Podcasts about bad religion how we became

Ross Douthat is a New York Times columnist who writes about religion, society, and moral values. He is also the author of several thought-provoking books, including Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, and a memoir of his personal struggle with a debilitating sickness, The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery. His latest book is Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious. Ross joins the podcast to discuss how decadence is shaping society and whether religion has a vibrant future. Why do so many people pray? Does it really work? And if so, in what way? Explore these questions and more in an essay by psychologist Frank Fincham, “What Can Science Say About the Study of Prayer?” Join our growing community of 140,000+ listeners and be notified of new episodes of Templeton Ideas. Subscribe today.  Follow us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.   

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveIn 2012, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat published Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, a book about how mainstream American religion was devolving into the prosperity gospel, superstitious cults and other forms of heterodox faith. Thirteen years later, the American religious landscape has changed, and Ross wrote a new book tackling a much more basic question: why you should be religious at all. He joins Damir Marusic and Shadi Hamid to discuss that book, which is titled Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious.This new book, Douthat says, “assumes a highly individualist culture” as its audience. This individualist culture is one where each person thinks of whether to believe in a god as a highly personal choice. The culture as a whole can no longer support any one person's faith. The biggest individual challenge to Douthat's thesis in this episode comes from Damir, who says: “I feel most religious people try to get through … happiness and/or meaning. I am not thirsting for those. I am not hungry for them. I feel I'm ok.” Douthat responds by posing a hypothetical: “Suppose you die and you're summoned before the judgment throne of God and God says, ‘Seems like were friendly for arguments for being religious, you weren't one hundred percent convinced, but still: why didn't you go to church?'” Douthat argues that, while he himself is believing Catholic, there are nevertheless many “commonalities of religious experience. [World religions] are not all saying the same thing, but they are real and suggest something.” This makes common ground with Shadi who, as a Muslim, disagrees with Douthat about the divinity of Christ, but who, as a believer, agrees with Douthat that we should all be religious.In our bonus section for paid subscribers, Damir, Shadi and Ross talk about the philosophy of mind; whether AI will ever be conscious; what consciousness is for; whether Daniel Dennett is in hell; and why being lukewarm about whether God exists is a bad idea.Required Reading and Listening:* Ross Douthat, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious (Amazon). * Damir Marusic, “A Lost Sense of Wonder” (WoC). * Nathan Beacom, “The Art of Hiking” (WoC). * John Lennon, “Imagine” (YouTube). * Daniel Dennett, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (Amazon). * Revelation 3:16: “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (King James Version). This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Governance and Markets.Free preview video:Full video for paid subscribers below:

