*This is audio extracted from my YouTube video from May 2020 converted here in podcast land for your hearing pleasure.*

Let me get mushy for a second.

This is made in hopes that we can have some insight into how we look, sound, and act as the Body of Christ. I have found myself visiting the same set of Scriptures over the last few months, and I thought it would be an encouragement to all of us during a tough time, but also in hopes that we can all learn how to treat others as we would want to be treated. 

We're not going to be perfect. I'm definitely not! But I'd hope that we can remember that making our lights shine doesn't mean sacrificing good theology... or our ability to be kind. Especially to those we disagree with. 

●Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewAgeToChristianity/
●Instagram: @melissaldougherty
●Twitter: https://twitter.com/Meldougherty77
●My Website: https://www.melissadougherty.co/

*This is audio extracted from my YouTube video converted here in podcast land for your hearing pleasure.*

Heads up... Dense conversation ahead.
You've been warned. 

What do you do when suddenly everything in your culture gets turned around? We're finding more and more people embracing blatant lies thinking it's the high moral ground. As language becomes less expressive, minds are more easily controlled. Wrong is right. Right is wrong. Up is down. Down is up. Babies in the womb aren't actually babies. Men have periods. Men are women. Women are men. At the same time... there are no men or women. Gender is fluid. The color of your skin determines your worth and character. Never in my lifetime did I think this would be considered 'progress'. It ironically hurts more people than it helps, especially those who truly struggle with their sexual identity and those begging to be heard about true injustices. The world hurts the world to help the world. Slavery is freedom. War is peace. Love is hate. This reminds me of Orwell's "Newspeak." This is confusing.

And I think it's supposed to be.

Why?

Power.

Apathy makes people prefer the false peace of conformity to the tensions of liberty. Whatever and whoever has the power can pressure you into believing their version of truth.... even if they're flat-out lies. Anyone who opposes this is viewed as backward and ignorant. We live in a world where there is more and more intense social pressure to accept that there is no such thing as objective truth. There's only power. Whoever holds the power decides what is true and false. The value of truth claims depends on who's making them. More and more people are knowingly believing lies out of fear of opposing them. 

Personally, in a few short years, this has been in my face. It's been difficult and confusing to sort out what's happening and trying to understand it in a meaningful and accurate way. It felt messy. It's like you're trying to clean your kitchen, and can handle the regular mess of everyday life. Then suddenly, your kitchen expands ten times bigger and the mess is no longer one you're capable of handling by yourself. It's time for reinforcements who have had MUCH more experience dealing with MUCH bigger messes. 

So I handed Greg Koukl his metaphorical mop and broom. I asked Greg on to give me his thoughts on this. As I mention at the beginning of the video, I listen to his podcast, Stand to Reason, regularly.  He did one in May that really resonated with me. We discuss things like:
How do we discern truth in this divided world? Are we really entering into soft totalitarianism? What does that even mean? Are we inflating this? With such militant and intense pressure to conform, what can we do about it? And much more. 

I walked away from this conversation with a lot of the understanding, perspective, and insight that I've been craving about these topics. 

So yeah. This was an interesting interview.

●Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewAgeToChristianity/
●Instagram: @melissaldougherty
●Twitter: https://twitter.com/Meldougherty77
●My Website: https://www.melissadougherty.co/

*This is audio extracted from my YouTube video converted here in podcast land for your hearing pleasure.*

I mean... someone needs to say it, right? 

The Megachurch world can be a mess. I know I’m going to make a lot of people uncomfortable with what I’m saying in this video, but someone needs to say this. This is not me being nitpicky, being a guns blazin’ heresy hunter, or trying to point out minor differences in how worship is done or how sermon styles are conducted.No, this goes FAR beyond that. This is an actual legitimate issue that needs to be talked about in the megachurch.

 A lot of thought and prayer went into making this video. I hope that I relay my thoughts on this with integrity. The ending was sorta off script, but I kept it because I meant it. 

Please pray for all Megachurch pastors. 

●Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewAgeToChristianity/
●Instagram: @melissaldougherty
●Twitter: https://twitter.com/Meldougherty77
●My Website: https://www.melissadougherty.co/

This is my first actual podcast outside of uploading previous content from my YouTube channel. This was actually really fun and I'm looking forward to making another. I intro the podcast, give some background on the name, offer some encouragement, and what to expect from my talking face in the future. 

●Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewAgeToChristianity/
●Instagram: @melissaldougherty
●Twitter: https://twitter.com/Meldougherty77
●My Website: https://www.melissadougherty.co/

This video was originally on YouTube. The audio is extracted for this podcast.

Today I break down one of the best posts and advice I've seen in 2020, and in general. Why is it wise to listen to perspectives and beliefs that are different than yours?

I hope to elaborate on that.

My friend Rob Bowman made this post, and he's one of the most respected men in his field. He's a biblical scholar and apologist with 35 years of ministry experience. He's authored about a dozen books, one of my favorites being, "Putting Jesus in His Place: the Case for the Deity of Christ" which he co-authored with J. Ed Komoszewski. 

●Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewAgeToChristianity/
●Instagram: @melissaldougherty
●Twitter: https://twitter.com/Meldougherty77
●My Website: https://www.melissadougherty.co/

On my YouTube channel, this has been by far my most popular video, with almost 700,000 views. It's now in podcast form!

New Age in the Church?! Yep. It's been going on for quite a while now. In fact, you'd be shocked to know that a lot of Christians believe in many New Age beliefs and don't even know it. I might make a part 2 to this at some point because I realize that there's a LOT of New Age practices out there. But in putting this video together, these are the top 5 deceptions that I kept thinking about that I see the most in churches today: Law of Attraction, Oneness, Religious Pluralism, Universalism, and Mysticism. I talk about what each of these are and how they are so deceptively synced together in many Christian worldviews. 

●Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewAgeToChristianity/
●Instagram: @melissaldougherty
●Twitter: https://twitter.com/Meldougherty77
●My Website: https://www.melissadougherty.co/