The Holy Post

Christian’s back from France! And dinosaurs stomp the box office, leading Phil to speculate about the growing influence of China on Hollywood blockbusters and how Hollywood, once the biggest proponent of “the American Way,” must cater more and more to sensitivities - and censors - of the the world’s fastest growing film market.

Phil and Skye are joined by Mississippi geometry teacher and atheist blogger Neil Carter ("Godless in Dixie") to hear his journey from evangelical to atheist and his experience rejecting faith in the heart of the "Christian South."

Tomorrowland and Mad Max and feminism and gender-neutral underwear. Need we say more??

Listener feedback on “modesty.” Is Phil a voice of reason? Or just another crabby old white guy pining for the past?? Plus Phil and Skye discuss the decline in self-identifying “Christians” in America. Bad? Good? Indifferent? This week on the podcast!

Phil finds connections between events in Waco, TX and the Billboard Music Awards, then guest Jim Walton joins the gang to discuss observations from 35 years in youth ministry plus his new work as an online apologist at the3rdchoice.org!

Is modern worship music contrived? Formulaic? Manipulative? NYC worship leader and indie/alt/liturgical artist David Gungor (The Brilliance) joins the gang for a lively discussion about the state of corporate worship in America!

Are Christians leaving the faith “in droves?” Should Christians provoke? And the gang discusses Nate Fleming’s “40 days of nothing but Christian media” experiment!

"You say you want a Reformation ... " Is Islam in need of a reformation? Or is that exactly what is happening right now? How is ISIS similar to the Protestant Reformation? Plus listener questions!

Do robots need Jesus? Does Tennessee like the Bible a little TOO much? And more thoughts about wedding cakes and religious freedom!

Author/musician/entrepreneur John Thompson joins Phil and Skye to talk about his colorful history in Christian music, his new book Jesus, Bread & Chocolate and the artisanal movement and its impact on the church.

Mayhem in Indiana! Gay rights and religious freedom and PIZZA! What’s it all mean?? Phil’s brother and legal expert Rob Vischer joins the gang to discuss the implications of a strange couple of weeks in the Hoosier state.

Old Testament scholar and friend of the show Dr. John Walton joins the gang to discuss his new book - "The Lost World of Adam and Eve." Were Adam and Eve real people? Were they created immortal? And what's with that crazy "No really - God made you from my rib" story? Sure to be a conversation starter!

Last week’s show received so much feedback that Phil and the gang dip into the mailbag to share and discuss some of your thoughts about the role of Christianity in America, and what the phrase “Christian nation” may or may not actually mean. Hang on for some fun as listeners drive the agenda this week!

Is there "magic" in the Bible? Plus, a new book suggests that "Christian America" is not just a modern idea, but a modern idea invented by corporate America! This week on the podcast!

Christian’s back! Evangelicals don’t like space! Science creates an amazing new drink and explains something Skye and Christian don’t want to discuss! AND - if your fajitas attack you during prayer, don’t blame Applebees!

Is the Bible A) as messed up as Newsweek says it is and B) responsible for the popularity of 50 Shades of Grey in middle America? Plus, Phil finds a popular movie very disturbing, but it isn't the one you think!

Oscars, Islam, and listener comments with Drew Dyck joining Phil and Skye on this week's podcast!

Half of Protestant pastors say the Islamic State is “true Islam.” While Muslims are being killed by Christians in central Africa and atheists in North Carolina, Iceland says, “To heck with it all! We’re going back to worshipping Thor!” Plus, an audacious claim that lynchings in the South were “religious rituals” practiced by Christians. It’s a mad, mad, mad world…

What do the Dalai Lama and Skye Jethani have in common? They were both at the National Prayer Breakfast last week! Stories from the prayer breakfast, plus Katy Perry hears from God and Ken Ham won't be taking a cruise anytime soon. At least not a Carnival Cruise.

Super Bowl ads make men cry, subverted fairy tales annoy Phil, and “Christianophobia” is now a real term with a new book to back it up! Drew Dyck joins Phil and Skye to discuss manly stuff like football, moral relativism and puppies!

What exactly is an evangelical? What does it take to turn a Newsboy into an atheist? And why can't the Germans figure out how to pee?? This week on the podcast!

French websites hacked and comedians arrested! Muslim prayers at Duke University and no pigs at Oxford Press! It’s post-Charlie Hebdo madness, dear listeners! Plus, the gang responds to your mail… all on the podcast this week!

2015 is off to a questionable start as the Charlie Hebdo tragedy in Paris inspires much hand-wringing in the media (think Bill Maher) and a lively discussion on the podcast about secularism, its Christian roots, and its shaky future in an increasingly Muslim Europe.

Welcome to 2015! Skye, Christian and Phil are back talking about movies, worldviews and, you guessed it, the end of western civilization. Plus our friends at Barna Research give their top 10 trends of 2014!

It's Christmas! Check out the new fun ways our atheist and satanist friends are celebrating Jesus's birth this year! Then Phil and Skye are joined by guest Theon Hill to discuss the church's role in addressing systemic racism in a post-Ferguson America. Atheists and Satanists and racists! Oh my!

It’s the most thought-provoking big budget film in a long, long time. Is it religious? Is it anti-religious? And why did one Christian blogger call it his new favorite Christmas movie? It’s Interstellar - Christopher Nolan’s $150 million musing on the nature of life, the universe and everything! (Note: This podcast does contain spoilers.)

