The Sacred, The Political, and Why We're All Vulnerable with Aaron Staufer & Aaron Simmons

Homebrewed Christianity

Dr. Tripp Fuller | Theologian, Philosopher, Minister

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.6 • 612 Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2025

⏱️ 95 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Another epic live stream from our Democracy in Tension summit! Aaron Simmons and I dive deep with theologian and community organizer Aaron Staufer about how sacred values and vulnerability shape our political life together. We wrestle with the big questions y'all have been sending in - can mainline churches recover a compelling sense of the sacred while staying committed to critical thinking? How do we navigate prophetic witness without falling into the therapeutic Christianity trap? And why does good theology always seem to come with absolutely terrible music? Aaron drops some serious wisdom about radical democracy, relational power, and why humans are lovers who care deeply about things. We get into the weeds about vulnerability, value, organizing, and whether multiculturalism can actually work in practice. Plus, we tackle the hard stuff - what happens when someone's sacred values make them unreasonable participants in democracy? It's theology, politics, philosophy, and a healthy dose of complaining about boring mainline Protestant worship. Grab your favorite beverage and settle in for some real talk about faith, power, and building beloved community. You can join the Democracy in Tension online summit and get access to all the lectures today. You can WATCH the conversation on YouTube Aaron Simmons is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Furman University. You can follow his Substack ‘Philosophy in the Wild.’ Aaron Stauffer is the Director of Online Learning and Associate Director of the Wendland-Cook Program at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Previous Episodes with Staufer The Future of Faith & Justice Theology for Action UPCOMING ONLINE CLASS - ⁠⁠The God of Justice: Where Ancient Wisdom Meets Contemporary Longing⁠⁠ This transformative online class brings together distinguished scholars from biblical studies, theology, history, and faith leadership to offer exactly what our moment demands: the rich, textured wisdom of multiple academic disciplines speaking into our contemporary quest for justice. Here you'll discover how ancient texts illuminate modern struggles, how theological reflection deepens social action, and how historical understanding opens new possibilities for faithful engagement with our world's brokenness and beauty. Join John Dominic Crossan, Peter Enns, Casey Sigmon, Aizaiah Yong, & Malcolm Foley As always, the class is donation-based, including 0. INFO & Sign-Up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.FaithAndPolitics.net⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Theology Beer Camp ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠is a unique three-day conference that brings together of theology nerds and craft beer for a blend of intellectual engagement, community building, and fun. Guests this year include John Dominic Crossan, Kelly Brown Douglas, Philip Clayton, Stacey Floyd-Thomas, Jeffery Pugh, Juan Floyd-Thomas, Andy Root, Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Noreen Herzfeld, Reggie Williams, Casper ter Kuile, and more! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get info and tickets here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. _____________________ This podcast is a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Homebrewed Christianity⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ production. Follow ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠the Homebrewed Christianity⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Theology Nerd Throwdown⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Rise of Bonhoeffer⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ podcasts for more theological goodness for your earbuds. Join over 70,000 other people by joining our⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Substack - Process This!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get instant access to over 50 classes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.TheologyClass.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow the podcast, drop a review⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, send ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠feedback/questions⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or become a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠member of the HBC Community⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	All right. Hello, everyone. This is Tripp, and I am between two errands. If you're looking on the screen,
0:15.0	Aaron Simmons is back, and we're excited to be hosting another one of the live streams as part of our online summit,
0:22.0	a democracy intention. And today we're joined by another Aaron, Aaron Stauffer,
0:27.4	theologian, ethicist, community organizer, and sporting a fresh, fresh clean cut there, Aaron.
0:33.6	Right. Yeah. It's summer. Oh, yeah. So anyone joining live. Thanks for being here.
0:42.2	Plenty of you have been watching lectures and sent questions. A whole bunch of really good ones.
0:47.8	And I sent them to Aaron because Aaron Simmons, that Aaron.
0:52.7	Because you have to be like grad school.
0:54.7	Like only last names.
0:56.0	What you got, Fuller?
0:57.2	I sent it to Simmons because we have a, these are the more theological questions.
1:02.3	So I sent him a bunch of them and we had a lot of them.
1:05.1	So he's going to be going through the questions and bringing up topics and stuff related, you know, to what Aaron has talked about and questions
1:12.4	y'all sent in in the theological context and Aaron and I will be shooting back and forth.
1:17.1	All of you that are live, you feel welcome to put any questions to come up in the chat.
1:20.9	Just put question in front of it so we know, and I can save those and such.
1:25.7	But anyone that wants to join, the summit can head to homebrewdclasses.com,
1:30.6	and you can donate anything between zero and a million dollars.
1:34.6	And you'll get an email that will show you how to access all the different lectures
1:38.0	from a host of different philosophers and theologians talking about democracy,
1:42.1	tension, the challenge of religion and politics today and such.
1:45.1	I mean, we're doing these live streams this week, and then we're doing follow-up conversations with the
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