Christianity vs. Christian Nationalism and the Woke Right

Christianity Vs. Christian Nationalism and the Woke Right

Today's culture has really shifted as more people are disconnected from faith. Proponents of what we may term "traditional values" are on the rise even though they don't ground such values in any transcendent ethic. Others, claiming to be Christians place their political battles on par with their religious beliefs and some have adopted the tactics that those on the left have used such as cancel culture against their opponents. How can we as Christians understand what it means to be virtuous in a society that no longer holds virtue as a value?

Why Are Churches Blessing Same Sex Couples While Denying Same Sex Marriage?

Why Are Churches Blessing Same Sex Couples While Denying Same Sex Marriage?

There’s an alarming trend beginning to emerge in churches today across Christendom. Conservative Catholic, Orthodox and even Evangelical churches have taken to offer blessings to same-sex couples while still trying to hold that same-sex unions are against the teachings of scripture. Should "pastoral care" trump the clear teaching of scripture on what we understand as an immoral lifestyle? And how do we as evangelicals elevate doctrine to its proper position while still “loving the sinner and hating the sin”? We tackle this difficult topic in this round-table discussion.

One Nation Under God: How America’s Christian Heritage Shaped Our Country

One Nation Under God: How America’s Christian Heritage Shaped Our Country

We’ve heard the phrase “American Exceptionalism.” Just what is it that makes America different? In a word, it’s Christianity. Because Christianity so changed and infused the culture, Christian ideas provided the foundation of the American experiment. Indeed, America could not have existed without it and those Christian principles are necessary to maintain the nation as the founders envisioned.

How We Became a Crotch-Driven Culture

How We Became a Crotch-Driven Culture

Pride month, transgender ideology, throuples, onlyFans, sexual self-expression, InCels, and abortion. It seems that almost all the issues that capture the attention and the headlines today center around the pelvis. How is it that the center of our culture revolves around the vulgar and the crass? How did civilization lose its way? In this podcast, Dr. Harry Edwards and I discuss why in the 20th century culture turned from elevating the human condition to a more self-centered and feelings-based drive of the individual and how that led to our sex-saturated society.

Understanding In-vitro Fertilization As A Christian

Understanding In-vitro Fertilization As A Christian

Reproduction, in vitro fertilization, and all of the questions that go along with it have been making the headlines recently. Did the Southern Baptists really oppose IVF treatments for infertile couples? How can pro-life people be against bringing more babies into the world? Just what issues are there with IVF and other reproduction-assisting procedures? Are there dangers to the parents? Listen in as Lenny explores all those questions and more.

Pope Francis vs Augustine: Are People "Fundamentally Good"?

Pope Francis vs Augustine: Are People "Fundamentally Good"?

In a recent 60 Minutes television interview, Pope Francis made the claim that people are "fundamentally good in heart." Such a statement by the head of the Roman Catholic church seems to directly contradict Catholic theology, going all the way back to Saint Augustine! Is the pope renouncing the doctrine of original sin? What about human nature and human depravity? Is the pope even Catholic? In this podcast, I'm joined by Reasons to Believe scholar Ken Samples as we contrast Catholic and Protestant theology and help unravel Francis's cryptic comments.

What's the Big Deal About The Trinity, Anyway?

What's the Big Deal About The Trinity, Anyway?

The Trinity. It forms the center of Christian doctrine, yet most Christians today either don’t understand it or ignore it as something not important. But if God wasn’t a triune being, our salvation would be impossible. How can we make the Trinity more comprehensible? In this episode I interview Dr. Fred Sanders of Biola University, an expert on the Trinity, as we explore the deep things of God.

Leveraging Culture for Christianity

Leveraging Culture for Christianity

It's no secret we're no longer living in a Christian culture when we see all of the various ways that church has been displaced in our society. How can we share our faith with people who simply aren't interested in religion anymore? By leveraging the desires and the thoughts that people do have to show them that Christianity actually is the answer that they're searching for.

What Does Athens Have to Do With Jerusalem?

What Does Athens Have to Do With Jerusalem?

That question was first famously asked by the church father Tertullian when he was contemplating the relationship between Greek philosophy and church theology. Today, many people wonder the same thing. Do we need all that egghead scholasticism or can’t we just love Jesus? Yet, for most of Christian history the pastors *were* the professors! It is only recently that some mistakenly separate belief from intellectual scholarship. Listen in to learn just how much Christian scholarship can contribute to the church and why we need both to love God with all our minds as well as our hearts.

