With All Due Respect

This episode hosts Megan Powell du Toit and Michael Jensen question their mental stability.

Mental health has been a key conversation during the COVID crisis. People have argued for and against various public health measures by referring to the mental health effects. There has been a widespread understanding that a viral pandemic will have mental health costs as well.

Yet quite often, it is still those people 'out there' - those 'other people' we need to look after. And there continues to be an unhealthy tendency to give spiritual answers to mental health issues. Wouldn't it be better to delve instead into what it is to be people of faith dealing with mental health issues?

Michael and Megan get personal about how experience interacts with our theology and ministry, talk to clinical psychologist Sarah Hindle, and read together a recent novel by an Australian author which centres on a protagonist with mental illness.

SPECIAL OFFER

Sorrow And Bliss by Meg Mason and The Way I See It by Lucy Marrett are available for 20% off at Little Lost Bookshop when you use the code WADR. Happy reading!

A NOTE OF CONCERN

If this episode has raised difficult topics for you, and you'd like to talk to someone about them, Michael, Megan and Sarah recommend:

Lifeline: 13 11 14
Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
eHeadspace: 1800 650 890
Beyondblue Support Service: 1300 224 636
NSW Mental Health Line: 1800 011 511

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In a world in which Christianity is losing its cultural dominance, and under fire for various reasons, should Christians strongly defend the church, or should they be apologetic about its wrongdoing?

There seems to be a wide spectrum between those who want to claim western society will regret abandoning its Christian foundations, and those who are quick to call it out from the inside. Whichever way you look at it, Church history is at the forefront of the public conversation.

Michael and Megan take a look at this phenomenon and then interview John Dickson about where his book, Bullies and Saints fits into this spectrum.

Then the WADR duo finishes with the critically acclaimed 2020 film Minari, which tells a slice of 1980s church history.

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Some of the most beautiful poetry has Christian faith embedded within it, and yet some of the worst poetry we have experienced has been within the Christian community. 

A couple of episodes ago the WADR team looked at poet Christian Wiman and brought up his thought that faithful literature should be an ice axe for the frozen sea within you. 

As two people of faith and lovers of poetry, Megan Powell du Toit and Michael Jensen have started thinking more about faithful poetry - and the light it might give to the faithful life. 

They talk to one such potential lamp bearer - poet Dr. Lachlan Brown. They then try to tease out what faithful poetry might be and finish with a powerful poem that recently captured the public's imagination.

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Australia is gearing up to reach its 80% 16 plus vaccination rate, with some states ahead of others. The news has been dominated by both federal and state plans for what reopening will look like with COVID present in Australia. 

Within that, Christians have had particular concerns. What will be the rules around face-to-face church gatherings, and how should we as Christians respond to the risks and freedoms of reopening? 

Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit ask epidemiologist, Prof Greg Fox to answer questions from a public health perspective, and then the WADR team talk about a theologically informed response for churches. 

We finish with a novel that explores what one church did during a plague: Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks.

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As the ancient saying goes, you can't go to bed if someone is wrong on the internet. 

Social media can involve a lot of different communication types but it certainly does seem to have a lot of scope for arguing. In fact, it seems that one of social media's key contributions is polarisation and pitched debate. 

Megan Powell du Toit and Michael Jensen discuss how this has ramped up over COVID - the virus situation is ever-changing and the stakes as we respond to it are high. It seems like it would be a good time to know how to argue well and persuasively.

The WADR team looks at the 'how to' of arguing. Then they move that into the deeper question over whether argument can ever be holy. And finally, a review of a new series set in one of today’s battlegrounds - academia.

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The Christian world has always had its prominent believers, right down to the present day. Though the advent of the Internet has given them a reach and influence like never before.

Megan Powell du Toit and Michael Jensen take a hard look at Christian celebrity - from luminaries like Tim Keller to Mark Driscoll - and ask what can be learned from our elevation of different believers.

First up, it's an interview with Mikey Lynch, experienced church planter and Campus Director of the University Fellowship of Christians, University of Tasmania, about his personal experiences with Mark Driscoll and the revelations of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast.

Then the WADR team delve deeper into the phenomenon of Christian celebrity and what it means for the Church. 

Finally, it's a sharing of insights into a film about a flawed preacher which came out about the same time Driscoll started Mars Hill - The Apostle.

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Last season the With All Due Respect team brought you an interview with a Christian Liberal and former Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull. So Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit thought it would be good to speak to a Christian Labor politician, Senator Deborah O'Neill. 

Senator O’Neil is a Labor senator for new south wales who has been a politician since 2010, first as an MP in the Australian parliament and then as a senator.  She is currently Vice President of the New South Wales Labor Party, a position she has held since 2011. She is also a committed Catholic

The WADR team then discusses the question of whether Christians have to be conservative, before reviewing a recent film based on the memoir of Christian social justice activist Bryan Stevenson.

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In some circles preaching is the one thing you can't skip at church. For others, it is an outdated practice. It can have a bad rap. We say to people, "Don't opreach at me!" Yet when Christian podcasts first started, the sermon was the first genre, and during covid, we have found ourselves listening and watching an endless supply online.

But what makes for good preaching?

Preaching is something both Megan and Michael have been doing for decades, so listen in as the WADR crew turns a critical eye on not only other preachers but their personal styles as well.

Then it's off to Gilead to examine the preaching style of one of Marilynne Robinson's key characters.

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With All Due Respect's Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit examine masculine Christianity in the United States and question what effect it might be having down under.

The episode kicks off with an interview with Kristen Kobes Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne, a publication that discovers the worship of Alpha Male role models in the American church.

Megan and Michael then examine the presence of Alpha Males in the Australian context, specifically the iconic Man From Snowy River.

And finally, our WADR hosts entertain us with a 'For Argument's Sake' about the effects such considerations have on the Australian Christian context.

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This episode is a Q and Q episode - no answers, just more questions. Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit open by discussing whether questions are bad for your faith.  

They then get personal and vulnerable by talking about the questions of faith they have that remain unresolved and why. Despite coming from different Christian traditions, do they share any?

And finally, it's a Marg and Dave segment on the poetry of a questioning man of faith - Christian Wiman.

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