Contextual Healing with Aaron Higashi

Aaron Higashi (0:02)

And then that sort of got read back into Biblical interpretation.

Daniel Beecher (0:04)

We're going to get back to it, but I have to say, you keep saying this as though you can interpret the Bible, when obviously, that can't be right. It's the perfect word of God.

Aaron Higashi (0:15)

You just rub your fingers on it.

Daniel Beecher (0:17)

Am I wrong? I thought that's how it's supposed to work here.

Aaron Higashi (0:20)

Some people think so. Some people absolutely hold to that, and that's often one of the biggest difficulties you encounter in trying to talk to people about the Bible.

Daniel McClellan (0:33)

Hey, everybody. I'm Dan McClellan.

Daniel Beecher (0:36)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Daniel McClellan (0:37)

And this is the Data Over Dogma podcast. Welcome to today's episode. We've got a great one for you today.

Daniel Beecher (0:44)

Indeed. We have a guest on. This is... Here's an interesting thing, Dan.

I discovered you when I just on TikTok, when we all sort of during the pandemic dove into our phones as the last place that we could find any kind of sanity in the universe. And, you know, I found your content very interesting. And there was one other guy whose biblical content I found fascinating and honest and interesting and engaging.

And that is our guest today, Aaron Higashi. Aaron, welcome. Hello. Thanks for coming on the show.

Aaron Higashi (1:26)

I thought you were going to say somebody else after all that. And it's not this guy, but this guy is almost as good as that other guy.

Daniel McClellan (1:32)

We couldn't get him.

Daniel Beecher (1:33)

This guy is like at most fourth down on the list.

Aaron Higashi (1:39)

That's a great place to be. Hi, I'm very happy to be on the show.

Daniel Beecher (1:43)

Well, welcome, Aaron. You're like Dan, a public facing scholar.

Excuse me. Can you tell us a little bit about your sort of biological? You could tell us about that, but your biographical history. Tell us a little bit about where you're coming from, how you know so much about the Bible, all of that sort of stuff.

Aaron Higashi (2:04)

Oh, man. Yeah, sure.

I did most of my growing up in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Daniel Beecher (2:10)

No Christians there.

Aaron Higashi (2:11)

No, not a single one, actually. A voided wasteland of Christianity.

Actually, I grew up like a stone's throw away from New Life Church, all these mega churches in Colorado Springs. Nondenominational, which is like evangelical, but without any accountability to an institution or something like that. So that's the environment that I grew up in and originally attended church in and high school and stuff. I did my first take at college at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. I wanted to be a writer, either journalism or creative writing. I failed out for lack of maturity and moved back in with my parents.

Daniel Beecher (2:49)

I'm just going to butt in and say that there's something very appealing to me about the fact that I'm the only person on this podcast who's never failed out of a college.

Daniel McClellan (2:59)

It's a great experience.

Aaron Higashi (3:01)

You should try it.

Daniel Beecher (3:02)

I'm amazed.

Daniel McClellan (3:03)

You're also the only person who's not failed out of a college in Northern Colorado.

I went to University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, which is about 30 minutes away from CSU over in Fort Collins. I used to go to parties in Fort Collins at CSU.

Aaron Higashi (3:22)

They're the best parties or the worst, depending on what you're looking for. Less cows, more alcohol, I think.

Daniel McClellan (3:29)

It doesn't smell as bad in Fort Collins.

Aaron Higashi (3:36)

After I failed out of there, I moved in with my parents and started going to community college. I happened across a philosophy class I took at a community college, and I fell in love with philosophy. Also, it was the only thing that I was any good at because a lot of it's just arguing and writing, which I love to do.

I changed my major to philosophy. I went to the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, which has a beautiful campus seated in the mountains there in central Colorado Springs.

And I took a minor in religious studies and took the only religion classes they had on offer, which was like an introduction to New Testament and introduction to Old Testament. And that's where I encountered academic biblical studies for the first time. I read my first Bart Ehrman book, which I still own to this day. It's still marked up in all my notes.