June 8 2012

Show open and Sanctified introduced as in-studio musical guests

The hosts open the Monday night show with sponsor/CNN jokes and a story about a man downtown who praised the show. The fellas from the Christian band Sanctified are introduced as back in the studio, holding the record for the most people in the room at once.

Tonight's discussion topic: talking to young children about hell

• Should young children be taught about hell, or is that too much information too soon?

A host frames the night's discussion question: should a knowledgeable young child know about hell, the way a kid knows Santa Claus is not real? The framing ties to his four-year-old daughter heading to vacation Bible school with a working knowledge of hell, and raises whether soft-coating hard truths does young believers a disservice.

Samson hair and Book of the Law jokes

From the Josiah story where children weren't separated from the reading of the Law, the hosts riff into a comedy bit about sarcastic things probably said to Samson while he was tied to the temple pillars, and whether the Bible includes all the funny stuff.

Sanctified interview: fair and Spirit Midwest gigs, Driving Rain intro

Sanctified talk upcoming gigs: one show at the Iowa State Fair (Saturday before the end, 1 o'clock at the Budweiser stage) and a Friday-or-Saturday slot at the Spirit Midwest music festival. The hosts joke about starting their own festival within the festival. They introduce their first song, Driving Rain, written by Chris the lead guitar player, about faith rising above what society brings down.

Sanctified performs Driving Rain

Sanctified performs Driving Rain live in the studio. Only short lyric fragments are captured in the transcript.

Post-show talk: catchiness, the two Chrises

After Driving Rain, the hosts praise how instantly likable Sanctified's songs are, comparing to songs that take four or five listens. The band notes Chris the new drummer added a new dimension. Running jokes: the band should be called Just One Chris, and the hosts threaten to sell the studio performances as the band's CD if no album materializes.

Chat question: the garbage-day rodeo hat story

• What is with the hat?

Answering a chat question about his hat, a host tells the story of finding the fitted hat on garbage day in Altoona: it says rodeo misspelled like road, he put it on as a joke to gross out his wife, and grew accustomed to it. Another band member explains his own hat and sunglasses with no story at all.

Fedora weaving, 31 bags, and the cat pee test

The hosts riff on the fedora ('Fedora building 101', potato hats), a band selling Pampered Chef alongside CDs, and 31 bags — a Christian bag company named for Proverbs 31 — concluding that a cat peeing on luggage is a sign of good taste and a diagnostic for idolatry.

The fake album: finger shaking at Sanctified

The hosts shake their fingers at Sanctified for promising an album last visit and still having nothing. The band says they are concentrating this fall on recording originals plus an acoustic album. Jokes about the fake album as a marketing ploy, the album named 'The best we could do', and Sanctified with a Y.

Fair gig promotion and the half-price-day warning

The hosts promote Sanctified's Iowa State Fair gig (Saturday before the end, 1 o'clock, Budweiser stage) with a bit about why not to wait for half-price day, and the Spirit Midwest festival on August 3rd or 4th (spiritmidwest.com), advising listeners to take off both days and bring a camper.

Squirt-gun buckets and American vs European fire drills

A host tells how his toddler climbed into the water bucket just like the kid on the bucket label, then riffs on warning-sticker art and the difference between lazy American fire-evacuation pictograms and urgent European ones — the Great Chicago Fire joke landing badly.

Sanctified performs You Help Me

Sanctified slows it down with You Help Me, introduced as a song about leaning on the Lord for help and guidance. The transcript captures the chorus about salvation, temptation, and being guided.

Post-song chat: who wrote You Help Me

Chat raves about You Help Me; a host claims he sang along under the singers' voices. Eric is identified as the songwriter ('one-man hit factory'), and the long-distance high five bit lands as 'as masculine as it gets'.

Mike's daughter: the four-year-old who knows about hell

Mike tells the story (named in the audio when asked to tell it): driving his four-year-old daughter to her first vacation Bible school, they discuss the crucifixion's two criminals. She explains hell as 'where you go if you don't listen to Jesus', and he wonders if she will be the 'fire and brimstone kid' who spoils other kids' innocence. He argues for giving kids the whole Bible rather than soft-coating, and describes his own return to faith revealing a God of consequences and justice he never knew.

Dan's daughter story and hell as an act of love

Dan (named in the audio) shares a similar story: his preschool-age daughter told a friend she would 'go to the devil', the other mother called that night about nightmares, and he now regrets telling his kids to tone it down for social approval. A host then argues hell is both justice and an act of love: God respecting the lifelong decision of people who chose not to follow Him.

'Everybody knows Jesus' and the Miss Jeffus bedtime story

The hell-as-love idea is tested: the act of love becomes punishment quickly. A host jokes about not wanting to go to the 'fire ground'. Then a bedtime prayer story: his four-year-old Grace knows Jesus gives everything, while two-year-old Ella answers 'Miss Jeffus' — her preschool teacher — prompting more catechesis at home.

Saved by grace but it should look like something: faith and works

• Why are people so afraid of works if faith without works is dead?

From a chat comment ('no one goes to heaven by works; it is grace'), the hosts discuss the full counsel of God's word: grace is everything, but Scripture's moral guidance is a thermometer — faith without works is dead, 'one oar in the boat'. They warn against using grace as a license for laziness and urge treating Old Testament law and New Testament letters as temperature takers for lukewarmness.

