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The Thought Provoker:

Shawn is up first this week.  This week Tucker Carlson interviewed Vlad Putin and I got very mad because he didn’t challenge a single thing Putin said. Didn’t challenge his claim that Poland started ww2, didn’t challenge Putin’s claim that he has no interest in invading other countries unless they attack Russia even though he just invaded Ukraine. Didn’t challenge the lie that the west promised to not expand NATO. Didn’t challenge the revisionist history about Ukraine never existing… But in his post interview statement, Carlson said his intent was not to challenge him but to show Americans who Putin is and how he thinks and what his reasons were for invading Ukraine. When propaganda is published and now promoted by people who have grown followers (200 million so far), is this the modern model for successfully communicating a message? Does this show that big media is losing ground to freelance/citizen media? Should Saints engage in the modern movement of citizen media to promote our religion (missionary work) or influence the morals of society?
 
Next up Matt. A group called Come Near is leading an ad campaign that included some spots in the Superbowl. They use the tagline “He Gets Us” to promote the Christian faith in a way that it believes is relatable, non-offensive and nonpartisan. Some people feel like there is a better way to spend the $100 million that has been donated to this organization so far. Our church gets questions like this all the time. Is it consistent with the ethic of Christ to spend millions of dollars for brand management? Does Jesus need brand management?

 Finally, Sam. All right, so we're going to go a little light here where you guys have had very heavy topics. So think the last time you walked into a restaurant or into a, I don't know, like a fast food restaurant somewhere, you go up, you order, you tap your credit card and you get the opportunity before you touch the food, before anybody brings you anything, before they slide the tray across the counter. What do they ask you for a tip and not a suggestion. but a monetary tip to give them help for providing service. The question today is, A, is that tip before you ever receive anything warranted? And has tipping gotten out of control or is it warranted?

The Big Question: For just the third time in more than two decades, less than half of Americans say they are “very satisfied” with the way things are going in their personal lives. The 47% of U.S. adults expressing high satisfaction with their lives has edged down three percentage points over the past year and is only one point higher than the 2011 record low for the trend. The previous low points in Americans’ personal satisfaction have occurred at times of economic uncertainty. The 46% reading in 2011 came when the country was still recovering from the 2007-2009 recession, and the other sub-50% reading (47%) was in December 2008 during the global economic crisis. Oddly, satisfaction hit its peak in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. To me this suggests that people are looking for political solutions to problems that are non-political. No matter who wins the 2024 elections, people are probably still going to be dissatisfied with what is happening in their lives. What is the root cause of this dissatisfaction that people seem to be experiencing right now?