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Episode 529: Rapture Anxiety & Why Analog Discipleship is Better with Jay Y. Kim


Were you an evangelical kid in the 1970s, 80s, or 90s? Then you may be suffering from the lingering affects of “rapture anxiety.” Why did rapture theology feature so prominently in the American church, where did it come from, and why does it seem so bizarre to Christians today? Then, Russell Moore has a new article on the heresy of Christian Nationalism accusing it of doing to conservatives what the Social Gospel did to progressives a century ago.

Skye then talks to Silicon Valley pastor, Jay Y. Kim, about his book “Analog Christian: Cultivating Contentment, Resilience, and Wisdom in the Digital Age.” Kim says social media is designed to produce the opposite of the Fruit of the Spirit in us, and argues we need to “linger longer” in non-digital, incarnate spaces and relationships to combat its affects. Plus, don’t take a raccoon into a bar, and one tough Turkish toddler.

Bonus Patreon Interview with Jay Y. Kim - https://www.patreon.com/posts/72887200

News Segment 00:00 - Intro 2:08- Animal news 9:39 - Rapture anxiety 25:08 - Russell Moore on Christian nationalism Interview with Jay Y. Kim “Analog Christian: Cultivating Contentment, Resilience, and Wisdom in the Digital Age” - https://amzn.to/3e3vaXk 39:51 - Interview intro 43:04 - Technology and cigarette analogy 46:41 - Spiritual formation in Silicon Valley 51:18 - Are mediums really neutral? 56:20 - Love vs. self-centric despair 1:06:04 - Lingering longer Links from news segment: “Woman who brought raccoon to North Dakota bar is charged” (ABC News) - https://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStory/woman-brought-raccoon-north-dakota-bar-charged-90326390 “Toddler Bites Snake to Death after It Sunk Its Fangs into Her Lip” (Newsweek) - https://www.newsweek.com/toddler-snake-bite-kills-snake-1733553 “For some Christians, ‘rapture anxiety’ can take a lifetime to heal” (CNN) - https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/27/us/rapture-anxiety-evangelical-exvangelical-christianity-cec/index.html “Christian Nationalism Cannot Save the World” by Russell Moore (Moore to the Point newsletter) - https://christianitytoday.activehosted.com/index.php?action=social&chash=0224cd598e48c5041c7947fd5cb20d53.10884&s=c0745eb8366dc94946b6b980d936ad22 Resources from interview: “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid” by Jonathan Haidt (The Atlantic) - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/ “When Church Became Theatre: The Transformation of Evangelical Architecture and Worship in Nineteenth-Century America” by Jeanne Halgren Kilde - https://amzn.to/3Rzr9Yn “Analog Church: Why We Need Real People, Places, and Things in the Digital Age” by Jay Y. Kim - https://amzn.to/3SAqHu9 Holy Post website: https://www.holypost.com/ Holy Post Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/holypost 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.




20 Comments


sovoh51562
Sep 29, 2023

Well, I can say that this is a good article, I liked it, it was very well said, according to all the canons and the latest research in the field of psychology. I can say, as someone who graduated from medical school, that the field of psychology and psychology in general is a whole galaxy that requires appropriate knowledge and skills. I'm very sorry that I left this field, but I found something no worse, because now I enjoy making storyboards for magazines or articles, and I have the help of these guys from blog.depositphotos.com, so I can relax and fully recover after a hard day. When I changed my profession, I somehow became more nervous, my sleep normalized, and…

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Paul G. Barnes
Paul G. Barnes
Oct 11, 2022

I remember making a profession of faith when I was 6 on Easter Sunday, but for a couple of months or so when I was 7 I would go up during the Invitation (we were Baptists) and "rededicate my life to Jesus" out of fear that I was not really saved and would get left behind in the rapture. Why? Because of Thief in the Night. My church showed it at a special Sunday night worship service, and it scared the crap out of me. To this day when people ask me what the scariest movie I saw as a kid was, it wasn't the horror film my babysitter took me to when I was 5 because she had a date…

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jana1concha
jana1concha
Oct 10, 2022

I appreciated the talk on “rapture anxiety” as I told had this in my childhood. No one put on a fake rapture in my life but I was often worried that I was going to be “left behind”. I grew up in a very conservative, near-fundamentalist Christian home. We were very active at church and went to a Christian school. Although I have a distinct memory of asking Jesus into my heart at a very young age, I was always worried that I didn’t do it right. Christian life was performative, in my upbringing and a lot of attention was given to “end times”. I think I’ve avoided too much thought on this as an adult but I appreciat…

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kacumen
kacumen
Oct 09, 2022

You remember I mentioned Daniel Nayeri, author of Everything Sad is Untrue?

Here's an interview of him. Again, I think he is amazing and would be a great guest for you all. https://open.spotify.com/episode/3lRoSSOCUywbb3zMP33ojB?si=UpgZ9IQhT3aoySGkrCI54Q&utm_source=copy-link

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Lyle Beidler
Lyle Beidler
Oct 07, 2022

I have rarely been so angry at THP content as I was today. Listening to Skye claim that social justice Christians don’t have Jesus at the center of their faith - and how he can hold this disgustingly judgmental attitude after listening to the words of leaders like Dr King, Rev Barber, etc, is beyond me - and then moments later he brings out the quote from Archbishop Tutu about going upstream and finding out why people are in the water… Skye, that is what social justice Christians are all about, is keeping people from falling in! Evangelical charity is pulling people out of the water; social justice activism is trying to help people not get in the water i…

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Lyle Beidler
Lyle Beidler
Oct 09, 2022
Replying to

Skye,

thanks for the clarification. That makes a lot more sense.

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