CrossCurrent Podcasts

Big news out of South Dakota, fertility fraud is now a felony! Learn more about how Them Before Us played a part in inspiring this legislation, sponsored by SD Representative Terri Jorgenson, and what it means for children's rights.

See more from Rep. Jorgenson at her substack here:

https://sdcapitoldiary.substack.com/

Terri is a proud South Dakotan with a deep-rooted connection to her community. With a strong background in military operations and public affairs, she is committed to fighting for conservative values and protecting liberties in District 29. Terri's experience as a State Committeewoman and active role in the Republican party demonstrate her dedication to serving the people of South Dakota.

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In the next part of this episode, Jenn interviews Caitlyn Scott of the instagram/youtube account @WhiteSquirrelMagic on why Christians and Conservatives need to retake the arts with truth, beauty, and HUMOR to share the truth.

A proposal in Congress that would impact the abortion pill. A Senate candidate from Texas has some strange theological ideas. The good and bad side of purity culture. And should Christians be connoisseurs of today's art?

Segment 1 – Proposed Mifepristone Ban; The Bible According to Talarico

• Hawley proposes bans on mifepristone

• A Kind Heretic is Still a Heretic

• David French article

• Breakpoint article on Talerico

Segment 2 – Purity Culture

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Ever feel like the words have run dry, but the calling to write hasn't? You're not alone. Up to 85% of writers face the struggle. We dive into the core question: What role does faith play when creativity dries up? In this episode, you’ll discover practical, faith-based strategies to break through the block and build a sustainable creative rhythm. We reframe writer's block as not proof of failure or God's silence, but often an invitation to deepen and rest. Question: If this season isn’t punishment… what might it be preparation for? 

Sprint Prompt: beam, profile, sensitive, random, convert

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Manuela Ceballos’ new book Between Dung and Blood: Purity, Sainthood, and Power in the Early Modern Western Mediterranean (University of California Press, 2025) engages with the life and legacies of two sixteenth-century saints; the Spanish Christian Teresa de Jesús (also known as Teresa of Avila) and the Moroccan Sufi Sidi Ridwan al-Januwi. The book draws from rich Arabic and Spanish sources that moves us between Morocco and Iberia. In the process, we learn that these saints both descent from families of converts and as such blood and bodily pollution operated as material and metaphoric symbols to define their identities. Through this generative comparison, we see how constructions of blood and dung circulate across these varied but entangled temporal geographies to constitute notions of impurity and purity, such as in the case of the deathly hemorrhaging experienced by Teresa. In end though blood is used to set different boundaries around religious or racial identities, and even at times gender norms. As such, the discourses that are utilized for such argumentations are not stable, and so blood and how it is deployed is not the same across the stories of these two saints and their enduring legacies nor does it refract power consistently. This book will be of interest to those who think about embodiment, material culture, the early modern Mediterranean world, and Christian-Muslim mysticism.

Manuela Ceballos is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Shobhana Xavier is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Queen’s University. More details about her research and scholarship may be found here. She may be reached at [email protected].

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How we begin our day often determines the direction of our thoughts, our emotions, and even our relationships. And for many of us, the first thing we reach for isn’t prayer or Scripture—it’s our phone. Pastor Kevin A. Thompson helps you break unhealthy “doomscrolling” habits as you start your day—by encouraging you to rely on Scripture as your source of hope and strength for daily life. He’ll walk us through what real, biblical hope looks like…how it anchors us when circumstances feel overwhelming…how it quietly shapes our values, beliefs, and everyday decisions…and how that hope naturally overflows to bless our families, our churches, and our communities.

Receive a copy of Hope Scrolling and an audio download of "Starting Your Day in a Better Way" for your donation of any amount!

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Adding text to Scripture because it's "progressive" might score secular points, but it doesn't make it truer. 

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