Growing Up Christian

This week we’re blazing through a few more short books within the Book of Mormon! A fella can take some serious liberties when creating his own lore from scratch, and in this portion we’ll look at the introduction of a specific type of prophetic figure: the seer. Enjoy the episode!

This week we’re back in the Book of Mormon after several months’ hiatus, and I have to say, it feels good to really sink your teeth into the Word! We’ve abandoned the notion of going through it chapter by chapter because it is, sigh… kinda boring. So we’re jumping ahead a bit and looking at the the Book of Jacob chapter 6. Lots of lessons here, kids, so grab a notepad and enjoy the show!

This week we’re catching up on a few of the avalanche of news stories that have built up over the past few weeks! We glance at the ongoing Epstein case, the absolutely hilarious PR nightmare that is the Trump Administration’s response, and then talk about an ambitious young buck from our past who went from bottle feeding Jerry Falwell pureed Big Macs at Liberty University to the Executive Chairman of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation: pastor Johnnie Moore. So enjoy the episode and send all of your thoughts and prayers to poppa Sam, whose wife is in the middle of having their third baby!

This week we’re happy to welcome back musician and host of the You Have Permission podcast, Dan Koch! We discuss the challenges of discussing current events with half the population, brainstorm some ideas to fix the Christian movie industry, and we gauge and quantify Dan’s reactions to the past years’ key controversial cultural moments. It’s a lot of fun and you can hear part 2 of our conversation on Dan’s show, You Have Permission, where Dan interviews us about the ways in which hosting a “deconstruction” podcast has affected us over the past 4 years. Dan’s great, and You Have Permission is a must listen! Follow Dan on X (@dankoch) and Instagram (@dancoke), and check out www.dankochwords.comfor links to all of his work!

This week Casey is joined by keynote speaker, success coach, best-selling author, and host of the Dream Think Do Podcast, Mitch Matthews! Mitch works with a wide variety of clients with the goal of “helping them remember who they are, what they’re capable of, and what’s possible when you build something on purpose.” We discuss his early life in church, the life-altering brush with tragedy that prompted him to reevaluate his faith, and what being a Christian in the workplace should look like. It was a fun conversation and I really appreciate Mitch’s willingness to guest on our show, a risk that many people who are still in that world aren’t willing to take. To learn more about Mitch’s work and for links to his various social media, visit www.mitchmatthews.com, and stream Dream Think Do wherever you listen to podcasts!

*TRIGGER WARNING: this episode contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault and abuse.

This week we’re finally going to dive into the Michael Tait allegations. If his name doesn’t ring a bell, he is a lifelong Christian musician originally known for being in DC Talk, but he spent the last 16 years as the lead singer of the Newsboys. Earlier this month The Roy Report published the first of several exhaustive articles detailing allegations of sexual assault, drug use, and overall predatory behavior against Michael Tait from a growing list of victims. If you just happened to overhear the broad details of the first set of allegations, you might understandably think that this sounds like a poor, closeted gay man forced to hide his sexuality from an industry capitalizing on his faith. Friend, I’m here to tell you that that ain’t it… The picture that these allegations paint is far, far darker, and we’re going to get into them. On a lighter note, we also look at the bizarre and unrelated lawsuit against Newsboys owner Wes Campbell, a multi-millionaire who still has a foothold in hillbilly hell. If you disagree with our characterization of these men or just want to discuss these things in more detail, join our Discord server by following the link in our IG bio.

This week we’re talking about what everyone is talking about – Israel’s surprise attack on Iran, the possibility of direct American involvement, the MAGA split over a new Middle East war, and of course, the Trump family’s latest attempt to squeeze money out of red-blooded midwestern patriots with early onset dementia, T1 Mobile. What a time to be (temporarily) alive, am I right?

This week we’re taking a look at one of Christendom's favorite spirit-filled Hollyweird flunkies: Stephen Baldwin. You might think you know how bizarre Stevie B is, but I’ll bet you don’t…

This week we're catching up after a two-week hiatus and discussing the cautionary tale of Mitchell Summerfield, pastor of Word of God Church in Raleigh, NC! Remember the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) that kept businesses afloat and employees secure in their jobs during the pandemic? Pastor Mitch remembers them well, having collected over $400k from those programs. Hallelujah, right? Well, almost. As it turns out, Pastor Mitch got pretty creative with his applications for program funding, and the IRS devil has come to collect his fraudulent funds due. In the immortal words of Qui-Gon Jinn, "When you gamble, my friend, eventually you lose..."

This week we’re catching up and diving into the dark, mysterious, and sticky world of the only man on Earth with both a bowl cut AND the Holy Ghost baptism, Bob Hickman! Truck driver by day and internet prophet by night, Bob is a fascinating character that you may recognize by his opening line “God entered my body, like a body my same size. Like me floating into you, or you floating into me…” Recently Bob’s content has taken an unexpected turn, and we just had to talk about it. If you want to follow him on IG, his primary (I think?) account is @god.has.entered.my.body, but be warned, it is NOT safe for work! 

P.S. We aren't releasing an episode next week because Casey will be on vacation. See you in June!