This slogan went viral on social media in the hours following the shooting that took place in San Bernardino, California on December 2, 2015. It continues to make the rounds when tragedy strikes. A direct response to the men and women who offer prayer with their condolences, it’s also indicative of an assumption, shared by many non-religious people, regarding human responsibility. We’ll explore this assumption and its implications in this episode of Vital Signs.

Sadly, many people think that Christians are nothing more than hypocrites who hold everyone else to an impossible standard. But if we’re honest with ourselves we have to admit that we frequently fail to live up to our own standards.

Hypocrisy is not the church’s problem; it’s not the government’s problem; it’s not the media’s problem; it’s our problem. Is there a cure? Is it possible to live a truly authentic life? We’ll explore these issues in this new series on the challenge of hypocrisy.

Gay marriage, transgender and sexual identity issues, the ethics of abortion, the question of whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God—how can we possibly persuade people to change their minds about issues that are intimately connected with their sense of who they are? My answer comes in the form of an ancient story involving a corrupt king and a creative prophet.

Gay marriage, transgender and sexual identity issues, the ethics of abortion, the question of whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God—why do these kinds of topics often lead to hostility and personal attacks? In this podcast, I’ll explore some of the reasons behind the strong responses. Specifically, I want to examine what it is we’re actually doing when we ask people to consider changing their minds about these crucial issues.

Gay marriage, transgender and sexual identity issues, the ethics of abortion, the question of whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God—this is just a smattering of the major issues currently dividing the United States. Obviously, strong disagreement is unavoidable when we discuss these topics. But these issues are too important to ignore; we need to talk about them. But many of us are afraid to talk about them. In this podcast, we’ll explore a vital need, namely, the recovery of civil disagreement.