2016 Episode 7

Show open and episode rundown

The episode opens with the produced intro tag and the host's live open from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. A host lays out the week's agenda: a Telegraph article about a creationist selected to anchor the BBC breakfast news show, a BuzzFeed community video of non-Christians reacting to Christian phrases, and a Dear LFTP advice segment prompted by an item about the gamification of social profiling in China.

China's Sesame Credit and the gamification of citizenship

• What should a Christian reaction be to China's Sesame Credit gamification of citizenship?

The hosts discuss China's Sesame Credit system, introduced by an Extra Credits video excerpt read on air: social-media behavior and purchases generate a citizen score, visible friend scores pressure users to drop low-scoring friends, and low scores threaten travel paperwork, loans, jobs, and internet speed. A host's friend Dave Herrick, who follows the Extra Credits channel, explains the mechanics; the hosts then weigh whether such a system could work in the West, contrast China's community-oriented culture with Western individualism and the US credit score, and riff on what price one would pay for friendships. The segment ends with the host's moral: a society gamified this way cannot hold up.

Should a creationist be barred from anchoring BBC news?

• Should a creationist be barred from anchoring the BBC's breakfast news show?

A host reads at length from a Telegraph article by Rupert Myers criticizing the BBC's choice of creationist Dan Walker to anchor its breakfast news show, comparing creationism to flat-earth belief and Holocaust denial as grounds for distrust. The hosts push back: an anchor mainly reads copy, beliefs about the non-repeatable creation event are less disprovable than the resurrection, and disqualifying people for unpopular beliefs would also bar most religious minorities. They run the article's poll (51% would trust him, 49% would not), mock the author's follow-up piece, and close with a barrister-versus-barista joke.

Non-Christians react to Christian phrases

• What do non-Christians make of Christian phrases like 'love offering,' the '10:40 window,' 'washed in the blood,' and 'seeing the fruit'?

The hosts walk through a BuzzFeed community video in which non-Christian young people guess the meaning of four church phrases. 'Love offering' is read as something sexual; the '10:40 window' is guessed as the socializing window before church; 'washed in the blood' sounds contradictory since blood doesn't wash; 'seeing the fruit' is guessed as seeing someone's 'dirty bits.' A host then offers extra church idioms of his own ('ears to hear,' 'lift holy hands') that sound absurd to outsiders, and the group concludes that church culture is full of opaque vocabulary newcomers have no hope of decoding.

Against pat Christian comfort answers

• What is wrong with pat Christian comfort answers like 'you're going through a season' and 'God opens doors and shuts windows'?
• Does the Bible teach 'forgive and forget'?

Riffing off the jargon discussion, the hosts tear into canned Christian counseling lines: 'you're going through a season,' 'everything happens for a reason,' 'God opens doors and shuts windows.' A host argues these are bad metaphors for God (in Revelation he knocks at the door; in Acts people fall out of windows) and that Christians have lost the ability to say 'that really sucks' instead of playing counselor. The group then rejects 'forgive and forget' as unbiblical social-media advice: forgiveness does not mean forgetting, being used again, or denying a changed reality — 'forgive and adjust.'

Deadpool, media conviction, and a prosperity-gospel tease

A host recounts his uneasy 'God moment' at the movies: wanting to walk out of Deadpool over a gratuitous sex scene, feeling conviction where a year ago he'd have cheered. The group commends VidAngel's filtering service (with a joke fake sponsorship) and the host teases a well-written article on the history of the prosperity gospel by a woman with terminal cancer, promised for next week's show.

Dear LFTP: guilt over not wanting to work outside the home

• How do I get over my guilt for not wanting to work outside the home full time?

A listener who has worked four years to help her husband financially writes that she feels torn about not being a stay-at-home mom, especially as her seventy-something grandmother's health declines. A host answers bluntly: look your kid in the eye and quit, then downsize whatever lifestyle keeps you working — the second income is usually a wash anyway, and nobody asking such questions has named what they'd give up. The secular advice persona is then read: she is not the only mother who feels this ambivalence, and she should think rationally rather than emotionally.

Dear LFTP: grandmother afraid of leaving children orphaned

• Is it prudent or fearful for parents to avoid traveling together in case the children are left orphaned?

A grandmother writes that her son may win an employer-paid trip to the Dominican Republic with his wife, and she wouldn't go on vacation and leave children behind in case both parents die — though she admits this conflicts with not giving in to fear. The hosts mock the logic gently: taken seriously, it would also forbid riding in a car together or getting married in the same chapel. The secular advice is read: stay out of it and let the son and daughter-in-law enjoy the vacation — not giving in to fear means not hiding.

Dear LFTP: sobriety and communion wine

• How should a recovering alcoholic handle communion wine at church?

A listener eighteen months sober writes that her church serves wine, not grape juice, for communion and she has been told to avoid all alcohol. The hosts agree the tiny sip won't send her back to drinking on a technicality, but for an alcoholic the taste and smell can trigger a craving that derails the whole service; the practical answer is to bring her own grape juice (one host suggests a flask, 'MacGyver style,' joking about the optics). The secular advice is read: congratulations on sobriety, discuss it with clergy, and consider partaking only of the bread.

Sign-off

A host closes the show with the website, email address, and the weekly send-off.