Pewside Perspective

What can Stranger Things Season 5 teach us about the Christian faith? Throughout time people cherish stories that present the victory of good over evil, sacrifice for the greater good, and "happily ever after". I believe that natural desire is part of our search for God. This episode is broken down into 3 verses. The 1st verse (00:00-31:34) discusses the appeal to the series Stranger Thi...

Coach breaks down the hymn into 3 verses: Verse 1: Do They Know Its Christmas as School? Many schools are doing away with Christmas traditions in the name of diversity. Coach questions if there is a greater ideological point at play, and its not the separation of church and state. Verse 2: Do They Know Its Christmas Culture? Sharing my favorite hymns, songs, TV specials, and movies and answering t...

What happens when truth becomes whatever you feel it is, and disagreeing with someone’s reality is suddenly oppressive? From the Inquisition to postmodern culture wars, Western society has swung from God-centered, objective truth to ‘my truth is law.’’ In this episode, we dive into Francis Schaeffer’s 1970s warning that ditching reality for feelings would make life weird (understatement), why athe...

What should a Christian's role in politics be? On this hymn, Coach, dives into the recent off-year elections and what they reveal about the state of American politics. We discuss Donald Trump not as a conservative ideologue, but as a pragmatist (tariffs anyone?), and explore how his approach often clashes with biblical wisdom—especially when it comes to James’ teaching about the power of the t...

Everyone places their faith in something is a truth we cannot escape. Each one of us are seeking that ultimate truth. Coach continues his series on the apologetics for the Christian faith that he is currently teaching his senior high Sunday school. On this hymn, he brings up the following: Christian apologist Wes Huff debunking the claim that today's Bible is as corrupted as when we play the t...

Continuing a series from what he is teaching to teens in Sunday School class, Coach discusses the questions, "What is wrong with the world?" and shares the conflicting views of the Biblical concept of sin and the philosopher's Rousseau's view that society causes human evil and we must change the system (or in modern parlance, systemic change). Also going to a brief discussion of...

Like it or not, we all live by faith. None of us have infinite knowledge of anything; reality is that we are finite creatures locked in by time and space. On this hymn (and series of hymns) Coach shares what he is discussing with his Senior High Sunday School class this year. On this first in the series we focus on Absolute Reality and what view of reality we place our faith in drives how we act a...

After a summer break, Coach is back sharing his concern of the polarization in American politics but tragically needed to change his example due to horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. If "We the People" believe in Freedom of Speech, then no matter your political persuasion you should be denouncing what occurred, sadly there are many people who disliked Kirk in life who are trying to...

Did you celebrate Independence Day? Do you know where Jefferson got his ideas for the Declaration of Independence? Coach shares a discussion he had with some high schoolers who couldn't answer these questions and why it's important for them to know. It changes how we see the American Revolution into the American Reformation; it wasn't a desire to overthrow and radically change the inst...

Is diversity our strength or what unites us? Using the tale of two Yugoslavian basketball players as a cautionary tale, Coach shares his last lesson to his students for the school year as a reminder that in all talk about how diverse the United States is we rarely talk about what unifies us, and how it is often missing in the newer approaches of teaching history such as Culturally Relevant teachin...

Do words have meaning, and if they don't, then what is the foundation we stand on? Recent court cases on President Trump's tariffs are highlighted in this episode to first begin with a civics lesson on the branches of government and leads into a discussion of the conservative and liberal view of the Constitution; is it a living or dead document and why it matters. The hymn ends by explorin...

What can two small colleges (Hillsdale and Grove City) teach Harvard? Coach shares his views on government involvement in schools and how it is a loss of independence with Harvard's current fight with the Trump administration (where he makes the bold claim that he actually knows more than Harvard's president Alan Garber) and also discusses the recent (May 2025) decision of the US Supreme C...

A lot of current events came out recently, but on this Pewside Perspective we look at the election of the new Pope, Leo XIV, briefly, and then take a look at his most recent namesake, Leo XIII, and his view of work. Coach talks about how the Catholic view of social justice, especially in Leo XIII's view does not correlate with the current progressive view. Leo's criticism of communism, soc...

