Dave Willis from MarriageToday.org joins Carmen to talk about marriage – the full naked truth of it!

Carmen then talks with William Vanderbloemen about church leadership and pastoral transition. William describes what they do at Vanderbloemen search as the role of a sherpa and then offers the metaphor of a heart transplant to what happens when a church goes through pastoral transition. “A tissue match is essential,” he says, when a church is looking to identify the person who will function as the heart of the body’s main systems under the headship of Christ. As with all transplants, rejection is possible. So doing all we can to make the right match between a donor and the local church into which the pastor is going to be transplanted it essential.

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Carmen talks with Acton’s Ben Johnson @therightswriter about the current mess on the floor of the House of Representatives. The House denounced as racist weekend tweets by President Trump directed at four female members of Congress known as The Squad. House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi later clarified that they did not call the President racist but his comments; a distinction resulting in endless on-air commentary by political pundits. Then in North Carolina, at a re-election campaign rally the crowd took the President’s tweet further down an demonstrably xenophobic path chanting “Send her back.” To be clear, these women are duly elected members of the U.S. Congress and if we’re going to uphold our own values then the appropriate chant might be “vote her out.”  

A few data points:

Carmen and Ben also discuss the upheaval at Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of abortion and the recipient of more than half a billion dollars annually in taxpayer funding. On Monday, the U.S. Federal government began implementation of a policy effectively stripping $60 million/year from Planned Parenthood clinics across the country. Now, to be clear, that’s a fraction of PP’s revenues. We’re talking about an organization with an annual budget of nearly 1.5 billion dollars a third of which comes from the government. But $60 million is $60 million. Planned Parenthood’s board doubled down on its abortion agenda and said it would forgo the money and keep its clinics operating as is – referring for and providing abortions as part of family planning. On the same day, the board fired the doctor they hired just 10 months ago, Leana Wen. In her place is a woman who identifies as a Christian and says abortion is a decision rightly left between “a woman, her physician and her god.”

In the second half of the program Per Ewert, Director of the Clapham Institute in Sweden, joins Carmen to talk about the rise of vandalism and violence directed at people of religious faith – particularly Christian converts from Islam – in Europe. They also discuss the development of today’s individualistic forms of democratic socialism and how they differ dramatically from original Marxism.

 

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Carmen opens with a reflection on July 17 – her dad’s birthday. This would have been his 79th had he not died when he was just 43.

Bill English returns for another installment of Leadership Lessons from the life of David. Today’s lesson: leaders assume risk – and the risk is real!

Professor and author Scot McKnight then joins Carmen for a conversation about his newest book, Reading Romans Backwards.

 

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Carmen’s conversation partners today are Drew Griffin from Providence Magazine and Peter Kapsner, religion and ethics professor at the University of Northwestern St Paul. Their conversation topics include:

* The State Department’s 2nd International Religious Freedom Ministerial underway today in D.C.

* The State Department’s commission on Unalienable Rights, concerns raised and some recommendations

* China’s ongoing repression of the Uighur people and the world’s response

* The harsh realities being faced by Iraq’s Christians as they seek to re-establish themselves in the Levant

* The agony of Yazidi women and girls systematically raped, sold and forced into marriages with jihadists after being abducted by IS from their ancestral Iraqi homeland of Sinjar in 2014. In order to return to their families they must abandon the children born while they were in captivity.

With Kapsner, Carmen discusses:

* The US national Women’s soccer team

* Women’s weightlifting championship won by a biological man and what that portends for other women’s sports

* Scarlett Johansson’s comments about role playing, acting and art and how Christians can engage

* The commodification of children and the need for Christians to think seriously about the ethics of reproductive technologies like IVF

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Carmen spends the full hour with Justin Giboney of The And Campaign.

They discuss:

* The need for the Democrat Party to consider the political calculus of their abortion advocacy. Justin’s colleague, Michael Wear, wrote and Opinion piece for the New York Times that provided conversational fodder.

* The President’s comments about four members of Congress who are women of color. Were the comments racist? Who is in a position to decide that? How must we respond?

* Pelosi, O’Rourke, Buttigieg and Biden and their issues with race.

* A case in Maryland involving four white teenage boys and school vandalism that was prosecuted as a hate crime. Justin, who is also and attorney, unpacks the racial and social implications of the case. He and Carmen also discuss the need for parents to be actively anti-racist in the way they raise kids today.

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Carmen observes that, “No matter what the presenting issue, the underlying issue is always God.  No matter what people are dealing with on the surface, what lies beneath is a question about one of three primary realities:  Identity, belonging and purpose; Who am I? Where do I fit? and What in the world am I in the world to do?  Christianity answers those questions in a coherent, integrated, satisfying way that over time produces a flourishing life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control.” Carmen describes that as “the harvest of righteousness” God expects to be produced in the life of every Spirit-filled Christ follower. So, today is a good day for a little fruit inspection! 

Later in the program Carmen shares, “If you were to visit my house right now I’d have to put you to work! The garden is abundant with tomatoes and other ripe summer vegetables and the orchard trees need harvesting. Nearly every flat surface in my kitchen – the entire kitchen table, counter tops, sideboard – all of them are covered with peaches that need to be processed. And we’ve already put up 30 quarts. You’d hear the constant whirring of the dehydrator as well. Our apples this year are abundant! We are thankful and grateful and it comes at the end of a lot of hard work and patient waiting. We have gone several years with no fruit at all from our trees. Late frosts, too much water, bugs, fireblight, squirrels – you name it and we’ve had it the past five years. But this year! This year the harvest is abundant! 

