All in Christian Worldview

345 Who Needs Fences?

345 Who Needs Fences?

Uncensored Unprofessor
Christian Worldview, Discernment

This is a blast from the past, a least-worst, UU episode originally recorded for my premium subscribers. Why are fences and hierarchies and boundaries necessary? After all, they fly in the face of a raw democracy-style way of doing life, fly in the face of perfect equality. So how and why would a loving Christian ever embrace hierarchies and boundaries? I aims to explain their matter-of-fact nature and then explain how Christians should, because the Bible does, prioritize their own hierarchies and boundaries. Come think and laugh with me.

344 Are Easter and Christmas Pagan Holidays?

344 Are Easter and Christmas Pagan Holidays?

Uncensored Unprofessor
Christian Worldview, Advent, Beauty, Secular vs. Sacred

Mindful of how she and her husband raise their kids a listener and Patreon supporter of mine, Danielle, e-d me with a great question, are Christmas and Easter pagan holidays? After all, they both had pre-Christian pagan origins. I answer her great question by working through the way that God works, taking pre-existing forms and transforming them to his glory. Come and think with me in this least-worst blast-from-the-past.

339 Ncssry Discrmntions (4) Tracking with Truth

339 Ncssry Discrmntions (4) Tracking with Truth

Uncensored Unprofessor
Discernment, Christian Worldview, Current Events

No one is born with diakrino, a Jesus-y street smarts. It has to be developed and trained. Last week I offered goodness as a telos for discernment. This episode tracks with truth as a guide for discernment. To contemporize the topic of discernment I ask the questions, "are you a racist?", and "are all whites racists?" Along the way we see what the Bible means by truth, and what history and empirical data have to say about racism. The show begins with a holiday reflection from the Bible, "it doesn't have to be like this." Come laugh and think with me.

331 2020 in the Rearview Mirror

331 2020 in the Rearview Mirror

Uncensored Unprofessor
Current Events, Cult of the Now, Eds Personal, Christian Worldview

The show starts with me praying for my listeners' provision: interest rates and the cost of living are soaring. Then I discuss how a NYT email news-feed hit me like a bolt of lighting. The story read, "2020 was driven by a righteous spirit and legitimate moral demands." How did that spirit and its moral demands shape the hearts of ten millions of good-hearted Christians? Can an emotional response be legitimate if the perceived event was based on a lie? Come think with me about why we are now experiencing another 16th century Reformation, but this time around it is entirely to the bad. 

326 Reasons for You to Believe (1) The Empirical Proof of Evil

326 Reasons for You to Believe (1) The Empirical Proof of Evil

Uncensored Unprofessor
Reasons for Your Belief, Christian Worldview, Current Events, Knowledge

What are the good reasons, if any, through which one could believe in Christianity? In this first episode of a series I work an apophatic argument, one by negation: the existence of evil. Evil is so common as to be empirically beyond question. But the Christian worldview goes further: it calls evil by the name sin. Why? I also consider more questions one might ask one's dialogue partner when it comes to conversations about life. Are opinions arguments? Are emotional stories legitimate arguments? Oh, and then, what about Trump's mugshot? Come laugh and think with me!

325 Secular vs. Sacred (15) Spirituality vs. Religion

325 Secular vs. Sacred (15) Spirituality vs. Religion

Uncensored Unprofessor
Secular vs. Sacred, Christian Worldview, Current Events

The global church has seen its fill of horrors: pastors and priests betraying their call by sinning and deflating congregants' attitudes toward Christianity. And yet the broader culture still makes evident a hunger for transcendence: spirituality is on the rise. So what, respectively, do religion and spirituality take as their focus and their telos? I compare spirituality and religion in this episode. Along the way I also share more strategic questions one might ask in thoughtful conversations. Come think and laugh with me! 

324 Secular vs. Sacred (14) Bodies and Wills

324 Secular vs. Sacred (14) Bodies and Wills

Uncensored Unprofessor
Bible, Human Bodies, Sex, Christian Worldview, Secular vs. Sacred

What does it mean to be human? The orthodox Christian worldview teaches we are embodied souls; not souls trapped in bodies, not spirits doomed to earth, but integrated, each valuable. The Postmodern secular worldview now holds we are consumers; choice is the exercise of willpower and nothing—especially others—should interfere with the exercise of one's own choice. The body, with all its appendages, is thus the both vehicle of consumer-choice and something to be used up, at will. In the first 12 minutes I talk, from Psalms 106, about the continual presence of God. Come think and laugh with me!

