of of Portland than any other city besides Chicago. I love Portland's a quirky city in a good way. It gets a bad rap these days. We're being hyper-liberal and all this stuff. But man, it's got the best coffee, the best food. And one of the most amazing, amazing network of

churches in Portland. Churches that aren't trying to build their own empire, but churches that value each other. They work together. A lot of pastors at different churches are really good friends and have no hubris over their church growing and the other church not growing. It's just it's, I don't want to overly glorify it. But man, some of the most amazing pastors I know come out of Portland. Minneapolis number third, Denver number four. Oh, by the way, speaking of Portland, I'm going to be out there, I think in March, doing a sexual a two-day sexuality conference at Amago Day Church. The info should be at Center for Faith.com under the events page.

Last time I checked, it wasn't there, but we're going to put it up there. But yeah, so I guess if you Portlanders want to come engage in conversation around sexuality and gender, then check it out. Minneapolis, number three, Denver number four, Dallas, number five, Atlanta, number six. And then Charlotte, number seven. Charlotte. that's another city that's not very big. I love Charlotte. I've been there a couple times.

Shout out to Dermyn Gray and the fine people at Transform Church, transformation church. But that's the rest of these cities. So Portland and Charlotte are like mid-sized cities that are getting more streams than big cities like Houston or Los Angeles or others. All right. Demographics.

43% of you are female, 55% male, and 2% of you checked the box other. I don't check the box. I don't know where these came from. My producer grabbed these statistics. So I, as you know, I try to have as many female guests as male guests. This isn't out of some, like, DEI effort. Oh, gosh, I'm going to open up that can. It's because half of the kingdom of God is female.

And as a male host, it can be easy for me to default to just have a male guests on. And because females are created in God's image and are just as brilliant, thoughtful as males, even though female academics or thought leaders or scholars aren't as nearly as represented as male scholars I think that there's amazing amazing female voices out there scholars and non-scholars who I want to have on this show. So yeah,

I'm glad. So it sounds like you know, I have a high female listenership almost as much as male because a female guest. I don't think that's necessarily true. I mean, don't, I think females like listening to males. I think males like listening to females, not all the time. But I think if all I had is all men, I think I would assume I wouldn't have as many female listeners. So thank you for all of you who have been tuning in so faithfully. All right. Let's get to some reviews. Reviews of theology in the raw. Every year I try to, I, well, I never.

Never. I rarely check reviews of theology in the raw. Maybe I should. I don't know. I got, I don't know, over the years, early on when I started speaking and writing, I'd go online and look at all the comments, look at the reviews, look at the book reviews. And it could be really discouraging, especially for someone like me where it's like, I'll read 10 great reviews and I'll like, oh, great, you know, and then I read one bad review. I'm like, wait, what? That's not true. Or what about, oh, man, gosh. And I it in my own head and that's not good so over the years you just kind of get i don't know you realize that um it's better to pay a close attention to thoughtful comments and critiques from people who are making them in good faith um rather than just anyone with a keyboard and internet connection saying whatever they want about you or your show um that you know who who has time for that so But at the end of the year, I do say, all right, let me scan some of these reviews and just see how the podcast is landing on certain people. First, I'm just going to go in from the most recent comments. This is on the Apple podcast. So this person, five stars. Thanks, Grace. I started listening to this podcast in my senior year of college and I've really loved following it for the last several years. The tone has been very refreshing. And I've loved learning so much through the series about God's Word. So thank you, Grace, for that really. really encouraging review. Kvanda Bible says, Preston, your insights, honesty, and attitude are inspiring and

encouraging. I've been listening to Theology Raw for the years, but don't make comments or rate podcasts. In your case, however, I felt compelled because you have profoundly impacted my theology and thought by exposing me to excellent scholars and their work. And also modeling an attitude of humility and love. Thank you, Cavanda Bible. super encouraging. Thank you for that. That was a five-star review. Here's a one-star review. Heavily political and not neutral. This is a long review. I don't know if I read the whole thing.

I listened to several episodes over the last six months, hoping to glean more wisdom. Sadly, nearly all delved into political, if not fully immersed. I'm struggling with the language there, but I think I get it. He also, he and his guests claim that to be. be new claim to be neutral in many regards but always resorted to bashing the right and only making an occasional one sentence remark about the left not being perfect huh it's interesting um i actually probably would have more i wouldn't have more disagreements with um left wing political ideologies than right-wing political ideologies.

