This summer, we're taking a short break from our regular podcast format, and instead have selected various installments from past message series given by James Emery White at Mecklenburg Community Church where he serves as the Senior Pastor. All things gender continues to be a hot-button issue in today's culture, making headlines around the globe for various reasons. We thought that sharing this installment of the Meck series called "Gender" would set a firm foundation for everyone and answer questions that you may have when it comes to the theology of sexual identity.

Below you'll find the link to the full series if that's something you are interested in checking out, along with the sources that were used in the development of the message itself:

“Gender”

Preston Sprinkle, Embodied: Transgender Identities, the Church and What the Bible Has to Say (David C. Cook, 2021).

“A Mister No More: Mr. Potato Head Goes Gender Neutral,” AP/USA Today, February 26, 2021.

Colin M. Wright and Emma N. Hilton, “The Dangerous Denial of Sex,” The Wall Street Journal, February 13, 2020.

Steven Rhoads, Taking Sex Differences Seriously.

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.

This summer, we're taking a short break from our regular podcast format, and instead have selected various installments from past message series given by James Emery White at Mecklenburg Community Church where he serves as the Senior Pastor. Today's episode comes from a series we called "The Science of God" with this installment focusing on "The Science of Faith." You see, there are many deal-breakers for those who are unchurched when it comes to the Christian faith. The biggest deal-breaker, though, seems to be what lies in the realm of public truth, meaning science. The existence of God, creation, evolution, the latest discoveries in astrophysics... that's where people long for answers. But how do you find answers when it comes to something like faith?

Below you'll find the link to the full series if that's something you are interested in checking out, along with the sources that were used in the development of the message itself:

"The Science of God"

Ed Stetzer, “When Will Churches Be Back? Vital Information for Churches and Christian Leaders,” Christianity Today, January 13, 2021.

Ian Barbour, When Science Meets Religion: Enemies, Strangers, or Partners? (London: SPCK, 2000).

For an informed critique of many of the more popular aspects of applied naturalism, see Phillip E. Johnson, Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law and Education (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1995).

Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (New York: Random House, 1995).

How I Changed My Mind About Evolution: Evangelicals Reflect on Faith and Science, ed. by Kathryn Applegate and J.B. Stump (IVP).

Nietzsche's famed “God is dead” passage can be found in section 125 of The Gay Science, available in The Portable Nietzsche, ed. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Penguin, 1982).

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.

Today's episode of the Church & Culture Podcast is quite different from the norm. This summer, we're taking a short break from our regular podcast format, and instead have selected various installments from past message series given by James Emery White at Mecklenburg Community Church where he serves as the Senior Pastor. There is no doubt that today's culture has become incredibly polarized - particularly when it comes to politics. That's why many churches avoid the topic altogether. It's also why we named this series at Meck "Where Angels Fear to Tread: Meck Talks Politics." Because church members often have questions like: Does God take political sides and, if so, which ones? Is America a Christian nation and is that even the goal? Are there values meant to guide us when it comes to politics? Do all Christians, if they are truly Christian, have to vote the same way? Does embracing the Christian faith automatically lead you to one particular political party? What if, as a Christian, you feel politically homeless - too conservative for the progressives, and too progressive for the conservatives? In this installment Dr. White explores the mark of a Christian and how we are called to engage the political realm.

Below you'll find the link to the full series if that's something you are interested in checking out, along with the sources that were used in the development of the message itself:

"Where Angels Fear to Tread: Meck Talks Politics"

The Apology of Tertullian, AD 197.

Francis Schaeffer, The Mark of the Christian.

Robert Corin Morris, “The Christians are Fighting – Again,” Weavings, Volume XXII, Number 2, March/April 2007, pp. 24-32.

Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1953/1954), pp. 77-78.

Jennifer Senior, “The Ginsburg-Scalia Act Was Not a Farce,” The New York Times, September 22, 2020.

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.