Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

Hank Hanegraaff is joined by Dr. Mary Grabar to discuss her book Debunking the 1619 Project: Exposing the Plan to Divide America. According to the New York Times’s “1619 Project,” America was not founded in 1776, with a declaration of freedom and independence, but in 1619 with the introduction of African slavery into the New World. According to Grabar, the “1619 Project” is not just bad history, it is a danger to our national life, replacing the idea, goal, and reality of American unity with race-based obsessions that we have seen play out in violence, riots, and the destruction of American monuments—not to mention the wholesale rewriting of America’s historical and cultural past. In this illuminating conversation, Grabar discusses the lies, distortions, and propaganda behind the “1619 Project” and why her book debunking it is essential reading. For more information on how to receive, Debunking the 1619 Project: Exposing the Plan to Divide America, for your partnering gift please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-debunking-the-1619-project-exposing-the-plan-to-divide-america/Topics discussed include: How has Debunking the 1619 Project been received? (5:15); the problem with an apology from the American Historical Association regarding the 1619 Project (8:25); what is the origin of the 1619 Project? (12:55); how do we know which historians to trust? (15:10); who is the founder of the 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones? (19:30); the rise of idea laundering in academia (23:25); the dangerous decline of investigative journalism (26:30); the problem with the 1619 Project being taught in schools (35:25); the truth about Thomas Jefferson and slavery (43:10); why the abolition of slavery was so historically radical (46:25); did Thomas Jefferson really want to abolish slavery? (52:25); the mistreatment of Abraham Lincoln in the 1619 Project (1:01:00); the Constitution and slavery (1:07:30); the misappropriation and virtue signaling of the Kente cloth (1:14:20); the impact of Karl Marx on the perception of slavery in America (1:18:05); combatting the false narratives of the 1619 Project (1:19:30); the stealth edits and corrections of the 1619 Project (1:25:15). Listen to Hank’s podcast and follow Hank off the grid where he is joined by some of the brightest minds discussing topics you care about. Get equipped to be a cultural change agent.Archived episodes are on our Website and available at the additional channels listed below.You can help spread the word about Hank Unplugged by giving us a rating and review from the other channels we are listed on.

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, comments on an important book he is reading: The Story of the Family: G.K. Chesterton on the Only State That Creates and Loves Its Own Citizens, edited by Dale Ahlquist (Ignatius Press, 2022). In this compilation of texts from Chesterton, he shows that “society is built on the family.” He eloquently explains that one cannot free something from what it is by nature, including marriage and the family. You cannot free a marriage from the union of a man and a woman, the natural end of which is the bearing and rearing of children. There is no other social relation parallel to the natural and “mutual attraction of the sexes,” and by missing this point, the modern world has fallen into countless “vices and follies,” including same-sex sexuality and transgenderism. Chesterton shows that undercutting the “triangle of truisms, of father, mother, and child,” destroys any civilization that once cherished them. Seeking to thwart nature, we succeed only in cutting off the very limb on which we are seated. Ultimately, “the war against the family” is a “war against God and the Church.” The road back is through “the story of the family.”See The Story of the Family: G.K. Chesterton on the Only State That Creates and Loves Its Own Citizens, edited by Dale Ahlquist (Ignatius Press, 2022) https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-the-story-of-the-family-g-k-chesterton-on-the-only-state-that-creates-and-loves-its-own-citizens/