I say ideologies because I think both sides are profoundly run by corrupt, money-driven, dishonest people, for the most part, not all the time, but I think a lure of power has captivated most. Very large percentage of people in political power. But in terms of the ideologies and stuff, I'd probably disagree more with the left and the right. Never voted Democrat, hold too many conservative traditional values.

Pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, pro-lots of things that conservatives would resonate with. I'm very anti-war, which makes me, well, that kind of puts me at odds with most politicians who make money off of killing people. This reviewer goes on to say, they say Charlie Kirk is the most toxic. influence Christianity and really only ever gave opinion commentary without ever reading any of his books. Again, I'm struggling with the language here, but I don't. I don't, I didn't say that. I didn't. I hope I didn't say that because I don't believe that, nor did I ever think I ever said that he is the most toxic influence on Christian. What I did say is that blending allegiance to the empire with allegiance to Jesus is, I think, what I said is one of the most toxic things for the church.

And I would stand by that a thousand percent, whether it's, it doesn't matter who's espousing it. It's not, so it wasn't specific to Charlie Kirk. But I wouldn't say he was the most toxic influence. He did many great things for the kingdom of God, some less than helpful things and some things I disagree with. But I do think his, what seems to me, his blending of right-wing. political allegiance, not just voting for Republicans or saying, yeah, I kind of lean Republican

or conservative or whatever, but like merging the two allegiances, I think, yeah, I think that idea is incredibly toxic. And I think John, the author of Revelation, agrees with me. The host said he disagrees with debate. The Socratic method of debate is how we are educated and extremely useful. So that's again, I don't disagree with debate. I said, I don't personally enjoy debates because they get too performative. They focus simply on making heaven on earth solely material, earthly problems over the kingdom of God. That doesn't make sense because the whole concept of the kingdom of God, biblically speaking, is quote unquote, bringing heaven to earth. And it involves a lot of material things like poverty and caring for the

other and the marginalized and so on and so forth. Anyway, there's a lot, there's a lot more stuff here we can say, but we'll move on. It's a long critique. This is posted by regular Christian, five-star review, very interested in hearing biblical interpretations and applications that I'm unfamiliar with and might disagree with, and this checks those boxes. Keep an open mind. You will learn something and grow in your appreciation to other Christians and the depth and authority of the Bible. Thank you, regular Christian for that. John G. and me says Preston Smirkle offers a great example of how to have conversations on controversial topics with people you may disagree with. It's such an important skill and he does it gracefully and sincerely. Thank you for that. We can't get worse. I'm on some more critical ones here. Oh, here's a two-star review. I've listened off and on for a few months. This is from structures. What is this? I don't know where these names come from, but structures. I've listened off and on for a few months. There's too many episodes I can't get on board for. I guess we're supposed to know they're out there and hear their story.

The Bible has demonstrated many stories where God leaves societies that ignore scripture. The podcast is supporting that direction and the further decay of the West. Well, I don't know. Maybe that's true. I hope not. I'm not sure if I'm supporting the decay of the West. I'm a participant in God's global, multi-ethnic kingdom. So I don't have any allegiance to, like, the West.

or the east or the south or the north or whatever. Amy Byrd was the nail in the coffin for me. Got through three quarters, three quarters, no, three-fourths of the perpetual victim lecturing and decided the podcast channel was not worth any of my time. Thanks, Amy. Appreciate that. Actually, I didn't get that sense from Amy at all, but to each his own. Okay, one more critical review here.

This is four stars, four star review. Oh, so maybe it's not too critical. Oh, mostly good, apart from the anti-Israel propaganda promotion. I think Preston means well, and he does talk to a wide variety of people, some very interesting, some not so much. He often seems unprepared to offer helpful pushback or play devil's advocate. I thought, you know, I received that. There's times for sure when I've done that. I guess I, yeah.

