Quick to Listen

By Christianity Today

What's Quick to Listen about?

Each week the editors of Christianity Today go beyond hashtags and hot-takes and set aside time to explore the reality behind a major cultural event.

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Quick to Listen episodes:

12.01.2022
The Case for Hope in a Year of Despair
There’s not a lot making Americans hopeful these days. More than half of the country told pollsters last year that they were “extremely worried” about the direction of the country. One in 4 said that “nothing made them hopeful.” Their...
11.19.2021
There's No Good Plan to Stop 100,000 Opioid Deaths a Year
100,000 Americans died from April 2020 to April 2021 due to opioids, according to numbers released this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The majority of the deaths have come via fentanyl, which accounted for more than...
11.12.2021
Fewer Politicians Are Seeking Compromise. Should Christians?
Last Friday, both chambers of Congress passed an infrastructure bill that will commit more than one trillion dollars to America’s deteriorating roads and bridges, making life easier for pedestrians and bikers, improving broadband access, and renovating suffering public transit systems. This...
11.05.2021
Why the Climate Change Movement Needs the Church
Politicians, business leaders, and activists from around the world are meeting this and next week in Glasgow, Scotland, to make commitments and urge others to do the same to keep the planet from overheating more than it already is. Earth’s...
10.29.2021
Should Christians Be Disturbed by Facebook’s Mess?
This week, the revelations from a number of internal Facebook documents came to light, thanks to Frances Haugen, a former employee of the social media giant. The documents reveal that the organization, as The Washington Post summarized, “privately and meticulously...
10.22.2021
Does God Really Want Missionaries to Risk Their Lives?
On Saturday, a gang kidnapped 17 North American missionaries in Haiti as the party returned from an orphanage in a suburb of Port-au-Prince. Since then, the group, known as 400 Mawozo, has demanded a ransom of $17 million for the...
10.15.2021
What ‘Ted Lasso’ Understands About Redemption
Season 1 and Season 2 spoilers ahead. The second season of Ted Lasso ends with an image of Nate. The once kitman, recently promoted Greyhounds assistant coach is not wearing Richmond attire as we see him lead team exercises on the...
10.09.2021
What Francis Collins Changed for Christians in Science
This week, Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, announced that he would retire at the end of the year. An evangelical Christian who previously worked as the head of the Human Genome Project, Collins’ 2009 appointment...
09.24.2021
Did We Get Tammy Faye Wrong?
In this third decade of the 21st century, we’ve seen a lot of religious scandals, with Christian leaders abusing their power and position. Too many. Nevertheless, still to this day when you say the words religious scandal—more often than not...
09.17.2021
Drones Have Changed the Moral Calculus for War
On August 29, as American troops were accelerating their pullout from Afghanistan, the U.S. military ordered its last drone strike in the 20 year war. The missile destroyed a parked car that military officials said was operated by an Islamic...
09.10.2021
Did 9/11 Change How Evangelicals See Muslims?
This year marks 20 years since 19 men hijacked four planes, driving two of the aircraft into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and one into a field in Pennsylvania, after several of the passengers fought back. The...
09.03.2021
Wisdom, Folly, and Taking Ivermectin to Treat COVID-19
In recent weeks, some Americans sick with COVID-19 have been looking for a cure from a very unorthodox source: ivermectin. Here’s how the Food and Drug Administration described the situation in a letter to veterinarians and animal health retailers this...
08.31.2021
Slow to Speak: Listeners React to Our Critical Race Theory Episode
Here's a special, stand-alone Slow to Speak where guest host Kate Shellnutt joins Morgan Lee to read over listener feedback from Episode 271: Critical Race Theory: What Christians Need to Know. If you have feedback for us about any episode, we'd...
08.27.2021
Is the Quest for ‘Meaningful Work’ a Scam?
This spring and summer, a lot of headlines about the economy sang a similar tune: From CNN: Why American workers don't want to go back to normal The Wall Street Journal: Job Openings Are at Record Highs. Why Aren’t Unemployed Americans Filling...
08.20.2021
'My Heart Is Broken’: An Afghan Pastor Grapples with the US Withdrawal
Earlier this year, Joe Biden announced that after close to 20 years, the United States would be withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan. Last week, as the military began its exit, the Taliban was ready and within days had seized control...
08.13.2021
Paul's Advice on Letting Conscience Be Your Guide on Vaccines and Masks
This week, the Christian Post reprinted a blog by Samuel Sey, a Canadian writer, entitled, “Why I am not getting the vaccine.” Sey’s essay didn’t address the scientific concerns he has with the vaccines, though he says he has hired...
