Good Faith

Host Curtis Chang sits down for a gripping conversation with author and frequent Good Faith guest Nancy French to discuss her compelling new memoir "Ghosted: An American Story." Nancy opens up about wrestling with dark family and church secrets, shedding light on the complexities of transracial adoption and the challenges of losing one's community. She explores the power of being truly known and finding resilience in an unexpected romance that would also show her the enduring hope found in the cross of Jesus.   Bring The After Party course to your church or small group!    Join the Redeeming Babel Team! https://redeemingbabel.org/we-are-hiring/   Pre-order The After Party Book by Curtis Chang & Nancy French   Order your copy of Ghosted: An American Story by Nancy French   RESOURCES: Godly Response to Abuse in a Christian Environment   Dr. Diane Langberg's books to better train abuse counselors 

From Luke Combs and Tracy Chapman to Johann Sebastian Bach, host Curtis Chang engages in a captivating conversation with Good Faith contributor Andy Crouch about the profound significance of music in our everyday existence. Through insightful anecdotes and reflections, they explore how to actively listen to music and let it transcend mere entertainment to become a powerful conduit for meaning, expression, and even spiritual meditation. Join them as they harmonize on the transformative role of music and its timeless resonance in the human experience.   Join us at the “Songs For The After Party” concert in Washington DC on 4/19/24. Buy tickets here! Songs For The After Party: An Evening with the Porter's Gate   Bring The After Party course to your church or small group!    Join the Redeeming Babel Team! https://redeemingbabel.org/we-are-hiring/   MUSIC REFERENCED: Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time V: Praise to the Eternity of Jesus   Johann Sebastian Bach: The St Matthew Passion   Dianne Reeves & The Berlin Philharmonic (feat. Martin Stegner on Viola): “A Foggy Day”   Luke Combs & Tracy Chapman: "Fast Car" at the 2024 Grammys  

Host Curtis Chang sits down with Kaitlyn Schiess, author of the thought-provoking book, "The Bible and The Ballot." Delving into the intersection of faith and politics, this conversation offers a compelling analysis of how Christians can use or abuse scripture to influence civic engagement and public policy. Drawing from her extensive research and personal experiences, Schiess discusses how Christian traditions can interpret scripture and apply its teachings more faithfully to contemporary political engagement.  Pre-order The After Party Book by Curtis Chang & Nancy French   Join us at the “Songs For The After Party” concert in Washington DC. Buy tickets here! Songs For The After Party: An Evening with the Porter's Gate   Bring The After Party course to your church or small group!    Join David French,  Russell Moore and Curtis on 4/19/24 in Washington DC for a live day-long version of our After Party course. Learn more & buy tickets here! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-after-party-live-tickets-836892757767?aff=GoodFaithPod   Join the Redeeming Babel Team! https://redeemingbabel.org/we-are-hiring/   Order Kaitlyn Schiess’s book here: The Ballot and the Bible (available on Amazon)  

Host Curtis Chang and “founding friend” David French engage in a thought-provoking discussion about the relationship between Democrats and Republican Evangelicals. With a nuanced exploration into topics like the “God Gap,” they shed light on why Democrats frequently fail to grasp the perspectives and values of Evangelicals. Also in this episode, David and Curtis address the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas and explain whether or not their views on the conflict have changed amidst the widening devastation.   Bring The After Party course to your church or small group!    Join David French,  Russell Moore and Curtis on 4/19/24 in Washington DC for a live day-long version of our After Party course. Learn more & buy tickets here! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-after-party-live-tickets-836892757767?aff=GoodFaithPod   Join the Redeeming Babel Team! https://redeemingbabel.org/we-are-hiring/   Pre-order The After Party Book by Curtis Chang & Nancy French (available on Amazon)   Check out David’s work at https://www.nytimes.com/by/david-french

