The song 'Christmas Time' was written by John's mate Ben Shaw, with some help from John himself. We recorded Ben’s beautiful guitar parts just 4 weeks before he died of cancer.    
 Ben was on this podcast a couple of times in his last months, so we hope regular listeners think of him as their friend, too. 
 He died a year ago today, June 17. And we’re releasing the song in his memory – it was one of his last big wishes that we take this song, which he and John had performed many times over the years but had never recorded, and rework it with a full band and release it. That’s what we’ve done.  
 You’ll hear the entire song at the end. In the meantime, we sat down with our long-time music producer Colin Benvenuto (and his guitar) and Ben’s wife Karen, a backing vocalist in the song, and we chatted about … well, Ben … and how the song came together.  If you want to see a little more, we’ve produced a video montage for the song over at undeceptions.com/christmastime. 

Ben's Song

Every week on Undeceptions we’ll explore some aspect of life, faith, history, culture, or ethics that is either much misunderstood or mostly forgotten. With the help of people who know what they’re talking about, we’ll be trying to ‘undeceive ourselves’ and let the truth ‘out’.

Religion & Spirituality

Other

Spirituality

Christianity

Buddhism

Hinduism

Judaism

Islam

Evangelicalism has always been a politically loaded word - but especially since the turn of the century. 

 This is especially true of American evangelicalism. 

 But if we strip away all the nationalistic and political weight, what is evangelicalism? What makes the American strain of evangelicalism particularly unique? How does it compare to other types of evangelicalism?

American Evangelical

John faces down some of our most diverse - and controversial - questions yet. What's the deal with circumcision? Why does John hate the term apologetics so much? Is Director Mark sick of John picking on him all the time? 

Question Answer XI

If Christianity is one big conspiracy, we wouldn't find so many mistakes and inconsistencies in the Gospels! Surely if the faith was one big lie, the Gospels would have some uniformity to them, united to deceive readers. Well, that's one side of the argument. Others might point to the Gospel contradictions as proof the entire thing is made up. So, why are there contradictions in the Gospels? Does this undermine their credibility?

Gospel Contradictions

You can make a pretty good case that the Gospels are the four most influential - and controversial - books of all time. But who were the authors? How do we know who wrote them? And why was it that these four books were selected, and not others? 

Jesus' Biography

In this special Undeceptions Single, Stan Grant shares his reflections on God and suffering in the wake of the Bondi Junction attacks that occurred on April 13 in Sydney, Australia.

Ben's Song

Download our free app to listen on your phone