Listen in as I interview my friend Tyler Wigg-Stevenson about The Two Futures Project. Tyler and I discuss why the elimination of nuclear weapons matters in a post Cold War world and why this is a non-partisan issue that people from across the political spectrum should care about.

The Two Futures Project (2FP) is a movement of American Christians for the abolition of all nuclear weapons. We believe that we face two futures and one choice: a world without nuclear weapons or a world ruined by them. We support the multilateral, global, irreversible, and verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons, as a biblically-grounded mandate and as a contemporary security imperative. Our change strategy is based around the creation of a nonpartisan, conscience-driven, enduring majority of Americans who are committed to a nuclear weapons-free world. By joining together with one voice of Christian conscience, we seek to encourage and enable our national leaders to make the complete elimination of nuclear weapons the organizing principle of American nuclear weapons policy. We join in this work to the glory of God.

Listen in as I interview journalist and author Cathleen Falsani. Cathleen and I discuss how grace is a counter-cultural concept, the role of Christianity in America, and how people can have dialog on contentious issues like religion.

Cathleen Falsani, author of Sin Boldly, The Dude Abides, and The God Factor, is the award-winning religion columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. She attended Wheaton College and also holds masters degrees in journalism and theology. She lives in Laguna Beach, California, with her husband and fellow journalist, Maurice Possley.

Items discussed in this interview:

• Vasco Sylvester
• The Dude Abides
• Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace
• The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People
• The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers

Items mentioned in this video:

• 
  Is the U.S. No Longer a Christian nation?<!--li>
• Facebook comments
• Kevin McCullough
• Os Guinness: The Case For Civility
• Liverpool FC
• St. Bernardus Abt 12

In order for this to be a conversation, I need your help and participation. While most people are comfortable with text comments on blogs, I think we miss out on the spoken word and hearing from real people. As such I would ask that you click the icon below to be connected to my voicemail to leave your thoughts on this week's topic. While I would prefer that you leave your name and where you are calling from, it isn't required. Feel free to leave comments below as well.

Items mentioned in this video:

• 
  Jon Meacham's Newsweek article
• Joe Scarborough video with Jon Meacham and Tim Keller
• Michael Spencer's article "The Coming Evangelical Collapse"
• "UnChristian" by Gabe Lyons and Dave Kinnaman
• Bill Simmons: "Choosing my EPL team"
• Liverpool FC
• Unibroue Trois Pistoles

In order for this to be a conversation, I need your help and participation. While most people are comfortable with text comments on blogs, I think we miss out on the spoken word and hearing from real people. As such I would ask that you click the icon below to be connected to my voicemail to leave your thoughts on this week's topic. While I would prefer that you leave your name and where you are calling from, it isn't required.

I highly encourage my readers to check out this interview with Joel Hunter in Christianity Today. Here is an excerpt:

Where do evangelicals fit in the future of politics? We just turned a huge corner here. This is not an election that was won by inciting the base. The future will not be built by inciting the base, either on the right or the left. We have to determine whether we're going to cooperate without compromising our values and ideals. There will be those who want to be the voice crying in the darkness. That's fine, but they will prove themselves politically marginalized. There is great potential for the church to be part of the solution to the problems in our culture and the problems in our world if we can build coalitions that help enhance the common good that also enhances the Christian social agenda.

Listen in as I interview Todd Bouldin of Pepperdine University.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Daniel Radosh, author of the new book Rapture Ready. Daniel wrote the book to investigate Christian pop culture and came away surprised at what he found. I highly recommend checking out his book.

In this week's podcast, I interviewed my friend Chris Heuertz, International Director of Word Made Flesh. In an time when Christianity has often been reduced to ugly stereotypes or pragmatic self-help cloaked in quotes from the Bible, Chris is advocating a very simple (not simplistic) Christianity that has called him to befriend the poorest of the poor.

Update: I thought it would be good timing to re-post this.

Yesterday I was listening to a piece on NPR about Fred Thompson's presidential campaign and how he was making sure that Republican audiences knew for sure that he is conservative enough. There was a mention of Thompson being adequately pro-life and adequately anti-gay rights to satisfy social conservatives and especially evangelical Christians.

I have decided to repost this article that I wrote almost exactly two years ago. As I had just started blogging when I wrote this, it is tempting to re-write and edit this piece. But I have decided to leave it as is. I'd love comments on this piece.

Faithful Progressive left me a very nice comment last week regarding a post I wrote about his characterization of the "Religious Right". I very much appreciate his desire for good dialogue rather than the typical stupid attacks back and forth that often happen with those of differing viewpoints. Fortunately we have a common bond as brothers in Christ that transcends any political viewpoints.

"Thank you for your thoughtful comments, I have posted them on my site. At some point I hope to answer them. "- FP "I would also appreciate your thoughts on my continuing series on the Christian Right and the Enlightenment--there is no one bogeyman, but there are many Christian extremists on the right."- FP

FP wrote this post encouraging others to have this kind of dialogue. I would like to give some perspective on the "Religious Right" for FP and any of his readers that might care. I have found that few people really understand the "Religious Right" or even try to.