Curated topics for a disillusioned church
Take a quick inventory of the electronics around you. If you have a smartphone, computer, or a device that has a computer chip and/or a rechargeable battery then you have participated in the cobalt trade. In Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives' Siddharth Kara explores the sobering realities behind the global cobalt industry, shedding light on the exploitation, human rights abuses, and environmental impacts linked to the extraction and trade of this essential mineral.
Reflect on your average day and consider the routines, rituals, and practices you follow. These daily habits—what you spend your time on, the media you consume, and the people and places you engage with—compose a personal liturgy of life. This liturgy shapes you both politically and spiritually, often without being critically examined. In The Liturgy of Politics, Kaitlyn Schiess challenges readers to reflect on what influences their political and spiritual lives and to understand what true Christian political responsibility entails.
Attorney Justin Giboney and pastor Chris Butler breakdown policies and headlines through a Christian worldview without a party bias. If you are disillusioned or without a party then this is the podcast for you. It is nuanced, challenging and a desperately needed point of view that is distinctly Christian, but not partisan.
Beginning in March of 2024 the Holy Post started a weekly voter guide complete with a short, sub-3-minute video discussing a pertinent topic related to politics, useful resources about the topic, a weekly prayer, and a moment of joy. The guides have touched on consuming media, not having the last word, being curious, local politics, and anger. The hosts don't tell you who to vote for or what to think but offer a uniquely Christian posture on how to approach politics. Highly recommended.
Is Pentecost about spiritual gifts and power? Or is it about unity? Perhaps it is the birth of the church? Pentecost, which means fifty days, is all of those things and more. In Pentecost - A Day of Power for All People bishop of the Union of Charismatic Orthodox Churches Emilio Alvarez details the themes, rituals, prayers, and hymns from a variety of denominations of this often misunderstood day on the church calendar.
Over two billion dollars are spent, and more than two million Christians go on short term missions trips each year. In excess of two trillion dollars have been sent to Africa in the last 60 years while Haiti has received over $13 billion in foreign aid ($5 billion from the United States) in the last 13 years. Despite the influx of billions of foreign aid and charity dollars along with millions of volunteers most of the people in Africa, Haiti, and other developing countries still live in poverty with very little infrastructure. The tendency of parachurch organizations, non governmental organizations (NGOs), and nonprofits to slowly, or never, pivot from crisis relief to long term development in conjunction with the propensity of short term mission workers having a giver-receiver mindset lead to what author Robert Lupton calls toxic charity, which happens to also be the title of his book.
What is the foundation that Christians should build from when voting? What does the Bible have to say about government? What does the Bible have to say about authority? Pastor Tim Mackie says that since the start of American politics Christians and non-Christians have cherry-picked verses to support their agenda. This is a two-fold tragedy. First, it removes the verse from its context. Second, it uses the Bible when it is convenient instead of listening to the Bible and patiently working through the entire story. Mackie's passion for the Bible bleeds through his lecture as he dives into Genesis 1 as a political theology. He connects the image of God to ruling authority to justice and then to politics. His in-depth theological analysis of the foundation of Christian political engagement is a masterclass on what the Bible says about a Christian's political involvement.
Before diving into his 41 devotionals on heaven author Skye Jethani discusses his fondness of maps and the fact that each one of us carries a mental map that "orient(s) and guide(s) us, offer(s) perspectives, and provide(s) a framework for understanding our place in a complicated world." Our mental maps "define what is real, what is important, and where things reside in relation to each other." But what if one of our mental maps is wrong?
According to MissionWorks over two million Americans participate in short-term domestic and international mission trips each year. Unfortunately, even those with best of intentions can wreak havoc, many times unintentionally, on the community they intend to help. In When Helping Hurts Brian Fikkertt and Steve Corbett provide a Biblical framework for those that want to go on, and those that have have gone on, short-term mission trips by asking the reader to interrogate their motivations and assumptions for wanting to serve in addition to evaluating their own attitudes and beliefs about poverty.
How did evangelicals become synonymous with the Republican party? Was it Roe v. Wade or something else?
Sunday to Saturday 
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