Fire in the streets has become commonplace as society appears to be literally and figuratively burning down by revolutionary movements that have made their way into almost every institution, including our Churches. While you might not recognize it, the root beneath much of the chaos is an ideology called Critical Theory—a reductionistic form of cultural Marxism that divides society into the oppressed and the oppressors. Longtime Christian Research Journal contributor Professor Doug Groothuis joins Hanegraaff to discuss why he felt compelled to write Fire in the Streets to equip Christians with a better understanding of what Critical Theory is, how it is infiltrating nearly every sector of society and how to counter it confidently and constructively with an orthodox Christian worldview. For more information see Fire in the Streets: How You Can Confidently Respond to Incendiary Cultural Topics by Douglas R. Groothuis available for your partnering gift. https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-fire-in-the-streets-how-you-can-confidently-respond-to-incendiary-cultural-topics/Topics discussed include: What is Critical Theory? What is the connection between Critical Theory and Marxism? (4:45); what is the difference between Critical Theory and Critical Race Theory? (10:30); why is capitalism the best option? (18:15); why are so many young people buying into socialism? (22:35); the Marxist origins of Black Lives Matter (28:35); how can we learn to discern what sources to trust for our news and information? (31:20); the odd phenomenon of woke capitalism (36:15); are we aware of the influence of propaganda and party cliches in our world today? (38:05); the 1619 Project (40:05); should we send our kids to public school? (44:30); is the United States Constitution racist? (47:50); developing a Christian philosophy of citizenship (50:20); reverse racism being promoted by public intellectuals such as Ibram Kendi (53:45); what is the difference between equality and equity? (58:25); affirmative action (1:01:45); how is Critical Race Theory in opposition to freedom of speech? (1:03:50); how should Christians respond to the problems posed by Critical Theory? (1:07:50); the need for Christian education as opposed to public schooling (1:10:20); the theme of fire used by Groothuis in his book Fire in the Streets (1:12:25) Listen to Hank’s podcast and follow Hank off the grid where he is joined by some of the brightest minds discussing topics you care about. Get equipped to be a cultural change agent.Archived episodes are on our Website and available at the additional channels listed below.You can help spread the word about Hank Unplugged by giving us a rating and review from the other channels we are listed on.

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, is reading Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology (TAN Books, 2021) by Noelle Mering. Scripture tells us that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Never more so than in the woke ideology that has captured the heart of America. The devil’s multifaceted strategy involves “prowling for innocence,” as Mering poignantly puts it, for the innocence of children is a threat to the kingdom of darkness. She points out that media and movies are some of his favorite tools. Think Frozen (2013), Trolls (2016), or the magazine Teen Vogue, which featured “A Guide to Anal Sex.” Far from decrying sodomy, the magazine depicts anal sex as a very natural benefit. In the first generation of cultural demise, it would be difficult to bring up a subject like this. In the second generation, such filth becomes normalized. And in the third generation, we begin to see what we are experiencing today—societal collapse. The only antidote is Christians willing to proclaim truth in a culture where truth is perceived to be little more than hate. See Noelle Mering, Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology https://www.equip.org/donate/ And look for Hank’s forthcoming in-depth interview with Noelle Mering on the Hank Unplugged Podcast.

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, comments on a recent news story that turns out to be another example of failure to do due diligence in reporting. Duke University women’s volleyball starter Rachel Richardson sent out a tweet saying that she and her “fellow African American teammates…were targeted and racially heckled throughout the entirety of the match” between Duke and Brigham Young University. Richardson’s Godmother, Lesa Pamplin, tweeted, “My Goddaughter is the only black starter for Dukes volleyball team. While playing yesterday, she was called a [n-word] every time she served. She was threatened by a white male that told her to watch her back going to the team bus. A police officer had to be put by their bench.” LeBron James tweeted, “you tell your Goddaughter to stand tall, be proud and continue to be BLACK!!!....We have her back.” Richardson’s father, Marvin Richardson, conveyed to the New York Times that “as the crowd got more hyped and the epithets kept coming, she wanted to respond back but she told me she was afraid that, if she did, the raucous crowd could very well turn into a mob mentality.” New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Sports Illustrated, NPR published articles without sufficient investigation—only a rush to judgment. Eventually, finally, BYU performed a thorough investigation, concluding, “From our extensive review, we have not found any evidence to corroborate the allegation that fans engaged in racial heckling or uttered racial slurs at the Duke vs. BYU women’s volleyball match on August 26.” See Jesse Singal, “How the Media Fell for A Racism Sham,” Common Sense News, September 15, 2022, https://www.commonsense.news/p/how-the-media-fell-for-a-racism-sham; Luke Hanson and Thomas Stevenson, “Exclusive: Racist Comments at BYU Volleyball Game Never Happened, Sources Suggest,” Cougar Chronicle, August 31, 2022, https://www.byucougarchronicle.org/post/exclusive-racist-comments-at-byu-volleyball-game-never-happened-sources-suggest; and “A Statement from BYU Athletics Regarding the Investigation of the Aug. 26 Volleyball Match,” BYU Athletics, September 12, 2022, https://byucougars.com/story/athletics/1300724/statement-byu-athletics-regarding-investigation-aug-26-volleyball-match.