In this thought-provoking episode, public theologian and The After Party partner Russell Moore explores the need for pastors to equip themselves and their congregations for the distinctive challenges of a presidential election featuring repeat candidates and all new potential for national drama. Russell and Curtis also offer valuable insights into the role of faith communities in fostering both political discernment and public witness as they answer questions from pastors and church leaders.   Bring The After Party course to your church or small group!    Join David French,  Russell Moore and Curtis on 4/19/24 in Washington DC for a live day-long version of our After Party course. Learn more & buy tickets here! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-after-party-live-tickets-836892757767?aff=GoodFaithPod   Join the Redeeming Babel Team! https://redeemingbabel.org/we-are-hiring/   Pre-order The After Party Book by Curtis Chang & Nancy French (available on Amazon)   Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America (available on Amazon)  

We tend to think of spiritual disciplines as taking us out of the world: privatized quiet times, sequestered retreats, individual Bible reading, and such. We especially disconnect spiritual disciplines from the very public world of politics. Michael Wear joins Curtis to challenge this disconnection. Together they explore how spiritual disciplines can form us for healthier politics, and also how politics can form our spiritual lives.    The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life (by Michael Wear)   Bring The After Party course to your church or small group!    Join David French,  Russell Moore and Curtis on 4/19/24 in Washington DC for a live day-long version of our After Party course. Learn more & buy tickets here! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-after-party-live-tickets-836892757767?aff=GoodFaithPod   Join the Redeeming Babel Team! https://redeemingbabel.org/we-are-hiring/   Pre-order The After Party Book by Curtis Chang & Nancy French (available on Amazon)   The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God (by Dallas Willard)  

In this first episode in a series on faith and political engagement, we delve into the intersection of anxiety and politics, as Christians navigate the mounting tension of the 2024 election cycle. In an interview conducted by DT Slouffman, Redeeming Babel’s Director of Content, Curtis shares insightful perspectives on how faith can helpfully form our emotional, relational, and church life. If you’re wondering how to navigate the coming months with both hope and humility, this episode is for you!    Bring The After Party course to your church or small group!    Join David French,  Russell Moore and Curtis on 4/19/24 in Washington DC for a live day-long version of our After Party course. Learn more & buy tickets here! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-after-party-live-tickets-836892757767?aff=GoodFaithPod   Join the Redeeming Babel Team! https://redeemingbabel.org/we-are-hiring/   Pre-order The After Party Book by Curtis Chang & Nancy French (available on Amazon)   Order The Anxiety Oporrtunity by Curtis Chang (available on Amazon)  

Our outer world – our politics, our society, our organizations, even our local community and families  – can be enormously complex and even chaotic at times. How do we make sense of all that happens around us? Author and therapist Alison Cook joins Curtis to explore a key strategy: exploring our inner world. They discuss why grasping our inner complexity is critical to properly understanding our external world. This rich discussion covers the theological reasons for this process, as well as many practical steps on how to get started in this inner journey.   We're having a party and we'd love for our Good Faith listeners to come! We'll be joined by good friends David French and Russell Moore for a live day-long version of our After Party course as we chart a path towards better Christian politics. Learn more & buy tickets here! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-after-party-live-tickets-836892757767?aff=GoodFaithPod   Join the Redeeming Babel Team! https://redeemingbabel.org/we-are-hiring/   Pre-order The After Party Book (available on Amazaon)   Free guided meditation (+ 2 other IFS themed resources)   Article: 7 Ways to Increase Your Support Network and Why It Matters   Podcast Episode: Episode 71: All About Therapy—Do I Need a Therapist, How Do I Find One, and What Type of Therapy Works Best?   New book: I Shouldn't Feel This Way   Boundaries for Your Soul podcast series   Curtis Chang on The Best of You Podcast  