08.07.2021
Rerun: The Fire This Time: How Climate Change Shifts Our Understanding of Suffering
Due to production issues, we are not running a new podcast today. Instead, we are replaying a unfortunately, once-again-timely episode we recorded last year about California’s devastating forest fires. We’ll see you all next week with a fresh episode. Unless you’ve...
08.06.2021
The Reality of Fighting Evictions During a Pandemic
Last fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an eviction moratorium that went into effect last September and was initially slated to go until the end of the year. But the order ended up being extended several times,...
07.30.2021
Before Simone Biles Becomes Christians' Next Sports Metaphor
After one vault on Tuesday, Simone Biles took herself out of the US gymnastics women’s team competition. A day later, she withdrew from the all-around, “in order to focus on her mental health,” read a statement on the USA Gymnastics'...
07.22.2021
Billionaires Are Traveling to Space. Should Christians Celebrate?
This Tuesday, Amazon founder and the richest man on the planet, Jeff Bezos, entered space for the first time. This was the virgin flight for Blue Origin, the space travel company that Bezos founded, and lasted 10 minutes and 10...
07.16.2021
Why Some Indigenous Christians Still Have Hope in the Church
Half a dozen Canadian churches have been set on fire or burned down this summer. This arson has come at a time when multiple mass graves have been found across the nation on the grounds of now-defunct residential schools. Operated...
07.09.2021
After the President's Assassination, What Haitian Christians Really Need from the Western Church
On Wednesday, Haiti’s president Jovenel Moïse was assassinated. His death came after protesters had demanded his departure for months. Moïse had governed the country of 11 million by decree, even as constitutional scholars and legal experts argued that his term...
07.02.2021
Critical Race Theory: What Christians Need to Know
Christians should be afraid of critical race theory. That’s the message that a number of conservative Christian leaders have shared in recent months. Last fall, the presidents of the five Southern Baptist seminaries issued a statement saying that “affirmation of...
06.24.2021
The Story of Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Matters in 2021
On October 14, 2014, Pastor Mark Driscoll resigned from Mars Hill, the Seattle-based church he had founded and led since 1996. Driscoll gained national attention for the popularity of his church in a largely secular part of the US, but...
06.18.2021
Critical Race Theory, Sex Abuse, and Southern Baptists
More than 16,000 Southern Baptists met in Nashville this week for their convention’s annual meeting. The largest crowd in a quarter century, the meeting attracted significant mainstream media attention as tensions over critical race theory and sexual abuse went public. On...
06.11.2021
Rick Warren Mastered the Formula for Suburban Church Growth
After more than 40 years leading Saddleback Church, Rick Warren has announced his retirement. “This is not the end of my ministry,” Warren told his congregants on Sunday. “It’s not even the beginning of the end. … We’re going to take...
06.03.2021
Why Chinese Christians Don’t Talk About Family Planning
China has expanded the number of children married couples can have to three. Home to nearly 1.4 billion people—or more than one billion more people than the US—the country is anxious about its future. Under its current demographic trajectory, China’s...
05.28.2021
Homelessness Is Vexing American Cities. Do Christians Have a Solution?
Across the country, American cities are unsuccessfully grappling with how best to address homelessness. This month, Austin criminalized sitting, lying, or camping in public. Sausalito, an upscale community in the Bay Area canceled its annual art festival when its location...
05.21.2021
Is Praying for Peace in the Middle East Enough?
For the past two weeks, the world has had its eyes on the violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Each day, new headlines emerge of Hamas launching rockets from Gaza and Israel bombing the strip in return. More than...
05.14.2021
Why Having Babies Is Controversial in 2021
Last year, the US birthrate experienced its largest single-year drop in nearly 50 years. For years, America’s 2.1 fertility rate made it an outlier to other developed countries. But for the last decade, the number had begun trending downwards, plummeting...
05.05.2021
Should Christians Cheer Biden’s Plan for Families?
Last week, President Biden addressed Congress to stump for his latest proposal: The American Families Plan. If passed as is, the initiative would do the following: Provide universal preschool for all three and four-year-olds Offer two years of free community college to...
04.29.2021
Is It Too Early to Get Excited About a Malaria Vaccine?
In 2019, 400,000 people around the world died of malaria. But it may never reach that high a number again. Early trials of a new vaccine have been shown to be 77 percent effective. This is not the first vaccine that...
04.21.2021
Reacting to the Derek Chauvin Conviction
