On Culture

We are back! It has been awhile since our last On Culture - but I'm going to work back to my old schedule, if I can, with some exceptions.Anyway - this episode features frequent collaborator Trey Herweck and is engaged with the last issue from The Embassy - Struggling Imperfectly Forward.Here is an excerpt:K asked a question during the conference, a question I answered, but one that we discussed individually off line, probably over dinner. There is a lot of killing in K's country - killing that is unjust, random, inexplicable, tragic, grievous, enraging. K's question is about forgiveness. In thinking about discipleship, his own journey toward Christlikeness, K thinks of forgiveness - his most pressing issue. He asked me, but he, in many ways, knows more about it than I ever will - because Christ calls him to apply forgiveness in ways that seem extreme to me, to us. He is committed to following that call in ways it is hard, probably impossible, for me to imagine.But it is a commitment we share. A commitment to forgive, to be transformed into a more forgiving person. It is one part of the commitment of discipleship. It is a commitment we understand as foundational to Christianity, and as something we all face. As a small group of us spoke about it together, we had all struggled with forgiveness, with this commitment. I am convinced that all transformation toward the image of Christ is basically impossible for us - we are called to participate with God's Spirit - but He must empower it because we can't do it ourselves. That might sound good in theory, but it goes against every fibre of our grain. We have to actively and intentionally move in the direction of transformation, and, at the same time, cry out for the ability, for the desire - or for the ability absent the desire, to forgive - or to love, to have peace, to have the faith necessary to continue the journey. So to say it is hard to forgive misses the point - our part is hard, the divine component necessary is impossible. Once, when Jesus explained the difficulty for those with means to be in a right relationship with God, his disciples were greatly astonished and wondered how it was possible for anyone to be saved. Jesus told them, and us, what is impossible for us is possible with God.Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”Matthew 19:26Our main problem with this - the impossibility of truly following Jesus, of truly forgiving, having faith, peace, hope, wisdom, love - is that we attempt to make it possible. We want to measure it, analyze it, make it into an abstraction. We want it to be difficult, of course, but possible. If we are honest, we want to be successful at it - to feel good about our progress. And we don't want to feel guilty about our anger with someone we have already struggled to forgive. And so we either explain away our inability to forgive that person - the injustice done is too great (but isn't that the point?) - or we explain away the injustice into something we don't have to forgive. But the harm remains, the hurt remains - not just for us but, worse, for people we love. To truly wrestle with it, to truly feel the injustice, the anger, to grieve the loss - an injustice, anger, and loss that does not go away - and then to forgive? It is beyond me. It is beyond you, I believe. It is beyond K. That is why he asked, I think.Thanks for listening!The Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

You'll have to listen to this one:* A brief recap of the last two dispatches from The Embassy* And solo podcast explaining the lack of other podcastsEnjoy!The Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

Here is an excerpt from the dispatch from The Embassy - Show Me Something Real …Phillip Hancock was on death row at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. He was convicted of two murders committed in 2001, resulting in a penalty of death. Devin Moss was his chaplain, or spiritual advisor as Moss described it. Moss had spent much of the prior year conversing with Hancock leading up to the night of the scheduled execution, November 30, 2023. This scenario is not uncommon, at least as it relates to inmates on death row. It isn't terribly unusual that Hancock professed to be an atheist, although inmates on death row who already have some religious belief or those not already religious finding some belief is more common. What was more unusual here is that Moss is also an atheist.Devin Moss, like Hancock, grew up a Christian but later rejected belief in God. Moss became an atheist and a chaplain, and counseled Hancock as he faced execution.There is an adage that says there are no atheists in foxholes — even skeptics will pray when facing death. But Hancock, in the time leading up to his execution, only became more insistent about his nonbelief. He and his chaplain were both confident that there was no God who might grant last-minute salvation, if only they produced a desperate prayer. They had only one another.An Atheist Chaplain and a Death Row Inmate's Final Hours - Emma Goldberg - NYTBoth men shared a familiar path to unbelief. Both grew up in homes where Christianity was at least nominally practiced. After entering prison, Hancock was at least considering a Christian faith. But all of the hardships of his life finally turned him away from a belief in God.Over his early years in prison, Hancock had come to feel abandoned by God.Then, in 2007, a court denied the appeal of his death sentence. Hancock had a revelation: “I decided, it makes more sense to me to hate a God that does not exist than to be slave to one,” he said.What did Moss have to offer Hancock in a relationship where neither believed in anything beyond themselves? The answer to that question may have something to say to those of us who profess Christianity and who find the root of answers to ultimate questions in that faith. …I'd love for you to read the whole piece on The EmbassyThe Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

This week Susan James and I talk about how and why we ruin words. As always, we are discussing the latest dispatch from The Embassy - Ruining Words - here is an excerpt …… We don't tend to use these words with their actual meanings engaged. I think many of us don't even know their meaning as we use them.We begin to lose the ability to talk about reality …The flattening of these words mirrors and serves the polarization of our culture. We use words as we wish in order to please our cultural patrons and defeat our cultural foes. This negative trend in our culture I have noted many times. But I want to point out that flattening all words connected to our widening cultural divide into either “good” and “bad”, or “us” and “them” has effects beyond the cultural moment. We will miss these words, their history, their impact, their meaning. In an earlier post, I said that we will miss the truth when it is gone. This is, I suppose, a way of saying the same thing. The truth of these words, something that might unify, might appeal, might challenge … we need that truth, those meanings. We will miss them when they are gone. We begin to lose the ability to talk about reality in many important areas of life, only able to describe our experience and views in terms of the cultural divide, only able to say “us” or “them”. But life is more than “us” and “them”. We need to avoid being complicit in losing the ability to say so.I hope you read the entire piece … Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

Chad and I talk about how we face endings and beginnings throughout our life and how that connects with a life of faith. Here is an excerpt …Trying to find meaning in an alienated world. I'm not a Doomer Optimist, but that is actually pretty good. In fact, the Christian narrative offers meaning in an alienated world. More specifically, the Christian narrative of the end of all things, the Christian apocalyptic message is what we have forgotten in our alienated world. We have the apocalyptic message, certainly. In fact, much of our apocalyptic understanding had roots in this Christian understanding - but it has escaped, in what Jonathan Askonas called “kind of a theological lab leak”, its proper context.Of course, the word “apocalypse” comes from the Christian narrative, even as it is used in our secular analysis of history. One of the central biblical meanings of the word is an in-breaking of God's presence in this age that ends it and ushers in another. It is part of the Christian narrative. For the secularist, apocalypse is bad in any sense of the word. Not only that, all the agency lies with us and, therefore, all the responsibility to avoid apocalypse and usher in utopia. This has resulted, many have argued, in our increasing anxiety - one false move and all is lost. For the Christian, we believe an apocalypse is certain and necessary for the full redemption and restoration of all things - utopia is not in our grasp and apocalypse is not in our ability to avoid. We are called to faithfulness in presence and service and transformation by God's power as preparation for any future, including an apocalyptic one.For Christians, the drawing near of the apocalypse should serve (as it has throughout history) not to paralyze us or make us anxious but to spur us to bold and hopeful action. The end is coming. There will be a catastrophe. But providence still ordains that all will be well. In the Greek myth, when all the evils have fled Pandora's box, what remains inside is hope.Jonathan Askonas - Building a Future in the Face of the Apocalypse - Comment - Fall 2024The New Testament biblical response to the prospect of apocalypse, this coming of Jesus to us is one of hopeful anticipation - even if it means the overturning of the world as we know it. In part because of this overturning. This is the way that justice is done, all is restored, and the brokenness of humankind is healed. Of course, it is true that throughout history and throughout the world, the church has and does most often occur in contexts of poverty, sacrifice, or persecution. Apocalypse means the end of all of that - and therefore perhaps more naturally viewed with hope.Read the whole thing - Endings and Beginnings. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

Trey Herweck, pastor of Refuge Church here in St. Charles, and I talk about faith and doubt and certainty and mystery. As always, we riff on the latest edition of The Embassy - Certainty, Doubt, Faith, Mystery.Here is an excerpt:About that path to God - much of the New Testament interacts with this question - what is the way (or way back) to God? Almost the entirety of the book of Hebrews stresses the unique and irreplaceable role of Jesus as the only One who can bring us back to God. One of Jesus' disciples, Thomas, responds to Jesus' message at the end of His life that He is returning to His Father -Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”John 14:5-7As we read in Acts 17, Paul, in the early years of the church, arrived in the heart of the philosophical world - Athens - and saw idols all over the place. He did not respond with distress, though he was distressed, he responded with a loving, engaged, culture honoring and culturally informed call to a God they did not know about, referencing an idol to an unknown god that adorned the square among all the other idols. He walked through a door they opened in language they understood to tell them about one who died and rose to invite them back to God and called them to turn from their beliefs to a commitment to this path to the true God. Some believed, some scoffed, and some wanted to hear more.All of these are very particular invitations to a very particular, a scandalously particular, path. And there are dozens more I could reference. This is a central message of the New Testament that has been believed by the church for many centuries. Again, others have a different understanding of scripture and the way to God - and I respect their views. But the church has taught this central message for almost two millennia.Can God apply His grace, in Jesus, through His Spirit to those who don't have all their beliefs in order? Yes, of course. At least I hope so. We all should hope so, because none of us has all beliefs in order, whatever that means. That is part of the central meaning of grace. God's grace is God's - He applies it as He sees fit. But he tells us something - something scandalously particular - about how He ordinarily applies that grace.Faith is required, and faith isn't certainty - but it is a knowledge and foundation for life and action, grounded in our understanding of what God has said to us. It is a gift of the Spirit, so we can be transformed and transformative. Is there a mystery here? Yes. We are not promised a life without mystery. And, God being the one who loves us best and knows what we need the most, we shouldn't seek a life without mystery if that is the life He has for us. But acting in the world requires us to assume some belief about us, about God, about others, about the world - even if are not aware of these beliefs, even if we claim uncertainty about them, when we act, we live out some belief. We can say we want to dwell in the mystery, but acting requires us to express some belief - held in faith, with humility … but held. We are not quantum elements existing in a state of indeterminacy - when observed, we particularize. And we are always observed … called to act under His loving observation. One of the tragedies of our moment is that some cling to a certainty that binds them in angry, fearful, pharisaical concrete. Another tragedy of our moment is that others drift - lacking agency and purpose because all is mystery and nothing holds any particular meaningRead the whole piece … Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

