Introduction

For centuries, Christianity has been seen as a positive force in the world – even by those who are not Christians. But my guest today, Aaron Renn, argues that this perception has changed. In a widely read and discussed article for “First Things” magazine, first published a decade ago, Renn said that the world up until 1964 was a “positive world” for Christianity. From 1964 to 2014, we lived in what he calls the “Neutral World.” Since 2014, we live in a “Negative World” for Christianity. Renn expands on these ideas in his latest book, Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture. Aaron Renn is a senior fellow at American Reformer, a former senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and a former partner at Accenture, the global consulting firm. His latest book is Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture. A quick note that it’s a new month – May – and we have a new book we’d like to share with you. Katelyn Beaty’s Celebrities for Jesus is a book that is right in the center of the bullseye for MinistryWatch readers. It discusses how and why the evangelical church has turned to celebrities, celebrity pastors and ministry leaders, and how that trend is hurting the church. We will send you that book as our thank you for a gift of any size during the month of May. To give to MinistryWatch, just go to MinistryWatch.com and hit the donate button at the top of the page. The producer for today’s program is Jeff McIntosh. We get database, technical, editorial, and other support from Casey Sudduth, Stephen duBarry, Christina Darnell, and Kim Roberts. I hope you’ll join me and Natasha Cowden for our roundup of the stories we’ve been working on this week here at MinistryWatch. Until then, may God bless you.