A network of global Christian churches have decided to combat climate change by divesting from gas and oil companies. But why aren’t any Protestant American churches participating, and do climate activists care that efforts to replace fossil fuels disproportionately harm the poor?
And a new article by Beth Allison Barr examines the difference between the political pro-life movement and the biblical pro-life ethic. Then, Matthew Soerens is back to discuss the new book he’s co-authored with Eric Costanzo and Daniel Yang, “Inalienable: How Marginalized Kingdom Voices Can Help Save the American Church.” As white evangelicals lose their grip on cultural and political power in the U.S., Soerens says they may discover how to follow Christ more faithfully from sisters and brothers in the global church who never had power to begin with. Plus, New Zealand taxes bovine burps.
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News Segment
0:00 - Intro and updates
5:04 - Bovine burps
10:39 - Churches combatting climate change
18:08 - Capitalism and poverty
32:03 - Women left behind by the pro-life movement
Sponsors
50:59 - Sponsor: One Collective
Learn more: https://www.onecollective.org/serve/holypost
52:55 - Sponsor: World Relief
Join the Path: https://worldrelief.org/holypost/
Interview with Matthew Soerens
"Inalienable: How Marginalized Kingdom Voices Can Help Save the American Church" by Eric Costanzo, Daniel Yang, and Matthew Soerens - https://amzn.to/3PlS8pB
54:51 - Matthew Soerens interview intro
57:10 - Challenges in the evangelical American church
1:05:56 - Changing the boogeyman
1:11:38 - Looking to the global church
1:16:48 - U.S. immigration and refugee policies
1:22:04 - "What in the World?" Holy Post miniseries
1:24:54 - Credits
Articles referenced in news segment:
"New Zealand announces world-first plan to tax cow and sheep burps" (NPR) - https://www.npr.org/2022/06/09/1104014587/new-zealand-announces-world-first-plan-to-tax-cow-and-sheep-burps
"Global faith institutions announce divestment..." (Operation Noah) - https://operationnoah.org/featured/press-release-global-faith-institutions-announce-d[…]es-threaten-1-5c-climate-goal-with-reckless-expansion-plans/
"MIT Scientists Propose 'Space Bubbles' to Deflect Solar Radiation, Ease Climate Change" (Popular Mechanics) -
"The Women Left Behind by the Pro-Life Movement" by Beth Allison Barr (Religion & Politics) - https://religionandpolitics.org/2022/07/11/the-women-left-behind-by-the-pro-life-movement/
Resources mentioned in interview:
"American Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving" by Christian Smith - https://amzn.to/3P2zIKZ
Episode 1 of our "What in the World?" miniseries will be out Friday, 7/15 in the regular Holy Post podcast feed!
The Holy Post is supported by our listeners. We may earn affiliate commissions through links listed here. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
I loved Phil’s plan to address flourishing soon, and I think Sky and Kaitlyn agreed that a clear definition of what is meant by “flourishing” would be an important starting point. The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard, is directed by Tyler VanderWeele, who is both a humble genius and a Christian. He’s used research to craft a model that offers a “common ground” definition of flourishing that may offer a way forward on this topic. You may be well aware of this work, but if not, it's worth a look.
Great episode. Lots of wisdom and empathy. When Skye was playing devil's advocate and talking about reduction of global poverty under capitalism, I imagine he was likely using the studies that utilize the international poverty line of $1.90 a day. A couple thoughts about this because this is a common talking point. To Kaitlyn's point, an arbitrary number does not define the difference between thriving and not thriving. $1.90 a day is supposed to represent what a human needs to get the bare minimum subsistence. If you raise the cutoff to $5 a day (which is still very low), half the world would be considered living in poverty and more people would be living in poverty right now than at any o…
I agree that what passes as "pro life" for many white evangelics (in which they push for federal intervention) is, in actual fact, only "pro birth" (after which they suddenly decry any federal or state intervention to feed, house, protect, educate or in any other meaningful way, help those same birthed children to thrive). However, I don't think this is because abortion is mostly symbolic for them, as Skye suggested. I think it is for the same reason this demographic opposes anything outside their cultural understanding--they have no curiosity or desire to know how anyone lives who is different from themselves. As a result, they ignorantly assume they know why people have abortions in the first place: because all women…
Hey guys, love the show. Phil, you said (and I'm gonna butcher it, I know) "I believe many conservative evangelicals are under the impression we have used politics to bring a biblical vision to America..." when in essence the inverse is true; politics have used us.
I just want to echo this, and thank you for pointing this out. It certainly goes WAY further back, but ever since "Christians" began outcries over masks and vaccines I realized a similar phenomena that I described as Christians using their religion to further their political views, rather than the inverse. While using politics to further your religion could also be detrimental, at least it has the implication of bringing about the Kingdom of…
Hey everyone!
Hope you are well!!
Right around minute 41, Kaitlyn says "... if I want to build something good and beautiful in the world I'm going to have to learn to partner with people who are also made in the image of God but might have very different beliefs, some that I even find morally distasteful, I will have to find a way to work with them to do something good". So, when are you actually doing that in the show? When are you bringing different perspectives, even ones you find "distasteful" so you can all work together to do something good? I'm thinking, you know of Shenvi, DeYoung, Yancey, Bradley (Anthony), etc..?
Blessings!