What events would bring the most people back to church? Which celebrity has Rick Warren’s book helped now? Are American Christians “persecuted” in their own special way? Are astronauts too boring for reality TV? And what failure of the church might be driving people to Donald Trump? Christianity Today editor Katelyn Beaty joins Skye and Phil to run through a grab bag of issues in this particularly nutty installment of the podcast!
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I am not sure that the Body of Christ is being persecuted if Christians are told they cannot make and use houses of worship, publicly meet to sing and pray, wear distinctive dress, make significant gestures, explain their beliefs to others, use certain expressions, etc. But I do not recognize physical displays or sacraments administered in just the right way as being in any way necessary to inclusion and maintenance in Christ. To me, Christians are known by their love for everyone. If Christians were told to live such that there would be no earthly reason why anyone would want to be like them, they should be just fine with that.
The unique characteristic of the radical(rooted) people who remain in Christ is the nine-fold single Fruit of the Spirit. No entity anywhere at any time has been able to rule against its display. No one can legislate against people being circumcised in heart, walking in the light, being crucified with Christ, being raised to newness of life in Him, living by the Spirit, being born again, etc. Earthly things might be nice, but The Body of Christ exists and can do what it is supposed to be doing: helping the distressed and being unspotted/polluted by the world, just fine without them.
I am voting for Trump! As a former PA/NY/NJ resident and certified Yankee who now lives in Dickson, TN, I am unashamedly voting for him. He was not my choice at all. I also attend and belong to what is arguably a smallish country church that is in the PCA. Our pastor does what the urban- hipster-seeker churches are at least in my experience not doing enough of: consistently teaching and explaining the scriptures without quotes from Brad Pitt, other celebrities or secular writers. I do think you guys are on to something about country people/churches and Trump. I’m down here. Ya’ll are right. That being said, I still will not vote for Hillary, and I don’t think that makes me or anyone else who is about to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN a less than thoughtful Christian. Not that you are implying that. Even so, I think the guy is probably going to lose anyway.
#Nezzer/Lunt 2016
Can you make a poster?
Regarding the CT article about the neglect of American rural white populations by the American church, the African-American scholar Anthony Bradley has been writing about this and commenting on it for years now. Scott Sauls just made this same observation today on Twitter regarding Bradley. Please give credit where credit is due. I don’t hear nearly enough names of Christian theologians/pastors/writers/scholars of color on your podcast (besides Skye of course) as I do their white counterparts. Are you looking to have any women of color as guests in the near future? You cry for diversity in the church, perhaps you can start by mixing up your show with more diverse guests (more than just twice a year). I love John Walton, but there are African-American, Latino and Asian-American Christian professors out there too? Hey, for the first time the presidential debates are going to include a woman of color moderator, perhaps this show can follow suit?
From, you guested it, a woman of color fan of the show.
Correction: presidential debates to include first Asian-American female moderator. Still good to see diversity beyond black/white.
I’d love to have more diversity on the show. The biggest hold up right now is my own lack of time to invest in finding new guests. (That’s one of the purposes of the Patreon campaign – to get some help with that.) When we cover Christianity Today stories, they will involve whomever CT chose for the story. (We can’t do additional research.) I also have Christian publishers pitching me books to see if we want to talk with the authors, and that tends to be limited to what they pitch. But we’ll try to work more on this.
By the way, I’ve listened to your podcast, and I know you LOVE to talk about Lady Gaga. I was wondering if you could sing the theme song AS Lady Gaga. Can you???