So I think there's times when I certainly could have been more prepared, especially with like controversial topics. And sometimes, you know, it's hard. When you're having a, I'm trying to have a genuine conversation with somebody. And there's, I mean, I, just so you know, my brain is constantly thinking of critiques when I'm talking to people. If I said everything out loud at I was thinking, I would be like, you're the most judgey person never, you know, like I, I, my, just my brain is constantly playing devil's advocate with

everything I say, what other people say, but in a normal conversation, it's like, you have to be kind of strategic. It's like, okay, when do I voice that? Because I could play devil's advocate, you know, 57 times throughout the hour long conversation. And that would be just really annoying. So there's sometimes when maybe I don't play enough devil's advocate, but, um, it's not because those thoughts aren't something. I'm just going through my head. He does seem completely brainwashed by anti-Israel narratives to the point where he almost never platforms a nuanced voice on that top platform. I'll continue to listen to occasionally.

That's fine. I mean, if I've talked so much about why I've taken a position that I do on Israel, Palestine. I've listened to and read extensively on both sides. Different. different, not like there's two exact sides, but different sides of the Israel-Palestine issue historically and currently. And I don't want to repeat it all here. You guys who are listeners, you know, you know, where I land on that. So yeah, that's it. I don't, everybody throws around, you know, you're believing in propaganda. You're being brainwashed. On the other side

says, no, you believe in propaganda. You're being brainwashed. Another side shoots back. No, you're being brainwashed you believe in propaganda you know it's just like dig deep read actual books by actual scholars spend a hundred hours patiently researching the parts of the conversation that you want to have an opinion on and then let the strength of your passion match the depth of your study so yeah all right let's a couple more things and then i will let you go uh i've already mentioned my Patreon community. Just want to give another shout out to all of you who are supporting the show. And truly, if you want to support the show and gain access to the Algera community,

just so you know it is greatly needed as the podcast has grown. We've expanded our staff and the time we put into it, equipment, editing hours, even having a better presence on social media. all of that stuff takes so much time, which ends up taking money and personnel. So your support is greatly, greatly appreciated and needed. Even becoming a member for five bucks a month or $10 a month or $25 a month, this is an incredible help for the show. And I try to make it worth your while. Maybe it's my pride. I don't like handouts, never have. I don't think ever will. There's times when I need to accept the handout. And it's really hard because I'm the

type of person that was, you know, I was raised by a single mom who worked three jobs that put food on the table. I've had a job my whole life since I was 14 years old. Well, actually 10 years old when I was selling snow cones from my front lawn. Made 25 bucks in one day because I went and bought an old used snow cone machine and had a line out my on my front lawn there in Fresnel, California selling snow cones that I sold Pepsi's at Fresnel State Bulldog, the Bulldog football games, and got a job at Burger King, started working the day I turned 16 when I was legally able to work a job of that sort in California. Anyway, that good old Protestant work ethic has hammered into my bones. I like to work for money. So just simply receiving money is hard

for me. But somebody convinced me years ago, they said, well, you are working. The podcast is a lot of work. And people would want to contribute to the podcast. So anyway, I try to make it worth your while for those of you who support the show to give you. extra content but doing our extra innings where you can get access to behind the scenes conversations on extra rock topics uh i've released um like portions of my book early to my patreon community i other writing things i'm i'm working on and we we started to really move all my blogging to the patreon uh community called raw thoughts raw thoughts on all kinds of things um anyway i think you'll enjoy it uh if you want to become part of that community

theology or patreon.com forward slash theology in the raw exiles in Babylon is coming up folks oh my goodness so excited about this oh this is still me talking to this isn't like some ad that was dropped in by the way because I'd be recording ads on exiles um this is me uh talking in real time uh exiles of Babylon April 30th to May 2nd at Open Door Church in Maple Grove Minnesota just outside Minneapolis I'm so excited about this conference. I say this every year. So maybe it doesn't mean anything anymore. Dude, you're excited about every conference. You know, like, I have been. And I am. And each time I leave the conference, I'm like,

oh, my gosh, I think that was the best one ever. And then I start planning the next one. I'm like, this is going to be the best one ever. But how do you measure best? That's not, that's even, that's an icky kind of like capitalistic way of thinking about a conference. I want every conference to be an avenue for people to experience God and the gospel in fresh and impactful ways so that we can live more passionately for Jesus. That's the mission statement that is made up on the fly. This year we're tackling some absolutely crucial topics. And I am so stoked over the guests, the guest speakers that I have found.

