Ramadan and the cultural behaviors of Christianity
- What are the cultural behaviors of Christianity that can be kept without actually having a relationship with Jesus?
Ben asks what the cultural behaviors of Christianity are that can be kept without actually having a relationship with Jesus, prompted by a Ramadan display at a halal grocery after a daddy-daughter date. The hosts work through examples: midnight Mass, forty-day fasts, Lent, the serenity prayer in recovery meetings, and funerals — including a funeral where the family asked that God not be mentioned, Dan's story of a wedding with no mention of God, and using the rich man and Lazarus at funerals.
More on Fasting
-
Lent: fasting, ritual, and embodied faith
- Do I need to give something up for Lent, or am I wrong for never doing it?
- Where does the word 'Lent' come from?
A host asks whether he is wrong for never giving anything up for Lent. Another host answers at length: scripture mandates nothing, but modern fear of 'empty ritual' has cost Christians embodied habits — sackcloth and ashes, anointing, fasting, going somewhere to pray.
From No. 364 · Golden Calf Purity Rings
-
Dawson's buddy; Mike on God not repeating himself; the fasting test
Dawson prays not to miss disciple-making opportunities and confesses trying to coerce a struggling friend into his own conversion pattern.
From No. 595 · Trust But Verify
-
Ask the pastor: the fast God chooses in Isaiah 58
Boova reads Isaiah 58 aloud in full, then asks what to make of the seemingly different fast God describes.
From No. 507 · What’s in a Name
-
Can you have spiritual disciplines without a disciplined life?
A host poses the episode's second big question: after noticing that fasting reorganizes his whole life toward intentionality -- while his Bible reading and prayer stay…
From No. 496 · Regrets