40% of all Americans will receive a diagnosis of cancer in their lifetime and practically every adult will know someone who already has. How do we talk about this reality? Nancy French, who recently was diagnosed with an aggressive type of breast cancer, joins Curtis to talk about how we talk. In a wide ranging, vulnerable, and candid conversation, Nancy shares about topics like why she doesn’t personally find the “fight cancer” language helpful (even if it might be helpful for others); why people are uncomfortable talking about serious illness; how cancer can be both a horrible and beautiful experience at the same time; and more gems.   The After Party Book - Available for Pre-order Now!   The After Party Conference LIVE! on 4/19/24 in Washington DC - Early Bird Registration Here   ******   Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag   Why “war on cancer” metaphors may actually harm health (USC Study)   The Anxiety Opportunity by Curtis Chang  

Repeated studies show that the current media landscape is worsening polarization and weakening our ability to grasp truth. How do we escape getting trapped in our own “bespoke realities?” This Good Faith episode draws on a recent webinar led by Curtis and David French where they address how Christians can adopt better information habits.   Check out The After Party here   “Welcome to our new ‘Bespoke Realities” by David French (in the New York Times)

How are Christians supposed to think, feel, and act as they walk by a homeless person? As they drive through an impoverished neighborhood and pass by its residents? Our reactions will be strongly influenced by how we answer the question, “Why? Why are these people poor?” To wrestle with this question, Curtis is joined by the leading scholar on American poverty today, Matthew Desmond, author of Poverty, by America. Together, they explore why most Americans are missing the full answer – and the special responsibility of Christians to live out the Biblical answer.    Send us your stories about how you’re living out “Good Faith” in your everyday life. We want to hear from you and we may reach out to you to be featured in our Campfire Stories!    Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond   Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond   End Poverty USA   What does the Bible say about poverty? (from World Vision)  

The dominant narrative is that Western culture is headed for ever greater levels of atheism, agnosticism, or at least departure from belief in the Christian God. Andy Crouch returns from his sabbatical to question this narrative. He points out that the dominant secular worldview of the West - deterministic, rationalistic, and reductionist - is starting to run on empty. Can this lead to a greater hunger for the Christian God? Curtis and Andy examine what Christians would need to do to meet this hunger, including reexamining our own understanding of the Gospel itself.   The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World by Ian McGilchrist   At the Origins of Modern Atheism by Michael J. Buckley   The One, the Three, and the Many: God, Creation, and the Culture of Modernity by Colin Gunton  

The ongoing war in Gaza has sent out reverberations in the political, military, and economic spheres. But what about the moral sphere? Curtis is joined by “founding friend” David French to examine the moral aftershocks of Gaza in two disparate spheres: the moral practice of war and the moral practice of free speech at universities. We examine why Christians should care about both spheres, and also uncover the surprising theological similarities between them.   Please leave your review of Good Faith on Apple Podcasts!   “How Gaza is affecting American Jews and Christians” - a Good Faith episode with Rabbi Michael Holzman and David French

AI feels like a tornado that has hit society: unpredictable, powerful, and out of our control. How do we as Christians respond to this force in the world? Curtis is joined by two friends who live and work at the intersection of AI and spiritual reflection: James Cham of Bloomberg Beta and John Kim of the Karamaan Group. Together, the three friends explore how Christians might flip the question from “Where is AI taking us spiritually?” to “Where should Christians take AI?”   Pose your questions to the Good Faith chatbot (BETA)   An AI primer by John Kim (on Medium)   Is AI a religion? (conversation on Bloomberg)   AI: Grappling with a new kind of intelligence (YouTube video from the World Science Festival)   Data, Truth, and AI (a BioLogos podcast)   The Spirituality of Chat GPT (Good Faith episode with Andy Crouch)

American evangelicalism’s pull towards the far right is felt by anyone that comes into contact with the movement. But how did this happen? Who did the pulling? What were the motivations? What were the pre-conditions that made evangelicals so susceptible? With his latest book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, Tim Alberta has written the definitive book that answers these questions. He and Curtis discuss the key types of individuals, the organizations, the strategies, and especially the hidden incentive structures that lie beneath the headlines.     The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta (Harper)  

This episode drops on the three year anniversary of the Capitol insurrection of January 6 2021. The event revealed the dangerous nature of Trumpism and political violence. We should be worried about what happened, even today. But the event also presented an opportunity: it contained an invitation from God for all of us, one that applies to our role in our own corner of the world, even today. In this Good Faith Classic (from also two years ago exactly), Curtis and “founding friend” David French unpack this invitation for everyone.

