CCR 162: What were Christians Doing at Burning Man? | 2023 Church Intel Report

RECKONING! From Basil’s muddy boots of Burning Man to your ears! This is how the bleeding edge of Christian apologetics looks like in the 21st century! Last year in 2022, Basil experienced podcast tragedy at Burning Man when he lost all the SD cards containing vital interviews and conversations he captured from the annual transformative event held in the Black Rock Desert. A discouraged Basil didn’t have any plans to attend this year’s Burning Man, until news starting coming out that tickets were being sold for 1/10th of the normal cost. Seeing it as a sign from God, Basil packed up and headed out to Black Rock Desert once again!

Of course, the 2023 Burning Man event was a Mainstream Media and Alternative Media playground, as bad weather reports began to trickle out of the desert. Both sides of the media decided to tailor the news to their own messaging: Mainstream Media pushed the Climate Change angle on why Burning Man flooded out, while Alternative Media not only pushed untruths about the situation on the dirt (like Ebola breakout), but did so with fervor and judgment justified by false information. Both were guilty of sensationalism.

On this episode, we do not leave any room for speculation! We get a mere 5 hour report documenting informed and grounded Christians spending time in the midst of the “hive mind” gathering information for the church, but also sharing the truth that sets us free, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when opportunities are presented. These are actual boots-on-the-ground reporting from the catalyst of culture!

We structured the episode around a post-burn conversation between Basil, researcher and author Carl Teichrib, and Bob Worley from the Camp of the Unknown God. Spliced in are raw audio sound from inside the Burning Man Temple, at the Man burn itself, and the voices of random people living amongst the dirt at Burning Man 2023.

If you ever wondered what it means to make disciples of all nations and to fulfill the Great Commission, you need to listen to this episode! Share it with all of your friends and family who may get triggered when they hear that this is an episode of Jesus followers attending Burning Man!

We do our best to live up to our tagline, “Think Outside The Cage!”

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS

00:00:00 – Introductions & E.P : Sir Jacob Hi-Line Hoss and Knight of the Issachar Pursuit

00:16:11 – Chapter 1: Basil Searching for Carl and the Camp of the Unknown God

00:45:41 – Chapter 2: Convo with Carl and Bob

01:20:57 – Chapter 3: The Research…and “sparkle ponies”

01:30:06 – Chapter 4: The Survey

02:05:28 – Chapter 5: Anamalia

02:14:04 – Chapter 6: The Chapel of Babel

02:35:50 – Chapter 7: Pharmakeia

02:43:20 – Chapter 8: The Temple Burn

03:18:27 – Chapter 9: The Man Burn, Raw Audio