A new take on how Christian faith intersects with politics.

Good news and bad news on the abortion front.

U.S. scientists create human eggs out of skin cells and the prospect of pregnancy robots.

These are the stories we'll cover today and will answer some of your great questions.

Sitting in for Sean, today is my emeritus tablet colleague, Dr. Rick Langer. I'm your host, Scott Ray, and this is the Think Biblically Weekly Cultural Update, coming to you from Tablet School of Theology, Biola University. Rick, it's great to have you back. I'm really looking forward to some of your insights on these stories. Yeah, Scott, thanks for bringing me in. Thanks for giving me reading material

that keeps him from sleeping at night. So this is great. Well, sorry about that part, but I've got to

give you something profitable to do here in retirement. So it's good to have you back with us.

Story number one is a story that you sent to me from the New Yorker magazine. It's an interesting take on how Christian faith and politics can go together following the shooting of Charlie Kirk. The subtitle the article is, I think, fairly provocative. It says the future of American democracy could depend on whether Christians see themselves as warriors or servants.

Now, the article begins with a statement from the Gospel of John that Jesus came full of grace and truth.

And they point out that this seeming contrast is actually at the heart of Christian faith, grace and unconditional love, as well as judgments and its moral

assessments based on truth. We are to love our enemies, but also to put on the full armor of

God to stand against evil. Now, in one of the church services on the Sunday following the

Kirk shooting, they had an AI-generated video of Kirk, not his words himself, but an AI-created video,

where Kirk, quote, from the grave, urged his followers to, quote, dry your tears,

take up your cross, and get back in the fight.

Now, as Sean and I pointed out last week,

Erica Kirk's message of forgiveness toward the shooter was followed by others who spoke, not of the language of forgiveness, but rather of the language

of girding for battle.

This article poses, I think, a very provocative question.

It remains to be seen how evangelicals mourning Kirk's death will respond.

Will they see it as their duty to don the armor of God as soldiers, or will they feel

called to a different approach?

...