SILENCE ON IMPORTANT ISSUES – AND WHEN YOU SHOULD FIND A NEW CHURCH

Wretched Radio with Todd Friel

Fortis Institute

Religion, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Segment 1

• Outrage over pastors not mentioning Charlie Kirk mirrors COVID-era tensions.

• Many left churches not over safety policies—but over refusal to address political topics.

• The question: Does ignoring key cultural moments mean pastoral failure?

Segment 2

• Five filters to think through before leaving: church view, preaching style, theology, shepherding, and courage.

• Faithful pastors may not pause expository preaching for politics—and that may be OK.

• Slow down: don’t make a lifelong church decision based on one Sunday.

Segment 3

• Resisting the urge to rage-scroll—this issue needs wisdom, not hot takes.

• Phil Johnson reminds us: Don’t tear apart the body over one moment.

• Instead of bolting, go talk to your pastor face-to-face.

Segment 4

• Pastors can address events while keeping Christ central.

• Options: comment before/after sermons or hold a separate gathering.

• Don’t make fast exits—make slow, prayerful decisions rooted in love.

___

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Ritchard Radio begins in three, two, one.
0:09.1	I want to mourn the old street and tell them that we loved us.
0:14.3	I've looked at clear cuts and burnt forest, and I felt outraged.
0:19.8	We are the crowning glory of God's creation, and all of nature was made for us.
0:26.0	Nature is more productive because of us, not less.
0:29.9	It's time for Wretched Radio with Todd Friel.
0:33.2	Well, here's one more recent to not believe in modern day future predicting profits. Nobody, that I'm aware of,
0:40.6	nobody saw this one coming. But honestly, I think we should have. This is Rretched Radio,
0:50.2	the hottest kerfuffle on social media. And believe me, there's plenty of hot kerfuffles on social media.
0:57.2	But right now it's the firestorm over pastors who didn't talk about the Charlie Kirk
1:03.1	murder in Sunday service.
1:05.0	There are some very loud voices that are drawing a really hard line in the evangelical
1:10.7	sand and encouraging folks to abandon
1:12.5	their churches if their pastor didn't address the assassination or if they didn't address it enough
1:18.0	or if it wasn't as strong as they felt it should be. Now, we should have seen this coming
1:25.0	and we should have anticipated there could potentially be a pretty substantial exodus from
1:32.0	churches over the Charlie Kirk assassination because I think the issues lying behind, get ready for this,
1:39.4	COVID and Kirk are similar.
1:43.6	Obviously, the two events are different. But I think the themes behind each one of the details are identical.
1:52.8	The questions of how engaged should a church be in politics? Now, how do we stand against evil and darkness? Now, in the COVID situation, it was the government,
2:05.1	feeling the encroachment of the government with Charlie Kirk, it's all of the social and the
2:09.8	moral issues and political stuff, too. That the church should have a particular posture
	...

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