BreakPoint This Week: Russia and Ukraine Prepare for Conflict, and "Birds Aren't Real" Reveals Aspects of Cultural Moment
Breakpoint
Colson Center
4.8 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 12 February 2022
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Given the mounting tension at the Russian-Ukrainian border, Maria and John discuss insights on how Christians should think through Russia's preparation for conflict.
A recent New York Times highlighted a phenomenon known as "Birds Aren't Real," leading to Maria and John commenting on the state of young adults in America. To close, John recommends the new series the Colson Center is conducting with Focus on the Family: Lighthouse Voices.
-- Resources --
From Peter the Great to Putin the Bully — A Briefing on the Ukraine Crisis and the Russian Threat: History, Empire, Kiev, Moscow, Religion and Worldview
A Movement to Fight Misinformation…With Misinformation
Birds Aren't Real, a conspiracy theory with an apparently absurd premise, has become surprisingly popular in the past few years.
But its followers were in on the joke: The movement's aim was to poke fun at misinformation … by creating misinformation.
Has it been successful?
Our Christian Witness
Since the contentious 2016 election, many have publicly questioned whether evangelical support for Donald Trump "hurts the Church's witness." Others assert that to vote for anyone but Donald Trump warrants excommunication. Over the last two years of the pandemic and all its associated controversies, some have confidently proclaimed that if Christians choose to not wear a mask or not be fully vaccinated they've harmed the cause of Christ. Others announced that to wear a mask or be vaccinated is to compromise the cause of Christ.
-- Recommendations --
Lighthouse Voices Series - Colson Center and Focus on the Family>>
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're listening to Breakpoint this week. |
| 0:01.9 | My name's Wayne Stender, the product manager here at Breakpoint. |
| 0:04.9 | And in this episode of Breakpoint this week, you'll notice that Maria's audio has some complications to it. |
| 0:11.7 | Unfortunately, during the recording, her audio device malfunctioned. |
| 0:15.6 | And so we unfortunately only have this audio to work with for today's show. |
| 0:23.1 | We apologize for this reality and have corrected the issue for next week. Without further ado, here is John and Maria with Breakpoint |
| 0:28.6 | this week. You're listening to Breakpoint this week where we're talking about the top stories |
| 0:33.8 | of the week from a Christian worldview. Today we're going to talk about the escalating |
| 0:37.7 | situation between Russia and Ukraine. We're also going to talk about a conspiracy theory |
| 0:43.1 | slash parody called Birds Aren't Real. We have a lot to talk about today, but we're glad you're |
| 0:48.5 | with us. Thanks for being here. Welcome to Breakpoint this week from the Coulson Center for Christian |
| 0:53.6 | Worldview. I'm Maria |
| 0:54.8 | Bear alongside John Stone Street, our president. How you doing this morning? Doing well. How are you? |
| 1:00.7 | You're back in your office. You're not traveling. I'm not traveling. That is true. I'm back home. |
| 1:08.1 | Do you spend most of your time, would you say, at home or most of your time traveling? |
| 1:14.1 | I didn't know this was going to be such a in-depth, hard-hitting interview. Let's talk about me. |
| 1:20.4 | Let's talk about your family. How did your wife feel about this? Wow. Yeah, I'm not sure I was |
| 1:27.1 | ready for this. We did not talk about this segment of the program for the record, everyone. |
| 1:32.0 | I just like living vicariously through your travels and trying to figure out from your hotel room background to what city you're in. |
| 1:40.3 | It's been a lot of time for me. |
| 1:41.5 | It actually, it's kind of been, I've been home for a couple weeks, actually. |
| 1:46.8 | So where was I last week when we were doing this? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Colson Center, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Colson Center and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.