In this week's summertime rerun, Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye discuss the importance of examining mental health as it relates to the church, as our nation continues to experience severe increases in depression, suicide and more. This is a topic where the church has typically been silent, leading to a great deal of private suffering. Now, more than ever, this needs to end.

There are some blogs written by Dr. White on the topic of mental health that you will find very helpful to read. The blog titled “Suicide and the Church” addresses the fact that suicide has become the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. The digital revolution has added fuel to this fire, as we've become increasingly isolated online. You can read about this in a blog titled, “What the Online World Is Doing to Us.”

As Dr. White said in this episode, the church cannot remain silent and depression is a topic that needs to be brought to light. You may find it helpful to check out a series delivered at Mecklenburg Community Church called “Fix Me.” The installments covered are: “A Prozac Nation,” “The 8th Deadly Sin” and “Extreme Makeover: Inside Edition.” You can also find an installment on mental health in the series “How to Be a New You in the New Year.”

Finally, Alexis and Jim talked about the term “self care” that is continually thrown around, and what the Bible really has to say about this topic. You can listen to “CCP19: On Self Care” on the Church & Culture website HERE or watch it on YouTube HERE.

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions on the podcast page.

In this week's summertime rerun, Dr. White and co-host Alexis Drye discuss the highly controversial idea of Christian Nationalism. With tomorrow marking the 250th birthday of the United States, we thought it fitting to share this episode with our listeners again. The original episode took place right after Election Day 2022. It was a day that proved exciting for some and disheartening for others. For many Christians, they look at negative political ads, hear rhetoric being spoken by the candidates on both sides of the political fence and wonder, “What happened to a Christian America?” But is that truly what we are meant to be?

There are some blogs written by Dr. White related to this topic that you will find very helpful to read. “On Being a Political Christian” discusses how our Christian identify is far more important than whether we consider ourselves to be Republicans or Democrats. You can also read what Dr. White had to say in a blog titled “Is Christian Nationalism True?”

Talking about anything related to politics is often a difficult area for pastors to tread, especially as our country seems to become increasingly divided. A very helpful series that can serve pastors and church members alike is titled “Where Angels Fear to Tread: Meck Talks Politics.” You'll find the mp3 and pdf versions of that series on the Church & Culture website.

Finally, if a topic like this is of interest to you, you will also enjoy going back to listen to CCP12: On Legislated Morality where Alexis and Dr. White discuss whether those of us who consider ourselves Christ followers should try to legislate moral issues.

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss masculinism - a topic prompted by a recent article written by Helen Lewis for The Atlantic titled “The Men Who Want Women to Be Quiet.” The article explored the movement underway by Douglas Wilson, the co-founder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, who has been working for half a century to cast his theocratic vision for our country. Core among his beliefs is his position that women have overstepped their boundaries. He wants them out of political office, out of the military and out of the polling booths. Why is this idea of masculinism taking hold in some spheres?

There are two articles that Dr. White noted at the top of the episode that point to recent events related to the invasion of masculinism in everything from the SBC to Judaism:

Daniel Estrin, “Israel allows women to take rabbinic test for 1st time, but not become Orthodox rabbis,” NPR.

Scott Barkley, “Mohler to call for ‘Truth & Unity' amendment to SBC Constitution at annual meeting,” Baptist Press.

Bob Smietana, “Southern Baptists Move Closer to Constitutional Ban on Women Pastors,” Christianity Today.

Dr. White also noted how some of this movement has stemmed from the idea of men being lost in our world today. There was a past podcast episode that he mentioned that we'd suggest you go back and listen to -CCP111: On Gen Z Men Failing to Launch - as well as a blog simply titled “Lost Men.” There's also a very helpful article written by Christine Emba in The Washington Post titled “Men are lost. Here's a map out of the wilderness.” And then there are two additional past podcast episodes related to men that we'd suggest you check out: CCP72: On Toxic Masculinity and CCP101: On "Bluey" and Modern Fatherhood.

For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday. We'd also love to hear from you if there is a topic that you'd like to see discussed on the Church & Culture Podcast in an upcoming episode. You can find the form to submit your questions at the bottom of the podcast page HERE.