This episode of On Culture interacts with this latest dispatch from The Embassy. Here is an excerpt - Some commercials stay with you. Perhaps they resonated during a particular time or place, or became a cultural talking point like Apple's 1984 Super Bowl spot introducing the Macintosh or Wendy's iconic question - also, interestingly, from 1984. Or perhaps they resonated with you because you just enjoy them. Or maybe you like the product and a good commercial for it validates … you somehow. Because commercials are about desire. And your desire, met by this product in some way, is validated by this commercial, this 30 second expression of why anyone would or should desire this thing. You probably have a favorite or two.Infiniti made a splash in 1989 with its introductory commercials. It was a new luxury brand - we had seen, and desired as symbols of luxury, Mercedes and BMWs for years, and this was to be a new offering in this status driven category. How did they introduce us to their new luxury car? They did it without really showing us the car. It was about a feeling, a sense, a “true idea of luxury”. These spots were both widely criticized and widely successful. We bought the idea, the feeling, the vibe.A more recent series of ads has an update on this vibes strategy. Matthew McConaughey stars in a number of Lincoln spots where the car is present, but secondary. We are encouraged to identify with the driver. Not the particular idiosyncrasies of this particular movie star, but the person of means who goes his own way - who has his (or hers, I suppose, but men appear to be the target here) own idiosyncrasies. It may seem strange to appeal to a vision of unique idiosyncrasies in a mass market ad, but we don't analyze the appeal, we experience it. I can drive anything, and I know other things might appear to have more status, but, because I am me, I am bestowing my own status on this Lincoln (along with Matthew McConaughey - who may not actually drive one).…God's people - and all people with them - have been faced with this question from since there were God's people. You may be familiar with the tragic history of God's people in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel. Most of that history can be explained as a cycle of failed attempts to get what they wanted instead of what was offered them by God. Instead of blessing, they, over and over, sought what seemed like security from pagan gods or alliances with neighboring kingdoms. Over and over, God called them back to a simple dependence on Him, which is what would truly satisfy them. Here is just one of those appeals, through the prophet Isaiah -“Come, all you who are thirsty,come to the waters;and you who have no money,come, buy and eat!Come, buy wine and milkwithout money and without cost.Why spend money on what is not bread,and your labor on what does not satisfy?Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,and you will delight in the richest of fare.Give ear and come to me;listen, that you may live.I will make an everlasting covenant with you,my faithful love promised to David.Isaiah 55:1-3Read the whole piece! Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

This episode of On Culture is an extension of the latest article there - A Redemptive Arc.Here is an excerpt:When I showed up for that coffee with my friend, I wasn't thinking about redemption. Because, as far as I knew, it hadn't arrived. As far as I knew, the redemption that has seemed to arrive, wasn't going to. It is a thing that takes many forms and often arrives in an unexpected packages. Sometimes you don't know it has arrived until sometime later - in the moment, you may not think of it as redemption at all. That is the thing about it - we reach what we think is the end of our rope, and redemption may show up - or we may discover that someone has given us more rope, or tied us in more securely, instead of pulling us up from the darkness. Sometimes, that is the only redemption we will receive in this part of our story.I know that my redeemer lives,and that in the end he will stand on the earth.And after my skin has been destroyed,yet in my flesh I will see God;I myself will see himwith my own eyes—I, and not another.How my heart yearns within me!Job 19:25-27I'm not sure we think of Job's story as a redemption story. But that is our misapprehension of redemption. It is most obviously the classic case of someone dealing with suffering. But redemption comes through suffering. We are redeemed not only to something, but from something and through something.But redemption comes through suffering. We are redeemed not only to something, but from something and through something.Thanks to Susan James for the conversation.Until next time - grace and peace. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

This episode of On Culture interacts with the most recent dispatch from The Embassy - The Noble Lie. You may want to check it out before or as you listen to this.Here is an excerpt …You may have heard of what we call the noble lie. It can be a bit subjective to define, but, simply, it is a lie for a good purpose. You may have noticed that we have a difficult time agreeing on what ‘good' means. The classic example of a noble lie is exemplified by the inhabitants of the French village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in World War II.The history of Le Chambon and its environs influenced the conduct of its residents during the Vichy regime and under German occupation. As Huguenot (Calvinist) Protestants, they had been persecuted in France by the Catholic authorities from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries and later provided shelter to fellow Protestants escaping discrimination and persecution. Many in Le Chambon regarded the Jews as a “chosen people” and, when they escorted those who were endangered 300 kilometers to the Swiss border, the guides were aware that they were following the same route that their persecuted Huguenot brethren had traveled centuries earlier.Le Chambon-sur-Lignon - The Holocaust EncyclopediaA village of 5000 sheltered close to 5000 people, most of them Jews, who were hiding from the Nazis - at great risk to themselves. They were motivated by their Christian beliefs and led by Pastor Andre Trocme of the Reformed Church of France and his wife, Magda, and his assistant, Pastor Edouard Theis.On June 29, 1943, the German police raided a local secondary school and arrested 18 students. The Germans identified five of them as Jews, and sent them to Auschwitz, where they died. The German police also arrested their teacher, Daniel Trocmé, Pastor Trocmé's cousin, and deported him to the Lublin/Majdanek concentration camp, where the SS killed him. Roger Le Forestier, Le Chambon's physician, who was especially active in helping Jews obtain false documents, was arrested and subsequently shot on August 20, 1944, in Montluc prison on orders of the Gestapo.Le Chambon-sur-Lignon - The Holocaust EncyclopediaRead the whole thing … and thanks for listening.The Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Susan James and I talk about gratitude. This episode is based on the latest dispatch from The Embassy - Counting Blessings.Here is an excerpt …Most of us take what we have for granted and many of us feel that we are losing out on something that others have. Or, even if things are better now, that we lost out before on something so we are not as far as we ‘should' be. Everything is relative to a set of expectations that excludes a fallen world and our own fallen nature - so any setback is not placed next to the many blessings we have received but can so easily ignore. And so we lack gratitude. If we expect a life of unbroken health for ourselves and our loved ones, of ever rising success and prosperity, of continuing security, of constant enjoyment … all expectations that surely won't be met in this actual life in this actual place among these actual people - we will not be filled with thankfulness. We will think we have grounds for grievance, even if we, in what we convince ourselves is virtue, don't act on the grievance. I have experienced many young people who feel that they have, uniquely, a legitimate grievance because they have grown up in a time of economic uncertainty. I will pass over the observation that I have lived through all of those times as well. Even so, a useful question in life is “compared to what”? Those who grew up in almost every decade in the last century certainly had things worse - WWI, the great pandemic, the crash, the depression, WWII, the Cold War, war in the Middle East, assassinations, hostages in Iran, stagflation, domestic bombings in the 70's, the dot com bubble crash, 9/11 … etc. But these previous generations may not have had things worse compared to their expectations. We listed some reasons above why it doesn't usually seem like things are better. There is another one - things may not be better in some important ways. It is better in ways we take for granted, and worse in ways we take for granted. We are broken and so is the world and economic progress does not make that go away. That might be another misplaced expectation - that if we all move toward prosperity together, all the big problems will fade. The world is worse in ways it couldn't be worse before - precisely because we have more wealth than we need - worse in ways that only wealth makes possible.Read the whole article.LinksTravel Advisory for Ethiopia - U.S. State DepartmentOur World in Data - Economic Growth - Global Change Data LabA Goose in a Dress - Tonya Gold, Harpers, September 2015 Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

This episode of On Culture interacts with the latest piece from The Embassy - check it out at theembassy.substack.comHere is an excerpt …In the tragic vision, individual sufferings and social evils are inherent in the innate deficiencies of all human beings, whether these deficiencies are in knowledge, wisdom, morality, or courage. Moreover, the available resources are always inadequate to fulfill all the desires of all the people. Thus there are no "solutions" in the tragic vision, but only trade-offs that still leave many unfulfilled and much unhappiness in the world.Thomas Sowell - “The Vision of the Anointed” p.113There are innate deficiencies of all human beings and not only individual sufferings but social evils are inherent in them. The available resources are always inadequate to fulfill all the desires of all the people - no solutions, only trade-offs. That is what the founders believed. We have an imperfect system, to be sure, but a system well designed to manage our imperfections - to account for them, to see them and be realistic about who we are and who our opponents are. There will be no glorious final victory over our political enemies, partly because our founders knew, human nature being human nature, that is what we would want. And that, if we gained that final victory, we wouldn't handle it well. Because we are human and that is what history tells us - and we are no exception. And so it is a nation that seeks to make a way for We the People - actual human beings with fallen human natures - to seek unity and tranquility and security while preserving liberty.So let's celebrate the birth of our nation - by appreciating that those who founded it knew us well enough to know what would lead toward a more perfect union, knowing that a perfect union - at least in this age - is beyond our reach.The Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

