The Natasha Crain Podcast

This weekend, Saturday Night Live cast member Cecily Strong played a character called Goober the Clown who had an abortion when she was 23 and now talks to people about how normal abortion is in between clown jokes.Every single one of us should be asking how on earth we, as a culture, have arrived at such a moment.Here's my answer.Mentioned in the episode:Faithfully Different launch team details and application link: https://natashacrain.com/join-the-book-launch-team-for-faithfully-different/Form to redeem offer for the pre-order bonus of a FREE audiobook for Faithfully Different: https://natashacrain.com/faithfully-different/Blog post on which this episode is based: https://natashacrain.com/how-culture-got-to-the-point-where-saturday-night-live-is-promoting-abortion-in-a-clown-outfit/Saturday Night Live skit video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exSZQICbSb8Carl Trueman's book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution: https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Triumph-Modern-Self-Individualism/dp/1433556332

There are plenty of high profile cancel culture examples that grab sustained public attention, but it’s the everyday cancel culture that picks off person after person without national attention that’s far more insidious...because the cumulative seriousness of what’s happening isn’t obvious to many people. In this episode, I discuss a recent example and walk through three things every Christian should understand about the fast but quiet creeping of everyday cancel culture.Mentioned in the episode:Pre-order details for my new book, Faithfully Different: https://natashacrain.com/faithfully-different/My article from last year on why secular social justice "warriors" often hate Christians so much: https://natashacrain.com/how-to-explain-to-your-kids-why-social-justice-warriors-hate-christians-so-much/

When parents start to see the importance of teaching their kids apologetics (how to make a case for and defend the truth of Christianity), they often start reading books but then feel stuck as to HOW to pass the knowledge on to their kids. At what age do you start? What if your kids aren't interested? What subjects should you cover? What subjects should you start with? What if you can't answer the questions that come up? In this episode, I cover all kinds of ideas for how to make apologetics part of your discipleship--for kids of all ages.Mentioned in this episode:Information on the new Talking with Your Kids about Jesus curriculum releasing in October 2021: https://natashacrain.com/talking-with-your-kids-about-jesus-video-curriculum-now-available-for-pre-order/My three apologetics books for parents are Keeping Your Kids on God's Side, Talking with Your Kids about God, and Talking with Your Kids about Jesus. You can read about the differences, see the tables of contents, and view endorsements here: https://natashacrain.com/books-by-natasha-crain/My podcast episode "How to Teach Your Kids about Non-Christian Worldviews" is episode #2 in your podcast player.

Have you noticed how any view that doesn't track with the mainstream secular consensus today is considered "extreme"? Even Facebook is now encouraging people to report when they've been exposed to so-called "extremist" content. While it used to be that extremists were those who committed ideological acts of violence, today extremism is increasingly being defined with respect to how far a view lies from popular consensus.And guess what? Christians with a biblical worldview fall squarely in the newly defined extremist camp. (Welcome!)It's really important to understand--and, in many ways, embrace--your position here. I explain why in this episode. Blog version available at: https://natashacrain.com/are-christians-the-new-extremists-yes-and-thats-okay/

There’s something that often goes unsaid in discussions about the importance of critical thinking: Not everyone we interact with will actually VALUE good logic and critical thinking. Many people think emotionally rather than critically and that has a lot of implications for Christians engaging with culture. It’s not enough to learn to think well...we have to learn how to think well AND how to deal with the fact that a lot of people don’t CARE about thinking well. In this episode, I highlight eight points to consider when thinking logically in an illogical culture.

If you spend any time around Christians, you’ll hear about the “hope we have in Jesus.” But  we’re often trying to offer people (including our kids) something they’re not even hungry for. In this episode, I share why kids need to more fully understand the true hopelessness of the world in order to hunger for the hope we have in Jesus.Resources mentioned in this episode:My book, Talking with Your Kids about Jesus.Original article: "One of the Greatest Gifts to Give Your Kids This Easter is a Sense of Hopelessness."

In an opinion piece for The New York Times titled, “Progressive Christians Arise! Hallelujah!” Nicholas Kristof made the case this week that “with a churchgoing Democrat in the White House, faith becomes more complicated in America”…and that that’s a good thing. In this episode, I explain why that's NOT the case, and break down Kristof's article point by point. This is an audio version of my blog post, "No, The Growth of Progressive Christian Politicians is Not a Good Thing for America [A Response to the New York Times Opinion Piece by Nicholas Kristof]."

There are a lot of competing ideas in today's culture, and it's important that Christians understand how to think critically about the nature of these ideas from a worldview perspective. In this episode, I explain THE most important thing that separates a biblical worldview from a secular worldview and give several examples of how to respond to common secular sentiments accordingly (for example, "Don't you want to be on the right side of history?"). 

The idea that Christians need to fix a growing reputation problem in our society is becoming increasingly common in conversations on social media and even in articles by well known Christian leaders. The assumption is that we’ve collectively gone wrong in recent months (or years), and now we’ve got to quickly do something about it…before the world thinks even worse of us. In this episode, I explain why I think this is wrong-headed and dangerous.This is the audio version of my blog post found here.

Most people would spot a problem immediately if a Christian influencer said they didn’t believe in the Trinity. But it’s just as important to be able to identify when less obvious warning signs are present. In this episode, I share 10 subtler things to watch for.[Episode based on my viral blog post, "10 Signs the Christian Authors You're Following are (Subtly) Teaching Unbiblical Ideas."]Articles mentioned in the show:Girl, Wash Your Face? What Rachel Hollis Gets Right...and WrongIs How We Live More Important Than What We Believe?