“A certain degree of faith in Providence and a certain degree of confidence in America … May that combination not be overwhelmed by some disaster.” (New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, offering a blessing for election season) Contemporary political debate and commentary operates from deeply moral sources. People tend to vote their conscience. Our values and ideals, our sense of right and wrong, and our beliefs about what contributes or detracts from the common good often inform our politics. And across the political spectrum, Americans of all stripes exercise their citizenship and public engagement through a religious faith that grounds it all. So, what better space to explore this conjunction of faith, morality, and political life than The New York Times Opinion section? Today on the show, Ross Douthat joins Mark Labberton to discuss how his faith and theological commitments ground his moral and political perspectives. Douthat joined The New York Times as an Opinion columnist in 2009, and regularly appears on the weekly Opinion podcast, “Matter of Opinion.” He's also a film critic for National Review and was previously senior editor at The Atlantic. In this episode, they discuss the spiritual and political background of Douthat's youth and how Roman Catholic Christianity grounded his religious and political views; the challenges for how the Catholic Church and its moral teachings can adapt to contemporary culture; how faith and morality can speak to our dynamic political moment during the 2024 election season; and finally Ross's hope and faith in divine providence met with confidence in America's resilience and capacity for good. About Ross Douthat Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as an Opinion columnist in 2009, and regularly appears on the weekly Opinion podcast, “Matter of Opinion.” He's also a film critic for National Review. Previously, he was a senior editor at The Atlantic. He is the author of several books, including The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery (2021), The Decadent Society (2020), To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism (2018), Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics (2012); Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (2005), and, with Reihan Salam, Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream (2008). His newest book, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious, will be published in early 2025. Show Notes   Ross Douthat's spiritual background as Episcopalian, Pentecostal-Evangelical, and eventually Roman Catholic   Our “spiritually haunted environment”   How Catholicism has changed from Pope John Paul II to Pope Francis   Adapting moral teachings to contemporary challenges   “Many, many of the problems in our culture and the reasons for people's unhappiness are related to issues of sex and relationships.”   “Jesus says incredibly stringent and strenuous things in the Gospels about sex.”   “I think if the church stops having some sort of countercultural message on those issues, then it won't actually be speaking to the big challenges and derangements of our time.”   “All of the developed world is heading over this demographic cliff…”   People aren't getting married anymore. They aren't forming relationships anymore.”   Pope Francis, pastoral sensitivity, and making moral concessions to contemporary culture   Pope Francis squelching the Latin mass   Commenting on the dynamics and craziness of our political moment   “Over the course of my career, I have tried to spend a lot of time with the idea that Catholicism in particular, and I think Christianity in general, should stand a little bit outside of partisan categories.”   How the Republican Party can address the needs of the working class   Ross Douthat's views during the Trump Era   Providence and appealing to God's control   "Man proposes, and God disposes.”   “The world has grown weirder in general, in the last decade, than it was when I was in my twenties.”   Providence and freedom   Ross's thesis in The Decadent Society: “The Western world and really the whole planet was sort of stuck stagnant. We'd achieved this incredible level of wealth and technological power, we'd filled the earth and subdued it to some degree, but we were suffering from uncertainty, malaise, and ennui because we didn't know what to do next.”   Space travel and Elon Musk   Looking for help from some other power: God, Aliens, or A.I.   The unique perspective Ross Douthat brings to The New York Times   “As the world has grown weirder, I've felt a little more comfortable being weird myself, and that so far hasn't gotten me fired.”   “You know, not to brag, but yeah, I'm probably the weirdest columnist at a major American newspaper.”   Offering a blessing for the nation's experience between now and election day   “Life in the United States is an underrated good. Americans have become very pessimistic, very unhappy with each other, sometimes unhappy with themselves … And I think actually, beneath that difficult surface, America has a lot of real strengths and real resilience and American culture is better positioned, I think, than a lot of cultures around the world to navigate the next 50 to 100 years of human history. So I think that should give people some confidence.”   “A certain degree of faith in Providence and a certain degree of confidence in America.”   Production Credits Conversing is produced and distributed in partnership with Comment Magazine and Fuller Seminary.

Today's conversation is centered around Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics by Ross Douthat.

In this week's episode of we kick off with a dynamic duo. Join us as we sit down with Kimberley Strassel from The Wall Street Journal and Ross Douthat from The New York Times. Together, they'll provide unique insights into the ever-evolving landscape of media, as well as, share their perspectives on the Republican Party, Joe Biden and more.Later in the show, Chuck and Sam take the microphone to delve into some pressing current news, including VP Kamala Harris, Larry Sinclair's appearance on Tucker Carlson and New York's migrant “crisis.” In a brand-new segment, we introduce "Kiley's Corner," hosted by the irrepressible Kiley Kipper. Kiley delves into current news stories, offering her unique perspective on the headlines. This week, she takes a deep dive into the Ruby Franke case, a shocking incident involving a Utah mother and YouTuber from "8 Passengers." Join Kiley as she unravels the story and discusses its implications, all from her corner of the studio.-Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-Kimberley Strassel is a member of the editorial board for The Wall Street Journal. She writes editorials, as well as the weekly Potomac Watch political column, from her base in Alaska.Ms. Strassel joined Dow Jones & Co. in 1994, working in the news department of The Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels, and then in London. She moved to New York in 1999 and soon thereafter joined the Journal's editorial page, working as a features editor, and then as an editorial writer. She assumed her current position in 2005.Ms. Strassel, a 2014 Bradley Prize recipient, is a regular contributor to Sunday political shows, including CBS's "Face the Nation," Fox News Sunday, and NBC's "Meet the Press." She is the author of "The Intimidation Game: How the Left Is Silencing Free Speech," which chronicles recent attacks on conservative nonprofits, businesses and donors.An Oregon native, Ms. Strassel earned a bachelor's degree in Public Policy and International Affairs from Princeton University. She lives in Alaska with her three children.-Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as an Opinion columnist in April 2009. His column appears every Tuesday and Sunday. He is also a host on the weekly Opinion podcast “Matter of Opinion.” Previously, he was a senior editor at The Atlantic and a blogger on its website.He is the author of “The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery,” which was published in October 2021. His other books include "To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism,” published in 2018; “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics” (2012); “Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class” (2005); “The Decadent Society” (2020); and, with Reihan Salam, “Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream” (2008). He is the film critic for National Review.He lives with his wife and four children in New Haven, Conn. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com

In this episode we discuss Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics by Ross Douthat. Next time we'll discuss The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom by James Burnham.

