Why do we celebrate Christmas on December 25th? What does history show us about that? Then, in 1984 Apple Computer produced a memorable challenge-the-faceless-corporations tv advertisement, but in 38 short years they have become that faceless corporation. How so? What are the results of an at-home medical experiment I conducted? I also explore some of the aftermath of the SCOTUS June ruling that over-turned Roe. What is our ensuing cultural milieu? Come laugh and think with me.
What is it like to have a pregnant woman walk in the door when she's trying to determine what to do with her unexpected baby? In what way does church culture impact a crisis pregnancy? What measures and structures does Path Crisis Pregnancy center have in place to receive women? How can technology shape a woman's decision? How has the SCOTUS over-turning of Roe changed the dynamics of crisis pregnancy center work? What have both COVID and our inflation-wrought economy done to crisis pregnancy center service? What is a Christian approach to crisis pregnancies?
The Cambrian explosion—as scientists call it—raises some fascinating challenges to Darwinian evolution. I explore how that is so. I also variously work through fairness at the Southern border, whether I miss teaching, taking on the establishment, local television news in Idaho, the Evangelical framing of Christianity, the worldview of America's founders, and the second coming of Christ. Interspersed throughout are some NFL helmet-slogan inspired catch-phrases. Come think and laugh out loud with me!
Charles Darwin was not a neutral investigator. What were his pre-existing beliefs (that he had inherited from his father) which shaped his conclusions? There are lies and there is anti-truth, what is the difference? How do I read the imminent split that threatens (again) the Catholic Church? In this episode I also work through some funny memes and share some reflections on the season of Advent. Come think and laugh with me!
The podcasts are normally woven through by a theme. This is a series of mostly unrelated thoughts: where do I differ with Evangelicals? What did I learn and appreciate by reading two books about the Oregon trail? Did the human race really begin from one original pair? What do I yearn for everytime I see Caravaggio's painting of the "Emmaus Dinner"? Where do I experience the presence of God? What is science? I also share a couple funny memes I recently encountered.
Jesus said, "you cannot serve both God and mammon." That is true for individuals, but it rings just as true for society. Where the heart is—personal and corporate— there will be the treasure. What we promote and vote for reveals the state of our culture's soul. A theological analysis of the mid-term election is made in order to help us understand both the world (and church) we now live in and the opportunity that is ours in Christ. Come laugh and think with me!
What is it like to serve the homeless? How can or should we help them? Reverend Bill Roscoe has been a leader in homeless ministry for thirty years. In this interview he explains the grounds for ministry—short and long term—to people created in the image of God. What is involved in training the staff? What's it like to work with local government? What is the shelter's denominational affiliation? How have the clientele changed over the decades? How does he keep from becoming mired in depression?
Here on the cusp of a national mid-term election how do I go about voting? What are my priorities, non-negotiables? What do I look for with individual candidates? How do I assess legislation that we get to vote on? Do I care if the candidate is a Christian? Across human history voting is a rare privilege, so how do I approach this responsibility?
Peter, James, Paul. . . the entire apostolic community expected Jesus to return, bodily, in their lifetimes. Growing up, I didn't expect to make it out of high school before Jesus returned. The apostles were, and my boyhood church was, wrong. So just why has it been 2000 years since Christ ascended into heaven? Why the gap? What kind of missional and existential challenge does that gap present to us? And what is the most common temptation to sin here in our Post-Christian culture? All in this episode!
The Evangelical tendency? To personalize Jesus. And for the immediate that is all well and good. But the problem is that it minimizes the historic and cosmic impact of Christ's coming, person, and work. We need to marvel bigger, examine more sweepingly, because that historic cosmic coming reveals to us what God's telos is for the future. And still for all that? We see a proportionate polarization at work in our culture: it loathes freedom, beauty, and the Gospel.
PoMo culture has a couple dominant views about history: a) it is written by the winners, and b) it is meaningless. Both of those promote cynicism and apathy which corrode the human soul. Instead a biblical and Christian worldview says there is hope. I explore why that is so. I also pare back some problematic ways that Christians approach and think about history. Oh, and I unpack why it is that I am increasingly typified by dangerosity!
We only see the upper 5' of the iceberg that is homelessness. Down beneath the surface is a massive soul-deadening, cold, indifferent, objectifying culture. That culture teaches us to treat the homeless like incurable objects while politicians use homelessness to score points on their largesse. What should a Christian response be? How does a Christian metaphysic view the problem? How does the book of Lamentations help frame the problem? I also note a recent Pew Forum examination of Christianity in the USA.
On Thursday, September 8, 2022 Queen Elizabeth died. I watched the long parade-drive to Windsor Castle and have, for 2+ weeks, been listening to her funerary music. How did that touch me? What stood out to me? How does it point to the Parousia of Christ himself? I also muse about Youtube censorship, Alex Berenson's legal victory, the state of Texas vs. media censorship, and share more about a corporate churchly bearing/presence vis-a-vis culture.
Climate change sounds benign: good folk want to help the planet stay hospitable. But is that only where this is headed? How do leaders of the World Economic Forum, Bill Gates, and Bank of America envision climate change? How might climate change be used for alternative purposes? I also think aloud about the role and place of a Christian bearing, a churchly bearing, in and to culture. What are the dominant models at work today with regard to Church and culture? Come laugh and think with me.
To save the planet we all need to embrace green and renewable energies, right? Well, perhaps, sort of. This episode works through the dominant renewable energies noting their pluses and minuses. I also explore questions like, can we mine enough global lithium to eliminate all fossil fuel powered cars? Are electrical vehicles as clean and efficient as we are led to believe? The show opens with a reflection on the beauty of vocation in a God-created world. Come laugh and think with me!
Climate Change is expensive. $370 billion dollars just passed by the Democrats shows us just how expensive it really is. So how do those policies impact the indigent? And stemming from that why did the Progressives trade the poor—their ardent concern in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s—for today's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion? What do we learn from that trade? I also think aloud about how economics works like spider webs. This is complicated and sensitive stuff but we can chuckle and smile as we think it through.
With every forest fire, hurricane, snow storm, or hot summer we hear the cry, "climate change!" But are things really getting worse across the planet? Why are we led to believe they are? Then, how do green policies on the West coast actually make things worse? I also talk about my brother who, as an insurance adjustor, worked hurricane Katrina. In this episode I also share some of my own m.o. for doing the show, why the show is formed the way it is.
In 2015 most of the nations entered into the Paris agreement on capping of Earth's temperatures. What standard did they all commit toward? Now after 7 years how is that going? What are the potential pitfalls of the agreement? How might fraud and grift both play into Climate Change? I also work through necessary elements for Christian spiritual discernment.
With global warming all the glaciers are melting and the islands are being flooded, right? We'll take a careful look. We are causing Earth to approach catastrophic levels of sea rise, right? Hundreds of millions of people live under immediate threat of being flooded into annihilation, right? Let's study it. Why do I find the ancient Roman city of Pompeii so amazing? All of that and more in my continuing climate change series. Oh, and what about the recent increase in IRS agents? What does that indicate about where America is headed? Come think and laugh with me.
Are glaciers around the planet melting or expanding? Why? What about icy Antarctica? Do glaciers melt simply due to air temperature? How can cosmic rays and meteors contribute to ice ages? In this episode we explore these amazing rivers of ice that form all over the planet. Also, if you've listened before you know I like the term "PoMo". But what does that mean? And how is our era far different from, more sinister than, the normal conservative vs. liberal pendulum swing? Come think and laugh with me.
