With All Due Respect

All of us as humans are embodied. We come into being through our bodies being formed in the womb, and when our bodies die, our lives in this world end.

Christians have held different attitudes to the body over history - while the body has a central place in the Christian understanding of the life to come, at times the body has been seen as the source of sin.

Megan Powell due Toit and Michael Jensen talk about a significant Christian concept - the flesh - and what it means for how we relate to ourselves and others as embodied people.

The WADR team then talk to the author Sam Allberry about his work on the body, and finish with a recent film that grapples with the Christian relationship with the body, The Wonder.

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In this episode, Megan Powell du Toit and Michael Jensen talk about the Dark Night of the Soul. 

It's a common phrase - one which describes someone going through a difficult time, particularly one in which God feels either absent or unloving. 

The WADR team investigates where it comes from, and then asks if it's as bad as it sounds?

Then Megan and Michael talk to Dr Greg Clarke about two songwriters who have been known to include their honest struggle with faith in their songs - Nick Cave and Bono. 

And we finish by getting up close and personal with that most faithful and yet honest of poets, John Donne.

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In this episode, the WADR team talk about how to have better sex. No, this is not Megan and Michael's opportunity to present the evangelical version of the karma sutra. Rather, they want to talk about the ways Christianity has got sex right - or a lot of the time wrong - and what can be done better for everyone's sake. 

First up, Megan and Michael invite on to the show the co-author of the influential Christian book The Great Sex Rescue, Sheila Wray Gregoire. Sheila shares what she and her co-authors discovered when they talked to 22,000 Christian women. 

Then the WADR duo talk about the Australian #metoo moment and what they think about consent education. 

Finally, we finish the show with the film Give Me Sex Jesus, a title that sells itself. And consider this your warning. This episode is talking about sex, so it is definitely for mature audiences.

LINKS

Follow this link to check out Sheila's book, The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You've Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended, by Sheila Wray Gregoire, psychology graduate Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach and epidemiologist and statistician Joanna Sawatsky.

You can watch Give Me Sex Jesus for free on Vimeo - it's a Staff Pick!

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In 2016, following trends in many Western countries, a majority of Australians identified as Christian 52.1%. Five years later, that was down to 43.9%. Christianity is still the most common religion in the country, but for the first time no longer in the majority. 

Moreover, 38.9% of people now identify themselves as having no religion - a jump of almost 10%. 

Megan Powell du Toit and Michael Jensen ask what this really means. And, more particularly, what should Christians do about it? 

The WADR team talk to Prof Ruth Powell of National Church Life Survey Research, which has been doing research into Australians and faith. 

Then Megan and Michael discuss what this seismic shift in faith means for the gospel, before finishing up with a look at Brides of Christ, an Australian TV mini-series which looks at another time of change for faith in the 1960s.

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Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit ask: is evangelicalism fractured beyond repair? Or as Mark Twain might say, have reports of its death been grossly exaggerated? 

The WADR team are joined by Russell Moore, editor-in-chief of Christianity Today to talk about what happened to evangelical consensus. 

And then Michael and Megan finish with a look at the spiritual themes in a tv series they basically think they had to do this season - Rings of Power. 

But don't tap off too soon! Michael and Megan finish with the announcement that they're starting a new crowd-sourced service that promises to 'fact check' Christianity.

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In the final episode for this season, Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit are talking comedy. Their big question: does God have a sense of humour?

When humans laugh, are we doing so as people made in the image of God? Or is this only a human response to the world? Or could laughter be a link to life in the next world?

The WADR team tackle each of these questions together, then review a comedy whose central character Megan has often been compared with - can you guess which one?

Finally, they finish up season 6 with a chat with a comedian who also happens to be an Anglican minister. It's a whole new take on second vocations that's a merry mile from St. Paul's tent-making.

LINKS

Find out more about comedian minister Howard Langmead on his website.

If you'd like to help Michael and Megan continue to deliver With All Due Respect each fortnight, why not make a donation?

With All Due Respect is the podcast for The WADR Project.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Megan Powell du Toit and Michael Jensen are talking about Christian Nationalism. Nationalism promotes the distinctiveness of the people of a nation. Christian nationalism goes one step further, defining a nation by its faith, and maintaining it should be protected by the state, enshrined in its laws, and actively maintained.

But is this so? Is Christian Nationalism even compatible with the Christian faith? In a western society that is often spoken of as Post-Christian, the relationship between Christianity and the State has become an increasingly vexed issue.