Hank Hanegraaff believes that the following conversation with Noelle Mering is one of the most important podcasts he has ever recorded. Most people view woke ideology as a political or social movement, but Mering is convinced that it is a demonically motivated movement that takes partial truths and totalizes them while making God the ultimate oppressor. She wrote Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology as an effort to shed clarity on a movement that operates in confusion and like a trojan horse has manipulated many well-meaning Christians with ideological suppositions that are not only incompatible with but completely counter to Christianity. In short, the advocates of this progressive ideology will increasingly demand allegiance to their cause and Christians must be equipped to recognize and counter the claims of woke ideology by deepening their understanding of what is true and leaning on the historic foundations of the Church.For more information see Noelle Mering, Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology, available for your partnering gift. https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-awake-not-woke-a-christian-response-to-the-cult-of-progressive-ideology/Topics discussed include: What is the definition of woke? (3:45); the role of language in woke ideology (6:00); Nadia Bolz-Weber and the dangerous future of woke Christianity (8:20); what are the origins of woke ideology? (10:10); critiquing Critical Theory (16:00); the three primary dogmas of wokeism (18:30); how the woke use the weapons of the muzzle and the megaphone (25:00); Intersectionality and the identity crisis that it creates (26:25); the rejection of natural law (28:55); what is the difference between transgender and transracial? (30:35); the basis of woke ideology is despair and destruction (32:50); ESG and the implications of social credit scores (34:10); how the woke are prowling for innocence (36:55); transgenderism and how the medical establishment has capitulated to woke ideology (39:05); is there any hope that we are not witnessing the demise of Western Civilization? (45:40); abortion, anthropology and the eradication of the foundational understanding that we have duties to one another (48:35); Black Lives Matter is ultimately a movement aimed at creating chaos (50:55); why wokeism has a supply and demand problem—the issue with building your identity around being both a victim and an accuser (53:55); how the sloganeering and mantras of woke ideology mimics cultic behavior (57:20); the 1619 Project, idea laundering and why is it so dangerous? (59:20); what is the responsibility of the Church to respond to woke ideology? (1:03:00); the Marxist connection to woke ideology and the historical illiteracy of Marxism today (1:07:45); should Christians pursue utopia on earth? (1:11:45); the deep beauty of fatherhood and the ability of good men practicing healthy masculinity to lead us out of our current situation (1:14:40); why should people read Awake Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology? (1:18:20). Listen to Hank’s podcast and follow Hank off the grid where he is joined by some of the brightest minds discussing topics you care about. Get equipped to be a cultural change agent.Archived episodes are on our Website and available at the additional channels listed below.You can help spread the word about Hank Unplugged by giving us a rating and review from the other channels we are listed on.

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, has been reading a profound book by Benjamin Storey and Jenna Silber Storey, Why We Are Restless: On the Modern Quest for Contentment (Princeton University Press, 2021). In the midst of his reading, he received notification of an NBC News article titled “How Monkeypox Spoiled Gay Men’s Plans for an Invincible Summer,” by Benjamin Ryan (https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/monkeypox-spoiled-gay-mens-plans-invincible-summer-rcna45326). More than a hundred gay, bisexual, or transgender people talked to NBC News about the “sex they never had” as a result of monkeypox. How monkeypox “upended a summer that was supposed to be a well-earned opportunity” to once again “revel with their gay brothers.” In the article we hear about “resurgent sexual liberation” through “hookup apps,” which “have made meeting sexual partners as convenient as procuring takeout.” That “post-Covid” everyone “went crazy, and there were sex parties all over town”—“free-spirited bacchanalia.” But, alas, the “long-awaited libertine summer” was “sharply curtailed” by monkeypox. The NBC News article is very sympathetic. What all these men have in common, as Storey and Storey make clear, is the acceptance of the notion that fleeting pleasure is a substitute for solid joy. These men have bought the lie that permissiveness will make them happy—that voyeuristic curiosities will make them whole. At the root of all this is a materialistic worldview—a worldview that denies transcendence. A failure to recognize that a thinking being is of necessity more than merely material. Why are we restless? So often we see the world as merely molecules in motion, and if we are mere molecules in motion, everything is permissible. The book, Why We Are Restless, includes a chapter in which the philosophy of Blaise Pascal is unveiled, showing why it is metaphysically and practically bankrupt to consider ourselves merely material beings, and why God veils His presence. God veils Himself because He does not want to force Himself upon those who do not seek Him. Once one seeks after Him, the veil is removed. For further study, see Benjamin Storey and Jenna Silber Storey, Why We Are Restless: On the Modern Quest for Contentment https://www.equip.org/donate/