On Culture - In this episode, Susan James and I talk about the choice between bears and men … and how we can talk to and listen to one another.As with most episodes, we interact with the latest piece from The Embassy - Of Bears and Men - here is an excerpt …Recently, a question (for women) was placed before the national consciousness - if alone in the woods, walking down a trail, would you rather meet a man or a bear? This question was placed before the national consciousness, as many issues are, by way of social media. In this case, a Tik Tok video. The video got a lot of interaction there, and was posted on other social media platforms, where it got a lot more interaction. Columns were written, punditry was punditried, memes were memed … you know how this works. It is evident from the video itself that the question was not taken completely seriously by all those answering it, even if they had a serious point - but much of the resulting discussion was of the deadly serious variety. Part of the initial meme-making movement was in the contest between the “it is ridiculous (and perhaps offensive to men) to say ‘bear'” people (largely but not exclusively men) vs. the “no it isn't (and you don't understand the danger to women)” people (largely but not exclusively women). I don't want to try to answer the question, I want to use the question to talk about how we talk to one another - or don't.Those who answer “bear” aren't necessarily giving a statistically rigorous answer, or trying to. As I understand these women, most of them are women and all who aren't are trying to answer on behalf of women, they are communicating that they often feel unsafe in the world - because of the presence of men. If given the situation of a bear ahead of them on the trail and a man behind them, I don't think they are saying they would run toward the bear, seeking safety from the man (even though that is where the logic of the answer would lead). They are using the question to express something else - men sometimes make women unsafe, and more often make women feel unsafe. Those who answer “man” are usually giving what is, to them, the obvious, statistically sound, answer. While women are more often the victim of men than they are of bears, it is because they meet far, far, far, far more men than bears in their lives. Perhaps one out of hundreds of men would be less than safe, while a far greater number of bears would be less than safe. Some men are offended at the implication that they are more dangerous than a bear - and at the implication that they wouldn't try to make a woman safe in the presence of a bear. While women are offended at the implication that the question - and therefore their fears - are silly. Many on both sides of the question feel justified in their offense. As a result, there is very little listening going on here. You can read the whole piece here.The Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

This episode of On Culture starts from the most recent written piece from The Embassy - Why So Serious? Here is an excerpt …As I was in the process of collecting my thoughts for this essay, I noticed a number of pieces that are noticing the same trend. In the wake of the 2016 election, there were a number of attempts to explain the Angry Right. Strangers in Their Own Land was a National Book Award finalist in 2018 and explored this phenomenon - the righteous anger of the victim and the deadly struggle to right the wrong. We see, of course, much the same thing on the left. Ross Douthat recently asked Can the Left Be Happy? - an example of a column that doesn't really match the title. Douthat is noticing what I am noticing (I swear I started to write this before I read his piece. More on this in a bit) - that many on the left, mirroring those on the right but for slightly different reasons, don't think happiness is what we should be feeling right now.The smartphone theory of increasing youth unhappiness has been especially in the news this past week, thanks to Jonathan Haidt's new book, “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.” And it's been striking how certain critiques of Haidt's theory from the left seem to object to the idea that youth unhappiness could be anything but rational and natural.Ross Douthat - The New York Times - April 6, 2024Unhappiness is rational, natural, and … right. Again, why are you laughing at x when y is happening in the world?Kevin D. Williamson, just last week, wrote in The Dispatch a better (though longer) version of what I am trying to write here. His piece is called Humor is a Cool Medium. In it, Williamson observes,Humor requires emotional distance rather than emotional urgency, dispassionate observation rather than cheerleading and sermonizing, cool wit rather than scalding rage … When humor is instrumentalized for political purposes—when it stops being art and is degraded to the state of rhetoric—it is used for one thing only: lowering the relative status of disfavored groups.Kevin D. Williamson - The Dispatch - May 24, 2024Humor being instrumentalized for political purposes describes much of late night comedy. It stops being art because it isn't trying to be. It is used to lower the relative status of disfavored groups. One more bullet in the culture war.As I mentioned, if you look at the links below, you will notice that a number of people sensed the appropriateness of this sort of question at about the same time I did. What does that mean? I don't know - but it may be a hopeful trend.In the Wisdom book of Ecclesiastes, wrestling with the meaning of life in a world that was by every circumstantial measure (child mortality, disease, war, starvation …) much more difficult that here and now, we read -There is a time for everything,and a season for every activity under the heavens:a time to be born and a time to die,a time to plant and a time to uproot,a time to kill and a time to heal,a time to tear down and a time to build,a time to weep and a time to laugh,a time to mourn and a time to dance,a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,a time to search and a time to give up,a time to keep and a time to throw away,a time to tear and a time to mend,a time to be silent and a time to speak,a time to love and a time to hate,a time for war and a time for peace.Ecclesiastes 3:1-8There is a time to weep and to mourn and to tear. There is. We should recognize that. But there is a time to dance and embrace and laugh. The person who always laughs and the one who never does has lost perspective, has cut themselves off from at least part of reality. There is wrong in this world. Humor can help highlight it in a unique way. Laughter is good. Perpetual anger isn't a virtue. And the world has been measurably worse in almost every measurable way in almost every other time and place than here and now. It is ok to recognize and mourn and even work against what is wrong and unjust in this world. But we should not draw any moral status by the depth of our indignation. … Read the whole piece here. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

This is the podcast that goes with A Drug for Everything, which we revisited last week. I will also post a new “print” piece this weekend - and we will go on a path of something new every other week, followed by that podcast (what we have been doing) plus revisiting a piece every other week, now that we have over 100 posts over these last couple of years - hope you enjoy. Mike talks with Susan James and Bret Toth about our vices and our struggles - and how they may be necessary for our growth.LinksA New Drug Switched Off My Appetite - What's Next? - Wired Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

This episode uses as its starting point the piece from The Embassy - Anatomy of Belief - which uses as its starting point the movie Anatomy of a Fall.Here is an excerpt:Anatomy of a Fall is set in France, the house that is the principle setting is high up in the snowy mountains. There is (as you might guess) a “fall” in this movie - a physical fall causing the death of someone - but it isn't the story of a person who fell. Anatomy of a Fall is the story of a family. And the story of belief. The father death is the opening move of the story, leaving a mother and son (and dog) to deal with what comes after. Was this fall a suicide? an accident? or a murder? We don't know. Nobody, except perhaps the mother, Sandra, played brilliantly by Sandra Huller (her performance was nominated for an Academy Award), knows - and she may not. If it is a murder, she is the only one who could have committed it. But we don't know. Their son, Daniel, has a vision impairment and struggles to interpret these events - and that serves as a picture for us, the viewer. We see, but not clearly - we know, but only in part. The family dog also plays a key role, highlighted by his brilliant blue eyes - perhaps he is the only character who sees everything.This dynamic is fully at work during the trial that follows - and heightened by the language barriers that exist in this French courtroom. Sandra, who has German as her native tongue and who speaks English well and French less well, sometimes has to resort to English because her French doesn't allow her to tell her story (or conceal it) as clearly as she needs to. As you might expect, unexpected things are revealed - intimate details of a conflicted home - all while Daniel listens, trying to understand, trying to piece it together. Daniel doesn't understand. He doesn't have all the facts he needs - they aren't really all available - but he comes to the conclusion that “sometimes you have to decide”. He has to decide what he thinks happened, and that decision will then impact his interpretation of all he has learned and all he will learn. It is more than deciding what happened, it is deciding what he believes, and therefore will likely believe in the future.Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.Hebrews 11:1This is what we have to do - we have to decide what we believe without all the facts. And that belief will form an interpretative grid for the facts and events that follow in our lives. It doesn't mean we will then have all the facts, or even more facts - it just means belief - without any more facts than we may have started with.Read the whole piece!LinksStages of Faith - James W. Fowler - HarperOne - 1995 Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

This episode of On Culture interacts with this piece from The Embassy. Here is an excerpt …From time to time a psychology experiment will enter the cultural attention span - perhaps because we can relate to the findings of the experiment, even if those findings reveal a disturbing truth. One such experiment has been labeled The Invisible Gorilla.The Invisible Gorilla is part of the popular culture nowadays, thanks largely to a widely-read 2010 book of that title. In that book, authors and cognitive psychologists Dan Simons and Christopher Chabris popularized a phenomenon of human perception—known in the jargon as “inattentional blindness”—which they had demonstrated in a study some years before. In the best known version of the experiment, volunteers were told to keep track of how many times some basketball players tossed a basketball. While they did this, someone in a gorilla suit walked across the basketball court, in plain view, yet many of the volunteers failed even to notice the beast. The (Really Scary) Invisible Gorilla - APS - January 29, 2013It might be tempting to think that we wouldn't miss a gorilla walking by in plain sight, whatever we were doing. But, of course, those who missed the gorilla had to be told that they missed it. If you knew you missed the gorilla without being told - you didn't really miss it. The really scary part, named in the title of this article, refers to the ways in which this experiment has been confirmed and extended - including radiologists missing images of gorillas in scans because they were looking for something else. The really scary part is that it names something about all of us. We miss some of the gorillas. All of us do. And, being missed, we don't know that we are missing them.The Zone of Interest is a movie that was nominated for Best Picture at the 2024 Academy Awards and won the Best International Feature and Best Sound prizes. Loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, it details the homelife of Rudolf and Hedwig Hoss and their children. I will reveal some things about the movie in this article - but it is a movie that might be impossible to spoil. It isn't really about plot. You know what is happening from the start. It is a movie that really needs to be watched. So - the homelife of the Hoss family: It is 1943, Rudolf is the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp and their home is right next to the camp - the wall of the camp forms one of the borders of their garden.  Each day after the family breakfast Rudolf climbs on to his beloved horse and trots through the gate of the camp to begin his work day, and that is as much of the camp as we see - which is set almost entirely in the home and yard of the Hoss family. The Zone of Interest is about missing the gorilla, without really missing it. It is about missing the gorilla while knowing all along exactly where the gorilla is. It is about missing the gorilla by convincing yourself it isn't really a gorilla.…Please read the whole piece. If you are listening to this on substack, you can find On Culture anywhere you find podcasts (Apple podcasts, Spotify …)Thanks!The Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

