John Stonestreet and Shane Morris talk about the craziness surrounding the stock of Game Stop. Beyond the stock price and the short sells, what was motivating the mass of people to purchase the stock and send it through the roof? Anger? Greed? Revenge of the little guys against the hedge funds? Was it a generational conflict? And what does this say about the state of our culture and society in 2021? John and Shane share their thoughts from a Christian worldview perspective. Also in this episode:...
Feb 05, 2021•46 min
Nature documentaries like the BBC's "Planet Earth," "Blue Planet," and most recently, "A Perfect Planet," are amazing masterpieces of modern videography, displaying creation in detail and majesty. Every creature soaring through the sky, or streaking through the deep, or thundering over the savannah exhibits power, beauty, and unmistakable purpose. David Attenborough's grandfatherly narration and Hans Zimmer's moving musical scores only add to the childlike awe these films induce. All of which ma...
Feb 05, 2021•4 min
Three years ago, 110 Nigerian schoolgirls were abducted by terrorists from Boko Haram. After a month of negotiations with government authorities, 109 were returned to their families. The girl who was not returned was also the only Christian, 14-year-old Leah Sharibu. According to Boko Haram (or, as it calls itself, the Islamic State West African Province), Sharibu refused to convert to Islam, their precondition for her release. A few months later, Boko Haram announced that Sharibu and Alice Loks...
Feb 04, 2021•5 min
John and Shane are asked how Christians can remain faithful with culture pressuring for compliance. A doctor and a parent have similar questions related to recognizing gender transitions. John provides a structure to think and live in challenging times. Another listener writes in to ask how Christians should respond with censorship challenging opportunities to live life with a Christian perspective. Shane provides some hard truths that provide an understanding on how Christians can move forward ...
Feb 03, 2021•48 min
In 2010, a company called Hanson Robotics spent more than a hundred hours interviewing a woman named Bina. They collected memories of her childhood, noted her emotional reactions and mannerisms, uploaded the data into a mechanical bust that looked like the real Bina, and then programmed the robot to answer questions in real time. Robot Bina now resides in a research lab . Real-life Bina's partner said the venture was a shot at "immortality." Recently, Hanson Robotics announced plans to release t...
Feb 03, 2021•5 min
The more 2021 resembles 2020, the more Christians should be grounded in those unchanging truths given us in Scripture. We must rest on the revelations that make sense of our cultural moment: that Christ is risen, that Christ is Lord, and that Christ is making all things new. God has placed each of us and this time and in this place. It is here and it is now that He wants us. He wants us to participate with Him as agents of reconciliation in His larger story of redemption. To do this well, especi...
Feb 02, 2021•6 min
Sean McDowell shares an important proverb in the Time of Guided Prayer led by the Colson Center. Dr. Sean McDowell is a gifted communicator with a passion for equipping the church, and in particular young people, to make the case for the Christian faith. In addition to his role as Associate Professor in the Christian Apologetics program at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, Sean travels throughout the United States and abroad, speaking at camps, churches, schools, universities, and con...
Feb 01, 2021•24 min
Michael Agapito's recent book review at ChristianityToday.com vividly illustrates one of the challenges Christians face when trying to apply their faith to issues of injustice. After praising much about Thaddeus Williams' new book Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth , in particular his commitment to not diminish or dismiss Biblical mandates for Christians to work toward justice and to rightly prioritize social justice efforts in light of the salvation message, Agapito offers a lukew...
Feb 01, 2021•5 min
It's likely that there will be 300 million Christians in China by 2030, up from 75-100 million Christians estimated in China in 2020. That is a three-fold increase. When the Communist Party in China took over in 1949 there were only 4 million Christians in China.During the reign of Mao, the total number of Christians didn't exceed 4million. Since the death of Mao in 1976, Christianity has grown at the same rate as the Chinese economy, 7-8% per year. The church grows from a mustard seed. Christia...
Jan 29, 2021•58 min
Earlier this month, in a piece for The Atlantic, Joshua Coleman described an epidemic that's not COVID but that's also afflicting America: family estrangement. As a psychologist who specializes in family therapy, Coleman reports that his practice is flooded with older parents mourning the loss of contact with their grown children and with grown children angry and hurt by conflict with parents. "The rules of family life have changed," he said. The more recent changes in family structures and dyna...
