April 21, 2014 Podcast

Show open and live start

The produced intro voiceover plays ('Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper'), then a host opens the live show. Boova introduces himself on-air as John Boova the third.

Show rundown and the 'What's trending with Dan' renaming gag

A host runs down the night: the trending-news quiz, a new Bible-reading study, Ten Commandments TV ratings, dear-lftp advice, and a laughter-in-the-Bible quiz. The crew riffs on renaming 'What's trending with Dan' and keeps the name.

Album plug: Jess Anderson's 'Whole'

The hosts plug Jess Anderson's new album Whole, available at jessanderson.com for $9.99 with a bonus commentary album. A host says she shines most on the stripped-down tracks with just piano or acoustic guitar.

Watching The Passion of the Christ over Easter

The hosts discuss watching The Passion of the Christ: the brutality they can't fully comprehend, the actor's wordless performance, the heel-on-the-serpent moment, and the film's heavy Catholic imagery including Mary and the Shroud of Turin.

Caiaphas, the missing Ark, and the Pharisees' ends and means

Talk turns to Caiaphas after the crucifixion, the Roman general Pompey finding the Holy of Holies empty of the Ark, and the Pharisees. The hosts argue the leaders' ends-and-means failed them: even a defensible goal went wrong through illegal trials and backstabbing, and warn against caricaturing the Pharisees without seeing themselves in them.

Bible-reading study: 20% engaged, 20% skeptical

The hosts cite a new study: about 20% of people read the Bible several times a week and 20% are skeptics who doubt its accuracy, with skepticism rising among millennials. They caution that both numbers flatten real stories with more depth, and note 88% of households own a Bible, averaging 4.7 per household.

How many Bibles do you own, and what to do with the extras

The crew compares Bible counts, a giant heirloom 'holy Lutheran greeting Bible' nobody wants to throw away, and the pain of giving away nice leather Bibles that recipients then lose. One host argues the Lord's word deserves quality binding, not paperback copies that look like gas-station receipts.

Boova's Black Friday Bible-store trap

Boova tells how a tip from Mike Foust about a 50%-off ESV study Bible sent him to a Bible store a week before Black Friday, where social pressure trapped him into buying a $100 Bible at full price. The crew roasts him; one host admits he buys people the same Bible he owns rather than giving away his annotated copy.

Sponsor block: the Eisenhower Team and Westfield Veterinary Hospital

Sponsor reads for the Eisenhower Team (Bob Eisenlauer's realty team, eisenhowerteam.com) — including his invite-only Easter egg hunt — and Westfield Veterinary Hospital in Johnston for flea, tick, and Lyme season pet care.

Trending: Loch Ness Monster on Apple Maps — do monsters fit a biblical worldview?

• Where do things like monsters and dinosaurs fit in a biblical worldview?

Dan runs the trending-news quiz: a supposed Loch Ness Monster sighting on Apple Maps prompts the question of where monsters and dinosaurs fit in a biblical worldview. The crew picks 'no conflict' — the Bible mentions sea creatures like Leviathan, doesn't speak to everything, and what it does say is true.

Trending: couple married 70 years dies 15 hours apart

• Is it possible to get married in today's world and expect to stay married seventy years?

Dan reports on an Ohio couple — Helen, 92, and Kenneth, 91 — married 70 years who died 15 hours apart after eloping to Kentucky with $5. Asked whether a 70-year marriage is possible today, the crew unanimously picks the God-centered-marriage answer: two Christ-followers with Christ at the center won't divorce.

Trending: Ice Road Truckers star kidnaps a prostitute named Snow White

• What was the Ice Road Truckers star's biggest mistake: soliciting, kidnapping, or trusting the prostitute's phone number?

Dan reports that a star of Ice Road Truckers was charged with kidnapping, extortion, and coercion of a Las Vegas prostitute called Snow White after a debit-card dispute. The crew debates the multiple-choice 'biggest mistake' question, splitting between soliciting her and trusting her phone number.

Pope-style advice: part of your theology is wrong — walk in humbly

A host delivers the pope-style advice bit: some part of your theology is wrong and you don't know which part, so read Scripture humbly, let God define what it means instead of bending it to your preferences, and pray silently rather than railroading people over points of contention.

Discussion: scripture interpretation, highlighter theology, and the Pharisees' blind spot

The crew discusses whether Scripture was written only to its original audience or also for today's readers, using Philippians 4:13 as the test case. They warn against 'highlighter theology' — keeping only the comfortable parts — and note the Pharisees memorized the Old Testament yet missed the Messiah standing in front of them.

Laughter in the Bible quiz, part 1: the questions

The crew takes a 10-question King James quiz on laughter in Scripture from christiansunite.com — Abraham laughing at 100, the psalmist's laughing Lord, Ecclesiastes on sorrow and laughter, Proverbs on the wise man and the fool. The radio audience is cut off at the break with a cliffhanger on the answers.

Laughter in the Bible quiz, part 2: answers and scoring

After the break the crew scores the quiz: 8 of 10 correct (80%) against a 55% average across 5,619 online takers. They get tripped up on Psalm 126's exiles-to-Jerusalem answer and Ecclesiastes 10:19, and note 'vanity' as a key Solomon indicator from their Secular vs. Solomon game.

The denominations bridge joke

A host tells the bridge joke — a man talked out of suicide is pushed off anyway for being the wrong kind of reformed Baptist ('die, heretic scum') — as a punchline to the earlier humility discussion about railroading people over points of contention.

Dear LFTP: the assistant who keeps calling her boss a brown noser

• How do I deal with an assistant who keeps calling me a brown noser in front of others?

A listener asks how to handle an assistant who has publicly called her a brown noser three times. The hosts say confront it directly and immediately rather than waiting for the review, then mock the 'secular answer' — talk privately, document it in the personnel file — as toothless HR theater.

Dear LFTP: should he pay half the bar mitzvah brunch his wife agreed to?

• My wife agreed to co-sponsor a bar mitzvah brunch and the bill is far more than I want to pay — how should we proceed?

A listener's money-naive wife agreed to co-sponsor her sister's grandson's bar mitzvah brunch, and the bill came back far higher than expected. The crew splits: some say keep your word and pay what you can, others say refuse — plus a tangent on whether 'is this a Jew thing' is offensive and a debate over the woman's financial competence.

Dear LFTP: a 14-year-old girl mistaken for a boy

• I am a 14-year-old girl frequently mistaken for a boy — is there a clever or witty way to correct the mistake?

A 14-year-old with a buzz cut, slim hips, and flat chest is frequently mistaken for a boy and asks for a witty correction. The hosts mostly say grow the hair out or accept the tradeoff, with Dan's Culver's story about his own daughter, and one host suggesting a men's-high-heels fashion trend isn't helping.

Outro, sponsor thanks, and the secular-advice tag

The hosts sign off with thanks to Westfield Veterinary Hospital and the Eisenhower Team, then add a post-outro tag restating the secular advice for the 14-year-old: deal with it or grow the hair, and smile and say 'I'm a girl.'