Category Archives: Featured

Run Sheet for Friday, August 9th

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CT: World Vision Helped Evangelicals Become Social Activists—Within Limits

“This was always the challenge for World Vision, the small missionary agency that grew to be the largest Christian humanitarian aid organization in the world: How do you convince evangelicals that caring about social issues is part of the gospel? How do you persuade them that tending the sick and caring for the poor isn’t in conflict with sharing the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection?”

DAVID P. KING: “While it is impossible to understand twenty-first-century evangelicalism without politics, the political dimension is only part of the evangelical ethos. The landscape continues to evolve, but global issues remain front and center. Despite ongoing uncertainty on evangelicalism’s future and the complexities of individuals’ and institutions’ religious identities and practices, as more American Christians embrace a global vision, perhaps a new form of practical ecumenism may lead to transcending or transgressing past theological and political boundary markers.”

JOHN STONESTREET: What We’re Missing About Mass Shootings

Other News We’re Following…

FOX 2 DETROIT: A Chaldean Oakland County resident deported to Iraq in Trump’s ICE sweep, dies from lack of insulin

RNS: Chaldean Christian deported by Trump administration dies in Iraq

CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS: U.S. Supreme Court to hear Garden City funeral home transgender bias case

ADF: US Supreme Court to weigh in on whether EEOC, courts can redefine ‘sex’ without Congress

DETROIT FREE PRESS: Oakland Democrats stumble at appointing successor to L. Brooks Patterson’s job

RNS: Cross in seal of Pa. county ‘plainly constitutional,’ rules appeals court

RNS: Lilly Endowment Inc. makes new grants to save historic churches

RNS: ELCA declares self a ‘sanctuary church body,’ marches to ICE building in Milwaukee

NEWSWEEK: The Rebel Evangelical: Dismantling the Loyalty of Christian Trump Supporters

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: Yankees/White Sox to play on ‘Field of Dreams’ site in 2020

Michigan Reformation Conference: Saturday, October 26th

  • THEME: Union with Christ: “I am the Vine; You are the Branches”
  • LOCATION: Calvary Presbyterian Church, Flint, Michigan

Run Sheet for August 8th

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TODAY’S GUEST: Becket Cook

Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Becket Cook moved to Los Angeles after college to pursue a career in writing and acting, having some success in both. Becket also created his own successful menswear brand. He currently works as a production designer in the fashion world.

Becket recently received his master’s degree from Talbot School of Theology (Biola University) and spends much of his time in ministry speaking on homosexuality and culture at churches, universities, and conferences.

His memoir, A Change of Affection: A Gay Man’s Incredible Story of Redemption, was released on July 30, 2019 by Thomas Nelson (Harper Collins).

WORLD MAG: Freedom for the Same-Sex Attracted

Other News We’re Following…

DETROIT FREE PRESS: Oakland Democrats stumble at appointing successor to L. Brooks Patterson’s job

CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS: U.S. Supreme Court to hear Garden City funeral home transgender bias case

ADF: US Supreme Court to weigh in on whether EEOC, courts can redefine ‘sex’ without Congress

RNS: Lilly Endowment Inc. makes new grants to save historic churches

RNS: ELCA declares self a ‘sanctuary church body,’ marches to ICE building in Milwaukee

NEWSWEEK: The Rebel Evangelical: Dismantling the Loyalty of Christian Trump Supporters

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: Yankees/White Sox to play on ‘Field of Dreams’ site in 2020

Michigan Reformation Conference: Saturday, October 26th

  • THEME: Union with Christ: “I am the Vine; You are the Branches”
  • LOCATION: Calvary Presbyterian Church, Flint, Michigan

Pornography and the Conservative Christian

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The Paul Edwards Program | August 7, 2019

RNS: Conservative Christians have a porn problem, studies show, but not the one you think

  • GOSPEL COALITION: When We Coddle Porn
  • CT: Waging a Smarter War on Porn
  • THE NEW YORKER: A Sociologist of Religion on Protestants, Porn, and the “Purity Industrial Complex”
    • “[Pornography] seems to be uniquely harmful to conservative Protestants’ mental health, their sense of self, their own identities—certainly their intimate relationships—in ways that don’t tend to be as harmful for people who don’t have that kind of moral problem with it.”
    • “…it’s not necessarily that porn makes you depressed. It’s watching porn when you’ve already said that that’s an immoral thing and you don’t want to do it. That can lead to guilt and shame that makes you feel crappy about yourself, that you are immoral, that you’re violating something that’s deeply held and sacred.”
    • “…if we find ourselves engaging in behavior that we believe violates our values, we can do one of two things: we can stop the behavior or change our values. And oftentimes, when conservative Christians keep on struggling with this temptation in their lives, it’s just easier for them to say, “You know what? Maybe I don’t believe this so much. Maybe I could just keep doing this and not think the religious part of it is so important.”