We got a pre-conference on how Christians should think about artificial intelligence. It's a huge topic. We all need to think about it. This is a non-negotiable AI is upon us, and it will be for the future. And we absolutely need to think through this Christian Lee. We've got John Dyer from Dallas Seminary, who has done a lot of thinking in this area. So I just say, you know, I screen. It takes probably the most time that it takes for me to prepare for exiles is screening.

in identifying and reaching out to all the speakers. Because more and more, I just really want to be vigilant to make sure I'm putting the best possible speaker that I could afford. Some people cost tens of thousands of dollars. They can afford that. But I want to put the best possible thought leader on stage. And these are topics that I don't know much about.

So I don't know a lot of people. So I have to go online, I have to talk to friends. hey, do you know this person or who can you recommend and, you know, are gone and watch some of their talks, look them up, look at the bio, read stuff. I mean, it takes a lot of work. And I found three amazing thought leaders in this area, John Dyer from Dallas Seminary, Gretchen Hoosenga. You may not know that name. She is amazing. She specializes in a Christian ethic of artificial intelligence. I watched a talk she gave online. It was incredible. She was raising all kinds of amazing questions. And she's a PhD in, I forget what it's in, but it's in this area.

And then my friend Joshua Smith, who's been on the podcast before, he wrote that book, Robot Theology. He's another Christian expert in technology, robots and artificial intelligence. That pre-conference is going to be amazing. We try to, the pre-conference, we could just make it another session of the conference. But if there is kind of a niche topic that some people might want to go just for, that session or other people that go to the conference might not be interested in. That's where we put, that's how we kind of determine what's a pre-conference or not.

Now, eight months ago when I, when we were planning this, I was like, yeah, I think artificial intelligence is kind of niche, you know, some people are all into it. Other people don't really think about it. But not even now, I'm like, there's few people I talk to that aren't talking about a higher asking questions. So I don't know if it's no longer really a niche topic. but it's going to be part of the pre-conference. I highly encourage you to check it out.

Then the first opening night, we're talking about immigration and the gospel. Oh, this has become such an important and hot topic. And unfortunately, so many people, including Christians, are thinking through immigration, through a political lens rather than a gospel lens. We get so sidetracked, I think, with the polarized rhetoric on the lens. left and the right trying to pull you into their side and make you angry about the other side. Now, there are important political questions that I think Christians should think through, but we should think through them. I'm going to go out on a limb here, okay? This is going to be

really radical. This is a good next to raw here, but I think we should think through it as Christians. Biblically, through the lens of the gospel. So that's what we're going to do. We got Matthew Lawrence and Liliana Reza, both who work for World Relief. Matt Sorens has been like a leading thought leader in this area. He's really incredible. And so excited to have Matthew there. And then Lillianna also works for World Relief. He's done a lot of work down at the border in the southwestern states. Really great communicator, great person. I haven't actually met her personally. I know people that know her and I've seen her online and just seems like a wonderful person and just really, really thoughtful and has lots of experience in this area.

I'm also going to have a couple, like a couch conversation with a couple actual immigrants who are going to give us a humanized, we're going to think about flesh on this topic and help us understand the gospel of immigration from the perspective of immigrants. So super excited about that session. Then that evening, or sorry, the next morning, May 1st, we're talking about mental health from the gospel. I can't believe we got Dan Allender. He is the master Yoda of all things related to psychology and trauma and specializes in sexual abuse and trauma care. But he's just, he's unbelievable. And he is an off-the-chart speaker and just an amazing human

being. When you're around Dan, you just feel like you're walking with Jesus. He's not Jesus. I'll try not to get sacrilegious here. But Dan radiates the love of Jesus, truly. He's amazing. So can't wait to have Dan there. And when Dan says he can come, I was like, Dan, okay, I don't know this topic. So who can you recommend? And he immediately said, you've got to have Chinway Williams.

Looked up Chinway, listen to some talks she gave. She seems absolutely incredible. So we got Dan, we got Chinway. And I might find one more person for that. We'll see. It's a little bit of a shorter session. So, yeah, I need to think through that and see if we're going to add one more to the list. But that's going to be a really important conversation.

Then we have a couple of dialogical debates. The first one is on the, is the Bible historically reliable? I wanted to get, you know, so I should go without saying, I think the answer is yes to this question. I think there are some nuanced ways of saying yes to this question. We have to take into account biblical genre, different genres and ancient perspectives. on cosmology, et cetera, et cetera. But I would fall on the side of, I think it is historically reliable. And that's why I wanted to get the best bullet in the gun to present a different perspective,

namely Peter Enz. So Peter ends and then Dr. Peter ends and Dr. Sandy Richter are going to have a dialogic debate. Capital dialogue, lowercase debate. Neither of them want a traditional debate or they're just... Yeah, they want to talk to each other. They will listen to each other. They want to be curious about each other's positions. And I know they are.