View Chris Bantz and I talk about finding common ground based on the latest edition of The Embassy called Something in Common.Here is an excerpt …Over the past three editions of The Embassy, we have looked at what transformation from within is and how it can impact our culture, instead of our efforts to ‘change the world'. We have looked at how we can resist the impulse to draw ever shrinking circles for ourselves and instead take Two Steps Forward. And we have looked at a picture of our stance in culture - that of an Ambassador representing their home in another place. Armed with this belief that there is common ground to find, what might this look like, at least in part? How can we find that place from which we can connect and communicate? Because I am hoping to sketch a view of a Christian cultural stance, I have in mind an episode from the life of Paul in the culturally dissonant (to him) city of Athens found in Acts 17.Paul and his companions were on one of his missionary journeys in the middle of the first century, establishing and visiting churches, mostly in present day Greece and Turkey.Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.Acts 17:15Here, Paul is left in Athens for a number of days, waiting for others to join him. In this chapter, a significant and lengthy message and other activities of Paul are recorded. We don't have the time or space to look at them in depth, but I want to consider the first crucial move in this new place - a tipping point between finding common ground with connection and communication on the one side and missing it with alienation and disconnection on the other.While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.Acts 17:16Paul looked around him and he was greatly distressed. Some translations say he was deeply grieved. He saw these idols, representing not only a people disconnected from the true God, but a dishonoring of that true God. He was greatly distressed. Can you relate? Have you looked at the world, at the actions of others around you, at the lostness and dishonoring, and have you been greatly distressed in response? It is with this in view that we can run away from a chance at common ground - with all that is different so prominent, we, in our distress - miss our chance for common ground.Read the whole piece (after listening to the whole episode!)The Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

A conversation between Chad Myers and me on our mission in this culture - based on the latest from The EmbassyHere is an excerpt … I am not here to tell you how to be the Ambassador from the United States to (Sweden, Norway, Germany …). But let's reflect on what the job is - on why we are there. We, as ambassadors, are there to represent the interests of the United States and to represent the U.S.A. in that place - to exemplify “American” and to represent the policies, concerns, and presence of our country in that place. Now everything before the last three words of that description is roughly the same for all ambassadors. We have to learn those things and we have to, within our own uniqueness, embody a good representation of “American”. It is those last three words - “in that place” - that make what that looks like so different. We would need to learn the language, customs, stories, ambitions, interests, fears … of this new place. We would have to understand how to translate the first part of our Ambassador training into a different culture in such a way as to ensure the message is not lost or undermined inadvertently. How do I understand what they are communicating? How do I communicate effectively? What is unspoken? Can I tell if they understand? If I am offending? … all of those things change from culture to culture.Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.2 Corinthians 5:17-21You may have guessed I am not belaboring this ambassador illustration randomly. That is the mission of all Christians. We are to represent the Kingdom of God - the message and truths and paradigms and priorities of this kingdom - our home kingdom. We are to exemplify what a citizen of this kingdom should look like - a part of a transformed community of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And we are to do all this in a way that translates into this place we live. In my opinion, we can tend to neglect the first part to some degree and completely ignore the second part - the “translate into this place” part. Instead, the danger is that we - if I am not being overly harsh - fail to recognize how much we distort the first part because of a lack of awareness of how much we are impacted by the culture we are in. We may risk becoming strangers in our home kingdom - God's Kingdom - because we have been co-opted by a cultural agenda we don't see because it has become invisible to us. We confuse winning a culture war (for example) with the agenda of home country.Avoiding that pitfall is vital, but it doesn't guarantee success. Success comes only as we combine this fundamental faithfulness with a sympathetic entrance into an ongoing process of understanding this culture in which we live and to which we have been called. Hating this culture (and inevitably the people in it) not only isn't a virtue, it is an obstacle to fulfilling our mission. It is hard to explore and understand what you have already decided has no virtue and no redeeming qualities. It is hard to live successfully, redemptively, lovingly in a place you are taught to hate. We have been given the ministry of reconciliation - which is a bringing together. If we retreat instead of taking two steps forward (see the previous installment in this series), we can't bring anything together. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

This episode is taken from last week's dispatch from The Embassy - Two Steps Forward. Here is an excerpt … ViewThere is a principle that those within the Christian church have claimed for centuries: In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity. There are essentials, but there aren't very many of them. In Christianity, maybe ten, maybe a dozen - not more. Even the reformation creeds, generally much longer, are broken into a similar number of chapters. The Westminster Confession of Faith - the preeminent protestant creed in the English language, is broken into nine sections, normally. (The WCF is long on paper, because most every page is more than half covered by the scriptural footnotes.) When we create dozens or hundreds of qualifying points of orthodoxy, the result is shrinking and dividing … and, to the point I hope to make soon, withdrawing. We withdraw deeper into our own shrinking groups, and we grow farther away from everyone else. In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity.In fact, the trend in our culture is that growing farther and farther away from the “bad” people is good and that has become a baseline assumption for many in the church - even a baseline marker of virtue. This is wrong on two fronts. First in the drawing of these circles of condemnation in the first place, and second in moving away from those within them. The movement relationally the bible is most interested in is in the other direction. This trend of the drawing of these circles and moving away from is a misunderstanding, but it has a long history in our culture, and across many cultures - it appears to be a common human instinct. Of course, biblical religion - really almost all religion - seeks often to redirect some of these common instincts. An example of such a redirection is found in Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth, alongside a longer explanation of what movement in the opposite direction might look like.… read the whole piece here.The Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

ViewThis podcast is based on the piece How Not to Change the World (in this very substack). Here is an excerpt …Starting with the acknowledgement that there is a culture war, and that, to some extent at least, we find ourselves in it - what do we do? For some, it seems that the point of the culture war is to keep fighting the culture war. Fighting this (good?) fight has become an identity and a mark of virtue. If that is you, I will say that it isn't your identity and it isn't a virtue. But even assuming that you want resolution to the culture war … resolutions to wars usually come from someone winning and someone losing. What would it mean to “win” the culture war?I can't stand this indecisionMarried with a lack of vision …Everybody wants to rule the worldAll for freedom and for pleasureNothing ever lasts foreverEverybody wants to rule the worldEverybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair - 1985Are we trying to change the world - to make the world better? What do we mean by that - some expression of culture that we think is better, even best? Are we seeking to move toward this goal by reducing, defeating, and eradicating the elements of culture that we don't think are best - those elements we hate or believe to be evil? We may argue that Christianity had something of this effect, especially from the third or fourth centuries into the modern era. Even so, to the extent that this is true, it isn't the biblical goal - it may be a transformative effect. Having this as a large-scale cultural goal isn't how you change the world. Changing the world isn't a good goal. If this sounds off to you, especially if you have been in the church for very long, I understand. We all want to change the world … except you won't find that teaching in the bible. You will find the promise, but not the command. I want to show you a simple example from the biblical narrative - but first, a parable of culture change from a family which may not be unlike your own.Read the whole thing here.The Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

This Episode of On Culture Interacts with Gnats and Camels - from The Embassy -Here is an excerpt -Instead of a real conflict about a real situation faced by real people - answering the question how does our Christian theology fit into this real life situation? … what are the missional implications of loving those whom we are called to reach while holding to what we believe to be true theologically? We get something far stupider - “you are bad.”Jesus spent a lot of time (a distressing amount of time in the eyes of the religious leaders of the day) with people who were publicly living outside of the teachings and practices given to God's people. One of the chief “proofs” in the eyes of those leaders, the Pharisees, that Jesus could not be a true prophet was their belief that a true prophet would know how bad these people were. The assumption being that anyone who had this knowledge would not go to their houses, join them for dinner, enjoy their hospitality. They were wrong about all of that. That is the context of his saying -Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”Luke 5:31-32I can understand that some might be offended by the apparent implication that those at a same-sex or transgender wedding are the sick who need the doctor. I mean that only in so far as all of us do. Jesus' words are on two levels. Coming after his sermon on the mount, where none who honestly read this teaching would call themselves ‘righteous' - he is saying not only that these public ‘sinners' need to be restored, but that those asking the question need also to be restored, just from a different malady. It is the central lesson of the parable of the prodigal son. The older brother needs grace no less than the younger one. We all need the physician. Recognizing the need is the only qualification for receiving it.In fact, all the harsh words we see from Jesus, and there are plenty, are directed against those who should know better - in particular, the religious leaders of the day. The entirety of Matthew chapter 23 is devoted to Jesus' harsh words against these religious leaders. One passage in particular seems to apply to this controversy and to all other similar controversies in the Christian world - and there are many.“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.Matthew 23:23-24Jesus is telling some of us that we have missed the point. Fine, if you want to follow the teachings of the Old Testament to give a tenth of what you have as an offering down to the point of counting out your spices and seeds so as to get the exact right number - you may. Either way, don't neglect the more important matters of the law - justice, mercy and faithfulness. Don't miss the point. Don't strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. If you want to strain out the gnats, fine. But once you have swallowed your first camel you know that you have missed the point. You know that you have misplaced the marker of your righteousness.Read the whole piece at The EmbassyThe Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