Jan 29, 2021•5 min
The new Netflix film, " My Octopus Teacher ," is hard to categorize. It's not exactly a nature documentary, nor is it strictly narrative storytelling, and the title is strange enough by itself. Still, this movie by documentary filmmaker Craig Foster has garnered glowing reviews and has become extremely popular on social media. The movie follows Foster who, in the midst of a personal crisis, decides to snorkel in the kelp forest near his South African home every day for a year. I doubt I was the ...
Jan 28, 2021•5 min
John and Shane field a series of thought-provoking questions this week. One listener wrote in asking why Christians are concerned with how people of faith in important positions hold and communicate their theology. Another listener asked an important question about end-of-life care and advanced directives, looking for a Christian worldview thinking structure to hang all of the new technologies and realities we have with life and end-of-life care. The first question John and Shane fielded was fro...
Jan 27, 2021•50 min
In his book Man's Search for Meaning , Viktor Frankl wrote, "Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how.' " Both the book and its most famous quote were products of an incredibly difficult experience. During World War II, Frankl and his family were deported from their native Vienna to various concentration camps, including Auschwitz. He was the only member of his family to survive. Frankl knew just how unbearable the "how" of life could be. And yet, as Frankl explained, humans...
Jan 27, 2021•5 min
The devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic is still being tallied, both in terms of lives and livelihoods lost. In addition to the millions of dead, the millions more who've been infected (including some who face long-term physical damage), there's the psychological and emotional harm of extended isolation and the millions who face financial ruin. In the midst of all of that, we are now learning of another, less obvious, but just as deadly fallout from the pandemic. Each January, Open Doors, an or...
Jan 26, 2021•5 min
A couple of weeks ago, the British left-leaning magazine The Guardian breathlessly proclaimed , "[E]xperts are warning the US is facing a wave of rightwing 'Christian nationalist' legislation in 2021, as the religious right aims to thrust Christianity into everyday American life." And what nefarious legislation will "thrust Christianity in everyday life"? Prolife laws designed to protect the unborn, religious liberty protections for Christian organizations, and other things advocated by Christia...
Jan 25, 2021•5 min
Klon Kitchen is Director of The Heritage Foundation's Center for Technology Policy. He explains the background surrounding recent censorship of Donald Trump, Parler, and Q-Anon, sharing a logical path that led to de-platforming of many conservatives and conservative organizations. Klon provides further understanding on the issues surrounding censorship in technology, providing a Christian apologetic to participating and engaging the challenges around recent decisions from powerful technology com...
Jan 25, 2021•32 min
When President Biden quoted St. Augustine and Scripture in his inaugural address, he was doing what almost every President before him has done: drawing on America's Christian tradition. Today on "BreakPoint This week," John Stonestreet and Shane Morris discuss America's "civil religion," the shared values of liberty and the dignity of all--but firmly rooted in Christianity. Ironically enough, even those vehemently opposed to Christianity in the public square (or opposed to causes Christians feel...
Jan 22, 2021•44 min
When President Biden quoted St. Augustine and Scripture in his inaugural address, he was doing what almost every President before him has done: drawing on America's Christian tradition. Today on "BreakPoint This week," John Stonestreet and Shane Morris discuss America's "civil religion," the shared values of liberty and the dignity of all--but firmly rooted in Christianity. Ironically enough, even those vehemently opposed to Christianity in the public square (or opposed to causes Christians feel...
Jan 22, 2021•44 min
Recently, I've had occasion to ponder suffering in a deeper way than ever before. I say this not because the situation I'm in is worse than it has ever been, but because I've become more familiar with the true character of suffering. It isn't about circumstances. Not really. As pro-life author Stephanie Gray Connors explained in our recent conversation on the Upstream Podcast , suffering is the gulf between what we desperately want and what we actually have—between (for instance) the healing for...
Jan 22, 2021•5 min
Chuck Colson liked to say that the Kingdom of God will never arrive on Air Force One. It's still true. Any reprieve the last few years in the areas of religious liberty and the sanctity of life is coming to an end, and recent events should make the truth of Chuck's statement obvious. Whether politics are upstream or downstream from culture (and the right answer is that it's really both), it is not the vehicle for lasting cultural change. In fact, the history of Christianity shows that lasting cu...
