Welcome to Bible, Bravery & Bulls#!t

In this introductory episode, host Dan Minor sets the stage for what listeners can expect from Bible, Bravery, & Bullshit. He shares his personal journey as a progressive pastor of Harvest Sarasota, a unique, inclusive church founded by his parents. Dan unpacks the meaning behind the podcast’s title, which reflects its three primary focuses:

• Bible: Exploring misunderstood scriptures, challenging traditional interpretations, and diving into the original Greek and Hebrew texts.
• Bravery: Highlighting stories of courage, especially from those marginalized by traditional church practices.
• Bullshit: Calling out harmful ideologies, political entanglements, and exclusionary practices within modern evangelical Christianity.

This episode also previews topics like LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church, the misuse of scripture, and the toxic marriage between politics and religion. Dan’s approach is raw, honest, and unapologetic as he promises to tackle tough questions and engage in conversations often avoided in religious circles.

He invites listeners to join him on this journey of deconstruction, discovery, and authenticity, with the occasional bourbon or tequila review to keep things down-to-earth. Whether you're rethinking your faith or seeking a fresh perspective, this episode offers a welcoming, thought-provoking introduction.

#LGBTQchristians #deconstruction #progressivefaith #DanMinor

Transcript

Harvest Sarasota (00:00.354)
Hey, welcome to Bible Bravery and Bullshit, our intro podcast, our first official episode. Maybe not content related, but a little introduction about why I'm doing this and why it's important to me and maybe what this is going to look like going forward, at least with the plan is. And so let me tell you, the three words of the podcast, Bible, bravery, and bullshit, kind of encapsulate the three types of content that you're going to get.

So if you're deconstructing or you're kind of post evangelical or asking questions or kind of like tired of the way the church has kind of like gotten grossly involved in politics or maybe you've got, you're a member of the LGBTQ community or an ally of the LGBTQ community and don't like the way the church has acted or responded to that group of people or whatever it may be, that is kind of made you go, I don't know if I can do this whole thing anymore. And so I'm kind of on the edge or feel like I've walked away or want to walk away or I'm

I'm trying to find something that just looks different. This podcast is going to be for you. And the best thing you can do to help us, of course, is to listen. We'd love that. Give us some feedback and share this with your friends. That's the way that this is going to grow. My heart is this. And let me tell you who I am. I'm Dan Miner. I pastor a local church in Sarasota, Florida called Harvest. And our church has been around since 1984. Obviously, I was three, so I wasn't pastoring the church at the time.

I simply years ago took over the church from my dad. My dad started, mom and dad started the church in 1984. And it was always a unique church. At least a couple of years after it was founded, it became a very unique church. The idea was to reach people that most churches just weren't interested in reaching. And so Harvest has become this progressive leaning evangelical, post evangelical, inclusive affirming church that is not

It's still got all the modern trappings of a modern evangelical church, the lights, the big screen, the worship, the stuff, but we just happen to actually love and accept and affirm and include everyone. And so I want to tell you my heart behind this podcast and maybe you can connect or this will make sense to you or be something that will be beneficial to your life. I hope it is.

Harvest Sarasota (02:20.206)
I wanted to start this podcast because we have a sermon podcast called Harvest Here so that you can find in all of your, you listen to podcasts and of course on YouTube, but it is basically the sermons and the messages that I give on Sunday morning. And that's about 85 % of what I want to say, but I hold back about 15 % and here I'm not going to hold back anything. I'm going to tell you what I feel and what I feel is not necessarily always going to be true, but it's going to be what I feel and what I think. And usually there's a

a great deal of thought that's gone into it. We're going to address topics like hell. We're going to address topics like sin, address topics like, can you be a gay Christian? Of course you can, spoiler alert. Topics that nobody seems to want to deal with. How politics has really taken over evangelical Christianity and vice versa, and how nasty it's become, and how far away from the teachings of Jesus, I believe a lot of those

types of politics have gone. And so we're going to deal with some of that stuff. This isn't a political show, we'll deal with some politics, but here's the three things we're going to do. Bible, we're going to dive into mistranslations, stuff that maybe you didn't know, go back to some of the original Greek and Hebrew words, explain stuff that never made sense. hey, why does it seem like God is angry, then he's happy, then God's ticked off, and then God's all-inclusive, and then God's sending people to hell?

Why is that? And so we're going to deal with some of those things and try to reconcile some of those together. We're going to answer questions that people have and at least we're going to answer questions with questions and hopefully we can find answers in that. The bravery part, we're going to feature stories of bravery. It's not just going to be me. I'm going to do some interviews with people who are going to tell their stories of great acts of bravery. And I'm not talking about saving a dog that's like drowning, although that's great too.

I know people who have faced great harm and shame from the church and yet are still trying to figure out what it looks like to be a part of a church community and finding something that looks different and still connecting to God, even though maybe they've abandoned some of the traditional ideas around God and what that looks like for them. And maybe you'll find your own journey and your own kind of your faith experience in their stories. And I've got some really

Harvest Sarasota (04:43.214)
cool friends and of course, meeting new friends all the time that have some, I'm going to tell you some tear jerking stories that we're going to tell. So those will be kind of labeled under, be labeled under bravery. And then all of our favorite category, the bullshit category, the category that deals with the BS out there, the stuff like, you know, they're eating our pets, you know, stuff like that, that we're just like, what is going on? The, the huge, uh, anti

immigrant anti-LGBTQ anti basically anything different trend that we're seeing from pulpits, you know, we're gonna go after the the Greg locks of the world and the craziness that they have to say the John MacArthur's of the world and demeaning things that they say from the pulpit we're gonna give a voice to To the alternative to some of those voices out there a voice that hopefully represents something

much closer to the heart of God in the life and the words of Jesus. And then as a side note, every once in a while, I might have some bourbon like this. I might taste it at the end of the video and you might get the great unveiling of what that bottle is. Like today, like one of the allocated bottles that everybody's into, it's become like a cult.

Harvest Sarasota (06:06.721)
What is it? Well, it's common yet not so common.

bottle of Blanton's like right here. You know, the little horse that spells out blends that everybody wants to connect. Look how pretty that is. We might do stuff like that. If you're allergic to alcohol, AKA you have some sobriety stuff going on, just hit the 30 second fast forward button on those parts. But that's a part of me, something I enjoy and like and love winding down with friends who enjoy it. And so we might have some of that too.

I love some additive free tequilas. I like the finer things in life. I can't always afford them, but I enjoy them. And so that's what this is going to look like. It's going to be me, some friends, some colleagues, some connections, and it's going to be raw. And we're not afraid to say the things that a lot of you are thinking. Like, is it true that everybody goes to hell that doesn't say the prayer? Does that sound like a loving father?

or mother, we're going to talk about those things and we're going to be as real as possible and like not afraid to question some of these holy, you know, we call them sacred cows, right? The holy grails of the evangelical world. No, we're going to go after that stuff. so it should be a good ride. I'll drop some episodes pretty almost immediately after this intro. So listen in, connect with us, share this, like it.

If you want to support the podcast, can go to harvesterosso.com and click the give button. All that goes to the nonprofit, not directly to me. If you want to support me, just follow me or send me a quick note and tell me how this podcast impacted you. I'm mostly on Instagram and Facebook and TikTok. So you can look up the Rev Dan Miner on TikTok or Dan C Miner on Instagram or Dan Miner on Facebook and connect with me there.

Harvest Sarasota (08:07.383)
Look forward to seeing you, hearing from you and let's go. Let's enjoy the ride.