This episode is, as usual, based on the preceding piece from The Embassy - check it out for the full show notes. Here is an excerpt …Shalom means peace and harmony and community and everything being as it should be - extending far beyond the bounds of mere avoidance or absence of conflict. If the shooting stopped today in Ukraine, and everyone froze in place - what many people are calling for - would it be peace? I don't think so. Would it be as close to peace as we could get in this broken world? Hard to say. If the shooting stopped today in Gaza, would that be peace? Would it be as close as we can get? What should I pray for when I pray for peace? And how am I to be a peace-maker in a world where I don't believe that ultimate peace, true shalom, is possible for me to bring about?A peace maker is a person who acts in faith - who acts in faithfulness to the Prince of Peace - the only one who can bring real peace. Will my peacemaking make a difference? Probably not in Ukraine or Gaza, probably not on any grand scale - but maybe in that home near me, or in my own home, or place of work, or church, or community the story would be different. I don't know (or control) if my faithfulness makes a difference in these places either - except that it will make a difference in me, and, from there, in those close to me. Blessed are the peacemakers does not come with a test to take afterwards to see if you get credit. Faithfully working toward shalom in all the areas of my life is blessed by God. When I seek to be a peace maker, I seek to be used by God to bring peace, His peace. We are called, as always, to trust Him for any outcome that may arise out of our imperfect faithfulness.The Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

Anti-institutional, Anti-authority, populist ... and lostThis episode is based on the latest dispatch from The Embassy - here is an excerpt:…InstitutionsSurely you have noticed the cultural trends toward anti-institutionalism. It may be true that we were too trusting in institutions - our company, our government, our universities, even our churches. And some skepticism, as we have seen, may have been warranted and may be warranted still. But the pendulum has swung pretty far against anything, anyone, any idea from any institution - the more establishment the institution, the farther the pendulum seems to have swung.CredentialsThe doctor, (your doctor), the pastor, (your pastor), the scientist, (you don't have a scientist, do you?) … in many cases is distrusted or ignored because they have credentials. The rando on YouTube is trusted because he or she is not (or is barely) accredited or credentialed. How many politicians run as outsiders? How many of them compete with each other for outsiderness? “Vote for me, I don't even know where my office would be or where to park or what I might do - I know nothing about how these politicians work, I just know I am against them - and that you should vote for me because I am nothing like them.”AuthorityAnyone who has a place of traditional authority is increasingly distrusted - because of their place of traditional authority. Again, we might have our reasons, but … we may be reflexing a bit too far in the other direction. Even those who have spent a good portion of their lives becoming an expert in a field are - and this is the point, for that very reason - not listened to. Are some of them a bit wacky? Sure. Are some of them motivated by and influenced by things outside their area of expertise? Certainly. But it seems, in response to this, we want inexpert opinion. Or, really, we want to be completely unconstrained - we want to choose our opinions in areas governed by, like, facts, in the same way we choose our sweaters. We are the only authority we trust.PopulismWe believe in pure democracy. The little guy should decide everything. (Never mind that the little guy is more than one guy, more like two little guys who disagree about everything.) As an aside, ‘anti-democratic' has come to be equated with fascism, as if everything should be up for popular vote - not recognizing that we (on purpose) have anti-democratic elements in the Constitution. The Bill of Rights, for example, is there because our nation's founders not only feared the autocracy of the king, they feared the autocracy of the mob. They knew that some group might decide that the police should be able to kick down whatever doors they want (because I don't think mine is the kind of door they will kick down), or that some people shouldn't be able to say that (because I can say what I want), or that some people shouldn't be able to worship that way … they knew we would have times and places when all of those would win a democratic vote, and, in the name of freedom, we shouldn't allow it. That was a long aside, but we can see the founders were not populists.… another excerpt … I have spent a good part of the last few years reading, thinking, talking, coaching, consulting, and writing about leadership. Not just what makes a good leader, but what is leadership? What does a leader do? One simple definition of leadership is that which takes a group of people, with their willing participation that may not have been so willing at the start, to a place they wouldn't have chosen. One who catalyzes that group of people to identify with each other, to work for one another, become different together - all for their own good. Someone, in other words, who finds a way to give people not what they want, or what they say they want - but what is for their good and the good of others. And when we arrive together at the destination, we see that it is better - even if we don't readily or publicly admit it.Tod Bolsinger, in one of the best books on leadership I know of (Canoeing the Mountains), defines leadership this way - Leadership is energizing a community of people toward their own transformation in order to accomplish a shared mission in the face of a changing world.Tod Bolsinger - Canoeing the MountainsThere is a lot to that definition of leadership. I don't think it is how we want to experience leadership. We want to experience affirmation, we want to experience the bond that comes from a common enemy, we want to experience a common victimization from that common enemy, we want to experience the faux righteousness that comes from being the right people fighting the wrong people. We want a spokesman, an avatar, an influencer - someone we identify with because they promise all that we want. In other words, we don't want a leader.The Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

ViewWhat are you doing for the environment? It is a question that is at once easy and difficult to answer. We recycle. (Of course we do, we aren't demons.) We don't run the heat very high in the winter or the AC very high in the summer - though, to be honest, there are other factors at play there. I just traded my gas mower in for an electric model. I don't dump old motor oil down the storm drain. Ummm … I'm sure there are other things. But what is the impact? I'm not sure. I am persuaded that a lot of activity comes from a desire to do something - even if the effect is not large. How much is this due to me wanting to classify myself as someone who is taking care of the environment? I'm not completely sure, and I may not be objective - but, probably at least a little. (I think that is where a lot of our collective activity comes from … less about the effect on the world, more about how I think of myself … but that is probably another article.)Just Stop Oil activists affixed themselves to Vincent van Gogh's Peach Trees in Blossom (1889) at the Courtauld Institute in London on June 30th, 2022. “Our initial assessment is that the painting is undamaged. The frame will require treatment to remove glue residue before the work can be returned to display,” a Courtauld representative wrote in an email.   ARTnews.comOther people take more extreme actions in support of the environment. The exerpt above is from an article from last year listing 12 instances of climate activists gluing themselves to classic and irreplaceable works of art to garner attention for the environmental cause. What kind of attention is open to some interpretation. I would have liked to have been a silent witness to the brainstorming session that led to this strategy. It is a strategy, like stopping traffic on a bridge, that seems designed to outrage … if you can't manufacture outrage for your cause, you can manufacture outrage at you. I guess. The question of the real world impact of these actions vs. the self-classification of the protesters arises. That isn't for me to determine, except to wonder what the (positive) real world impact of such protests might be.But what is an appropriate response from me to the issue of climate change? Specifically, as a Christian, what is an appropriate response … what is a Christian response to climate change? Far be it from me to present myself as the last word (or first word) on this subject, but I do have some thoughts on how to address that question. As a Christian, I think the Bible should have something to say (to me) about my answer to this question. If the Bible is God's Word, you could reframe the question as - what does faithfulness to God and His Word have to do with my thoughts, words, and actions with respect to the environment? Or, does God care about the state of His creation and does He want me to respond in a certain way? Whatever the answer to that question is, please notice that it doesn't have a lot to do with politics.The earth is the Lords' and everything in it. Psalm 24:1The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.Genesis 2:15That humans are to tend to creation, to ‘take care of it', is pretty clear, biblically. There are passages, like the above, that speak directly to this truth and there are passages that describe our responsibility to steward or manage all that God has entrusted to us - wealth, time, talents, attention … and the planet He gave us to live on. American Christians are divided on what to do with this instruction - both how to carry it out and how to prioritize it amidst all the other possible ways to act redemptively in our world, even for those who are intent on acting redemptively in all ways environmental. … Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