Second-hour preview and My Heart Never Sang intro with mic-check restart

The hosts preview hour two: more Sanctified music, the Iron Sharpens Iron advice segment, and proof number six of the 50 Proofs God is Imaginary series. Sanctified introduces My Heart Never Sang, their bluesy song; a mic-check false start makes them restart the song intro.

Sanctified performs My Heart Never Sang

Sanctified performs their blues song My Heart Never Sang. The transcript captures only a lyric fragment.

Post-song: the surprise ending and Dale's blues cred

The hosts react to the song's unexpected ending, ask whether anyone was in a blues band (Dale has played blues), and resume nagging about the CD: the last band they harassed actually recorded one and sent a tune, proving the nagging works.

Iron Sharpens Iron: is it appropriate to expect a tour of your childhood home?

• Is it appropriate to visit a house you grew up in years ago and expect to be treated to a tour?

A listener letter asks whether one should expect current owners to grant a tour of a childhood home. Answer: no obligation — kindness is optional, not owed. Personal stories follow: an 85-year-old mother whose father built the house was let in; a foreclosed-house buyer regretted letting the previous owners in (they trashed his paint choices and revealed terrible wiring). Secular's advice: don't expect anything from strangers — it suggests entitlement — and write ahead with a polite note instead.

Iron Sharpens Iron: stepmother excluded from stepdaughter's wedding

• How can a stepmother excluded from her stepdaughter's wedding support her husband without damaging her relationship with the bride?

A letter from a second wife: her husband John and she pay half of stepdaughter Diana's wedding, but birth mother Charlotte — who dislikes her — is running the show; she is excluded from the ceremony role, photos, and planning. Advice: the day belongs to Diana, so be the bigger person, step back, cause no waves, and consider offering to abstain without hard feelings. Secular's advice says she should attend to 'inject a much-needed dose of reality into this fantasy' — the hosts mock it as terrible advice.

Advice outro and Say You Always intro

The hosts close Iron Sharpens Iron with the advice email plug (info@livefromthepath.org, 'include your name and address, not a phony name'). More fake-album marketing talk, then Sanctified introduces Say You Always, a new song for the make-believe album.

Sanctified performs Say You Always

Sanctified performs Say You Always, one of their new songs slated for the make-believe album. The transcript captures only lyric fragments.

Post-song gig recap and the Pants security story

The hosts recap the Fair (Aug 18, 1pm, Bud stage) and Spirit Midwest (Aug 3rd or 4th, St. Charles) and will broadcast from the festival. A story follows about last year's festival: sleeping on the broadcast-stage couch, pulling the 3 a.m. security shift, and catching Pants urinating at 3:30 in the morning. The band discusses taking time off, a new drummer, and the album.

How Sanctified got their band name

• How did Sanctified come by their band name?

Answering Chad's chat question, the band explains the name came from a men's retreat where they studied names in the Bible; they dropped the old name Changing Directions for Sanctified, drawing on Acts 26:18 about being sanctified by faith — their 'battle cry' for turning people from bad to good. Side riff: Ben names animals after B-character Bible names; his three cats were collectively the Mosai.

Proof six of Fifty Proofs: Ponder God's Plan

• Does 'Ponder God's Plan' — the claim that God pre-planned everything, including abortions — prove God is imaginary?

The hosts read godisimaginary.com's proof number six, Ponder God's Plan: if God pre-plans every life per Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life (citing Psalm 139:16), then God planned every abortion and Hitler was blameless. The hosts counter that foreknowledge is not predestination, the psalm is poetic rather than a theological instruction manual, and David's 'ordained days' reflects his specific calling as king, not a universal deterministic script. Verdict: possibly his best argument so far — but it does not prove God is imaginary, only at most that Warren's statement is misread.

Proof seven preview and the Tooth Fairy debacle

The hosts preview proof number seven, Understanding Religious Delusion (Santa returns to the discussion). Then a host confesses: his family told the kids Santa is just a fun story, but he got suckered into playing along with the Tooth Fairy, forgot the first tooth, and his wife had to improvise with the pillow swap — while the daughter tried to double-dip for a second night.

Channel plugs and the downtown busking disaster

Plugs for the clip YouTube channel (youtube.com/livefromthepath) and the full-show archive (youtube.com/thepathonline). Then a long anecdote about downtown buskers: a decent banjo player undone by a bad conga man who then switches to a six-foot didgeridoo, half-playing didgeridoo and conga at once — 'like watching a married couple fight right next to you'. Busking-license logistics follow.

Appalachian mountain buskers with raccoons Jim, Jim, and Jimmy

Continuing the busking theme, a host describes 'legitimate mountain boys' downtown: banjo, fiddle, and acoustic guitar players identified as Appalachian by rope guitar straps, hand-rolled smokes, long beards, knife-cut work pants, and three raccoons named Jim, Jim, and Jimmy — the raccoon detail admitted to be added 'flavor'.

Sanctified performs Chose You

Sanctified closes their set with Chose You, a song about God choosing you despite knowing your bad and good deeds — fitting the evening's sovereignty conversation. The transcript captures only lyric fragments.

Ephesians 1, the Rick Warren joke, and the show goes to one hour

A host asks if Ephesians 1 was read during the writing of Chose You; Chris jokes he was reading Rick Warren. The sign-off announces that starting in July the show shortens from 10-to-midnight to 10-to-11, and previews next week's proof seven.