Jonathan Parks-Ramage: "Jesus, Mary, and Joe Jonas"

Episode three is all about Jesus Christ and his superstars. In his piece “Jesus, Mary, and Joe Jonas,” writer Jonathan Parks-Ramage discovers Reality L.A., an evangelical Christian church that attracts the lost kids of Hollywood with top 40-like ballads and an attractive promise of love and absolution. Unfortunately, the gospel is not so sweet for Jonathan — the hip-seeming church is truly conservative, and non-belief, abortion, premarital sex, and gay sex will each earn you a one-way ticket to hell. Unofficially, we’re calling this episode “Fundamentalism, but Make It Fashion.”

After performing his essay, Jonathan sits down with host Kara Brown to talk church. The two discuss the moving experience of worship, how Reality L.A. is inseparable from its dogma, the unsustainability of gay repression, and the importance of spiritual people finding a god who loves them for who they are.

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