Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, bring you a show of news and culture debunking the errors of fundamentalism and showing the progressive nature of Christianity.
Without Works
Claim This Podcastby Amity Armstrong and Lemuel Gonzalez
80 episodes
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Podcast Overview
Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, bring you a show of news and culture debunking the errors of fundamentalism and showing the progressive nature of Christianity.
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🇺🇲
Publishing Since
4/21/2019
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Recent Episodes
June 17, 2026
A Calf By Any Other Name
<h1>Show Notes</h1> <p><strong>Amity:</strong> (standard disclaimer) The views and opinions expressed by the prophet Moses and his interpretation of the Lord of Hosts, is his own and do not reflect the policy, position, or opinions of Without Works.</p> <p><strong>Lemuel:</strong> I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today’s painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works.</p> <p><strong>Amity:</strong> Fifteen feet tall, twenty-two if you include the plinth, bronze and covered in gold leaf referred to as Don Colossus - a statute of Donald Trump, raising a defiant fist to the heavens, commemorating the moment after a failed assasination attempt during the 2024 Presidential campaign has been erected at the Trump National Doral golf club in Florida </p> <p>Mark Burns, “pastor,” of Harvest Praise and Worship Center in South Carolina, was in attendance at its unveiling. He insisted that the installation of the statue was, “a celebration of life and a powerful symbol of resilience, freedom, patriotism, courage, and the will to keep fighting for America.” </p> <p>Pastor Burns felt it was necessary, unprovoked, to inform his followers on X “Let me say this plainly: This statue is not a golden calf. We worship Jesus Christ and him alone. This statue is not about worship. It is about honor.”</p> <p>So let’s discuss the Golden Calf - what it is and what it isn’t</p> <p><strong>Lemuel:</strong> The story of the Exodus from Egypt is central to world religion and culture. The Hebrew people, led by Moses, are liberated after four hundred years of captivity in Egypt. They follow Moses through the desert, through the sea, and through the desert again. </p> <p>Moses is directed to return to Mount Sinai, where he had his original communication with God. He is to go alone to the mountain top, and receive directions for the future and the law to govern the hebrew people. </p> <p>For forty days and forty nights, no one was allowed to go near the mountain. The people were told to wash their clothes and abstain from sexual relations on pain of death. God descends onto the mountain in a terrifying display of thunder and fire, and Moses goes up to meet him. </p> <p>The hebrew people, huddled in camp, wait for Moses' return. Days pass. Weeks pass. Some of the people gather together and demand that Aaron, Moses’ older brother and spokesman, make them a God they can see and worship. They believe that Moses, already elderly, may be dead. They want to appease this terrifying God who they believe has struck down their leader. Aaron asks for the gold earrings and jewelry they brought from Egypt. He melts these down and makes a golden calf. </p> <p>The worship of this calf quickly turns from genuine adoration to revelry and this infuriates God. God commands Moses to return to his people, and in his wrath threatens to wipe them off the face of the earth, making Moses alone the father of the new Hebrew nation, the nation he had promised the patriarch Abraham. Moses is able to talk God out of this plan, and makes his way down the mountain.</p> <p>Moses, seeing the wild orgies carried on, becomes so furious that he shatters the stone tablets on which God had carved the ten commandments. Moses , anticipating God’s further anger, takes a terrible action. He separates the faithful from the idolaters, arms them, and insists: </p> <p>**Amity: ** “ ... “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other , each killing his brother, friend, and neighbor.’ The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand people died.”</p> <p>**Lemuel: ** The calf is melted, ground into powder, and the survivors are compelled to drink it. Even those survivors are punished: God sends a plague. </p> <p><strong>Amity:</strong> Welcome to the Old Testament. </p> <p>The first and second of the Ten Commandments are: ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” and, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.” This might seem strange when the high church, Catholic and Orthodox, use statues and icons as part of their worship. </p> <p><strong>Lemuel:</strong> Those images are used to focus worship. They are meant to anchor wandering minds during prayer. The use of the images as sacred beings is what God objects too. Ascribing God’s plans and actions to an idol is also something God objects too. Representative sculpture is not. </p> <p>God instructed Moses, for instance, to have two angels carved into the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. </p> <p><strong>Amity:</strong> The image of God has changed since Moses’ time. He is no longer seen as an impetuous mirror of our desires. At least he shouldn't be. The God who would insist on the slaughter of his own people in an effort to winnow the survivors to create a complaint remnant is no longer the God that true Christians worship. In that extremely black and white world, the worship of a God other than the one we are pledged to is infidelity. Oath breaking.**</p>
