Welcome to the first-ever—and probably the only-ever—episode of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast that’s focused on love. And so, pull up a chair, strap on your headphones, grab your favorite scissors and your red construction paper, and prepare to cut out some paper hearts. (And, by the way, why hasn’t anyone ever named a heavy metal band “Scïssör”?) One dominant trend in the past decade has been to assume that loving someone requires affirming their lifestyle. When Christians point out that certain lifestyles are incompatible with Scripture, these Christians are declared to be unloving. The assumption that love requires affirmation has been one hallmark of a movement known as “progressive Christianity”—and that’s what Alisa Childers joins us to talk about in the first half of this week’s episode. Alisa Childers is the author of a brand new book entitled Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity. Alisa is also—Timothy discovers—a fan of one of the many musicians that his cohost Garrick Bailey has failed to appreciate adequately, Bob Dylan.
In the second half, Garrick and Timothy dig deeper into love by looking at a song from a band that was once known as “Trigger.” The band is Foreigner, and the song is “I Want to Know What Love Is”—a song that was, according to the initial songwriter, “probably written entirely by a higher force.” In the process of trying to help Foreigner figure out what love is, the dynamic duo looks at a book by C.S. Lewis that unpacks four types of love. Along the way, your intrepid cohosts also discover how Foreigner’s lead vocalist finally found real love after looking for love in all the wrong places.
It was, by the way, a tune from Foreigner—which was clearly written by a lower force instead of a higher force—that inspired the Toybox Hero Tournaments that have shown up in most episodes this season. The song from Foreigner that inspired the Toybox Hero Tournaments was, of course, “Juke Box Hero.” This week’s Toybox Hero Tournament places a Lego version of an elven queen from Timothy’s second child into mortal combat against a porcelain duck named Walter. Despite Garrick’s claims to the contrary, Timothy is quite convinced that Walter the Duck is a distant cousin of Howard the Duck, which might have increased Norman’s chances of survival, if Norman had possessed the same Quack-Fu skills that Howard the Duck does in the comic books. Garrick—in a moment of quick thinking in which he inexplicably recalls the theme of this week’s episode—appeals to Galadriel’s love for the creatures of the woodland. Galadriel, thrilled beyond words that love was the theme of this week’s episode, graciously grants Garrick’s request and rescues Walter from being roasted by the woodland elves.
This Week’s Guest
As a lifelong church-goer, follower of Jesus, and former recording artist with the Dove award-winning group ZOEgirl, Alisa Childers experienced a period of profound doubt about her faith in her mid-thirties. Alisa began a journey from unreasoned doubt into vibrant, intellectually informed faith. She now engages culture, apologetics, theology, and worship on her podcast and at her blog: https://www.alisachilders.com. Her new book is Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity.
Links to Click
Come Let Us Reason: book edited by Paul Copan and William Lane Craig
Another Gospel?: book by Alisa Childers
America’s Changing Religious Landscape: demographic study from Pew Research Center (2015)
Tactics: book by Greg Koukl
Agent Provocateur: album by Foreigner
I Want to Know What Love Is: song by Foreigner
The Four Loves: book by C. S. Lewis
How to Make Three Chords and the Truth More Amazing than It Already Is
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The Closing Credits
Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B and H Academic for their sponsorship. Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Trent Thompson. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).
