Send us Fan Mail

Happy 250th Birthday America!  This week, we pull out all the stops.  We roll out the big guns.  We unfurl the flags.  Pastor Michael and Syd return for this special edition of the Growing Together Podcast!  Pastor Michael and Syd show no signs of rust, their conversation with Nic & Dale is immediate and right to the point.  Well, that's not entirely true.  Loyal fans of the show are well aware of the good humor and tangents that abound when we get the band back together.  It's like old times here in the studio, therefore we can guarantee you will laugh out loud in the process of getting your fill of spiritual enlightenment.

Nic is our history buff, and his excitement for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence guides the conversation this week.  Historian Timothy Snyder and Katie Couric support the idea that Christianity was not a founding principle of the United States.  Snyder claims that history is wrong, and there is nothing to support this misguided notion that the American people have relied on their Christian faith to grow and prosper as a nation.  Well, that will get Nic's dander up real quick.  Couric & Snyder find this idea alarming, but Nic is prepared to ring the bell (the Liberty Bell if you please) of truth to set the record straight.

Pastor Michael proposes an interesting question.  At what point in America's history did we turn from being proud of our Christian values?  Was it the 1950's?  Was it the breakdown of the American family?  Has politics and social ideals become so divided over the issue that we feel like we have to leave God out of the equation in order to get along?  There are many symptoms, but the remedy seems illusive in our present world.  It's true, America was founded with the principle of freedom OF religion, but as Pastor Michael points out, people are becoming more concerned with the freedom FROM religion.   

One final question puts it all in perspective.  Can American society survive without Christianity in place at the center of its guiding principles?  History perhaps provides the necessary answer.  If Abraham Lincoln fails to see the hand of God in the outcome of our great Civil War, does it last more than four years?  Does it ever come to an end?  Does slavery meet its rightful demise?  If FDR does not feel the conviction of God, that there is nothing to fear but fear itself, how much farther would Hitler's systematic means of world wide oppression and terror reach?  Might the outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis been different had not President Kennedy considered God's council in making a decision that affected the fate of all humanity?  As a nation, could we have survived and found redemption in the wake of the terrorist attacks on 9/11?

We here at the Growing Together Podcast wish you a Happy Fourth Of July.  Have fun, be safe, and stay cool.  God Bless America!