This episode comes out of the latest dispatch from The Embassy - The Best Year. Check it out in its entirety - but here is a bit of it …View2024. Will it be the worst year ever? Or maybe the best?Those of us who are old enough remember when Prince sang -… I was dreamin' when I wrote thisForgive me if it goes astrayBut when I woke up this mornin'Could've sworn it was judgment day… The sky was all purpleThere were people runnin' everywhereTryin' to run from the destructionYou know I didn't even care… 'Cause they say two thousand zero zeroParty over, oops out of timeSo tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999- Prince Rogers Nelson - 1999 lyrics © Universal Music Publishing GroupThat was 1984 (another year carrying potential foreboding) and 1999 seemed a long way away. We were already beginning to fret about Y2K - the turn of the millennium would bring societal destruction wrought by the anger of the Technology God. It turned out that two thousand zero zero was not “party over, oops out of time” (hereafter denoted POOOOT).But now it is 2024, or, depending on when you read this, almost. And some fret that we finally draw near to POOOOT. If you believe that there will be a POOOOT, we must be drawing nearer to it, I suppose. In fact, the year 2020 was claimed by many as the worst year - pandemic, racial unrest, violence - to be alive. But that turned out not to be POOOOT, in fact, many earlier candidates have come and gone. If one looks for a scientific answer to the question, “Is this the worst year ever?” - that answer is no. It turns out 536 is the scientifically determined winner of the worst year to be alive prize (WYTBA):Ask medieval historian Michael McCormick what year was the worst to be alive, and he's got an answer: "536." Not 1349, when the Black Death wiped out half of Europe. Not 1918, when the flu killed 50 million to 100 million people, mostly young adults. But 536. In Europe, "It was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year," says McCormick, a historian and archaeologist who chairs the Harvard University Initiative for the Science of the Human Past.A mysterious fog plunged Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia into darkness, day and night—for 18 months. "For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during the whole year," wrote Byzantine historian Procopius. Temperatures in the summer of 536 fell 1.5°C to 2.5°C, initiating the coldest decade in the past 2300 years. Snow fell that summer in China; crops failed; people starved. The Irish chronicles record "a failure of bread from the years 536–539." Then, in 541, bubonic plague struck the Roman port of Pelusium, in Egypt. What came to be called the Plague of Justinian spread rapidly, wiping out one-third to one-half of the population of the eastern Roman Empire and hastening its collapse, McCormick says.- Ann Gibbons, Science, November 2018To review, we had a volcanic eruption sufficient to darken the sky for over a year and drop dust from the sky on a people many thousands of miles away who had no way of knowing why the sky was dark or dust was dropping. Failed crops, cold, snow in summer, starvation for years all over the world … followed by bubonic plague that killed up to half the population of the eastern Roman Empire - precipitating its collapse. That probably seemed like POOOOT to most people.…Links1999 - Studio album by Prince and the Revolution - Warner Brothers - 1982Why 536 was the ‘worst year to be alive.' - Ann Gibbons, Science, November 2018Volcanoes, plague, famine and endless winter: Welcome to 536, what historians and scientists believe was the ‘worst year to be alive' - The Conversation, February 2022The Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

This is a companion podcast for the piece from The Embassy - A Season of Gratitude. Here is an excerpt from that piece: (please check out the whole piece at theembassy.substack.com)One of our grandchildren has discovered a joy from my youth - A Charlie Brown Christmas. Do you remember when we had to find out when this show, and Rudolph, and Frosty, and the Grinch! … were broadcast over the network television airwaves because that was the only way anyone could watch them? If not, you are younger than I. But we didn't know any better. We didn't know we were missing the ability (streaming on AppleTV+!) to watch it anytime we wanted. You couldn't watch anything anytime you wanted. The richest, most powerful person in the world couldn't. We were grateful, in whatever small measure we were grateful, that we could watch it on the TV at all, that it existed. It might be that the more we have, the less we tend to be grateful - but that is a thought that will have to be developed at another time.Back to Charlie Brown. He seems to be a failure at the celebration of Christmas. (Can you relate?) He confesses to Linus that everything he does (all his efforts to celebrate Christmas) turns into a disaster. His feeble efforts are laughed at and he confesses that he just doesn't know what Christmas is all about. Even though we know what Christmas is all about (right?), can you relate?If so, or if we need a reminder, Linus helps us, saying, “sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about.”What Christmas Is All AboutAnd there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this [shall be] a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.Linus then turns to Charlie and says, “that is what Christmas is all about.” In re-watching this (with the grandson who has discovered it), I noticed that Linus drops his blanket somewhere around “for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” He let go of the thing that represented his security, his safety, his peace - in the middle of this recitation of Luke 2:8-14 - which are a (partial) fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 9:6-7 (among others).At my church we have been looking at that passage in Isaiah - For to us a child is born,    to us a son is given,    and the government will be on his shoulders.And he will be called    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.Of the greatness of his government and peace    there will be no end.He will reign on David's throne    and over his kingdom,establishing and upholding it    with justice and righteousness    from that time on and forever.The zeal of the Lord Almighty    will accomplish this.Isaiah 9:6-7Unto us a child is born, unto us a son has been given … and he will bring redemption to us and redemption to all things. God's plan of redemption, which seemed to be ebbing as Isaiah wrote these (God's) promises to His people, is promised to match forward. This child that was born over 2,000 years ago was still about 750 years in the future as Isaiah recorded these words. The Assyrians would come and defeat the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Babylon would then come to destroy Judah and the temple and take them into captivity. All would seem well and truly lost. But the promise - the promise to Abraham and Moses and Ruth and David and, later, Mary - is still good, no matter how dark it was and how much darker it would soon be.Things seem a bit dark now. The times, I mean - I have been blessed with a wonderful wife and three wonderful children, two of whom have married good and lovely people (the other is unmarried, not a statement against an unnamed son- or daughter-in-law), who have given us four perfect grandchildren. (Again, there are only four, not a statement against unnamed grandchildren). We are healthy, we have work, we have all we need - I try to remind myself to be thankful. But even if, or when, my story grows darker - or however dark the times, our politics, our cultural battles, war, hunger, corruption, injustice becomes, even if and when I struggle to find things for which to be thankful - the promise is still good. The present circumstances don't determine the veracity of the promise.Unto us a child has been born. He brought grace and truth and sacrifice - and the means of our redemption. He, even starting as a child in a manger, came as Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. But, still, much of that promise is ahead of us. Of the greatness of his government and peace    there will be no end.He will reign on David's throne    and over his kingdom,establishing and upholding it    with justice and righteousness    from that time on and forever.The zeal of the Lord Almighty    will accomplish this. Isaiah 9:7It is the promise that all the corruption and injustice and pain and death will come to an end - that all the books will be balanced, while we can be redeemed through the grace of God in His Son by the power of the Spirit - that tells us how our story will end. One day. Might be awhile. Who knows?But the response to this news - these tidings of great joy - is, or should be, gratitude. More than thankfulness - the stance of a grateful child who knows that nothing is deserved but that all is promised by the goodness of God. And with this gratitude comes the assurance that, even when things grow dark, the promise is good. Or, perhaps it is the assurance of this thing not yet seen that is the source of this response of gratitude. Angels from the realms of gloryWing your flight over all the earthYe, who sang creation's storyNow proclaim Messiah's birthCome and worship, come and worshipWorship Christ the newborn King- - -Saints before the altar bendingWatching long in hope and fearSuddenly the Lord, descending,In His temple shall appearCome and worship, come and worshipWorship Christ the newborn King Angels from the Realms of GloryMerry Christmas to all who celebrate it with me. The Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

ViewSusan and I talk about the universal experience of growing old and / or growing into our parents - while being surprised by our participation in this universal reality … and what to do about it.What has been will be again,what has been done will be done again;there is nothing new under the sun.Ecclesiastes 1:9Call the Smithsonian, I made a discoveryLife ain't forever and lunch isn't freeLoved ones will break your heartWith or without youTurns out we don't get to know everythingGet the young scientist, tell him come quickMust be the first man that's ever seen thisLines on my face, my teeth are not whiteMy eyes do not work and my legs don't move right …Smithsonian - The Avett BrothersLinks“Smithsonian” - song lyrics - The Avett BrothersHow Today's Parents Say Their Approach to Parenting Does – or Doesn't – Match Their Own Upbringing - The Pew Research Center - January 2023 Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

I talk with Trey Herweck, pastor of Refuge Church in St. Charles about how difficult it can be to be forgiven.Based on the latest from The Embassy - theembassy.substack.comLink“I Want to be Forgiven. I Just Want to be Forgiven.” - Dave Barry, The New York TimesForgiveness - Psychology Today Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

Evan Sherman and I talk about the Mideast (some) - but also how we have turned politics into the primary expression of the moral - and how that has moved dogma from religion into world of politics - altering what we acknowledge as fact.An excerpt …But morality exists within this reality we are called to live in. We don't create it ourselves. Our in-group does not define it. And in order to act morally in this world, I will need to understand it on it's own terms. Even if it challenges me. Even if it leaves me outside of my chosen in-group. Even if it causes me to mourn and pushes me toward meekness and a hunger and thirst for righteousness and toward mercy. Even if it leads to my isolation, rejection, and persecution. If I never mourn my own spiritual poverty, for example, there is a part of my reality I am ignoring or rejecting. If I never see the need for mercy for others, there is a part of their reality I am ignoring or rejecting.“To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:“‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance;we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.'For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”Jesus - Matthew 11:16-18LinksAll the President's Dogs - Mike Sherman, The EmbassyAfter Hospital Blast, Headlines Shift with Changing Claims - The New York TimesAP visual analysis: Rocket from Gaza appeared to go astray, likely caused deadly hospital explosion - Associated Press Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

Susan James and I talk about the latest post from The Embassy - All the President's Dogs. On the mortgage crash, the President's Dogs and the spells we are under Here is an excerpt …In C.S. Lewis' The Silver Chair, the good Prince Rillian of Narnia is captured and put under a spell by someone known as The Lady of the Green Kirtle while above ground and the Queen of Underland in her underground Queendom. Prince Rillian is made prince of this underground place - but rules in appearance only, held in the sway of the Queen of Underland. Each day, for one hour, the Queen binds the Prince in her darkly magical silver chair. The Queen tells the Prince that he goes mad during this hour and must be bound to protect himself and others. The truth is that he is himself and no longer under her spell during this hour and the Queen needs to renew the spell every day.  During this hour, he sees things as they are and begs and struggles to be released. The Narnian children come to break the spell by interrupting the witch's spell renewal. The spell keeps reality away, and the Prince only sees reality by breaking the spell.It seems our whole culture is under a spell, or under any number of such spells. Each is different in their own way, some appearing opposite from some others. But each performs the same basic function - keeping us from seeing what is right there, keeping reality at bay, causing us to prioritize the trivial and trivialize the priorities. I'll let you fill in the blanks for whatever spells you happen to see. But the spells you see probably afflict others, it is the spells we don't see we should be concerned with.LinksFor Biden's Dog, A Belated Exile: “How many bites does it take?” - Peter Baker, The New York TimesSecret Service: Biden dog would be ‘put down' if not president's pet - Paul Bedard, The Washington Examiner Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