But they're also going to be very forthright with their disagreement, which is going to be awesome. Yeah, it's going to be awesome. They both have PhDs from Harvard University. So I got two Harvard PhDs going head to head in this curious dialogical debate. Can't wait. Then we got a last session is another dialogue debate on Christians and War with Shane Claiborne and Paul Copeland. You know who Shane Claiborne is, I'm sure. Most of you probably know Paul Copeland. He's been on the show before. But he wrote, he's written some of the best books on, well, the first one I read was, is God a moral monster where he deals with all the kind of ethical, tough things in the Old Testament. And then he wrote another book along the same lines. And he's written books on what the Bible says about war. He's more of a just war theory guide. Shane Claiborne is an advocate of nonviolence. obviously. I think most of you know that. Both are going to be, it's going to be, again, I choose

people not based just on, certainly not just name recognition and not only on their ability to understand and articulate their position, but I want people, especially if it's a dialogical debate, I want them to model a good Christ-like tone and healthy curiosity towards each other's viewpoint. So both of them probably won't change their minds. I doubt it. But I think they're going to offer a very fair and thoughtful, a very fair and thoughtful dialogue around it. We also have several breakouts. We're going to do a breakout called from Genesis to Junior talking about my book, which will have been out by then. My conclusion will be well known. Sandy Richter will be interviewing me for a few minutes. And then we're going to open

it up to lengthy, a lengthy time for audience Q&A and pushback. So, those of you who disagree with my conclusion, whatever that conclusion is, bring your pushbacks, come grill me. And don't hold back. I want to hear your hard questions. And then we have another dialogue, breakout called Ask Shane Claiborne anything. Shane Claiborne, for many of us, has been such a seminal thinker, whether you agree with everything who says or not. Obviously, you don't because nobody agrees with everything everybody says. Anybody says. But man, his book, the irresistible revolution came out in what 2006. Gosh, that rattled the foundations of evangelicals in a good way. And I know many of us have followed his work over the years,

his activism with regard to the death penalty, gun violence, war, violence, race, poverty, so many things. And you get a chance to ask Jane Claiborne, anything about his turbulent journey within these issues. And then we have another breakout on LGBTQ people in the church led by my friend Bill Henson and several other friends. So the sexuality gender conversation just is a perennial one, even though we're not doing a main session on it. We want to get people's space to engage that topic. And who better to engage from than Bill Henson.

He is the master Yoda, the sexuality conversation. And kind of like Dan Allender is a master Yoda of the mental health conversation. I got to stop using that analogy. Master Yoda. I think it's getting old. Street Hymns. We'll be back because he's Street Hymns. And Street Hymns is such a vital piece to the Exiles and Babylon Conference.

As you know, oh my gosh. He is the glue that holds a whole thing together has become a friend over the years. And gosh, I just, his talent is unbelievable and his heart is even bigger. So I can't wait to, usually Street and I, my wife, we, we grab wings together the day before, so I can't wait to see streets. Street, can't wait to see you a person, brother. I know we touch the base from time for time, but love seeing you walk in and light the room up with your smile.

So can't wait to partner with you again, Street. Worship will be led by Jason and Tendinika Wyatt, who are regulars, teaming up with Mark Allen Schoolmeisters. He's a local and amazing worship leader, local to the Minneapolis area, and just an incredible worship leader. So Evan Wickham, who usually leads worship, can't make it this year. And I said, all right, dude, you're leaving me dry here. Can't do this without you, but we're going to press on, but who should I get since you can't be there? And he said, you've got to get Mark Allen schoolmasters. Mark actually wrote and sang a song at last year's

exiles conference if you were there. It's called Babylon. It was amazing. I remember watching him sing out. I was like, this is incredible. You wrote this? So anyway, he's going to be our Lee worship leader, along with Jason and Tamika, and I love the worship at exiles. I struggle with contemporary Christian worship, and that's why I wanted the worship to be different, not just different for different sake, but meaningful and not just repetitive and redundant and fluffy and performative. I wanted to be, I wanted to resonate with the vibe of the conference. And I could think of no better team than Jason and Tanika and Mark to help us do that. Most of all, at Exiles, we have face-to-face conversations. I love podcasting,

sitting here staring into a screen recording in my cold basement with nobody around. But it's just, it could be kind of weird. It's like, where are y'all? Let's get together. I love the face-to-face interaction. So that, I mean, honestly, half of why I love exiles is, are the speakers, the sessions, the worship. But the other half is just meeting as many of you as I can, seeing, I mean, some of you, we've seen each other several times in the last few years. And it's so good to see you again. We've had Zoom chats. We've had DMs and the see your face at exiles is amazing. And just to see other people make connections. I talked to several people who have become good friends because they met at exiles.

