Listen in as Russell Moore, director of Christianity Today’s Public Theology Project and Editor-in-Chief, talks about the latest books, cultural conversations a...
Content warning: This episode discusses sexual, spiritual, and domestic abuse.
Should discussions of the church harming people be kept in-house so the world doesn’t hear about it? No, says Diane Langberg, and there’s a simple reason why: “That would be quite unlike Jesus Christ.”
Listen in as Langberg, an international speaker, psychologist, and author on trauma care, joins Moore to discuss her new book, When the Church Harms God’s People. Their conversation covers abuse in institutions and considers why it is different when those institutions are churches. They talk about the importance of churches and homes as havens from harm and how it affects people when they become places of hurt.
Moore and Langberg consider power dynamics, the importance of language that properly names the abuses people have suffered, and a Christian view of women. They provide reason for hope and opportunities for church leaders to love and care for the hurting.
Resources mentioned in this episode or recommended by the guest include:
Diane Langberg
When the Church Harms God’s People: Becoming Faith Communities That Resist Abuse, Pursue Truth, and Care for the Wounded by Diane Langberg
Abuse of Faith
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55:34
A Conversation with Pulitzer-Winning Poet Natasha Trethewey
“Being able to be here and to tell this story—to weep about it occasionally—that is uplifting because what the story says is: ‘I'm still here. I have survived it. I have joy in my life because I have known such depths of despair.’ That is uplifting.”
So says Natasha Trethewey, a Pulitzer Prize winner who has authored several books and served two terms as the Poet Laureate of the United States. Trethewey and Moore discuss their respective familial connections to the state of Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina, and the Gulf Coast. They talk about Trethewey’s lifelong desire to write, her experience as a mixed-race person, and her thoughts on belonging, grief, and faith.
Their conversation welcomes all who long for community, creativity, and clarity.
Resources mentioned in this episode or recommended by the guest include:
Natasha Trethewey
Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by Natasha Trethewey
Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Natasha Trethewey
Native Guard: Poems by Natasha Trethewey
Providence by Natasha Trethewey
“Pulitzer Prize Winner Trethewey Discusses Poetry Collection”
Elizabeth Sewell
Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow by Robert Duncan
“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Julia Ward Howe
The House of Being (Why I Write) by Natasha Trethewey
A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
Michiko Dead by Jack Gilbert
Theories of Time and Space by Natasha Trethewey
Cosmic Connections: Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment by Charles Taylor
Seamus Heaney
Toni Morrison
The Sea by John Banville
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43:12
Aliens, Demon Possession, and the Afterlife
How might Christians respond to family members who don’t believe mental illness is real? Does standing with Israel mean endorsing all of its government’s actions? Is the Enneagram a slippery slope toward engaging with the dark spiritual forces?
Listen in as Russell and CT’s editorial director for print, Ashley Hales, respond to these listener questions and more. Their conversation considers the role of Christians in religiously diverse nations and explores what it looks like to live faithfully in a complex world.
Questions addressed during this episode include:
How should Christians respond to family members who believe a relative’s mental illness is instead demon possession?
What can believers do to model care and connection amid political polarization?
Is the Enneagram dangerous?
What do we know about heaven—and what is just cultural opinion?
If Christians are free from bondage to sin, why do we still struggle so greatly with temptation?
What does it really mean to stand with Israel?
How should the Capitol Hill testimonies affirming the existence of extraterrestrial life impact the Christian worldview?
Do Christians have the right or responsibility to impose Christian values through laws or governmental power?
Resources mentioned in this episode or recommended by the guest include:
The Enneagram
“Decoding the Enneagram”
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Harry Potter
Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC by Frederick Buechner
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45:17
Moore to the Point: The Holly and the Anxiety
Why your anxiety needs an apocalypse this Christmas.
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9:40
The Countercultural Sermon That Changed Everything
As a pastor, author, and speaker, Rich Villodas has spent a lot of time studying the Scriptures. Over the years, he’s realized what he treasures about them:
“ I love that the Bible is not this collection of sanitized, holy people,” he said. “It’s a collection of broken, frail people who are made righteous by a goodness outside of themselves.”
Villodas and Moore discuss that righteousness and goodness through the lens of the Sermon on the Mount. They talk about the type of life Jesus calls his people to live and consider what it looks like to engage with the emotions of our loved ones. The two converse about the prescriptive power of the Psalms, consider the role of forgiveness, and explore the nature of resentment as they cover Jesus’ statements about anger and lust.
Resources mentioned in this episode or recommended by the guest include:
Rich Villodas
The Narrow Path: How the Subversive Way of Jesus Satisfies Our Souls by Rich Villodas
Good and Beautiful and Kind: Becoming Whole in a Fractured World by Rich Villodas
The Deeply Formed Life: Five Transformative Values to Root Us in the Way of Jesus by Rich Villodas
“Christianity Today’s 2021 Book Awards”
Matthew: A Commentary. Volume 1: The Christbook, Matthew 1–12 by Frederick Dale Bruner
“Bitter-sweet” by George Herbert
Don’t Forgive Too Soon: Extending the Two Hands That Heal by Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn, and Matthew Linn
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Listen in as Russell Moore, director of Christianity Today’s Public Theology Project and Editor-in-Chief, talks about the latest books, cultural conversations and pressing ethical questions that point us toward the kingdom of Christ.
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