J. Warner Wallace: The Inside Scoop on True Crime

J. Warner Wallace: The Inside Scoop on True Crime

Can a homicide detective who dealt with murderers and death really uncover important truths about how to live? In this fascinating interview, Lenny speaks with Det. J. Warner Wallace about his career as a cold-case detective and his new book The Truth in True Crime. In it, Wallace shares the fifteen most important principles to improve your life, strengthen your faith, and make you a better human being.

Learning From 35 Answered Prayers in the Bible

Learning From 35 Answered Prayers in the Bible

Throughout the Bible, we see the heroes of the faith coming in prayer to God for all kinds of issues, But have you really studied just how they prayed? In this interview with Dr. Nathan Ward, author of _Our Eyes Are On You: A Study of Biblical Prayer_, we discuss what specific things effective prayers have in common and how our understanding of God's nature and attributes should inform our petitions.

What Dangers Does AI Hold For The Future?

What Dangers Does AI Hold For The Future?

Artificial intelligence is quickly being integrated into more and more systems we use to work and create. But are there dangers to it? Past doomsday scenarios in film may not be realistic, but ther are some legitimate cautions we should heed that accompany the benefits of AI. In this episode, Lenny joins the Kirkwood Center roundtable to look at the benefits and potential pitfalls of AI, including some areas of concern that aren’t normally discussed.

Belief, Denial, and Delusion: Lessons from Jeremiah

Belief, Denial, and Delusion: Lessons from Jeremiah

People will hold their beliefs strongly. If a belief is justified, that should be the case. But what happens when we believe things that aren’t true because we simply don’t want to? We have many examples throughout history of people denying or deluding themselves into believing things about God that are simply wrong, and they even use scripture to try and prove it! In this podcast, we examine how our denial or biased understanding of God makes for dangerous, dangerous trap that can lead to significant consequences.

Losing Culture: How Relativism Makes People More Savage

Losing Culture: How Relativism Makes People More Savage

Why do we see more incivility in our society today? We read about the increase in mass shootings, student violence against speakers with whom they disagree, and an ever-growing online belligerence. And what's worse is our country and our world are being divided among ideological lines where no thought or no charity is given to the person holding a differing view. Here, our panel explores how we are losing our culture--specifically how relativism is making people more savage, causing them to lose the understanding of what civility actually means.

Fake News! How the Misinformation Police Get It Wrong

Fake News! How the Misinformation Police Get It Wrong

What counts as misinformation, disinformation or fake news? Are people so led astray by today's social media that they continually confuse facts with opinion? Lenny examines a journalarticle by political sciientists who claim to show how people get their facts and opinions wrong. However, there's a big problem... the researchers themseves don't understand knowledge. By misdefining what counts as fact, theitr paper provides an example of how the experts are committing the very error they are lecturing others about. Find out how to think a little more clearly on this Come Le Us Reason Podcast.

Deconstruction, Doubt, and Christianity: The Bobby Conway Interview

Deconstruction, Doubt, and Christianity: The Bobby Conway Interview

Doubt about the claims of Christianity have existed since the day of Jesus's resurrection. Many young people today are deconstructing their faith based on their doubts. But what happens when the one wrestling with doubt is a pastor? How does he face his congregation each week? In this riveting interview, Lenny talks with pastor and apologist Bobby Conway about the difficulties and doubt he faced even while pastoring a church. Hear why doubt doesn't mean the end of faith and why Christianity actually gives us ways to overcome darkness and depression in our lives.

Defusing the Wars Against Men and Culture: The Nancy Pearcey Interview

Defusing the Wars Against Men and Culture: The Nancy Pearcey Interview

Our culture is in crisis in many different ways. Depression rates are soaring, young men are finding it more difficult to find their place in this world, confusion over the value that our bodies hold is commonplace, as is the idea that morality isn’t rooted in fact. In special interview with Nancy Pearcey, we discuss several of the most crucial issues that are rocking our culture today. Her books like Saving Leonardo, Total Truth, and her most recent book, The Toxic War on Masculinity, really focus on some of these most important issues that show a seismic shift in where we used to be as a culture and where we find ourselves now.

Christianity and Masculinity - What Does it Mean to Be a A Man?