On May 25 of 2020 police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds killing him. On Tuesday, a jury convicted him of all charges. The jury’s decision comes at a time when national attention...
04.14.2021
Why the Transgender Conversation Is Changing
Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. Last Friday, a bill that would ban transgender athletes from competing in middle, high school, and college sports passed in the West Virginia legislature. At least 20 different state...
04.07.2021
How Churches Can Welcome Both Vaxed and Unvaxed
Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. This week, the number of Americans who have received their first dose of the vaccine will rise to one third of the population. As numbers continue to climb in...
04.01.2021
What the Crucifixion and Resurrection Mean for Our Physical Healing
Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. This week, Protestants and Catholics around the world will celebrate Easter, once again in the midst of a global pandemic. At least 2.8 million people have died from COVID-19...
03.24.2021
What Unites Asian American Christians
Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. Last week, a gunman shot up three spas in Atlanta, taking the lives of eight people, six of them Asian American. Their names were Soon Chung Park, age 74;...
03.18.2021
The Equality Act Through the Eyes of a Christian College President
Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. Last month, the House of Representatives voted to approve the Equality Act. If passed, the bill would amend the Civil Rights Act to add sex, sexual orientation, and gender...
03.10.2021
Honoring Your Father and Mother Is Hard. For Harry, Meghan, and Us All.
Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. On Sunday, millions watched Oprah interview Prince Harry and Megan, the Duchess of Sussex. Over the course of the conversation, the couple made several dramatic revelations, the majority about...
03.03.2021
The Bloody Conflict Dividing Ethiopia’s Christians
Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. In 2019, prime minister Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Prize. The committee noted that he had given amnesty to thousands of political prisoners, discontinued media censorship, fought against...
02.24.2021
Did Rush Limbaugh Reshape Christian Radio, Too?
Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. Last week, conservative talk radio personality Rush Limbaugh died at age 70. Limbaugh’s nationally syndicated political show first hit the airwaves in the late 1980s. He was beloved by...
02.17.2021
Don’t Diminish Ravi Zacharias’s Abuse With ‘We’re All Sinners’
Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. Last week, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries released a 12-page report about its founder and namesake. It confirmed “abuse by Zacharias at day spas he owned in Atlanta and uncovers...
02.11.2021
Old Testament Wisdom for Renaming Public Schools
Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. One third of San Francisco public schools will be renamed in the coming months following a decision by the city’s school board to remove the names of individuals who...
02.09.2021
Sponsored Episode: How the Black Church Holds on to Hope
This special episode of Quick to Listen is brought to you by CT Creative Studio in partnership with PBS. It’s the first Black History Month since racial unrest erupted in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Many...
02.03.2021
Should Christians Buy GameStop Stock?
Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. The last time you heard about GameStop was when you went to the mall to buy video games as a teenager or for your ex-teenager who now has their...
01.27.2021
How American Evangelicals Lost Credibility with the Global Church
Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. “Was the US never really a “Christian country,” or was US Christianity corrupted by politics?”That’s the question that Kylie Beach, a writer for the Australian-based Eternity News asked several...
01.21.2021
Should Christians Worry Free Speech Is Eroding?
Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. For years, one of the primary ways that people experienced Donald Trump was through his tweets. All of that changed on January 8, when, in the aftermath of the...
01.13.2021
Christian Nationalism Is Worse Than You Think
Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. As crowds lined up in front of the Capitol last week, Christian imagery was on display amidst the Trump/Pence 2020 and confederate flags, QAnon memorabilia, and viking helmets. People...
01.07.2021
Rerun: Why Someone You Love Might Join QAnon
This podcast was originally released on September 9, 2020. Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries. A conspiracy theory that holds that many in the elite are part of a sex trafficking cabal, QAnon’s supporters has increasingly...
01.06.2021
How Argentina Is Becoming More Evangelical—But Less Religious
Last week, Argentina became the first Latin America country to legalize abortion. The Senate approved the bill two years after it rejected a similar effort two years ago. The bill allows women to legally end pregnancies for any reason up...

