Have you ever wanted to build a church?  And by "building a church," we're talking about the physical building that houses the congregation.  What factors go into deciding how large the building should be, what types of space should be included in the interior, and how many parking spaces need to be allotted for peak use?  To answer these questions and more, we are joined by Dirk Dalhausser and Kerry Jones from Goff Companies, a national church planning, construction, and real estate business...

Keep on reading: Dirk Dalhausser & Kerry Jones on Building Churches

What would you do if you were a street preacher and someone poured beer on your head, blew smoke in your face, and threatened you with a knife? Jeff Rose, founder of JeremiahCry Ministries with his wife Pearl, has had that experience and he reveals his response in this fascinating interview that covers Jeff’s path to the street preaching profession and what it takes to be a street preacher.  Tony starts out by asking if Jeff if he is crazy.  It is not an uncommon question that folks who pass...

Keep on reading: Jeff Rose on Street Preaching (Encore Presentation)

Not very many folks outside of the confines of religious scholars in western Michigan have heard of Rev. Albertus Van Raalte, but this Dutch preacher from the 19th century had a profound impact on the Dutch Reformed movement both in the Netherlands and the United States.  Prof. Michael Douma, an assistant professor and director of the Institute for the Study of Market & Ethics at Georgetown University, reviews the life and thought of Van Raalte, explaining how his special blend of history...

Keep on reading: Michael Douma on Van Raalte and Dutch Religious History

What is it like to be a devout Catholic attending a secular university?  What steps can young believers take to ensure the integrity of the faith?  Aurora Griffin, a graduate of Harvard University and a junior research scholar at the Center for the Study of Statesmanship at the Catholic University of America, answers these questions and provides valuable insights from her book How I Stayed Catholic at Harvard.  After a brief discussion of her current duties at Catholic University, Ms. Griffin...

Keep on reading: Aurora Griffin on Being Catholic at Harvard

St. Augustine once said, "He who sings, prays twice."  Music has been a powerful component of Christian worship for its entire existence, and Prof. Anthony Esolen, a faculty fellow at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, joins us to discuss the nature and importance of the truly timeless hymns.  We begin as we usually do with a chat about our guest's personal background.  Dr. Esolen enlightens us about Thomas More College (in Merrimack, New Hampshire), a new program he is setting up, and why...

Keep on reading: Anthony Esolen on Timeless Hymns

"Chance is nature's free will; choice is mankind's free will; and grace is God's free will."  So writes Dr. Dillard Faries, a professor emeritus of physics at Wheaton College and author of the book Amazing Grace of Quantum Physics.  The shift from a Newtonian understanding of the physical laws of nature to one based upon the weirdness of quantum mechanics sets the stage for looking at how humans understand what the universe, being, and free will is all about.  Our conversation begins with...

Keep on reading: Dillard Faries on Religion, Newtonian Physics, and Quantum Mechanics

How do people view other religions?  Are there norms of tolerance (or intolerance) that Americans hold in common?  If there are differences in these norms, do they cut across political affiliation?  These are some of the questions that Prof. Quin Monson, associate professor of political science at Brigham Young University, sets out to answer in a paper that he co-authored with his BYU colleagues Christopher Karpowitz and Kelly Patterson.  We discuss their recent findings published in the...

Keep on reading: Quin Monson on Norms, Religion, and Politics

Christmas carols are a traditional part of the holiday season in many parts of the world.  Despite singing our favorite carols year-in-and-year-out, how much do we really know about where they came from and what they mean?  Moreover, why did we ever begin singing about a partridge in a pear tree, particularly when partridges are not know to be all that airborne?  How did that bird get up there?!  To uncover these mysteries, Rev. Mark Lawson-Jones, a chaplain for Mission to the Seafarers and...

Keep on reading: Mark Lawson-Jones on Christmas Carols

Who was St. Nicholas?  Did he really exist?  And how did he become the “Santa Claus” that we know today?  Prof. Adam English, associate professor in the Department of Theology and Philosophy at Campbell University, opens up his latest book The Saint Who Would Be Santa Claus and tells us the story of this fascinating early Church leader.  We learn that St. Nicholas of Myra lived in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries in the area that is now southwest Turkey.  Nicholas grew up in a...

Keep on reading: Adam English on St. Nicholas of Myra, the Real Santa Claus (Encore Presentation)

While Tony is still on a short sabbatical and trying to make improvements to the audio files of our show, we invite you to enjoy this interesting podcast from five years ago.  There are now over 350 unique episodes in our archives, so please feel free to search our archives and tell a friend.

Does Hollywood portray religion in a negative light?  If so, why?  And has it always been that way?  We take up these questions and many more with film critic, radio talk show host, author, and cultu...

Keep on reading: Michael Medved on Religion & Hollywood (encore presentation)