RACISM, MENTAL HEALTH, PORNOGRAPHY, AND HOW WE REDEEM CULTURE

A little music. A frank discussion. Two friends in a freewheeling back-and-forth that we’re inviting you to share. That’s the new podcast Christon Gray and I have created, with five episodes online so far.

We call the podcast The Cultural Redemptive, because we’re both concerned about how the church can redeem the culture instead of rejecting or running away from it. Each session is an unscripted reflection of conversations Christon and I have been having for more than a year. We decided you might like to eavesdrop on our thinking-out-loud.

What do we mean by culture? Well, so far, we’ve talked about everything from Kanye West’s conversion to the controversial movie The Joker. No subject is off limits: pornography, mental health, getting real about our own sin, racism.

The racial divide in America is particularly important to us because Christon, our worship leader at Christ’s Church, is black, and I’m white. For some folks, that fact would create barriers to honest conversation. But from Day One, we’ve been able to use our differences as energizing factors to help us see problems clearly and discuss issues openly.

 “We have an aggressive approach to racial solidarity, a true embrace of each other’s full expression of self,” Christon said in our first episode. “We have so many conversations about color of skin, but it’s really about much more than that.”

As I pointed out in our first episode, “In our culture the race discussion is heated; it’s difficult to talk about it without emotionally landing on one side or other of the issue.” Our conversations are spirited, but they’re not heated. I’d like to think for many listeners they will be enlightening.

I’m pleased to hear from many who are following my blog, so I wanted to invite you to listen to (and comment about) these new podcasts. Follow the links below to see what we’re saying, and here or there, let us know what you think.

Episode 1: How can we redeem culture and bring a message of hope, authenticity, and truth to the world around us?

Episode 2: The new movie The Joker. The case of the Dallas police office Amber Guyger who shot an unarmed black man in his apartment.

Episode 3: What does it look like when the church gets real in conversation about mental health and how to deal with it inside and outside the church?

Episode 4: Why does a leader get trapped by pornography, and what happens when he looks for help? The conversion of Kanye West and the church’s tendency to shoot its own.

Episode 5: How should we react when we're spiritually assaulted? How to fix our leadership gaps. A response to Kirk Franklin.