The last in our 12-part series takes us to the question of whether we can heal the world. If we can help heal the world—even as we can’t control it or remake it according to our own clever designs—then how is this to be accomplished by a Taosurfer? We go long because this is our concluding discussion of all we’ve been wrestling with throughout the season and we don’t want to leave anything out. Turns out part of the plan of action for the Tao Te Ching is a form of anarchism. We’ll explain a bit about what that misunderstood meant for the ancient Chinese context.

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You can know the world
without walking out your door.
You can glimpse the celestial Tao
without looking out your window.
The further you run from yourself
the less you will know.
So the Sage gains insight
without needing to travel abroad,
knows what’s up
before the official story gets published,
and wins without playing games.

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Peace, joy, happiness & whether we’ve been so focused on bad guys in religious circles that we might be only hostile to institutional religion. After a brief discussion of a student question, we focus (starting min 40) on a poignant email exchange with Tim, who was kind enough to let us reply to his emails verbally, so we could give it the attention it deserves. His main question: aren't we taking the heart out of folks by our incessant negativity about church abusiveness?

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When nations surf the Tao resources are used for human flourishing. When nations lose touch with the Tao resources are built up and set aside for war.

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Using Tao Te Ching chapters 19, 22, 35, and 57 we discuss wisdom for teaching the Tao, which it turns out is not done through dogmatism, polemics, coercion, virtue signaling, or legalism, but rather through example, embodiment, and romancing folks into a better flow.

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The grand system seems defective.
But, it will never malfunction.
Grand abundance seems empty.
But, it is inexhaustible.
Grand justice seems crooked.
Grand virtuosity seems unskilled.
Grand eloquence seems unlearned.
Motion warms us when it’s cold.
Stillness cools us when it’s hot.
Clarity and stillness
bring the world into alignment.

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Many of us know people close to us who seem to have been infected by blatant falsehood. Guest Sean Nowlan, a student at Jeff’s university who recently did independent research on today’s topic, helps break down what’s going on with foreign powers using online technology to sow disinformation and divide their rival nation. He also discusses the ways domestic extremism has been using disinformation in dangerous ways. We discussing the connection between American evangelical belief and receptivity to disinformation. We conclude with the best ways to help friends and family find a way out of false ideologies concocted via disinformation.

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Understanding and confronting sexual abuse in the church. Emily Joy was instrumental in starting the Twitter hashtag #CHURCHTOO & has written a book by that same name. We discuss her perspective on the various ways in which American evangelicalism’s way of thinking makes abusive relationships more likely, harder to address, and more painful for those who suffer from the abusive behaviors. Stacie starts out the show by sharing a moving testimony about her response to the book. Opening music by Landon Mills.

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Which is more precious: your name or your true self? Which do you value more: your true self or what you own? Which is the real calamity: winning or losing? Lust for possessions is costly. Hoard everything and you will lose everything.
Learning to be content avoids dishonor. Knowing when to stop averts disaster. This is the key to longevity in life’s endeavors.

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Jeff reads an abridged version of Isaac Frazee, Evolove: The Quest and Findings of an Efficiency Expert (1929). This book explores several themes related to the emphases of our podcast. Frazee’s biography and intellectual influence on Southern California culture is goin to take up a lot of his research agenda in at least the next year or so. His work is almost unknown today but reflects interesting challenges to industrialism, unquestioned capitalism, and religiosity that gets in the way of the way of Jesus. There is a bit of Christian anarchy and Christian socialism possibly behind this text. Eventually, Jeff will try to determine whether the themes in this book that resonate with the Tao Te Ching are accidental or are evidence of Lao Tzu’s influence on Frazee.

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Anyone who’s come this far with the Tao Te Ching will surely be familiar with the central concept of this chapter. Flowing subtly past obstacles, like water around a boulder, is a natural illustration of a greater principle. Water shows up as a classic example of one of the “softest things” since our ancestors all knew the power of water when it came to life and death. No water, no life. Too much water, we drown.

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A keynote lecture Jeff gave to the TriCampus Undergraduate Conference, a collaborative effort of Concordia U., Irvine, Fresno Pacific U., and Pepperdine U. It took place on Saturday, 2/27. Jeff explains how a college education, properly done, can be a helpful tool in pushing back against the crisis of truth and the global gaslighting the powers that be have been using against us all for ages.

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This chapter contains some of the most interesting theoretical and philosophical material of the Tao Te Ching. Everything emerges out of nothing, first as the cosmic unity, then as the differentiation between opposites—yin and yang, light and dark, positive and negative—and from this a third something is born. Some Westerners have observed a resonance with the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. On the one hand, it is important to avoid anachronism or Christianizing ancient Chinese concepts. On the other hand, there are discussions of the Trinity within Christian circles that have interesting parallels with this chapter.

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Following up on last' week’s interview with Steve Baughman, we use comments on Steve Baughman’s video about Ravi Zacharias’ scandalous behavior to illustrate ten informal fallacies. This is not a rehashing of the scandal itself but a closer look at the lack of critical thinking among religious supporters, which enables dangerous behaviors to go unchecked. We also read and discuss Kyle Howard’s tweets about abusive and toxic culture within American Evangelicalism.

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One thing we’ve learned during our attempts to surf the Tao is that it is easy to become crestfallen when we don’t have appropriate expectations about what surfing life’s waves looks like. Even for the “wise” and the “sages,” to expect that there are not “normal” times of embodied existence is mistaken. The most saintly men and women who’ve walked this earth have experienced moments of irritability, disappointment, anxiety, and doubt. What marks them out, however, is a life that habitually flows with the Tao rather than struggling against it. It involves mindfulness, even compassionate observation of our daily frustrations.

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Ravi Zacharias International Ministries Canada shut down this week, in the wake of startling public reports about the heinous deeds of their late founder Ravi Zacharias, world famous apologist (and owner of massage joints). We chat with immigration lawyer, and banjo master Steve Baughman who wrote Coverup in the Kingdom: Phone Sex, Lies, and God’s Great Apologist Ravi Zacharias. He's been on the trail of this religious wolf for quite some time.

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Whether you are an atheist or a believer, into Eastern or Western traditions, a physical practice is perhaps the best way to actually experience and realize what it is to surf the Tao. You don’t need to get into some spiritual zone or commune with celestial beings; rather, we’re inviting you time to wake up to reality, allow space for awareness & notice what you are thinking and feeling without judgment. This leads to clarity as we seek to find peace & outfox religious and ideological wolves.

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Our guest is a recent alumnus from Concordia University and joins the conversation from Nigeria to discuss his insights about the ways in which people try to oppose hate, racism and injustice in the United States. Sometimes, he suggests, we tend to focus on hating injustice but don’t emphasize loving justice. This may have an effect on our emotional, spiritual, and mental wellbeing.

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“The Tao’s flow involves reversals. Its methods are flexible. The living things in this world are born from something. That something was born from nothing.”

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Alyssa Sabo talks about her life, overcoming hardship, and laughing at her own earnest evangelical self growing up. She is a comedian, writer, actress, and liver transplant survivor.

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