“Founding friend” David French returns to wrap up 2023 (we’re taking a break for a few weeks). He and Curtis look back at the year through the lens of two core spiritual values of The After Party: Humility and Hope. We discuss what happened in 2023 that grew our humility, reminding us of the need to recognize complexity, to grow, and to learn. We also talked up the signs of hope from the year, including many that are hidden or counter-intuitive.   Leave a review on Apple Podcasts for Good Faith   Good Faith episode on the Asbury revival (6/17/2023)   ‘The Bear’ and the need for a place to belong by David French (NYT 7/16/2023)   The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta   Losing our religion: An altar call for Evangelical America by Russell Moore  

Climate change is a major long term threat to our world. Yet, we find very few evangelical Christians voices or mass engagement on this issue. Why this disturbing gap? To explore this question, Curtis is joined by Bruce Huber who teaches about environmental law as Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame. Together, they explore the deep reasons why many Christians struggle even to make proper sense of climate change.   Laudato Si' -- Pope Francis's 2015 encyclical on "Care for our Common Home"   The website of Jonathan Haidt -- see especially "The Righteous Mind"   The website of the IPCC -- the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which acts as a sponsor of and clearinghouse for climate research   An accessible book about carbon taxation, "The Case for a Carbon Tax," by Prof. Shi-Ling Hsu of Florida State University  

The wave of immigrants and refugees at the border has filled the news, and will most likely influence the next presidential elections. But what’s really happening there? And how should American Christians make sense of this issue? In the second of two episodes on this topic, Curtis is joined by someone with a unique perspective, Michael Debruhl. Michael is a former agent and executive in the Border Patrol who felt disturbed at the widespread misconceptions on the topic. Upon leaving the agency, he started volunteering at the Sacred Heart Shelter, one of the main church based programs receiving migrants at the border.    Helpful resources on immigration and the border   Accurate information from The National Immigration Forum (a non-partisan effort at sensible and compassionate reform of our national approach to immigration)   What’s happening at the U.S.-Mexico border in 7 charts from The Pew Research Center   What’s behind the influx of migrants crossing the U.S. southern border? from PBS NewsHour   Public database from the US Customs and Border Protection (the main federal agency overseeing the border)   DONATE to the Sacred Heart Shelter (Casa del Sagrado Corazón) - the shelter directed by guest Michael Debruhl  

The wave of immigrants and refugees at the border has filled the news, and will most likely influence the next presidential elections. But what’s really happening there? And how should American Christians make sense of this issue? In the first of two episodes on this topic, Curtis is joined by Bri Stensrud, Director of Women of Welcome, a ministry that helps American evangelical women understand what’s happening at the border in light of Scripture and current reality. They talk about why Christians should care about the border, the common misconceptions in play, and how opening our minds and hearts on this topic changes us.   To make an end of year contribution to the Good Faith podcast, donate online here (https://redeemingbabel.org/donate-to-redeeming-babel/).   For major gifts, donor advised funds, or family foundations, please email us at info@redeemingbabel.org.   Order Bri's latest book: Start with Welcome Learn more about Women of Welcome Free resources & Bible studies from Women of Welcome  Join the Women of Welcome community online: FB & IG Watch the Who is Welcome Here documentary  More on World Relief More on National Immigration Forum  Follow Bri online   On the forced separation policy:    The Atlantic on “the secret history”  Immigration Forum’s analysis Christianity Today’s coverage The failure of “zero tolerance” policy