The blues, Robert Johnson, and The Jackson 5 are a few of the stars of this week’s episode of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast. Lisa V. Fields—popular apologetics speaker and founder of the Jude 3 Project—joins Timothy to discuss a recent apologetics curriculum from Jude 3 Project. Along the way, Lisa reveals her longing to be able to sing Michael Jackson’s parts with the Jackson 5. More importantly, Lisa provides valuable insights for increasing biblical literacy and defending the faith in the context of historically African-American churches and colleges.
In the second half of this week’s episode, your intrepid cohosts bask in the glow of yet another wonder from the year 1986. This time, it’s the movie Crossroads. Not only does this film provide Garrick and Timothy with a chance to explore Robert Johnson’s song “Crossroads” and the history of the blues, but it also opens the door to talking about selling your soul to Satan. This devilish discussion takes the dynamic duo back to the sixth century and then from there to the sixteenth century, to consider a man named Faust who—according to one version of the legend—traded his soul to the devil for a poodle and twenty-four years of superpowers.
Also, “Fäüst” would be the perfect name for a death-metal band.
This week’s toybox hero tournament—just like Top Gun, Iron Eagle, Crossroads, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and ALF—has its beginning in the year 1986. That’s when a certain toy from Garrick’s childhood first made its appearance in the United States. The toy is the amazing, transforming Autobot boombox Blaster. This week, Blaster enters into mortal combat with an action figure from Timothy’s youngest child. The result is a sonic boom from Wakanda that reduces Blaster to spare parts.
The new cover art for this season was created by Dani Wallace (daniwallace.myportfolio.com).
This Week’s Guest
Lisa V. Fields is a graduate of Liberty University where she earned the Master of Divinity degree with a focus in theology. As founder and president of the Jude 3 Project, Lisa’s primary mission is to help the Black Christian community know what they believe and why they believe. Lisa has received several honors, including being recognized by Christianity Today for her work as an apologist in the African-American community. She speaks regularly at apologetics and biblical literacy events at universities and churches across the country.
Links to Click
For God So Loved the World: book edited by Dayton Hartman and Walter Strickland
Through Eyes of Color: participant’s guide by Lisa Fields and Yana Conner
Through Eyes of Color: leader’s guide by Lisa Fields and Yana Conner
The Basics on Blaster: video by Chris McFeely
Crossroads (1986): movie
Cross Road Blues: song by Robert Johnson
Crossroads: song by Cream
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The Closing Credits at the Crossroads
Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B&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).