From the latest piece from The Embassy - Do You Believe in Miracles?An Excerpt …When it comes to the paranormal, the extra-terrestrial, unexplained phenomena or UFO's … we are a bit conflicted. We want there to be more, we hope we are not alone, we want the believe there is a truth that is out there, while we have a hard time actually believing in any particular piece of evidence. The recent release of data related to UFO's (inexplicably renamed UAP's - unidentified aerial phenomena), has peaked interest, but has mostly disappointed.Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster was the founder of Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles at the Abbey of Our Lady of Ephesus just north of Kansas City. Sister Wilhelmina, who died at the age of 95 in 2019 was known for her “devotional poetry, her sense of humor and her fierce piety.”Four years after burying Sister Wilhelmina, the order's founder, in a simple wood coffin in a corner of the property, the sisters decided to move her body into a customary place of honor inside their church.When they opened the coffin, expecting to find bones that could be easily cleaned and placed in a new box, they instead found what looked and even felt remarkably like Sister Wilhelmina herself. Her face was recognizable, even after years in a damp coffin, and the sisters said that her beloved habit was “immaculate.”For the Benedictines of Mary, this immediately signaled that Sister Wilhelmina may be an “incorruptible,” a term the Catholic Church uses to describe people whose bodies — or parts of their bodies — did not decompose after death. Believers in the phenomenon say there have been more than 100 examples worldwide, mostly in Europe.Michael O'Neill, who hosts a national radio show called “The Miracle Hunter” on the Catholic station EWTN, said that the case of Sister Wilhelmina, who was Black, was especially distinctive. “There's never been an African American incorruptible; in fact there's never been an American of any sort who's an incorruptible,” he said. “So this is big news.”A Miracle in Missouri? The Nun Who Put Her Abbey on the Map. - The New York TimesI believe in miracles. I believe that God intervenes in His natural order in various ways. People who take the bible as generally more literal and actual than merely figurative tend to believe in miracles. We believe that Jesus walked on water. We believe Jesus turned water into wine. But even for those of us who believe in miracles, we are confused by some of them. We may even be embarrassed by some of them. Why would God preserve the body of a Sister in Kansas City? I don't know. I am not Catholic, so I wouldn't say her body was preserved because her theology was more correct than everyone else. I guess that isn't the standard. Huh. At the same time, I am not looking for some other explanation, necessarily. This could be an act of God. I'll assume that it is unless I see some reason to doubt it. “This is impossible” or “that can't happen” or “God doesn't usually do that” or even “I don't know why God would do that” are all poor reasons to believe that God didn't do that. Only if you believe there isn't a God capable of such things can you rule it out - and that is where many people rule miracles out. If this is a work of God, I am not sure why He chose this work - but I guess that shouldn't surprise me. Lots of acts of God, some of them interventions in the natural order, surprise me. Even those of us who believe in miracles can look at a couple of them sheepishly. Maybe even this one (if it is one).LinksA Miracle in Missouri? The Nun Who Put Her Abbey on the Map. - Ruth Graham, The New York Times Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

(excerpts from the written piece - In Spirit and in Truth - theembassy.substack.com)I get it. I understand the search for meaning in community, in ritual, in spiritual experience. I just think that is a search in the wrong place.Jesus had a memorable conversation with a woman who went to a well in the middle of the day. She was a Samaritan, and the Samaritans had their own way of worshiping God. She seemed to try to justify their manner of worship to Jesus. Jesus replied that her people worshiped what they did not know.Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”Jesus - John 4:23-24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. Both things. Worship is the truest of spiritual experience, but we are taught here that we don't get to make it up. True spiritual experience that can transform, console, redeem, restore corresponds to the truth of the actual spirituality we are in. And it is practiced in the Spirit. That is capitalized to indicate Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit - a particular, unique, personal Holy Spirit. (Those are statements of doctrine - but any statement about these words is a statement of doctrine - I don't think we ever get away from it, but that is probably a different article.)I don't know what comes from, using the words of Jesus “worshiping what we do not know”, but I can't believe it is good. I am fairly certain it cannot redeem or transform in any Christian understanding of those words or be transcendent in any positive sense of that word.I get it. I really do. But I don't think people will find what they really need to find there. I think what people are looking for can be found on the terms that the God who is worshiped in the Spirit and in truth has given us. He wants to be found. In his grace, He may choose to appear on other places and settings, of course - he is not bound to my confines. But He does seem normally to bind Himself to the instrument He has ordained for His worship. I think that is through His people, in the community He has ordained (however mysterious or befuddling we may find that), in the church that is His body.LinksIn Spirit and in Truth - Mike Sherman - The EmbassyLeaving the Church and Being the Church - Mike Sherman - The EmbassyHaving the Form, Denying the Power - Mike Sherman - The EmbassyThe School of Life - Alain de Botton, FounderReligion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion - Alain de BottonCan You Find God in a Bikini? - Olivia Reingold - The Free PressBurning Man Project - burningman.orgReligion Without Dogma? - C.S. Lewis - God in the Dock Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

Susan James and I talk about “Barbie” and “True Detective”. Really we talk about men, mostly.My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. (Jesus - John 15:12-13)LinksMen and Petite Maman are polar opposite fairy tales - Ross Douthat, National ReviewThe Church in a Time of Gender War - Samuel James, Digital LiturgiesGender War, Technology, and De-Centering the Self - Samuel James, Digital LiturgiesMen are Lost. Here's a map out of the wilderness - Christine Embe, Washington PostTranscript: The Crisis of Masculinity - Christine Embe and Richard Reeves, Washington PostThe data are clear: The boys are not all right - Andrew Yang, Washington PostOf Boys and Men - Richard Reeves, Brookings Institute PressThe Masculinity Issue - PoliticoWhy Ken and Barbie Need Each Other - Ross Douthat, New York TimesThe Struggles of Men are a Problem for Everyone - Jeff Haanen, Christianity Today Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

On Culture is the podcast of The Embassy - this episode is based on this latest piece from The Embassy. TakeTish Harrison Warren is an Anglican Priest who has written a weekly Op-Ed column for the New York Times over the past few years. She is leaving that post and shared, in her last column, some of the reasons why. I'll quote her at some length, and I recommend the whole piece. I think there is something here for manFor this and many other reasons, it was a tough decision to leave. And as with any tough decision, my reasons are varied and complex, but one is that writing publicly about God each week can do a number on one's soul. Thomas Wingfold, a character in a novel by the Scottish minister and poet George MacDonald, said, “Nothing is so deadening to the divine as an habitual dealing with the outsides of holy things.” Holy things, sacred topics, spiritual ideas, I believe, have power. Dealing with them is a privilege and a joy, but habitually dealing with the outside of them is inherently dangerous.The “outsides” of holy things, to me, describes the difference between speaking about divine or sacred things and encountering the divine or the sacred directly. To be sure, we need more and better religious discourse in America. In my very first newsletter for The Times, I wrote that “we need to start talking about God,” and I still believe that. I believe that religion and, more broadly, the biggest questions in life are the driving forces behind much that is beautiful, divisive, unifying, controversial and perplexing about our culture and society.Yet there is danger in becoming a pundit, particularly on matters of faith and spirituality. It can be deadening. I plan to continue to write about faith, to explore its impact on politics, study it sociologically, think about its metaphors and claims of truth. But for any person of faith, public engagement must be balanced with times of withdrawal, of silence, prayer, questioning and wonder beyond the reach of words. Otherwise, faith with all its strange and startling topology becomes a flat and sterile thing, something to be dissected, instead of embraced. And typically once something is fit only for dissection, it is dead. I bring this up because it is a temptation for all of us now. Social media and digital technology have made us all pundits. We are faced with a constant choice: Every experience, belief, feeling and thought we have can be shared publicly or not. In a single day, we can take in more information and ideas than was ever possible, yet at the end of the day we can still lack wisdom.Constant connectivity empties us out, as individuals and as a society, making us shallower thinkers and more impatient with others. When it comes to faith, it can yield a habitual dealing with the outsides of holy things, fostering an avoidance of those internal parts of life that are most difficult, things like prayer, uncertainty, humility and the nakedness of who we most truly are amid this confusing, heartbreaking and incandescently beautiful world.Tish Harrison Warren - My Hope for American Discourse - New York TimesLinksLots of Americans are Losing Their Religion: Are You? - Jessica Grose - NYTChristianity's Got a Branding Problem -  Jessica Grose - NYTWhy Do People Lose Their Religion? - Jessica Grose - NYTThe Largest and Fastest Religious Shift in America is Well Underway - Jessica Grose - NYTWhat Churches Offer that Nones Still Long For - Jessica Grose - NYTMy Hope for American Discourse - Tish Harrison Warren - NYT Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