What's Quick to Listen about?

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Quick to Listen episodes:

The Case for Hope in a Year of Despair

There's No Good Plan to Stop 100,000 Opioid Deaths a Year

Fewer Politicians Are Seeking Compromise. Should Christians?

Why the Climate Change Movement Needs the Church

Should Christians Be Disturbed by Facebook’s Mess?

Does God Really Want Missionaries to Risk Their Lives?

What ‘Ted Lasso’ Understands About Redemption

What Francis Collins Changed for Christians in Science

Did We Get Tammy Faye Wrong?

Drones Have Changed the Moral Calculus for War

Did 9/11 Change How Evangelicals See Muslims?

Wisdom, Folly, and Taking Ivermectin to Treat COVID-19

Slow to Speak: Listeners React to Our Critical Race Theory Episode

Is the Quest for ‘Meaningful Work’ a Scam?

'My Heart Is Broken’: An Afghan Pastor Grapples with the US Withdrawal

Paul's Advice on Letting Conscience Be Your Guide on Vaccines and Masks

Rerun: The Fire This Time: How Climate Change Shifts Our Understanding of Suffering

The Reality of Fighting Evictions During a Pandemic

Before Simone Biles Becomes Christians' Next Sports Metaphor

Billionaires Are Traveling to Space. Should Christians Celebrate?

Why Some Indigenous Christians Still Have Hope in the Church

After the President's Assassination, What Haitian Christians Really Need from the Western Church

Critical Race Theory: What Christians Need to Know

The Story of Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Matters in 2021

Critical Race Theory, Sex Abuse, and Southern Baptists

Rick Warren Mastered the Formula for Suburban Church Growth

Why Chinese Christians Don’t Talk About Family Planning

Homelessness Is Vexing American Cities. Do Christians Have a Solution?

Is Praying for Peace in the Middle East Enough?

Why Having Babies Is Controversial in 2021

Should Christians Cheer Biden’s Plan for Families?

Is It Too Early to Get Excited About a Malaria Vaccine?

Reacting to the Derek Chauvin Conviction

Why the Transgender Conversation Is Changing

How Churches Can Welcome Both Vaxed and Unvaxed

What the Crucifixion and Resurrection Mean for Our Physical Healing

What Unites Asian American Christians

The Equality Act Through the Eyes of a Christian College President

Honoring Your Father and Mother Is Hard. For Harry, Meghan, and Us All.

The Bloody Conflict Dividing Ethiopia’s Christians

Did Rush Limbaugh Reshape Christian Radio, Too?

Don’t Diminish Ravi Zacharias’s Abuse With ‘We’re All Sinners’

Old Testament Wisdom for Renaming Public Schools

Sponsored Episode: How the Black Church Holds on to Hope

Should Christians Buy GameStop Stock?

How American Evangelicals Lost Credibility with the Global Church

Should Christians Worry Free Speech Is Eroding?

Christian Nationalism Is Worse Than You Think

Rerun: Why Someone You Love Might Join QAnon

How Argentina Is Becoming More Evangelical—But Less Religious

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