Christianity and Masculinity: What Does it Mean to Be a A Man?

What does it mean to be a Christian and a man in 2024? Is it the hyper-aggressiveness and crudity of an Andrew Tate or is it a benign passivity of a Ward Cleaver? Here, we examine the extremes, the stereotypes, and the assertions of how manhood has gone wrong. But we also look to Jesus—the primary example of what being a true man is—and offer a model of biblical manhood that becomes something a bit different from what both the secularists and Christian critics try to make it.

A Paleontologist's View of Darwinism and Intelligent Design

A Paleontologist's View of Darwinism and Intelligent Design

Evolution is a hot=button issue. As our science progresses, is the evidence for evolution beoining more concrete or more tenuous? Here, I interview Dr. Günter Bechly, an evolutionary biologist and paleontologist who has devoted much of his life studying Darwinism. He highlights the incredible problems facing the modern neo-darwinian synthesis and how design makes much better sense of the data.

Does HeGetsUs Really Get Jesus Right

Does #HeGetsUS Really Get Jesus Right?

How do you reach a culture that thinks Christianity is not only unnecessary, but evil? The #HeGetsUs commercials made a huge splash during the Superbowl, but were they effective? And did they properly communicate the gospel message? Here Lenny, along with Dr. Harry Edwards and Dr. Jacob Daniel, discuss the pluses and the problems of the #HeGetsUS effort and offers a balanced, thoughtful view, shedding more light to a topic that has generated quite a bit of heat, both inside and outside the church.

Beware The Language Games of the Woke

Beware! The Language Games of the Woke

Words matter. We use words in order to communicate ideas, in order to share feelings, and gain knowledge. But words can also wound and be weaponized. In fact, today political ideology has driven an intentional misuse of words and a conflict over how we even understand shared ideas.

Here Lenny exposes the intentional obfuscation of terms and points out the language shell games that are sometimes used to try and shame and coerce us into holding a specific view. However, through a proper approach of engaging and extending ideas, we can actually open a door to gospel conversations.

My LIVE Conversation with Jehovah's Witnesses

My LIVE Conversation with Jehovah's Witnesses

What do you do when a Jehovah's Witness knocks on your door? Many people have a bit of a panic attack or want to shoo them away as quickly as possible, Christians included! But you shouldn't be afraid to engage these people, for it's rare enough that someone wants to talk to us about the things of God! I had the opportunity to capture a visit that a couple of Witnesses made to my door and I take you through the entire conversation, providing my thinking and my strategy so you too may be able thoughtfully and graciously engage those who are lost to the cults.

The Lazy Approach to Evangelism

The Lazy Approach to Evangelism

Evangelism. It's a word that can strikes fear into the hearts of a lot of people. We know we're supposed to evangelize, but how do we do so? Does it require tons of study? Doesn't it require feet of iron? Maybe there's a lazy way that we can still be faithful to our gospel command and share our faith with those who don't believe in Jesus. That's our topic as I interview author and apologist Eric Hernandez on his new book The Lazy Approach to Evangelism.

Crisis of the Shrinking Family: The Tim Carney Interview

Crisis of the Shrinking Family: The Tim Carney Interview

We are in the midst of a baby-bust. For the first time in our history, the number of seniors are growing at a greater rate than the number of babies being born, which spells a dangerous future for our lives as well as our culture. Why has the millennial generation shied away from having kids? What are the *real reasons* for the hesitancy in becoming parents and what can the church do about it? In this interview with Tim Carney, author of the upcoming _Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be_, we discuss these questions and the underlying drivers that disincentivize growing families. it is a topic that should concern us all.

Andy Stanley, Alistair Begg, and Confusion over LGBTQ+ Issues

Andy Stanley, Alistair Begg, and Confusion over LGBTQ+ Issues

What are we to make over the recent controversies that have encircled prominent Evangelical leaders about their stances on same-sex weddings, transgender grandchildren, and the like? A few months ago, Andy Stanley hosted a conference where he invited a "married" gay couple to speak to Christian parents. Last week, Alistair Begg got into hot water for his advice about attending such unions. How are Christians to discern what the right path is?

In this podcast, Lenny examines the statements and positions of these events and offers a sensitive, nuanced explanation of how you can be loving to your LGBTQ+ family and friends while still holding to a clear biblical morality.