In this episode we discuss War and the Liberal Conscience by Michael Howard. Next time we'll discuss Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics by Ross Douthat.

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat joins Josh Lewis to talk about his recent memoir The Deep Places.  His book tells of his recent journey in battling chronic Lyme disease and his reflections on illness, discovery, and hope.   Ross' story begins prior to the illness in which he was attempting to build the life he'd always dreamed of.  “At that moment in my life I only really believed in upside…I wrote my share of words on the problem of evil…usually making the case that much of American Christianity offers people the wrong answers, encouraging them to believe that actually bad things shouldn't happen if you're good, that the American Dream should be yours if you just stay in God's good graces and follow the paths that He's marked out.”   “I had a similar critique of the secular meritocracy in which I had been educated: that because it asked its climbers to work so hard and jump so high, it encouraged an idea that we had somehow earned all our privileges, that our SAT scores and extracurricular accomplishments meant that we genuinely deserved to rule.”   “But despite these critiques, there was still a sense in which I believed exactly these ideas myself—or at least for myself—as I passed through college into adulthood, achieved the career as a writer that I wanted, won the wife I wanted, the job I wanted, the kids I wanted, and now the house and country life I wanted, too.”   Yet life had other plans for Ross as he's spent the past six years battling an invisible enemy that's robbed much of the life he'd built.  His book offers profound insights into what we can make of our sufferings and how to keep hope in hopeless situations.   About Ross Douthat Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as an opinion columnist in April 2009.  His column appears every Tuesday and Sunday.  Previously, he was a senior editor at The Atlantic and a blogger on its website.  He is also a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he studies American politics, culture, religion, and family life.   A prolific writer, Ross has written for The Atlantic and National Review and has been published widely in the popular press.  In addition to The Deep Places, he is also the author of five other books: “The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success”; “To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism”; “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics”; “Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream”, which he coauthored with Reihan Salam; and “Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class”.   Ross has a BA in history from Harvard University.  He lives with his wife and four children in New Haven.  You can follow Ross on Twitter @DouthatNYT  

Ross Douthat joins Aaron to discuss his new book: The Deep Places. They address the difficulties of living with chronic illness and the weaknesses of modern medicine and the medical establishment. Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as an Opinion columnist in April 2009. Previously, he was a senior editor at The Atlantic and a blogger on its website. He is the author of The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery, which was published in October 2021. His other books include To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism, published in 2018; Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics (2012); Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (2005); The Decadent Society (2020); and, with Reihan Salam, Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream (2008). He is the film critic for National Review. Ross lives with his wife and four children in New Haven. The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery Please visit the Ethics and Public Policy's Bioethics and American Democracy program page for more information.

In this episode I am joined by New York Times columnist Ross Douthat to discuss his latest book, The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success. Ross’s column appears weekly and he co-hosts the Times Op-Ed podcast, “The Argument.” He previously served as a senior editor at The Atlantic. His other books include Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics (2012) and Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (2005).I invite you to listen in on our conversation, and be sure to subscribe to receive future episodes of Signposts 

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat is the author of Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics (Free Press, 2012) and The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success (Simon & Schuster, 2020). He presented this address in September 2019 as part of the Archdiocese of Denver's Saint John Paul II Lecture Series, "a quarterly event which features intellectually stimulating talks," according to the Archdiocese's website. Mr. Douthat's remarks have been abridged slightly for this podcast. Comments or suggestions about the Notable Speeches podcast? Email feedback@notablespeeches.com

