Mortification of Spin

Most assume sex trafficking starts with a brutal kidnapping - like in a movie. However, it’s often a long process: seduction, coercion, seasoning, and recruiting. VAST (Valley Against Sex Trafficking) works diligently to bring awareness about trafficking while restoring God-given dignity to survivors of this dark market. Heather Evans, co-founder of VAST, is here to share sobering stats, and lessens the appeal and glamour often associated with this social justice movement. Are you part of a middle-class church? Then you worship in one of the most common sources fueling the sex industry due to the common use of pornography - so much to your surprise, this hits quite close to home.

Desperate theology has gone viral in the Church of...! Not to worry, we have more class than to spoil the win but let’s just say Liam Goligher will wish he's Welsh after crowning today's Desperate Theologizer. In other news, the Gang discuss some recent pulpits going political. Is Sunday morning an appropriate place to discern whether Hillary or Trump is the godlier vote? Is it wise for pastors to campaign from the pulpit? Today’s conversation is a charge to all ministers: beware the divisive nature of misusing the pulpit!

Our favorite Catholic is with us again: Dr. Frank “Clinton” Beckwith! Once the laughter subsides, we get to some pressing questions about religion in the public sphere: Can you really leave your religion at the door? What is pure religious liberty? What liberties can we live with, which ones can we live without?

On this week’s Desperate Theology, we crown another lucky lady! In other news, Carl & Todd have a question about preference in preaching: what’s the best rule-of thumb … is it best to preach thematically or systematically? Do you go big-picture, dabble in topics, or lead your congregation through a one-book series? What issues does each approach pose? It’s certainly not rocket science but well worth a conversation … (or are the boys making it more complicated than it needs to be?).

So if all dogs go to heaven? … where do cats go? Scot McKnight, Julius R. Mantey Chair of of New Testament professor at Northern Seminary and author of Heaven's Promise (today’s giveaway!), joins a discussion on Heaven with Carl, Aimee, and …Tom? Often we get dreamy ideas of heaven’s glories or carried away with people's wild "accounts", but there’s a danger: we can undermine the sufficiency of scripture.