Portland Seminary

So today's question: how did Jim Bakker turn religious intimacy into an American empire? My guest is Dr.

Leah Payne, a historian of American religion at Portland Seminary, and author of God Gave Rock 'n Roll to You.

She studies where faith, politics, and pop culture meet.

Leah, welcome to Complexified.

Dr. Randy Woodley addresses a variety of issues concerning American culture, faith, justice, race, and our relationship with the earth and indigenous realities.

He recently retired as distinguished professor of faith and culture and director of intercultural and indigenous studies at Portland Seminary.

His expertise has been sought in national venues as diverse as Time Magazine, The New York Times, PolitiFact, Christianity Today, The Huffington Post, and Planet Drum, a voice for bioregional sustainability, education, and culture.

Randy and his wife, Edith, founded Elohey Indigenous Center for Earth Justice and Elohey Farm and Seeds.

So for those of us that can't pronounce it, and those of us that may not know what that means, at the same time, for normal people, what does that word mean? Unpack it for us.

Yeah, it certainly has a couple of streams within the academic circles, but in Portland Seminary, which is where I got my doctorate from a guy named Leonard Sweet, some people in the church world know that name, his version of semiotics, and therefore Theo semiotics, Theo being God, semiotics is paying attention to the signs.

It's just... not not trying to read too deeply deeply into things and the word semion which is where you get semiotics is the word sign in greek and so when there's a there's a passage when jesus is talking to the pharisees saying the red sky at night sailors delight red sky morning sailors take warning he said you know how to read the signs or the semion of the sky but you're not paying attention to what's going on around you.

And so the practice, at least the theosemiotic practice within kind of the religious or theological circles, is more about paying attention to the whole world around you and asking those theological questions.