323 Secular vs. Sacred (13) What Did Feminism Get Right?

323 Secular vs. Sacred (13) What Did Feminism Get Right?

Uncensored Unprofessor
Current Events, Sex, The Common Good, Why is the Church Sick?, Christian Worldview, Secular vs. Sacred

Significant to our culture's secular quality has been the presence and role of feminism. I offer a historical overview of family-and-public life, noting how the Industrial Revolution did things to women, men, and the family that the Feminist movement was right to protest and critique. Along the way I also note some of the shortcomings of the Feminist critique. At the show's beginning I reflect on the legalization of drugs in the state wherein I grew up: Oregon. Come laugh and think with me.

322 Secular vs. Sacred (12) Questions to Ask in Honest Conversations

322 Secular vs. Sacred (12) Questions to Ask in Honest Conversations

Uncensored Unprofessor
Christian Worldview, Current Events, Eds Personal, Knowledge, Why Does Morality Matter?, Secular vs. Sacred

A recent experience at the Oregon coast: an unknown woman walked into our camp and began to visit with us. When, after ten minutes, the pleasant conversation turned to the cultural-shift she went on a verbal tirade. It made me think, what are some good questions to ask in an honest conversation? Why are questions disarming? Why do questions make for space? Oh, and this episode has a "special" advertiser joining us. Come laugh and think with me.

321 Secular vs. Sacred (11) Gutting Evangelical Minds

321 Secular vs. Sacred (11) Gutting Evangelical Minds

Uncensored Unprofessor
Bible, Christian Worldview, Current Events, Knowledge, Spirituality, Secular vs. Sacred

If it's hard to look back on one's personal history it's doubly hard to do that concerning group history. But to that end I unpack American Evangelicalism's trio of emphases: conversion as a subjective experience, turning pastors into celebrities, and a hyper-individualistic expression of Christian life. All three are two-edged blades, having both healthy and injurious qualities that help (or not) us navigate turbulent times. I also start the show with a prayer for broken relationships. Come laugh and think with me!

320 Secular vs. Sacred (10) Viral Darwinism

320 Secular vs. Sacred (10) Viral Darwinism

Uncensored Unprofessor
Christian Worldview, Current Events, The Common Good, Secular vs. Sacred

Darwinism is not merely a philosophy affirmed and disputed among scientists. No, today it permeates significant avenues of public life: law, education, theology, language, and economics. Herein I recount the whos and hows of this viral social spread. At the show's beginning I play back the contents of a "church-board meeting" I recently secretly recorded; silence is the tack of acquiescence. Come laugh and think with me!

318 Secular vs. Sacred (8) The Magic Inside it All

318 Secular vs. Sacred (8) The Magic Inside it All

Uncensored Unprofessor
Sciency-Y Stuff, Christian Worldview, Current Events, Secular vs. Sacred

Darwinists tell us the universe is empty and meaningless. But that's just not true once one begins studying life. For instance, the Leafcutter ant exhibits profoundly sophisticated behaviors. The queen ant, herself, follows innate algorithms that help her build and foster enormous colonies. Hence, life is pre-wired by intense and specific coding; all of which suggests the hand of an exquisitely sophisticated intellect. I also reflect on recent SCOTUS rulings and address the question of whether or not America is God's chosen nation.

317 Secular vs. Sacred (7) Hang Yer Hat On These Two Truths

317 Secular vs. Sacred (7) Hang Yer Hat On These Two Truths

Uncensored Unprofessor
Jesus, Bible, Sciency-Y Stuff, Christian Worldview, Current Events, Secular vs. Sacred

What are the two central truths upon which I hang my own hat of belief? Importantly, both truths are rooted in history, fact, reality. The dogma of Lord Secularism says that the universe, for no discernible purpose, produced complex life; but there is no meaning to life. The Lord of creation sings that the cosmos is sated with beauty, love, and purpose; that life is grounded in meaning. Across these two diverse worldviews I search for answers. (Oh, and I also sing a Beatles song with new lyrics about top-level bribery.) Come laugh and think with me!

316 Secular vs. Sacred (6) Life's Deep Meaning

316 Secular vs. Sacred (6) Life's Deep Meaning

Uncensored Unprofessor
Christian Worldview, Current Events, Spirituality, Secular vs. Sacred

Most every self-aware person asks two questions, "what is life all about?" and, "who am I?" The human race always has, and does today, yearn for meaning. The Secular and the Sacred go about deep meaning in oppositional ways. Because it says the universe is empty and without purpose, Secularism shouts that we must create our own meaning. The Sacred, an element of reality that lives deep down in our bone marrow, says that the cosmos is sated with meaning. We don't just "need" religion, we are religion! I compare and contrast the Secular and Sacred on this ever-present question: what is life all about?

