If you're wondering what we're talking about in that headline — well, you're going to have to listen! (Of course, we want to you listen anyway, even if you think that headline is ridiculous clickbait.)
You can call it coincidence, or you can call it divine providence, but my friend and co-host Stephen Kruiser and I came to each other with similar ideas for this week's podcast. Kruiser wanted to talk about something he'd heard of called Cultural Lent, and I came up with the idea of talking about Cultural Christianity. So we brought the two topics together for the fourth episode of Faith All Over the Place.
Cultural Christianity refers to people who believe in the value of Christianity for society but don't believe in Jesus for themselves: think people like Richard Dawkins, Jordan Peterson, or historian Tom Holland. Cultural Lent is a phenomenon where non-believers give up something during the Lenten season but don't practice the faith.
Kruiser and I talk about how much value there is in supporting something or taking part in a practice when you don't believe in it yourself. We also discuss how close Cultural Christians or practitioners of Cultural Lent could be to genuine faith and wonder how much they leave the door open to witnessing to them and changing their minds.
If you consider yourself a Cultural Christian or if you practice Cultural Lent, we'd love to hear from you. Share your experiences and thoughts with us, please! We're hoping to have a Faith All Over the Place email set up soon, but in the meantime, hit us up. (And don't forget: if you're a VIP Platinum member, you can message us directly.)
We dove a little deeper into Lent and Holy Week and talked about different practices, which is something we'll touch on more in the coming weeks. We also mused on how late Ash Wednesday and Easter are this year and how Orthodox Easter and Passover come together on the same weekend on the calendar, and we even riffed on the glories of the McDonald's Filet-o-Fish sandwich.
Finally, we talked a little bit about looking on the bright side of our minor inconveniences. It's a loose, somewhat free-wheeling discussion, but you know we had fun and enjoyed touching on higher-order topics.
As always, you can listen to "Faith All Over the Place" on our Podcast page, on Apple, or on Spotify. Or you can listen here:
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Of course, VIP Platinum members can message us directly with prayer requests, praise reports, and ideas for guests or specific topics surrounding faith, and we'd love to hear from you. So feel free to message us to say hello!
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