Among evangelicals on the right (which is by far most of them), the share among those who never attend and who believe that religion is somewhat or very important is 38%. So almost 40% of these evangelicals on the political right who never attend church believe religion is important. They believe it is important while they do not practice it in a form recognizable in the New Testament. Doctrine is vital. Doctrine without practice is a contradiction and will soon lead to bad doctrine to justify the bad practice or non-practice.Doctrine is vital. Doctrine without practice is a contradiction and will soon lead to bad doctrine to justify the bad practice or non-practice.LinksThe Garden - City of God - Tim Keller - Gospel in LifeReligion as a Cultural and Political Identity - Ryan Burge - Graphs About ReligionThe Cooperative Election Study - Harvard Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.Matthew 5:9Peacemaking, here, is a practice for God's children to take up. His blessing does not name those who try to achieve their own inner peace, nor those who receive peace from God, but rather those who make peace with and for others. Theologian Justo Gonzalez calls this ‘for-otherness,' the everyday habit of the kingdom of heaven, whose end, ultimately, is shalom. Peacemakers are often called children of God because, in likeness with God, they are the reconcilers who mend relationships and heal wounds in our world.Christa Ballard Tooley - CommentLinksMaking Peace, Making Worlds - Comment - Christa Ballard TooleyChrist and Culture - H. Richard NiebuhrThe Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

The background for this episode of On Culture is this piece from The Embassy - Lost Without Translation.Here is a small excerpt:Paul illustrates an uncomfortable picture of what biblical connection, at least in part, looks like.Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.(1 Cor 9:19-23)Sacrificing the freedom to live apart, safe in our bubble, we are to “become like” those around us - outside of our bubble. Instead of reveling in what makes us culturally different, we are to find a common place to share. To the religious, the irreligious, the lawless, the weak … we are to, in order to connect, to communicate, to translate - in order to carry the truth and grace of the gospel into our world, we are to “become like” those around us. We are to do this without withdrawing (putting our light under a bowl, in Jesus' words), and without becoming indistinguishable (losing our ‘saltiness' or savory distinction, in Jesus' words). Being authentically us, we are to find a common place to connect to the authentic them. In this way, we translate our faith by truly hearing and responding to those to whom we would translate it. We are able to understand, because we have “become like” - and because we are in touch with what it is supposed to mean for Christians to be “authentically us”.Being authentically us, we are to find a common place to connect to the authentic them. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

Here is Nikola Jokic on work …Now if we compare worke to worke, there is a difference betwixt washing of dishes, and preaching of the word of God: but as touching to please God none at all … The homeliest service that we do in an honest calling, though it be but to plow, or digge, if done in obedience, and conscience of God's Commandment, is crowned with an ample reward ... God loveth adverbs; and cares not how good, but how well.Joseph Hall - 1610 (ish)In the workplace, the neighbors may be the customers, who are to be loved and served. The boss is to love and serve the employees, his neighbors who are under his authority. They, in tern, are to love and serve him. Teachers love and serve their students; artists love and serve their audiences … … God is hidden in vocation. It is also true that God is hidden in our neighbor.Gene Edward Veith Jr. God at WorkLinksThe Texas A&M Professor Who Predicted The Great Resignation - Texas A&M TodayThe Great Resignation is Turning into the Great Regret - msn.com Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

I talk with Chad about change and this era of change we are in.No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.Matthew 9:16-17LinksAs I Lay Dying - William FaulkerAll My Friends are Finding New Beliefs - from Survival is a Style: Poems - Christian WimanDogma and the Universe - from God in the Dock - C.S. LewisThe Big Story - Mike Sherman Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

The notes for this episode of On Culture are the most recent piece in The Embassy (from May 27, 2023) - The Logical Outcome.Thanks to Susan James for joining me on this one.LinksNo Other Options - The New AtlantisMedical Assistance in Dying in Canada 2021 - Health Canada‘Disturbing': Experts troubled by Canada's euthanasia laws - Associated PressCanada's Ministry of Death - National ReviewWhere Are the Churches in Canada's Euthanasia Experiment? - PloughWhat Euthanasia Has Done to Canada - The New York TimesAssisted Suicide for Poverty - National ReviewCanada Euthanized 10,000 People in 2021. Has Death Lost Its Sting? - Christianity TodayThe European Way to Die - Harper's Magazine Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

On Culture is the podcast of The Embassy -found on theembassy.substack.comMike and Tony talk about Jury Duty, The Truman Show, and our need to be seen.LinksThe Truman ShowJury DutyWest World TV ShowX-Men MoviesSonic Movies Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

Mike talks with Susan James and Bret Toth about our vices and our struggles - and how they may be necessary for our growth.LinksA New Drug Switched Off My Appetite - What's Next? - Wired Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

Mike Sherman flies solo and talks about the tension between hope and action, practicality and impact - and tilting at windmills.On Culture is the podcast of The Embassy - theembassy.substack.com Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

Mike talks with Chris Bantz about the He Gets Us campaign - the us and them dynamic of the responses to it - the challenges of translating the message of transformation and love and truth into this culture - and the draw of outrage coming from in group and out group dynamicsThe piece that is the foundation for this podcast is here.LinksHe Gets UsA Letter on Justice and Open Debate - Harper'sThe FAQs: What You Should Know About the ‘He Gets Us' Campaign - The Gospel Coalition$100M Ad Campaign Aims to Make Jesus the ‘Biggest Brand in Your City' - Christianity TodayWhat ‘He Gets Us' Ads Get Wrong About Jesus - Sojourners‘He Gets Us' Ad Sponsors Don't Believe in the Jesus They're Selling - Texas ObserverMisplaced outrage over a Super Bowl ad - Some Assembly Required Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

Chad Myers and I talk about the trends related to Christianity in America - how they may be understood … and the surprises (unknown) that may upend them.As with all episodes of On Culture - this is based on the lasted dispatch from The Embassy - Predicting Faith. You can find it at theembassy.substack.comLinksModeling the Future of Religion in America - Pew ResearchThe Rise of the ‘Umms' - Christianity Today‘Nondenominational' is Now the Largest Segment of American Protestants - Christianity TodayFrom the Rise of the ‘Nones' to the Indifference of the ‘Never Weres' - Christianity TodayBe Open to Spiritual Experience. Also Be Really Careful - New York TimesChristian Revival Draws Thousands to Kentucky Town - New York TimesWhy You Can't Predict the Future of Religion - New York TimesThe Embassy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

The basis and show notes for this podcast come from this piece from The EmbassyIn Him We Live and Move and Have Our BeingI'd love you to subscribe (for free) to On Culture wherever you get your podcasts. You can also subscribe to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com … most of it is free!LinksA Conversation with Bing's Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled - NYTBing's AI Chat: “I want to be alive” - NYTMicrosoft Has Been Secretly Testing Its Bing Chatbot for Years - The VergeBefore Siri and Alexa, there was ELIZA - YouTubeWhy Do AI Chatbots Tell Lies and Act Weird? Look In The Mirror - NYTELIZA: a very basic Rogerian psychotherapist chatbot - njit.edu Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

On CultureI am joined by Chris Bantz to talk about the future, anxiety, expectations - and how that does (or should) intersect with a life of faith. The background for this episode is this piece from The Embassy.theembassy.substack.comLinksChina's Balloon Recalls Cold War Crises - WSJThe Chinese Balloon and the Disappointing Reality of UFOs - The AtlanticDuck and Cover Drills in the Cold War Arms Race - History.comIt's Still Not the End of History - The AtlanticWhat is Fukuyama Saying? And To Whom is He Saying it? - NYT MagazineThe Leftovers - HBO Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

More This, Less That Stop This, Start ThatThis is Good, That is Evil (or that person is good, this person is evil …)This is Smart, That is StupidHeadlines and tweets and takes are filled with these binary classifications. One or the other - with 180 degrees of nothing in-between. When it comes to movements, politicians, ideas, trends, celebrities, sports figures - we are continually given a choice: to be enthusiastic supporters or implacable opponents. As a society, we want clear choices between two opposites (it seems). More and more, we want simple, clear-cut, concrete categories and labels and courses of action. We want easy decisions on what is right, what to do, and who is wrong. My question is why?Brad Aslin and I talk about why …LinksThe Truth about Johnny and Amber - The EmbassyThe Sixth Commandment and Justice - The Embassy Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

Susan and I talk about what we were made to want - what we really desire whether we know it or not, and what we think we want instead - and how those around us can help us (for good or for ill) decide what we want. She wants boots.Take delight in the Lord,    and he will give you the desires of your heart.Psalm 37:4LinksWhy everyone wants the same things - Luke Burgis - The Free PressMeme stocks - BloombergEyeliner out of Stock? Blame Tik Tok - Wall Street Journal Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

If you haven't yet, check out the dispatch from The Embassy that is the basis for this discussion - The Road to Hell is Paved with Effective AltruismAlso - Chad mentions Deitrich Bonhoeffer's Ethics and his dilemma of working for the Nazi resistance (and the murder of Hitler) as a Christian. Bonhoeffer, to our point concerning humility, couldn't say that what he was doing was right or that he could recommend it to others - only that he thought it was what he had to do. Here is a link concerning Ethics.LinksHow Not to Do Charity - Francisco Toro - PersuasionThe Reluctant Prophet of Effective Altruism - Gideon Lewis-Kraus - The New YorkerHow effective altruism went from a niche movement to a billion-dollar force - Dylan Matthews - VoxSam Bankman-Fried interview before his apparent fraud was uncovered - Crypto CEO Accidentally Describes Ponzi SchemeA behavioral economist explains why Elizabeth Holmes might not have felt bad lying about Theranos - Andy Kiersz - Business Insider HBO documentary on Elizabeth Holmes - "The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley,"Sam Bankman-Fried's first post-scandal public interview was a riveting train wreck - Whizy Kim - Vox Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe

A short message letting you know that the full episode is on it's way … hope you are enjoying The Road to Hell is Paved with Effective Altruism - (not the road, the piece from The Embassy). Chad and I will be in this space on Monday - thanks! Get full access to The Embassy at theembassy.substack.com/subscribe