Vaccinations: Open Line and Monologue

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Audio from the August 7, 2019 Edition of The Paul Edwards Program

PART ONE

PART TWO

Grand Traverse County Pressures Pastors to Pressure Parishioners on Vaccinations

“As a spiritual leader for your community, you are charged with guiding your congregation along the right path.”

  • “We are reaching out to you as part of the Northern Michigan Vaccine Preventable Disease Task Force. Local health departments are no longer permitted to discuss religious concerns related to vaccination when counseling a parent who is seeking to waive vaccine(s) for their child(ren). Individuals or families with doctrine-related questions about vaccines will be encouraged to seek out the guidance and perspective from their clergy on these matters. Therefore, with representatives from Munson Medical Center, the regional Health Departments, and community stakeholders, we have created a Toolkit for Religious Leaders.”
  • “Please use this toolkit to help guide your parishioners on immunizations against the various contagious diseases. You can also educate parents about the risks of having an unvaccinated child.“

NYT: Measles Outbreak: N.Y. Eliminates Religious Exemptions for Vaccinations

CNN: New York county takes ‘extremely unusual’ step to ban unvaccinated minors from public places amid measles outbreak

  • “Public places include synagogues, churches, schools, restaurants, stores and public buses. “Public places are defined as: a place where more than 10 persons are intended to congregate,” the news release says.”

WP: Judge rules New York county can’t ban unvaccinated children from schools, parks

Run Sheet for Wednesday, August 7th

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LISTEN LIVE AT 1:00 PM ET

RNS: Conservative Christians have a porn problem, studies show, but not the one you think

  • GOSPEL COALITION: When We Coddle Porn
  • CT: Waging a Smarter War on Porn
  • THE NEW YORKER: A Sociologist of Religion on Protestants, Porn, and the “Purity Industrial Complex”
    • “[Pornography] seems to be uniquely harmful to conservative Protestants’ mental health, their sense of self, their own identities—certainly their intimate relationships—in ways that don’t tend to be as harmful for people who don’t have that kind of moral problem with it.”
    • “…it’s not necessarily that porn makes you depressed. It’s watching porn when you’ve already said that that’s an immoral thing and you don’t want to do it. That can lead to guilt and shame that makes you feel crappy about yourself, that you are immoral, that you’re violating something that’s deeply held and sacred.”
    • “…if we find ourselves engaging in behavior that we believe violates our values, we can do one of two things: we can stop the behavior or change our values. And oftentimes, when conservative Christians keep on struggling with this temptation in their lives, it’s just easier for them to say, “You know what? Maybe I don’t believe this so much. Maybe I could just keep doing this and not think the religious part of it is so important.”

Apparently, a “woman’s right to choose” allows her to decide to end her child’s life, but does not extend to her right NOT to vaccinate the child she chose to give birth to…

Grand Traverse County Pressures Pastors to Pressure Parishioners on Vaccinations

“As a spiritual leader for your community, you are charged with guiding your congregation along the right path.”

  • “We are reaching out to you as part of the Northern Michigan Vaccine Preventable Disease Task Force. Local health departments are no longer permitted to discuss religious concerns related to vaccination when counseling a parent who is seeking to waive vaccine(s) for their child(ren). Individuals or families with doctrine-related questions about vaccines will be encouraged to seek out the guidance and perspective from their clergy on these matters. Therefore, with representatives from Munson Medical Center, the regional Health Departments, and community stakeholders, we have created a Toolkit for Religious Leaders.”
  • “Please use this toolkit to help guide your parishioners on immunizations against the various contagious diseases. You can also educate parents about the risks of having an unvaccinated child.“

NYT: Measles Outbreak: N.Y. Eliminates Religious Exemptions for Vaccinations

CNN: New York county takes ‘extremely unusual’ step to ban unvaccinated minors from public places amid measles outbreak

  • “Public places include synagogues, churches, schools, restaurants, stores and public buses. “Public places are defined as: a place where more than 10 persons are intended to congregate,” the news release says.”

WP: Judge rules New York county can’t ban unvaccinated children from schools, parks

WSJ: They Solemnly Swear Their Wedding Will Ditch Tradition

  • Some young couples getting married today are making just one vow: That their wedding will look nothing like a traditional ceremony from their parents’ time.
  • More couples are on the hunt for customized, personal weddings. With only 25% of couples marrying in a religious institution, according to a recent survey of 18,000 couples by wedding-planning website WeddingWire, couples are faced with the challenge of creating ceremonies from scratch. This could even mean outsourcing vows to online consultants, who may also officiate the wedding and design the ceremony.
  • Jon O’Meara, 34, and Hannah Guthrie, 31, a Philadelphia couple who plan to marry in October, think of their coming wedding less as a promise of commitment, which they’ve already made, than a celebration of their relationship with friends and family. The couple lives together and has bought a house.

Book of Common Prayer: The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony

  • I REQUIRE and charge you both, as ye will answer at the dreadful day of judgement, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, that if either of you know any impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joined together in Matrimony, ye do now confess it. For be ye well assured, that so many as are coupled together otherwise than God’s Word doth allow are not joined together by God; neither is their Matrimony lawful.