The decline of institutional religion has made the United States a less Christian country without necessarily making it a more secular one. Ross Douthat will analyze the causes of traditional Christianity's ebb, discuss the various theological worldviews currently competing to claim the religious center, and sketch out scenarios for our religious future—from Christian revival to secularization to the pantheistic destiny that Tocqueville once foretold.Douthat, who in 2009 became the youngest op-ed columnist in the history of the New York Times, is widely acclaimed for his commentary on politics, religion, and culture. He is the author of four books, including Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics (2012) and To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism (2018). His new book, The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success, will be published in February by Simon & Schuster. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Several years ago New York Times columnist Ross Douthat made a splash with his provocative book, “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics.” As the title implies, religion isn't vanishing in America, it's simply embracing heretical ideas—from the prosperity gospel to sanctifying sexual immorality to political idolatry. What Douthat wrote back then still applies.  Warren Cole Smith caught up with Douthat at the recent Touchstone conference. And as we begin the countdown to calendar year end, we'd ask you to consider making a donation to BreakPoint and the Colson Center to help us end the year strong and reach more believers than ever before in 2020 through BreakPoint, the BreakPoint Podcast, and our other Christian worldview programs. Simply go to Colsoncenter.org/November to help. Thank you.

John Stonestreet and Warren Smith are together at the Touchstone magazine conference: "Fight or Flight: The Benedict & Other Options for Facing the World, the Flesh & the Devil." If we truly believe, along with theologian Abraham Kuyper, that every square inch of creation belongs to Christ, then how do we live faithfully in a culture that is growing increasingly hostile to Christianity? John and Warren also discuss the consequences of the sudden U. S. withdrawal from Syria, the NBA's cowardly response to Communist China going nuts over a tweet supporting Hong Kong, and Ellen DeGeneres's response to folks angry at her because she's friends with George W. Bush. Resources The U. S. Withdrawal from Syria John Stonestreet and Mindy Belz, The BreakPoint Podcast,October 9, 2011   Abraham Kuyper: A Short and Personal Introduction Richard Mouw, Eerdman's, 2011   Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretic Ross Douthat, Free Press, 2013   The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation Rod Dreher, Sentinel, 2018

Ep. 132 - New York Times Columnist Ross Douthat joins #WhiskeyPolitics with Dave Sussman at Freedom Fest to draw the curtain back on perceived bias at The New York Times. Ross and Dave discuss the decline of journalism, why many NY Times readers believe the paper isn't HARD ENOUGH on Trump and both the FBI and the Justice Department. They finish with Ross's recommended movie you should see in 2018. Ross's columns appear every Wednesday and Sunday. Previously, he was a senior editor at The Atlantic and a blogger for http://theatlantic.com. He is the author of “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics,” published in 2012, and “Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class” (2005), and a co-author, with Reihan Salam, of “Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream” (2008). He is the film critic for National Review. Find Ross at The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/ https://www.nytimes.com/by/ross-douthat National Review https://www.nationalreview.com/author... and Twitter https://twitter.com/DouthatNYT. Filmed at #FreedomFest18.Please subscribe to Whiskey Politics on YouTubeAlso find us on The Ricochet Network, WhiskeyPolitics.net, Facebook and follow Dave on Twitter. Shown on Americas Voice Television Network.Subscribe to your favorite podcast application including TuneIn, Stitcher, GooglePlay, and iTunes where your 5-star rating will be greatly appreciated!Music: Ben Sounds.