In fact, one couple, they got married. They met at X-Ls. And then he proposed at the next year's exiles, and now they're married. And they'll probably come to this ex-ells. I'm not going to mention your name because I don't know. You didn't give me permission. But that was so fun, dude.

He's literally proposed to your girlfriend that you met at ex-laws at the next year's excels. It's so fun. So all the information, theology in the raw.com, register soon. So the early bird special runs out January 10th. It's like 15% off. So if you don't register before January 10th, the price does go up to a retail part price. We do have Gen Z specials. We have group specials. So all the information is at Theologyendrod.com. Lastly, okay, last thing, I'll close it out. I do have my book coming out from Genesis to Junior

and on a search for what the Bible says about women in leadership. I'll talk more about it in coming episodes or a coming episode. It comes out March 3rd, but if you plan on buying and reading the book, if you plan, if you're like, I'm already, oh, I can't wait, you want to read this,

then I would consider, I would encourage you to pre-order it. I don't know how it all works. I, every time they explain this to me, I'd just say it's like in one hour, one ear out the other. But pre-order sales helps

market the book better. and you're like, how does that work? I don't know. I don't know. But for the last five books I've written, the publisher's always like pre-sales are better than post-release sales. Pre-sales are better, you know, whatever. So anyway, so if you're already going to buy it, I encourage you to pre-order it. If you don't want to buy it, I'm not telling you to buy. I'm just saying if you are wanting to buy it, then go pre-order it. It would help get the word out. So, yeah, the book is, it's what the subtitle says. It's my honest search for what the Bible really says about women and leadership. It's not the honest search. I had somebody

dropped a comment on social media. I shouldn't laugh. I don't know. It was like, what? So you're the only person who's made an honest search? I'm like, no, the word and means like one. And on it, not the honest search. It's one, one among others, you know, it's just, I don't know. I, you know, when I try to, you know, whatever you form titles of books? It takes a long process, actually. lots of people are involved. You hang on every word. I went back and forth or whether I should even put the word really in the subtitle. Like should it be an honest search for what the Bible says about when a leadership or what the Bible really says. I put the word really in. Because it doesn't mean other people, you could read so much into or out of that word. And yet it is, I think,

flexible enough to where it does capture my actual heart. That is what I told myself over and over and over and over. I know what other people say. It says. I know what the different viewpoints are. But I want to know what it really says. Not that I'm going to have the definitive answer. My answer will resonate with a lot of people who have already studied this issue. But yeah. So, yeah, people get hung up on or they read into certain words. So I'm sure that there are other words in this title that people will read into. Some people said, I don't know who Junia is from Genesis to Junia. I don't even know what this, like, what's your book all about?

Again, when you're, that worried me a little bit. I'm like, gosh, we've given it more of a clear title, like a book about women in leadership or something. Well, first of all, I don't like boring titles. And I like the ring of from Genesis to Junior. And as you will see, Junia plays a unique role in the book, especially at the end of the last chapter. but I don't want to give too much away. Yeah, check it out. The table of contents are online

so you can look at what I do. I go through Genesis 1 and 2, the Old Testament, the Gospels, several chapters in Paul. I hit all the tough passages like 1st Corinthians 14, 1st Corinthians 11, 1st Timothy 2 to 3. I look at Ephesians 5,

look at female prophets, and do a deep dive in the Romans 16 where there's several potential women leaders there. I evaluate whether there's enough evidence to say whether they actually are leaders. Yeah, so check it out from Genesis Jr. And looking forward to 2026, where Theology and Dura will continue to not be detoured

by the fear of platforming. And we will aim to help believers think Christianly about theological and cultural issues by engaging in curious conversations with a diverse range of thoughtful people. I'll see you. at the next episode.