Faith & Culture
423 conversations across 16 years of the show. Try a few, or go by subject.
A few to try
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News spin, buckets, and advertising culture
- To what extent are you responsible for other people's perception of what you say?
The hosts work the question: news is delivered as fact-plus-spin and audiences only read their own spin; people sort each other into buckets ('compassionate liberal,' 'heartless wingnut') to avoid complicated middle-of-the-road conversations.
From No. 360 · Divided We Thrive
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Declining faith and deaths of despair study
- Is declining faith fueling a rise in deaths of despair?
A host reads a Daily Mail article on a Wellesley College study linking rising 'deaths of despair' (suicide, alcohol and opioid abuse) among middle-aged white Americans to declining faith and church attendance.
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Church image problem, point one: politics
- Does the church have an image problem, and are the article's six fixes good?
- Should Christians and churches stay out of partisan politics to witness better?
The Carey Nieuwhof article walkthrough begins: 'The church has an image problem — six ways to fix it.'
From No. 477 · Shofar, Shogood
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Dear LFTP: the mother-in-law moved in
- My mother-in-law moved in seven months ago and it’s been difficult — how can we sort this out?
The last letter comes from a wife whose mother-in-law moved in seven months ago with no boundaries, rising bills, unpaid prescriptions, and open disrespect.
From No. 604 · Rearview Mirror
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Church, emotions, and the self-focus of affluence
- How do you help people in an affluent, self-focused culture see that they need Jesus?
Ben revives a question from two or three shows back: are church services and worship tunes postured toward certain personality types — predominantly emotions and dealing with emotions?
From No. 603 · Found Out
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Maintaining hope for people who won't choose Jesus
- How do you maintain hope for someone who keeps rejecting Jesus when God won't override their free will?
The episode's centerpiece: Mike's pre-show question about how to maintain hope for people who reject Christ when God won't override their free will.
From No. 579 · Wanted: Paul and Hope | Paul’s Persecution of Christians and Radical Redemption
All conversations
417 conversations
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Ask the Pastor: Joan of Arc and violence in God's name
- How should we think about Joan of Arc and claims of divine direction toward violence?
A complaint-line listener asks how to think about Joan of Arc, who claimed divine visions directing her to support Charles VII in war.
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Article one: does the Bible teach us to obey authority?
- Does the Bible teach us to obey authority?
- Is it worse for Christians now than it has ever been?
Framed by 2 Timothy 4:3-4 ('people will not put up with sound doctrine'), the hosts push back on nostalgia: persecution is real in some places but not worse than ever (Nero's garden torches; the sack-with-animals martyrdom).
From No. 561 · The Answer is Liverpool
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Dear LFTP: a son's Taiwanese wife
- My son married a woman from Taiwan whom I dislike and have nothing in common with; what should I do?
Mike (speaker-2) reads a Dear LFTP letter from a parent whose son married a woman from Taiwan: she is sweet but the writer calls her 'uncultured,' dislikes her housekeeping, cooking, English, and dress, and says they are never invited over.
From No. 537 · The Bible Confuseth
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Images of Jesus and crucifixion reenactments: would you play Jesus?
- Would you play a crucified Jesus in a reenactment?
A tangent on whether depicting Jesus violates the command against making images — the host notes the Last Supper is not a scriptural problem anyway, and muses on early-church icon…
From No. 536 · The Olympic Supper Club
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Is it wrong not to dwell on crucifixion gore?
- Is it wrong not to dwell on the violent, gory details of Jesus' crucifixion?
Second 'is this wrong?' case, submitted by Ben: is it wrong that he doesn't dwell on the excruciating details of the crucifixion or find them all that important?
From No. 524 · Handshakes and Wrongness
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Article: why people reject Christianity, and record unhappiness
- Can you be holy and happy at the same time?
- Are people actually unhappier than past generations, or just more willing to say so?
A host reads an article arguing that beneath surface objections, two reasons top the list for rejecting Christianity: bad experiences with professing Christians who look nothing…
From No. 519 · Folk Ain’t Happy
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The sinlessness survey: American Worldview Inventory 2023
- Fewer than half of born-again Christians say Jesus lived a sinless life on earth: is that surprising, and what explains it?
A host presents the American Worldview Inventory 2023: the share of born-again Christians saying Jesus lived sinlessly fell from fifty-eight to forty-four percent since 2020, with…
From No. 494 · 500-ish
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Dear LFTP: should meteorologists stop saying 'gloomy'?
- Should TV meteorologists stop calling rainy weather miserable, gloomy, or dreary?
A host reads a letter complaining that TV meteorologists calling rain 'miserable,' clouds 'gloomy,' and gray days 'dreary' is irresponsible toward emotionally vulnerable viewers.
From No. 492 · Show Me The Toes
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Dear LFTP: the quinceanera the stepmom was cut out of
- For the sake of peace, is continued silence better about being cut out of the quinceanera?
