More global headlines with shofar ratings
More quick-hit headlines, each rated in shofars: a Uyghur ethnic translator detained by China for months then released for no reason and helped out by a Canadian surveillance expert, a McKinsey analyst, an American Christian family, and China Aid founder Bob Fu (two shofars); a record 1,300 baptisms at cross raisings in Australia significant to First Nation Christians (two shofars); Compassion International and 17 Ghanaian churches planting 4,000 trees against climate change, which the hosts push back on — 'you're bringing trees to all the nations,' not the gospel, and gospel work needs no tree-planting pretext (zero shofars); a 72-year-old Norwegian man demanding a church dim its illuminated cross because it may 'tear open old wounds' tied to corporal punishment in church schools from 1955 to 1990, which the hosts reject as a 35-year-old 'you problem' that still needs healing rather than a veto (two shofars for keeping the cross); and an evangelical church in Rome hosting an Andy Warhol prints exhibit as community engagement (double shofars).
More on Baptism
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Is skinny dipping in the Sea of Galilee sacrilegious?
- Is skinny dipping in the Sea of Galilee sacrilegious?
The hosts debate the hard question: one argues the category of 'sacrilegious' itself is man-made — something is sin or it isn't — and that the congressman's real problem was foolishness, not location (Jesus was in a boat there; it is moving, recycled water).
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Chat questions: what must one do to be saved?
- What must one do to be saved?
- At what point is someone saved?
Reading listener questions from the chat — one host tosses the first to Dan by name — the hosts answer that faith is always the baseline: belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of the living God who died physically and rose physically, since 'demons believe and shudder' too.
From No. 34 · Where Do I Start?
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Dawson: everything feels like a sales pitch
Mike asks Dawson where the church presents community poorly. Dawson: everything feels like a sales pitch now — every invitation defended with ten reasons, which makes people suspicious.
From No. 590 · Theodore Franco
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Baptism Sunday spectacle: mascot, dunk Sunday, inflatables
Ben describes a church advertising a big baptism Sunday complete with a basketball-team mascot, “dunk Sunday,” rides, and inflatables, and asks whether meeting Jesus is really that life-changing or whether churches fluff it up.
From No. 588 · hypokritēs