Michael and Megan start their investigation by reviewing a documentary that seeks to look at how this is playing out in US evangelicalism. Moving on, they discuss whether Christian Nationalism is a problem in an Australian context. Then it's your chance to shape the show - a question and answer session on Australian evangelicalism and what the WADR team think about where it is going.

LINKS

After the highly successful “In the footsteps of the Reformers” tour through the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland and the UK. Faith Journeys is launching its latest tour “In the footsteps of Saint Paul”, travelling across Turkey, Greece & Italy from 25th April – 9th May 2023. The tour starts in Istanbul and makes its way through to Greece before ending in Rome. Daily devotions, a pilgrimage handbook and study guide assist with exploring the works, teachings and journeys of St Paul while travelling with like-minded individuals. You also have a Tour Manager throughout who looks after all travel logistics with exclusive local tour guides who all work alongside Michael Jensen to create an immersive touring experience. If you're interested in joining Michael on his instructive tour of early church locations, then you can find out everything you need to know at www.faithjourneys.com.au or by emailing [email protected].

If you'd like to help Michael and Megan continue to deliver With All Due Respect each fortnight, why not make a donation?

With All Due Respect is the podcast for The WADR Project.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While we have been dealing with a pandemic over the last couple of years, we have also been experiencing what some are calling a loneliness epidemic.

Megan Powell du Toit and Michael Jensen discuss how this new struggle has been reported across many countries, particularly in their home country. The Ending Loneliness Together report says that one in four Australians are experiencing problematic levels of loneliness, with one in two Australians feeling lonelier due to the pandemic in 2020.

Why is this so? Does it happen to Christians as much as anyone else, and how can we respond?

Michael and Megan talk first about how loneliness might interact with faith, and then they invite Susan Mettes, behavioural scientist and author of The Loneliness Epidemic, on to the show to discuss how we can begin to deal with this challenge.

Finally, the WADR team take a look at a comedy of loneliness, This Way Up.

LINKS

After the highly successful “In the footsteps of the Reformers” tour through the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland and the UK. Faith Journeys is launching its latest tour “In the footsteps of Saint Paul”, travelling across Turkey, Greece & Italy from 25th April – 9th May 2023. The tour starts in Istanbul and makes its way through to Greece before ending in Rome. Daily devotions, a pilgrimage handbook and study guide assist with exploring the works, teachings and journeys of St Paul while travelling with like-minded individuals. You also have a Tour Manager throughout who looks after all travel logistics with exclusive local tour guides who all work alongside Michael Jensen to create an immersive touring experience. If you're interested in joining Michael on his instructive tour of early church locations, then you can find out everything you need to know at www.faithjourneys.com.au or by emailing [email protected].

This is where you can find Susan Mettes' book, The Loneliness Epidemic: Why So Many of Us Feel Alone - and How Leaders Can Respond.

If you'd like to help Michael and Megan continue to deliver With All Due Respect each fortnight, why not make a donation?

With All Due Respect is the podcast for The WADR Project.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Megan Powell du Toit and Michael Jensen look at the vexed question of racism and the church.

First up, they talk to African American pastor Thabiti Anaybwile about how he understands the way American evangelicalism has interacted with the question of racism. He has been a significant voice on this topic within conservative evangelicalism in the US.

Then the WADR team come back to their Australian context to speak with pastor Grace Lung and her experience as an Australian-born Chinese woman within Australian churches and society.

Finally, Michael and Megan finish with a review of a film that examines the experience of Indigenous students in an elite Anglican school environment.

LINKS

You can find out more about Grace Lung's ministry and track down resources for understanding and dealing with racism on her website.

If you'd like to help Michael and Megan continue to deliver With All Due Respect each fortnight, why not make a donation?

With All Due Respect is the podcast for The WADR Project.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most of us wear clothes every day - Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit make a point of it! But as much as we might think we pay no attention to what we put on, most of us dress in accordance with the fashion of our day. And like it or not, what we wear communicates something about who we are.

Very little thought is given over to Christian fashion. But the WADR team discover the one area that does get talked about is women dressing modestly - they immodestly think they have some helpful things to say on this.

Michael and Megan then speak with a Christian fashion designer Neri Morris about how her job relates to her faith. And they finish with a recent documentary about fashion label Abercrombie & Fitch - White Hot.

LINKS

Check out the Thread Harvest web site.

You can hear more from Nerri over at her blog.

And if you're in Sydney, don't forget to check out the Re-inspired shop in Parramatta.

If you'd like to help Michael and Megan continue to deliver With All Due Respect each fortnight, why not make a donation?

With All Due Respect is the podcast for The WADR Project.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.