Tension

This episode is not about winning an argument. It is about people. Jonathan and Eric wrestle with how Christians talk about authority, obedience, and scripture when real people are caught in the middle. The conversation is sparked by the killing of Renee Good during an ICE operation, and by how quickly many Christians reached for Romans 13 to shut down grief, questions, and moral discomfort. At th...

Most of us were taught to see Christmas through the lens of Easter: Jesus was born to die for our sins so we could all go to heaven. The whole story points to the cross. While that is true, it is not the whole picture. So we ask a different question in this episode: What were people celebrating before anyone knew how the story would end? We talk about the good news Jesus announced from the start:...

It has been eight months since our last episode, and a lot has happened. Jonathan and Eric sit down to talk honestly about why the break happened, how the last year has shifted their relationship with the church, and why speaking about faith in public has felt heavier than ever. This conversation sits in the tension between loving the church and calling it out. We talk about grief, frustration, Ch...

Less than 5% of podcasts make it to 100 episodes. So forgive us if we take a minute to celebrate getting to this milestone. In our super self-indulgent 100th episode, we take a look back at the impact our show has made in the lives of listeners over the last four years. __________________ Follow us on social: http://instagram.com/jonathan_carone http://instagram.com/ericw712 https://www.threads.ne...

We truly believe Christians can follow Jesus together while disagreeing on how we apply our faith to politics. We even believe we can disagree with respect and dignity. But what's happening in our current culture is making it hard to love some of our neighbors around us. And while it's the politics that we see on the surface, it's the outright mean-spirited nature driving those politics and the rh...

Cancers usually grow inside you without you noticing they’re there. You often don’t even know they exist until it’s a major issue. That’s American individualism within the evangelical church. In today's Evangelical Culture, many would see the Gospel-inspired collectivism of Acts 2 as socialism. We are at the point where the literal Pope had to speak up because American Christians were trying to re...

If we're honest, Jesus didn't make this easy for us. There were things he did and didn't do that make following him harder. There are things he still does today that don't necessarily make sense or feel good. We're still going to choose to follow him despite those things, but if we're going to have an authentic relationship with him, we have to at least admit those things exist. __________________...

We hear a lot about thoughts and prayers in our culture. But if we're honest, prayer alone isn't enough. The single biggest way God chooses to work on earth is through the action - alongside the prayers - of people. This week we talk about that reality along with how our prayer life should change the way we view the world as well as the things we care about. And we play this season's favorite game...

In the evangelical church - especially the version that's so overbearing today - we're taught we have to be in lock step with every position and not question any of them. After all, the Bible is clear about them all, right?! But that's not the way actual life and faith work. In reality, there are many theological positions I wish I was wrong about. In this episode, we get super honest – and o...

Heads up before you press play: If you’re currently processing the loss of a loved one, this episode might not be for you.  To be completely transparent: this episode talks about death, dying, and losing family members. It also talks about the fears and anxieties we have around those issues as we grow older. The first 7-8 minutes or so includes some humor around death and dying, but if you ca...

To kick off Season 12, we're introducing a series of honest conversations we think people are feeling but aren't having starting with a simple idea: I'd trust Jesus a lot more if it didn't require trusting other Christians. We know we haven't been hurt by Jesus, but many of us have been hurt by other Christians. Sometimes that hurt was intentional, but more often than not it's been unintentional b...

By every metric, the American Evangelical church is not in a healthy place. We've spent the last few months talking about how Cultural Christianity is killing the American church. So now we ask - can it even recover from Cultural Christianity? In this bonus episode, we talk about four things we believe are needed for the American Evangelical church to heal. __________________ Follow us on social:...

So the election happened... And not too long after it, we saw the wave of social media posts deify Donald Trump as God's chosen savior of our country along with any number of messages filled with mean-spirited language about people who voted for Kamala Harris. If you're like us, that's left you feeling some sort of way. In this bonus episode recorded two days after the election, we talk through a...

We’ve tried to stay fairly reserved all season, but this week some emotions came out that have been boiling under the surface. In this episode you’ll see two completely different views of how the rise of Donald Trump has impacted us when it comes to our Christian faith. Whether it’s the deification of the man, the hijacking of prophetic gifts, or how we view things overall, this episode shows how...

Did you know 1/3 of all adults who grew up in church but have since left said pastoral sex scandals played a significant role in their decision to leave? Over the past 15 years, we've seen cover up after cover up within the American church. And it's all for the same reason: churches were scared of losing their cultural influence if they fired the pastor who abused his position. This week we talk a...

When it comes to cultural Christianity, so much of it comes down to an actual lack of trust in Jesus. If/when we trust Jesus, we believe he'll do what he says he will do and aren't so dang scared of everything. But when we don't trust him, we feel like it's up to us to protect everything and to fight for things he never told us to fight for. This week we talk about how that idea plays out in real...

Gen Z is the least religious generation in American history. As of 2022, 44% of Gen Z claimed to have no relationship with religion at all. In the 5th episode of our season looking at how Cultural Christianity is killing the American church, we make the case that an incomplete gospel combined with bad end times theology is the leading thing driving Gen Z to be uninterested in church. _____________...

The issue we discuss this week is a subtle, nuanced one you don't notice until a light is shined on it. What started with good intentions - telling people how Jesus has helped us - has evolved into a culture where we (unintentionally?) give off the impression we are more concerned with converting people than actually caring for them. In this episode we look at how we got to where we are today, ful...

Did you know only 7% of people who had an abortion felt comfortable talking to *anyone* at church before making their decision? If that's not bad enough, only 3 in 10 believe the Church is a safe place to discuss pregnancy options (including parenting, abortion, and adoption). Why don't people who have had an abortion feel comfortable in the American Church? What is it about us that makes them fee...

Here's a stat for you: since 2008, moderates have left the Southern Baptist Convention at a 40% higher rate than the overall decline of the SBC. This season we're looking at how cultural Christianity is killing the American Church. In this week's episode, we dive into how moderates - both politically and theologically - have been pushed out of the American Evangelical church. Articles we reference...

The American Church is in decline. Since 2013, the percentage of Americans claiming to be religiously unaffiliated has risen by 5%. During that same time, the percentage of Americans who said religion is either most important or among the most important things in their life dropped from 72% to 53%. So what's causing the decline? In the newest season of Tension, we make the argument that Cultural C...

You've heard it said by Christian influencers and hyper partisans: you can't be a Christian and vote for a democrat. We don't agree with that. We believe the Gospel doesn't fit into one American political party and that Bible believing, Jesus loving people can disagree on how we apply our faith to government. In this episode, we walk through a Biblically focused grid to show how we came to the con...

For many of us who are trying to live in the tensions of our faith, we have come to places where what we're learning today is different from what we've learned in our past. In the final episode of season ten, we talk about how it's okay to change your mind on issues as you learn new things and come to new understandings. We also discuss the amount of bravery it takes to approach your faith in a wa...

This one is either going to alienate all our viewers or finally give words to what many of you are feeling. Building on last week's episode about studying scripture in its original context, this week Jonathan shares his journey of how studying the pro-life scriptures he was taught growing up in their full context led him to becoming pro-choice. It's a nuanced conversation but one that feels cultur...

Let us go ahead and say it up front: this one gyat a little thick on the back end. We may have packed in a little too much junk in the trunk. All booty puns aside - this week we're sitting down (sorry!) to talk about one of the biggest issues we face today: pulling scripture out of its original context to justify our personal preferences and beliefs. We use the click bait of the title to pull you...