In the last decade, churches have been on the back foot when it comes to responding to changes in the technology and media landscape. There are too many things changing far too fast, and as soon as a trend appears, it ends as quickly as it came. And yet, churches easily feel the worst effects of this rapidly changing landscape: distraction, confusion, and above all, polarization and division among its members. Our pastors and ministry leaders cannot compete with the number of voices available...

Episode manuscript: https://digitalbabylon.substack.com/p/internet-trolls-and-the-quest-forThe amplification of extremists and the muting of moderates. When it comes to social media's impact on American politics (and many other subjects), Chris Bail argues the two biggest effects of the social media prism feed into each other, making political extremists embolden and empowered to troll anyone they can and for moderates to give up hope that nuanced political dialogue and opinions are possible ...

Episode manuscript: https://digitalbabylon.substack.com/p/distorted-beyond-the-funhouse-mirrorWhen you stand in front of a funhouse mirror, your image in distorted in some bizarre and unusual way. Whether you get huge legs or a giant head, you know a funhouse mirror is not meant to give you a true reflection of yourself the way a normal mirror does. But what happens when a society or culture mistakes a funhouse mirror for a mirror capable of accurately reflecting culture and society around us...

Episode manuscript: https://digitalbabylon.substack.com/p/stepping-on-the-glass-of-broken-echoPolitical polarization and tribalism are on the rise, and social media appears to be the chief culprit. The ability to customize our social media feeds to only hear the voices we want to hear has lead us into echo chambers of increasingly one-sided viewpoints and unchecked misinformation - at least, that's what cultural wisdom suggests. But is that actually true? What actually happens when people ste...

When the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook knew that Instagram was toxic and harmful to teen girls, it lit up a firestorm greater than any of the other stories the Journal would break in it’s “Facebook Files” series. Nick Clegg, VP of Global Affairs, recently went on to CNN to discuss the Journal’s report and revealed that Instagram would be rolling out several features that will help curb Instagram’s harmful impact on teenage mental health. But will things like warning labels for ha...

The Bible gives us a framework for understanding and navigating a world dominated by social media: Christians are to live as faithfully obedient exiles in the midst of Digital Babylon. This is the claim we explored on the prior episode of Breaking the Digital Spell, and we ended the episode open to pushback or objections to this idea. In this bonus episode, Austin sits down with Jacob Cates, executive pastor of Redeemer Christian Church, to talk through some good questions and objections to t...

The Babylonian exile is arguably the most important event in the history of the Old Testament. Israel's long descent into apostasy ends with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the people of God are forcibly relocated to a pagan nation that they did not want to live in. But the Babylonian exile is more than just a date and time in history - it is a framework, used by New Testament writers and by Christians for millennia, that helps us understand what faithful obedience to God loo...

Media literacy is the biggest gaping hole in our discipleship. We can feel its effects in our churches and our lives in the same way we can feel the effects of poor financial stewardship or failing marriages in our churches. Plenty of courses and programs exist for churches to address financial literacy and building healthy marriages, but what about for media literacy? The problem has festered for so long feels so overwhelming; it's hard to know where to start! In this episode of Breaking the...

Episode manuscript: https://digitalbabylon.substack.com/p/sa1-the-asterisk-yearWhen 2020 began, none of us factored in the possibility of a pandemic being the defining reality of our year. Our plans and predictions for the world were thrown into chaos, and our sense of "normal" upended overnight as we embraced a strong sense of uncertainty about our future. But how "normal" was our pre-pandemic "normal"? What exactly did Covid-19 change, and how lasting are those changes? How should we think ...

Podcasting is a good thing - but sometimes it is not a necessary thing.