Jan 21, 2021•5 min
John and Shane field concerns from listeners related to repairing and restoring relationships inside the church after the recent political season. John and Shane provide pathways of thought to recalibrate our approach to reconnecting with Biblical mandates without building kingdoms. A listener also asked how Christians should respond to the recent censorship from technology companies. There are real civil reasons some speech has been curbed, however what does that do to freedoms and are those fr...
Jan 20, 2021•46 min
In July 1864, some 14,000 Confederate troops stood just six miles— within sight — from the Capitol Dome. For President Lincoln, it was a rude shock. After all, this was a year after the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg. The Confederacy seemed near defeat. In the nick of time, 17,000 Union troops dispatched by Ulysses S. Grant arrived and pushed the Confederates back. Washington was saved. Today, as Joe Biden is sworn in as 46th President of the United States, 20,000 National Guardsmen w...
Jan 20, 2021•5 min
Recently, police in Hong Kong arrested 53 pro-democracy activists for holding a primary election. The Communist Chinese government made the sweep of political opponents under cover of its new national security law . The same day as these arrests, China-based tech firm Alibaba's stock jumped 30 percent when word circulated that Jack Ma, Alibaba's eccentric founder, might actually be alive. Ma vanished two months ago after publicly criticizing China's banking system. Apparently, stockholders had a...
Jan 19, 2021•5 min
In an eloquent defense of life, marriage, and religious liberty known as The Manhattan Declaration, authors Chuck Colson, Professor Robert George, and Dr. Timothy George wrote, "There is no more eloquent defense of the rights and duties of religious conscience than the one offered by Martin Luther King, Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail." Recently, new allegations from biographer and historian Dr. David Garrow have escalated concerns about Dr. King's moral failings, especially his sexual...
Jan 18, 2021•5 min
In the past, Civil religion united America. Not anymore. Following a recent exchange on Twitter, John Stonestreet called on Mark Tooley and Andrew Walker to discuss the current political movements, including Christian nationalism, and how they impact Christianity. Tooley and Walker discuss the future of America in a post-Christian, pseudo-Christian context. The pair believe there needs to be a resurgence in building institutional Christianity to counter the prevailing individualism of our age. T...
Jan 18, 2021•36 min
There are deaths from despair and acts of desperation that mark this cultural moment. Some are lacking peace and many are struggling to find hope from our cultural institutions and leaders. John Stonestreet invites Maria Baer to discuss the challenges we and our loved ones face currently. The two also identify how the Christian worldview offers great perspective and encompassing hope to participate in our modern world. John and Maria also visit on the role of family and the challenges to thin so...
Jan 15, 2021•42 min
A little more than a week after the storming of the Capitol, five Americans have died, the House of Representatives has impeached the President for a second time, Twitter and other social platforms have permanently banned the sitting President of the United States, Amazon Web Services shut down alternative social media site Parler, and National Guard forces are being deployed, with 15,000 troops scheduled to surround the Capitol because, according to the FBI, armed groups are planning to protest...
Jan 15, 2021•6 min
A little more than a week after the storming of the Capitol, five Americans have died, the House of Representatives has impeached the President for a second time, Twitter and other social platforms have permanently banned the sitting President of the United States, Amazon Web Services shut down alternative social media site Parler, and National Guard forces are being deployed, with 15,000 troops scheduled to surround the Capitol because, according to the FBI, armed groups are planning to protest...
Jan 15, 2021•6 min
A recent headline that isn't exactly news announced the findings of a recent Gallup study : "Americans Remain Distrustful of Mass Media." Six out of ten Americans trust the media either "not very much" or "not at all" when it comes to reporting the news fairly and accurately. Truth be told, I'm among those six. I'm tired of bias, of opinion pieces masquerading as reporting, of buried leads and hysterical fearmongering. Apparently, many Americans are tired of these things, too. Last year, a major...
Jan 14, 2021•4 min
A recent headline that isn't exactly news announced the findings of a recent Gallup study : "Americans Remain Distrustful of Mass Media." Six out of ten Americans trust the media either "not very much" or "not at all" when it comes to reporting the news fairly and accurately. Truth be told, I'm among those six. I'm tired of bias, of opinion pieces masquerading as reporting, of buried leads and hysterical fearmongering. Apparently, many Americans are tired of these things, too. Last year, a major...
Jan 14, 2021•4 min