A first-generation Mexican American woman married into a Caucasian blended family writes that she invited her stepdaughter Lisa to a quinceanera she would help lead, the extended…
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Dear LFTP: the political sister who won't stop debasing my candidate
- Is there a polite, non-confrontational way to make my sister stop debasing my political choice during her visits?
A host reads a Dear LFTP letter from a quiet listener whose sister visits weekly for cards but constantly debases the listener's political candidate, nearly bringing her to tears.
From No. 490 · QuickTrip Johnson
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The He Gets Us campaign: "I hate this"
- Is the He Gets Us $100M ad campaign good evangelism?
Ben reads from the article on the $100M He Gets Us Christian ad campaign (TV, online, billboards targeting millennials and Gen Z, funded by wealthy anonymous families).
From No. 487 · Sing What You Want
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What kids face that parents misread: identity, media, truth in love
- What are kids facing today that their parents are not seeing correctly?
Asked what teenagers experience that parents do not see correctly, Jenny points to media and identity, including sexual and gender identity, which parents do not know what to do with.
From No. 480 · Youth Initiative
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Nathaniel's book-writing crisis, false teachers, and protecting what matters
- How much Christian writing about Jesus is gasbagging versus genuinely necessary?
- How do you identify false teaching?
Nathaniel is in a crisis after reading N. T. Wright's Simply Jesus, feeling like a dumb dumb next to eloquent writers, which opens a discussion of the hubris of writing books…
From No. 454 · Read, Protect, and Complain About Your Husband
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Prophecy article: should pastors teach the end times?
- Should pastors teach Bible prophecy and the end times?
- What are the top three reasons Jesus rebuked his disciples?
The hosts read a Christian Post article on evangelical leaders urging pastors not to forsake teaching Bible prophecy (Jack Hibbs: 20–40% of the Bible; Revelation 19's 'Jesus is the spirit of prophecy').
From No. 451 · Mississippi Don’t Push
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Dear LFTP: the aging parent nobody wants to house
- What should I do about aging and housing when my family does not want me to live with them?
A healthy writer in their mid-sixties with grandchildren asks what to do when family members eye-roll at the idea of housing them someday.
From No. 451 · Mississippi Don’t Push
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We look for things that make us right, from the Declaration to the dog
- How do we get better at interacting with the notion of truth day to day?
"We don't look for truth. We look for things that make us right," a participant says, joking that the Declaration of Independence promises the pursuit of happiness, not truth.
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Pick your own pharaoh: America, free thought, and the persecuted church
- Is restricted freedom the reason Jesus is flourishing in countries like China?
Chris is invited to speak and asks whether restricted freedom in places like China is why Jesus is flourishing there.
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Secular's answer and Dear LFTP: the waiter said 'you guys'
- Is it insulting for a server to address a table of women as 'you guys'?
Secular's answer to the first letter: the couple will be happier if she stops obsessing; if the attention ever makes the husband uncomfortable he can say so or involve his supervisor.
From No. 428 · Old Church Ideas
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The mythical 'perfect Christian' posturing
- Is the 'perfect Christian' posture a real thing churches run into, or just an easy target for opinion pieces?
A host asks whether the 'perfect Christian' — people posturing as having it all together — is a real thing churches run into or just an easy target for opinion pieces.
From No. 424 · When Culture Lacks Objective Reality
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The medium is the message
- Is it incumbent upon the church to hitch itself to the fastest media wagon?
Jay joins an extended discussion of Marshall McLuhan's line that the medium is the message: once the church ties itself to a platform like DirecTV or Facebook, it encourages people to use that medium for everything else on it too.
From No. 422 · Jesus, Technology and Persecution
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What would it take for you to stop believing Christianity?
- What would it take for you to think that Christianity wasn't true?
A host poses the question directly: 'Dan, what would it take for you to think that Christianity wasn't true?'
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Dear LFTP: must I support my brother's campaign?
- Must I publicly support my brother's run for state office when his behavior is immoral?
A listener writes that her oldest brother is running for state office despite a record of animal cruelty, refusing to help their elderly parents, and infidelity; family members insist 'blood is thicker than water' and demand she donate and show up.
From No. 409 · Super Sign of the End Times
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How do you get the fear of God?
- How does a person get more awe, respect, or fear of the Lord?
The hosts wrestle with how anyone cultivates awe of God in a Western culture with no ultimate authority to respect.
From No. 387 · Renewing Deuces and Fearing God
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Dear LFTP: a friendship lost over political social-media posts
- Should I keep trying to reconcile with a friend who cut me off over my political social-media posts?
The reader reads a letter from a listener whose twenty-year friendship ended after the friend took the writer's political social-media posts as a personal attack and cut contact; apologies and reconciliation attempts have gone unanswered.
From No. 367 · Sir Billy McAllistair