Are youth sports coaches taking too much of a parents' role in making decisions for their child? Youth sports brings in more money than any professional sports league, but is the cost worth it, and not just the financial cost. On this "hymn", Coach asks is it worth the cost of local community and modeling that to our children and questioning if these for profit youth sports programs...

I did a thing...I was kicked out of a Middle School History Teacher's Group on Facebook. In this cross over episode with his old podcast The Parent Teacher Conference, Coach shares the reasoning for his removal (at least he thinks the reason because none was ever given) and shares how in K-12 history education the progressive view is seen as the correct view and anything that is not in support...

Happy Easter! Think about it, how many Easter albums have you heard about, nothing like Christmas right. Celebrating the birth of a child is easy, that a person rose from a horrific execution on the cross, not so much. Coach discusses that despite the lack of celebration that follows Christmas that the death and resurrection of Jesus is God's love for us as sinners on full display. And if it d...

How does culture affect you? Do is it lift you up to think of truth and beauty and make you wallow in the filth of garbage? Coach uses this hymn to explore how culture affects our life and what a Chrisitian's relationship should be with the culture. In the episode, you will be introduced to some 20th century Christian thinkers such as H Richard Niebuhr and Francis Schaeffer, what occurs when w...

Is the United States a Republic or Democracy? Through current events such as President Trump using the Aliens Enemy Act (with a side journey into Chronological Snobbery) and being blocked by US District Judge James Boasberg, an argument against the dismantling of the Department of Education, and Elon Musk and DOGE to show that there is a clear answer to that question. Along the way, Coach shares s...

Some movies & TV shows are progressive attempts to make us "woke" to new ways of thinking while the ones that tend to be most popular reveal the inner desire that most of us have. Two popular TV shows of the past several years, Ted Lasso and Cobra Kai, demonstrated the later. Each had several storylines that reveal our desire for a strong father in our lives. Using statistics, Coach...

A discussion of image and reality. On this hymn, Coach discusses two talks that occurred days apart, the Zelensky, Trump, Vance White House talk and the not a State of the Union but for all intents and purposes a State of the Union address (aka Address to a Joint Session of Congress). The first can be used as a political Rorschach of your feelings of President Trump, but Coach looks at it from the...

Why do we love underdog stories? On this hymn, Coach shares his love of the Karate Kid/Cobra Kai series. He provides the history of the Cobra Kai series, how Rocky brought underdog stories to teen movies of the 80's like Karate Kid refuting the gritty/"realistic"/depressing top movies of the early 70s as well as the woke, agenda driven remakes of classic movies and TV shows of the past, and how ou...

On January 29th, 2025, President Trump signed the Executive order called "ENDING RADICAL INDOCTRINATION IN K-12 SCHOOLING". Many people, especially teachers, were angry. On this episode, Coach discusses 3 points from the executive order; patriotic education, gender transitioning of children without parental knowledge, & diversity, equity, and inclusion or Critical Race Theory messagi...

At the National Cathedral, Bishop Budde ended her inauguration sermon with a message for one person, President Trump. Many people are arguing the merits of what was said, but on this hymn, Coach discusses the approach of both the Bishop and the President's reaction against ideas presented in the Bible and shares ways that we can do better in our lives.

A very personal episode. No, this isn't an hymn about having a lead foot, but it is an episode about road rage. Coach shares his struggles with getting easily frustrated with other drivers on the road, how anger is not good for his health or Christian faith. Using anecdotes and Bible verses, he shares that anger in itself is not a sin, but how we express it, and what we do with it is. On a lig...

On this issue, Coach discusses how memorization has taken a hit in educational circles, as if memorizing and understanding are mutually exclusive and how teachers are told to avoid "drill and kill" and lessons that students can "Google" the answer. Coach pushes back on this idea addressing the need for memorization as building blocks for understanding, offering ideas from one of his favorite books...