May 27, 2026
Saint Columba Catholic Church
<h1>Show Notes</h1> <p><strong>Lemuel:</strong> I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today’s painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works.</p> <p>**Amity: ** Saint Columba Catholic Church was founded in 1898, the result of a collaboration between Sacred Heart Church, Oakland and Saint Joseph the Worker Church in Berkeley. The founding pastor was Father Martin Whyte, formerly Assistant Pastor of Sacred Heart.</p> <p>The original population of St. Columba Catholic Church was about 100 mostly Irish families. Following the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 the parish became 35% Italian, while the Irish population decreased to 20%. In the two decades after that earthquake, the number of African American parishioners grew. </p> <p>On September 1, 1981, Father Paul Ross Vassar was assigned as pastor. His 13-year tenure was highlighted with a vision for liturgy that reflected the African American Catholic experience. Fr. Vassar initiated the St. Columba Annual African American Celebration, in conjunction with African American History Month (February), drawing nationally renowned African American speakers. Part of that celebration was – and continues to be—the Rawn Harbor Workshop Choir Experience; noted Catholic Liturgist Rawn Harbor would present a week-long workshop for choirs and singers from throughout the diocese.</p> <p>The church is well-known for its social justice advocacy, including "Black Lives Matter" signage and support for the LGBTQ community. Each year, since 2004, white crosses have been erected on site to commemorate homicide victims. There is a commemorative community service at St. Columba each December, in which family members and friends meet and remember those lost to gun violence..</p> <p><strong>Lemuel:</strong> Tuesday morning, May FIfth, Adian McAleenan, a pastor at Saint Columba, noticed the desecration before morning mass. Sixteen of the memorial crosses had been ripped up and broken, a memorial fountain for the victims of the balcony collapse that killed six Irish students, was knocked over, and an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe torn from place.</p> <p>No motive for the vandalism has surfaced, no manifestos were left behind. Church volunteer Pam Sanchez Hernandez said of the vandals, "However deeply troubled they are, they need help. That's probably their way of saying I need help, by being destructive like this."</p> <p><strong>Amity:</strong> This demonstrates the nature of Saint Columba; the attitude is service to the congregation and to community at large. We hear conservative voices complaining about the persecution of the Christian faith, and the erosion of Christian values, but when those values are expressed through compassion, mercy, and social justice, they are open to attack. Rather than asking for persecution, or even as some MAGA leaders have, the prosecution and or execution of the vandals responsible, they want to help restore that person or persons balance. </p> <p>In Micah, Chapter 6: verse 8, the prophet describes the will of God towards his people: </p> <p>“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”</p> <p>Find us on Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/withoutworkspod" rel="nofollow">@WithoutWorksPod</a></p> <p>Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/withoutworks" rel="nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/withoutworks</a></p> <p>Email @ <a href="mailto:withoutworkspod@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">withoutworkspod@gmail.com</a></p> <p>Our Internet home: <a href="http://www.withoutworkspodcast.com" rel="nofollow">www.withoutworkspodcast.com</a></p> <p>Amity: We are also reachable at <a href="mailto:withoutworkspod@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">withoutworkspod@gmail.com</a>, </p> <p>on twitter @withoutworkspod and on Facebook at Without Works podcast. </p> <p><a href="https://www.ktvu.com/news/columba-church-oakland-vandalized" rel="nofollow">https://www.ktvu.com/news/columba-church-oakland-vandalized</a></p> <p><a href="https://oaklandside.org/2026/05/07/st-columba-catholic-church-vandalism-oakland/" rel="nofollow">https://oaklandside.org/2026/05/07/st-columba-catholic-church-vandalism-oakland/</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.ktvu.com/news/columba-church-oakland-vandalized" rel="nofollow">https://www.ktvu.com/news/columba-church-oakland-vandalized</a>**</p>
March 29, 2026
Leading With Love
<h1>Show Notes</h1> <p>There are many things we could talk about these days. Today we choose the threats and hatred targeted at one seminarian by a “pastor” - James Talarico, senate candidate from TX vs. Brooks Potteiger</p> <p><a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5800122-james-talarico-pete-hegseth-death-comments/" rel="nofollow">The Hill</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/a-pastor-called-for-a-democrat-to-be-crucified-with-christ-was-it-a-threat/" rel="nofollow">The Seattle Times</a></p>
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