In this preview of Ezra's coming interview podcast, he interviews New York Times op-ed columnist Ross Douthat. Douthat is the author of Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class, Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save Themselves, and Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics. He's also a fascinating political thinker with a skill that's rare in these polarized times: he's a conservative writing for an overwhelmingly liberal audience, and he's able to regularly disagree with his readers without alienating them. In this discussion, he tells Ezra about his winding path to the Times op-ed page, as well as his appreciation for Donald Trump, and his predictions for what could split both the Democratic and Republican parties.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Summary of today's show: Ross Douthat's new book “Bad Religion” looks at how the landscape of American spirituality has changed over the past 60 years–from traditional orthodoxy to individual spiritualism– and what that means for our society and culture. Scot Landry and Douthat talk about the American religious revival after World War II in a common Christian orthodoxy and then splintered into a series of heresies that hold sway today. Listen to the show: Today's host(s): Scot Landry Today's guest(s): Ross Douthat, columnist for the New York Times and author Links from today's show: Today's topics: Ross Douthat and Bad Religion 1st segment: Scot welcomed everyone to the show. He recalled as a father how time flies past when raising kids andy ow it's tough to see trends when living in the present. This is true of our faith and it can be tough to see how much has changed in our faith over the past 40 years and to understand why. The new book “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics” has helped Scot to understand how Catholicisicm has changed in the past 40 years. Scot welcomed Ross Douthat to the show. He's the youngest-ever op-ed columnist in the history of the New York Times. He was previously at The Atlantic. He's also authored two other books and . Scot asked Ross about his background. He's from southern Connecticut originally. He grew up in the 1980s and was baptized in the Episcopalian church. When he was about 8 or 9, his family started attending charismatic healing ministries conducted by this particular woman and they became introduced to Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism, until at about 15 years old, when they started attending a Catholic church. He formally converted at 17. He took a tour of American Christianity when he was young. It gave him a slightly broader perspective on American religion than most journalists certainly. Ross said he wasn't pressured to convert, but with his mom converting he kind of moved in the wake of his parents' spiritual journey. He didn't take an unconventional path into the faith. He also found it a relief to enter a church where nothing unexpected happened during worship, like in Pentecostalism. He said his parents spent a lot of time at a startup Evangelical church at Yale university and were involved in several smaller Protestant churches. For his mother, she always said she had an encounter with Jesus through Evangelical Christianity, but was looking for the Church that was the fullest expression of Jesus on earth. For her, the absence of final authority in Protestantism was a mark against it. The Catholic mystical tradition provided a bridge for her from Pentecostalism. They were also still Episcopalian enough that Catholic liturgy wasn't foreign either. Scot said that as a cradle Catholic going to Harvard he found defending his faith as a spur to growing deeper in it. He asked Ross what it was like for him at Harvard about a decade later. Ross said intellectually it was a great experience. As a Christian entering such an environment, you either abandon your faith immediately or you hold onto your faith and end up getting the best possible education because you're working even harder as someone outside the academic mainstream. You're more likely to challenge and be challenged by the experience. In terms of the practice of his faith, he doesn't think an Ivy League education is not necessarily the best thing because the culture of the elites in this country is oriented around achievement for achievement's sake and success at any cost. It's not so much atheism as worldliness. He started writing in high school and in college he worked on the conservative campus newspaper and wrote a conservative column for the Harvard Crimson, but he didn't really decide on becoming a journalist as a career until he needed a job after graduation. He was hired at the New York Times at 29 years old. He said it wasn't much of a choice to move from The Atlantic to the Times. He loved The Atlantic, but the Times–even in this age–is a unique institution with an unparalleled reach. Maybe particularly for someone with his conservative, Catholic vies, it makes him distinctive among their columnists. He mostly writes about American domestic politics. Mostly he's been writing about the presidential campaign. He most recently wrote about healthcare. But he also writes about religion and religious issues, plus pop culture, sociology, and topics like that. Ross said the idea for the book Bad Religion came to him during George W. Bush's second term when the battle in American politics and culture seemed to be between the Irreligious Left and the Religious Right. Ross took part in the debates and dismissed claims that America was about to turn into a theocracy. He also thought the binary division in that approach didn't come close to reflecting religion in America today. He wanted to write about where Americans were getting their spiritual ideas and beliefs from. The thesis became that America has become less institutionally religious and less overall Christian, but just as religious. He writes a lot about people like author Elizabeth Gilbert, Joel Osteen, and Dan Brown. He argues that you need to look closely at pop spirituality: books, TV shows, and the like because that's where people are getting their religion from, not churches. Scot said the religious cultural history Ross documents was helpful. After World War II, orthodox Christianity was at the center of American culture. Ross said the books start after WWII which historians of American religion call the post-war religious revival: People were attending church at higher rates, church construction was booming, there were more movies of Bible stories and depicting Catholic priests. There was a broad revival, but he also says that it coexisted with an intellectual revival. The experience of totalitarianism led to a reassessment and a new willingness to look