Skye's back! We hear about his travels, plus open the mailbag and answer a bunch of questions from YOU!

David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group and America’s foremost Christian pollster, joins Phil and Drew Dyck to talk about his new book Churchless: Understanding Today's Unchurched and How to Connect With Them.

Seth Cohen is a Christian educator who has run schools in inner-city Philadelphia and the Dominican Republic. He’s also a life-long friend of Christian Taylor! So Phil and Christian sit down with Seth to talk about his adventures in teaching kids, running schools, and following God.

Christians are supposed to be big fans of modern-day Israel, right? New Testament scholar Dr. Gary Burge joins Phil and Christian to discuss his thought-provoking and more-than-a-little-bit controversial book, Whose Land? Whose Promise? What Christians Are Not Being Told About Israel and the Palestinians. In the words of our friend Justin Brierley, “It’s sure to be a sparky one!!”

Is religion inherently violent? Will video games in the future only make us angrier? Can evangelicals train lawyers in Canada? And why would six people go to Hawaii to spend 8 months in a plastic bubble? (The answer has something to do with Mars.) All this and more on the podcast this week!

The state of Kentucky is messing with Ken Ham's ark, and Berkeley students are messing with Bill Maher's commencement speech. Plus Malaysia bans Halloween for being (wait for it) TOO CHRISTIAN! And some final thoughts about the cautionary tale that is Mark Driscoll.

An atheist calls Phil's work "contemptible" and then doesn't want to talk about it, then a Malaysian man in hot water for encouraging Muslims to pet puppies inspires a deeper conversation about legalism and the world's second most popular religion. It's sure to be a bumpy ride on the podcast this week...

A bad week for Mark Driscoll. Hillsong Church doesn't want to talk about gays. Friend of the show John Dickson threatens to eat his Bible, and theologian Peter Enns wants us to take it less literally. Or seriously. Or something. On the podcast this week!

Old Testament scholar and friend of the show John Walton wrote the book (well, 450 page commentary) on everyone's favorite book of the Bible, Job! What? It's not your favorite book? Well maybe it deserves a deeper look! Plus a report from the Department of How NOT to Share Your Faith.

Ben Affleck takes on Bill Maher, Harry Potter converts to Christianity, and Frank Schaeffer (son of Francis) takes on Christianity Today editors whilst arguing for a new "atheistic" Christianity. It's crazy, kooky fun on the podcast! (And not a single butt joke.)

It's been an interesting week for Bob and Larry in veggie-land, inspiring Phil to tell the whole story of how he and his characters parted ways, and the many attempts made over the last decade to bring them back together. It's a story we guarantee you've never heard before!

Journalist/blogger Camerin Courtney joins Phil and Skye on the podcast to talk about men behaving badly in the NFL and on college campuses, plus an app that brings levitical atonement to a smartphone near you!

The NFL is having a bad week, no more Dalai Lamas, and Bill Maher goes on a pro-Christian rant?!? Truly the end of western civilization is at our door!

Why is British PM David Cameron on a search for "British values?" What does neuroscience have to do with discipleship? And why is "chunking" Skye's new favorite word? All that - plus "fatal buttocks injections" - on this week's podcast!

It's been a year since Miley Cyrus made "twerking" a part of awkward dinner conversations everywhere, and Phil forced himself to watch the VMA Awards to see what the kids are up to this year. Plus, does religion actually hurt marriages? Say it ain't so, Joe! This week on the podcast!

Phil has some thoughts about Robin Williams, plus the gang covers news stories suggested by listeners and responds to listener mail about the Mark Driscoll/Michael Gungor brouhaha!

Pastors go wild and singer/songwriters go theologically off the rails. Or do they? The strange cases of Mark Driscoll and Michael Gungor, and what they tell us about the state of evangelicalism. Drew Dyck joins Phil and Skye for the conversation!

Recorded in front of a very enthusiastic audience at the Okoboji Bible Conference in Arnolds Park, Iowa, this special episode tells the story of Phil's great grandpa and the founding of the conference with Phil's mom Scottie May, plus president of the Christian & Missionary Alliance (Phil & Skye's denomination) John Stumbo tells his incredible story and talks about the future of denominations.

Should Christian films be free? Should we ignore all scientists? Do religious children lose their ability to sort fact from fiction? And why is our favorite Satanist jumping on the Hobby Lobby bandwagon? This week on the podcast! (This episode was edited to remove a story that was later shown to be untrue.)

Phil breaks down and says the word "Kardashian," girls at Comic-Con say "no touchy!" and an account of one woman's journey from Charismatic Catholicism to atheism to...? It's another fun week on the Phil Vischer Podcast!

NASA is just dying to find aliens, a Texas pastor dies for a cause, recent polls tell us we're more liberal than Jesus, and Jews are surprisingly cool in America!

Oprah as God? Gay hamburgers?? The Earth's magnetic poles reversing??? SURELY the end of western civilization is upon us at last!!

It's Hobby Lobby day! What's it all mean? All good?? Mostly good?? And would you rather sit with your own thoughts, or give yourself an electric shock? If you'd prefer the shock, it turns out you're not alone! This week on the podcast!

Pastors talk fashion while Rome burns... Pat Robertson says, "No tattoos for you!" Even liberals don't want their kids marrying atheists, HBO has fun with the Rapture, and Neil DeGrasse Tyson says religion is killing science. Again. It's another wild week on the podcast!