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, offers some thoughts on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In New York City, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum hosted an annual ceremony commemorating and honoring the nearly 3,000 lives lost twenty-one years ago. A reminder that the oil-rich Middle East is full of fantastically wealthy Muslims prepared to employ their resources for the sake of jihad. According to former Democratic senator Bob Graham, Saudi Arabia had direct ties to the massacres of September 11, 2001. But this is whitewashed in the Western world, where sharia-subservient states, including Saudi Arabia, are consistently portrayed as peace-loving allies in the fight against terrorism. Little wonder then that when the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia declared it necessary to destroy every church in the whole of the Arabian Peninsula, Western governments did not so much as blink. Worse yet, Western governments, along with academic institutions and media outlets have proven themselves to be cobelligerents with the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia in exporting a false narrative on Islam. However, the rebuilding of the Saint Nicholas Shrine at Ground Zero provides a glimmer of hope that Christians in the West may once again take the only true and transformational faith as seriously as the Saudi’s do the Islamic counterfeit.For documentation and further study, see Hank Hanegraaff, MUSLIM: What You Need to Know about the World’s Fastest-Growing Religion https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-muslim-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-worlds-fastest-growing-religion/. See also Hank Hanegraaff, Truth Matters, Life Matters More: The Unexpected Beauty of an Authentic Christian Life https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-truth-matters-life-matters-more/.

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, offers an update on his sister Jobje, who is battling pancreatic cancer—and undergoing an astonishing 40th cycle of chemotherapy. She writes that she is sustained and blessed by God’s ongoing grace. In her recent letter she mentions meeting with the palliative care oncologist, engaging end of life and quality of life questions. She says discussing these quality of life questions makes her uncomfortable. “How do you define ‘quality of life’ as a Christian?” she writes. “My faith rests squarely in a sovereign God and a loving Heavenly Father who knows my end of life date. I told the palliative care doctor of my faith and my perspective as a Christian; that I am not trying to be a hero, but simply as His child wanting to trust my Lord. I am fully aware this doctor wants to help to prepare me and ease me through the more difficult days yet to come. I appreciate that a lot. I also realize that I am learning from him in those visits as well. Before we left, he told us he is ‘always refreshed by our visits.’ I told him I continue to pray for him because his role is difficult, trying to help people cope, and to prepare to die, is emotionally exhausting and painfully difficult to witness. As we left his office I saw tears well up in his eyes.” Reflecting on verses from Psalm 119—“words that strike a chord,” she explains, “I have been rereading them, enjoying their comfort. ‘Thy hands have made and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn Thy commandments. Those who fear Thee shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in Thy word. I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right, and that in faithfulness Thou hast afflicted me. Let Thy steadfast love be ready to comfort me, according to Thy promise to Thy servant. Let Thy mercy come to me, that I MAY LIVE! For Thy law is my delight!’ How precious are these words to me in this very difficult exhausting journey as I now have to live life in two week increments! Nonetheless I am continually being blessed in this experience, and learning so much from my Savior as I walk toward Jerusalem, my final destination.” Jobje concludes her letter with these now familiar words, “I look forward to that day! Jobje 🦋”