In this first episode in a series on faith and political engagement, we delve into the intersection of anxiety and politics, as Christians navigate the mounting tension of the 2024 election cycle. In an interview conducted by DT Slouffman, Redeeming Babel’s Director of Content, Curtis shares insightful perspectives on how faith can helpfully form our emotional, relational, and church life. If you’re wondering how to navigate the coming months with both hope and humility, this episode is for you! 

Our outer world – our politics, our society, our organizations, even our local community and families  – can be enormously complex and even chaotic at times. How do we make sense of all that happens around us? Author and therapist Alison Cook joins Curtis to explore a key strategy: exploring our inner world. They discuss why grasping our inner complexity is critical to properly understanding our external world. This rich discussion covers the theological reasons for this process, as well as many practical steps on how to get started in this inner journey.

40% of all Americans will receive a diagnosis of cancer in their lifetime and practically every adult will know someone who already has. How do we talk about this reality? Nancy French, who recently was diagnosed with an aggressive type of breast cancer, joins Curtis to talk about how we talk. In a wide ranging, vulnerable, and candid conversation, Nancy shares about topics like why she doesn’t personally find the “fight cancer” language helpful (even if it might be helpful for others); why people are uncomfortable talking about serious illness; how cancer can be both a horrible and beautiful experience at the same time; and more gems.

Repeated studies show that the current media landscape is worsening polarization and weakening our ability to grasp truth. How do we escape getting trapped in our own “bespoke realities?” This Good Faith episode draws on a recent webinar led by Curtis and David French where they address how Christians can adopt better information habits.

How are Christians supposed to think, feel, and act as they walk by a homeless person? As they drive through an impoverished neighborhood and pass by its residents? Our reactions will be strongly influenced by how we answer the question, “Why? Why are these people poor?” To wrestle with this question, Curtis is joined by the leading scholar on American poverty today, Matthew Desmond, author of Poverty, by America. Together, they explore why most Americans are missing the full answer – and the special responsibility of Christians to live out the Biblical answer. 

The dominant narrative is that Western culture is headed for ever greater levels of atheism, agnosticism, or at least departure from belief in the Christian God. Andy Crouch returns from his sabbatical to question this narrative. He points out that the dominant secular worldview of the West - deterministic, rationalistic, and reductionist - is starting to run on empty. Can this lead to a greater hunger for the Christian God? Curtis and Andy examine what Christians would need to do to meet this hunger, including reexamining our own understanding of the Gospel itself.

The ongoing war in Gaza has sent out reverberations in the political, military, and economic spheres. But what about the moral sphere? Curtis is joined by “founding friend” David French to examine the moral aftershocks of Gaza in two disparate spheres: the moral practice of war and the moral practice of free speech at universities. We examine why Christians should care about both spheres, and also uncover the surprising theological similarities between them.

AI feels like a tornado that has hit society: unpredictable, powerful, and out of our control. How do we as Christians respond to this force in the world? Curtis is joined by two friends who live and work at the intersection of AI and spiritual reflection: James Cham of Bloomberg Beta and John Kim of the Karamaan Group. Together, the three friends explore how Christians might flip the question from “Where is AI taking us spiritually?” to “Where should Christians take AI?”

American evangelicalism’s pull towards the far right is felt by anyone that comes into contact with the movement. But how did this happen? Who did the pulling? What were the motivations? What were the pre-conditions that made evangelicals so susceptible? With his latest book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, Tim Alberta has written the definitive book that answers these questions. He and Curtis discuss the key types of individuals, the organizations, the strategies, and especially the hidden incentive structures that lie beneath the headlines.  

This episode drops on the three year anniversary of the Capitol insurrection of January 6 2021. The event revealed the dangerous nature of Trumpism and political violence. We should be worried about what happened, even today. But the event also presented an opportunity: it contained an invitation from God for all of us, one that applies to our role in our own corner of the world, even today. In this Good Faith Classic (from also two years ago exactly), Curtis and “founding friend” David French unpack this invitation for everyone.