back at traditional sources of wisdom to understand what had gone wrong in the modern age. So he started the book with the poet William H. Auden,who returned to his Christian faith after being confronted with the evil of the Nazis. Ross argues that this kind of reassessment happened in al to of places. There was a new interest in religion on college campuses. It didn't mean America had turned into a land of orthodox Christians. America has always been a land of many competing definitions of what Christianity is, but in this time the institutional churches were stronger then than any other time. It also seemed to be a times when various branches seemed to be merging, when Bill Graham would do a crusade in a city and a Catholic bishop would write an op-ed in support. Scot said Ross writes that in 1930, 37% of Americans were formally affiliated with a church and it rose to 69% in 1960. Also in 1950, Americans spent $24 million on church architecture. By 1960 it was $1 billion. Ross said there are many reason all that went away. He tried to look at the more structural factors because there's often a heavy focus on personalities, like High Hefner or Betty Friedan or Gloria Steinem. He said the trends start with political polarization. In the early 1960s, when you look at how Christianity interacted with politics, you see that religious believers were intimately involved in politics. The Civil Rights movement was explicitly Christian. But because the two parties weren't completely polarized into conservative Republican and liberal Democrat, something like the Civil Rights wasn't completely partisan. But Christian interventions became identified with the religious left and later with the religious right. It became harder to become a Christian first and a liberal or conservative Republican or Democrat. After Roe v. Wade, there was a moment when it seemed the pro-life movement could be bipartisan, but then it became polarized. Then there is the sexual revolution, which makes the link between middle class norms and Christian sexual ethics seem weak, out of date, and repressive. American society has severed sex from reproduction and to divorce it from Christian morality. There's also money as America becomes a much wealthier country. Just as the New Testament play on chastity doesn't play in post-sexual revolution America, so too did the Christian suspicion of wealth gets lost too. America becomes a worldlier society. Then with globalization, the world in all its diversity is beamed into living rooms as never before, while the West becomes associated with imperialism and repression. So people begin to question how their church could be the One, True Church in such a big, diverse world, plus the association of Christianity with European crimes and oppression. Ironically, the areas experiencing decolonization have Christianity take off because Christianity becomes less Western. Scot said Ross writes that the Christian response is to become more relevant to the culture or become more resistant to the changes. 2nd segment: Scot said Ross charts four main heresies in American Christianity today: the search of the historical Jesus; the prosperity Gospel; spiritual, not religious (i.e. against organized religion); and the nationalism of our destiny of the United States as that shining city on a hill. Scot asked Ross to describe what he means by orthodoxy. Ross said it's a kind of Christian consensus shared by the Catholic Church, much of Eastern Orthodoxy, and most of the mainline Christianity, i.e. Christianity as it coalesced in the 3rd of 4th century. He contrasts that with heresy, which he says is something deeply influenced by Christianity, but takes on aspect of Christianity emphasizes it out of balance with the rest. Christianity is willing to speak in terms of mystery and to always be balancing one side with the other: e.g. the world is both good and evil or the balance between faith and works. Heresies try to make the faith more rational, saying mysteries or paradoxes aren't rational and need to be made cleaner. Heresies are easier to accept and easier to explain than the true mysteries of faith. For example, there is the prosperity Gospel. He spends a lot of time looking a Joel Osteen, a successful TV preacher and author of many books. He's a lot like Billy Graham in his preaching a message of God's universal love, traveling about and selling out stadiums. But the difference is that Graham's preaching was always balanced between love and the need for repentance in the face of damnation. But you can listen to Osteen for a long time without hearing much at all about human sinfulness and God's judgment. Graham is more in the orthodox tradition because he's balancing love and justice, while Osteen only takes one piece of the story and emphasizing it. Scot said he sees sometimes that the harder demands of Catholicism aren't perched because it's thought it will help people come back to faith, even though experience shows the opposite. Ross spends a fair amount of time talking about how institutional churches are good for our society and in fact make it all work. But if a more do-it-yourself form of spirituality becomes dominant, then it becomes harder for churches to do the social part of their job. It's hard for a religion of people praying on their own to help society. If you're your own church then it becomes hard to run a soup kitchen on your own. People aren't as much joiners as we used to be, plus even more children are born out of wedlock making the social fabric weaker. You can see that younger Americans are more narcissistic, more self-centered, less empathetic. DIY religion makes it easy to come into something that never challenges. Thus the prosperity Gospel is very comforting to people who upwardly module in a materialistic society. But maybe what America could have heard in the housing bubble was that you can't serve both God and mammon, for example. Scot said one of the tougher heresies is the DIY religion, cherry picking the beliefs you want. This is tough because we've been bombarded by messages from Oprah and others that we don't need to balance our needs and wants. Ross said it's a case that takes something good in the Christian message–that you can encounter God within yourself–but then makes it the whole of religion. So if the “god within” contradicts your Church's voice, then the god within trumps all. Sometimes that voice of god becomes your ego or libido, so people use that to bless their own desires and impulses. The book and movie Eat, Pray, Love depicts a spiritual journey where God seems to exist to bless the author's decision to divorce her husband for her own self-fulfillment. Scot strongly recommends this book for Catholic discussion groups and for individuals.