“I hope God found us to be as grateful to Him in the years when the garden didn’t grow and the trees did not produce as we are this year – but I suspect, as I think back, we were more like the nursery rhyme’s Mary, Mary quite contrary – remember her? Mary, Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow? Have you ever wondered why Mary was so contrary? That is not how I want to be known! When God gives the growth to the garden – and even when He doesn’t – I want to be found to be content in all circumstances – as Paul describes himself in Philippians 4 – “for I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” 

“That is the mind of Christ operating in Paul and commended to us – that in all things, in all things, we belong to Christ. He dwells within us and we abide in Him. Apart from Him we can do nothing and in Him, well, in Him, all things are possible.”

The conversations in this podcast include:

Tommy Binion from The Daily Signal and Dr. Rosemary Stein from the Christian Medical and Dental Association.

 

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As Hurricane Barry weakens to Tropical Storm and then a Tropical depression headed northward up the Mississippi, folks along the Gulf Coast begin to clean up.  Arriving to help is the Convoy of Hope.  Hear how hope hits the road with Convoy’s Jeff Nene.

Dr. David Aikman talks with Carmen about developing stories:

* as the 5th week of protests in Hong Kong turn violent

* Russia delivers military equipment to Turkey

* Iran tries to seize a British oil tanker

* and the UK seeks to resolve internal issues with Northern Ireland ahead of Brexit deadline October 31.

*

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Carmen talks with Brandon Showalter from the Christian Post across a range of headlines:

* Religious nones increasing nationwide and three states see evangelical growth (Go South Dakota!)

* The Epstein case exposes moral corruption as sin is brought to light

* The APA is launching a task force aimed at destigmatizing consenual non-monogamy which is described as a marginalized identity. This is a move in the direction of open polyamory.

* Amazon pulls books by authors who once identified as gay or lesbian because their testimonies of conversion are viewed as potentially harmful to others.

Then Adam Carrington from Hillsdale College returns to talk about the resignation of Labor Secretary Acosta in relationship to the Epstein non-prosecution agreement Acosta entered into when serving in Florida. They also discuss the status of online forums for publishing content following the White House social media summit.

 

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We live in very strange times. Netflix says more than 40 million households watched the new season of Stranger Things in the first five days it was available.  That’s a lot of eyeballs devoting a lot of time to something ultimately futile. Adam Holz weighs in from PluggedIn and offers his commentary on the characterization of Christians in the current season of The Bachelorette.

Tony Suarez, Executive VP of the National Hispanic Leadership Conference shares about his recent trip to Asia, meeting with leaders from the underground Church in China and his thoughts on what’s happening at the U.S. southern border.

 

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Where in the Word are you today? 

Let’s take a look at Acts 17 where Paul provides one model for cultural engagement. 

Cultural engagement begins with getting our bearings or more simply: look around. Paul roams around the streets of Athens and observes the temples constructed to various gods worshiped by people there.  Acts 17:22 says he “looked carefully” at the “objects of worship” he found there which in verse 29 are described as “formed by the art and imagination” of people. He read their literature, knew it well enough to quote, and treated it respectfully enough to incorporate it into his own preaching and discourse. Paul wasn’t setting up straw men for easy argumentation, he was demolishing the intellectual and spiritual strongholds in people’s hearts and minds which had been built in opposition to the reality of the one true God.

Paul acknowledges that their philosophies contain some of God’s truth. In Acts 17:28 he notes  “As even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring’”. We can learn from that. While every part of creation fell at the fall, not everything about every aspect of society is bad nor broken. There are remnants of both the originally good creation and there are also signs of redemption all around us. We need to point to those as often and readily as we point out the sin we so easily observe. 

So, let us be observant today. Look around. What do you see that breaks the heart of God? Where are the idols of our day? AND where are the signs of life and forgiveness and goodness and grace that point to the reality of who God is and how God desires us to live? 

The creators of the X-files are right, “The Truth is out there,” and you know not only His name but the way to the place He has gone! 

You also know the truth about why Christ came. He had to come. Sin had to be resolved in order for righteousness to be restored. Evidence of sin is all around us all the time as we engage the culture. In Athens, Paul was saw clearly the sin,distortion and disorientation produced by idolatry.  Acts 17:16 says “He was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols.” The idols of modern America, like the idols of ancient Athens, are many and varied. If you look, you’ll see them. 

We make idols of work imagining that we can resolve the world’s problems or meet the world’s needs apart from God. We make idols of other people, particularly sports, entertainment, academic and political leaders, imagining our need for worship can be fulfilled by the American idols of our day. And we make idols of ourselves. In the selfie, social media driven world of likes and follows and Insta-stories, we imagine the world actually revolves around us. Nothing could be further from the truth and no other idol is more attractive than ourselves. 

Let us then look in the mirror first and then let us become careful observers of the world around us. Let us point out, lift us and rightly name the truth where it shines and let us also be faithful and honest witnesses to the places where Christ’s unique power to redeem are grossly evident. 

Acts 17:30-31 read, “having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having finished proof to all men by raising HIm from the dead.” That’s Jesus! 

And yes, as we read in the following verses, some will sneer but as in Athens so in the cities of our day, others will turn with Spirit-led interest and ask us to tell them more about this One we know as Christ. 

Matthew Hawkins joins Carmen to talk about:

The Deepening Crisis of Evangelical Chr...