315 Secular vs. Sacred (5) Blinded by Science!

315 Secular vs. Sacred (5) Blinded by Science!

Uncensored Unprofessor
Christian Worldview, Current Events, Knowledge, Sciency-Y Stuff, Secular vs. Sacred

There is a shared public imagination: all science is peer-reviewed, all scientists are empty of bias, scientists work in labs, labs are sterile and pure. So all science is, itself, objective, impartial, and pure. But none of that is true. Science is, and scientists are, pre-loaded with bias, supposition, and philosophical coding. (If the Covid hysteria doesn't clarify that I don't know what would.) I describe how scientists (many, not all) try to blind us with the authority of their discipline. But their logic doesn't hold.

314 Secular vs. Sacred (4) His Truth, Her Truth, Zir Truth

314 Secular vs. Sacred (4) His Truth, Her Truth, Zir Truth

Uncensored Unprofessor
Christian Worldview, Eds Personal, Secular vs. Sacred

Like a big-plumming hat drum major marching out a steady beat for the entire band, secularism's facts-values dichotomy has been drummed down into every facet of life. Sadly that includes too much of the Church. More, that dichotomy helps us understand why so many confessing Christians can give their hearts to Jesus but then keep him entirely out of their intellectual processing. They've agreed with drum-major-secularism that religion is subjective, private, and something to be kept out of the public square. But, is that even true? Who lives as though there is no meaning in life? Or, who lives as though science is their ultimate guide?

313 Secular vs. Sacred (3) Mangling Marriage, Fracturing Family

313 Secular vs. Sacred (3) Mangling Marriage, Fracturing Family

Uncensored Unprofessor
Bible, Christian Worldview, Current Events, The Common Good, Secular vs. Sacred

I enjoy listening to Sirius XM radio. They have a couple comedy stations that crack me up. But when a comedian starts shredding marriage, "that ol' ball and chain!", I flip the channel. They are, like most of society, captured by the secular view of marriage as an impediment, an occlusion, an unnecessary obligation. I explore how philosophers' ideas creep into popular culture, and then how that shapes our views of both marriage and family. We also unpack the biblical view of marriage. The contrast between the secular and the sacred on marriage and family is stark indeed!

312 Secular vs. Sacred (2) Real Jobs in the Real World

312 Secular vs. Sacred (2) Real Jobs in the Real World

Uncensored Unprofessor
Christian Worldview, Bible, Current Events, Secular vs. Sacred

Most Protestants are products of the secular-sacred split. We believe there are realms that belong solely to God (our hearts, church, prayer, bible reading, evangelism) and realms that belong to not-God (our minds, and every single thing else in life!). No wonder then we do life mostly as do secularists. Worse still, we have jobs that we believe are less-than fully Christian. How to rectify this? Bring healing to this bad philosophy? I also talk about how a recent Jordan Peterson speaking engagement impacted me. And I discuss what to do about your non-Christian, even Christ-hating, friends and family.

311 Secular vs. Sacred (1) Pulling Back the Curtain

311 Secular vs. Sacred (1) Pulling Back the Curtain

Uncensored Unprofessor
Christian Worldview, Beauty, Bible, Human Bodies, Secular vs. Sacred

Unaware, most Christians do life through a secular-sacred prism. We believe there are arenas that are isolated to the secular and others given to the sacred. Along similar lines we believe there things reserved for our minds to do and other, more private things, for our hearts to do. None of this is biblical and none of it is helpful. Most Christian colleges fall prey to this same schism and all politicians are chained to the secular-sacred split. In this ground-laying episode I clarify my own presuppositions and define important terms. Come think and laugh with me!

310 Legal Victories for Faith & Freedom-Greg Cox

310 Legal Victories for Faith & Freedom-Greg Cox

Uncensored Unprofessor
Christian Worldview, Current Events, The Common Good, The Constitution

Reading the daily news one could easily be overwhelmed by the darkness. And yet there are significant ongoing developments that promote religious liberty and individual freedom from governmental coercion. Greg Cox, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Liberty Council, shares with me about several recent court rulings that sustain the free practice of the Christian faith. Liberty Council, driven by an expressly Christian worldview, is a dynamic presence on behalf of Gospel mission and personal liberty! 

Load More