In this conversation, Christian Baxter sits down with Daniel of @O.G.Rose.Michelle.and.Daniel to explore what happens when Christianity is reduced to ideas, arguments, or online content—and why belief alone is no longer enough to sustain faith in a fragmented, post-institutional age.The discussion moves through art, beauty, political economy, apologetics, and local community, tracing how modern life has hollowed out shared practices while multiplying opinions. Together, they ask a quietly unsettling question: if Christianity becomes something you mainly consume or debate, what is actually left to participate in?Rather than offering a program or a culture-war posture, this episode circles a deeper claim: Christianity survives as a lived reality—formed through beauty, ritual, time, and embodied community—not as a set of propositions optimized for the internet. Beauty draws before arguments persuade. Formation precedes explanation. Church is not an information service, but a place you enter and are shaped by.This conversation will resonate with anyone wrestling with the limits of online discourse, the exhaustion of ideological Christianity, or the longing for something real enough to inhabit. It’s an exploration of why faith must eventually move from the screen into shared life, shared time, and shared ground.00:00 Introduction & framing the conversation04:30 Art, faith, and incarnational thinking11:45 Culture after the “end of history”19:30 Institutional breakdown and loss of trust28:10 Politics, economics, and spiritual vacuum37:20 Christianity reduced to ideas and arguments46:40 Why apologetics isn’t enough anymore56:15 Formation vs belief in modern Christianity1:06:30 The internet, abstraction, and disembodied faith1:17:00 Beauty as attraction, not decoration1:28:10 Liturgy, ritual, and lived participation1:39:30 Why people ask “why bother with church?”1:50:00 Local community, place, and imagination2:01:45 Small towns, scale, and human formation2:13:30 Christianity as a way of life, not content2:26:00 Closing reflections on reality and participationJoin this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/joinfollow me on X: https://twitter.com/chrbaxter_ytMy Substack related: https://open.substack.com/pub/christianbaxteryt/p/what-is-real-christianity?r=433pnb&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay

In this episode, I sit down with a fellow seeker who has been navigating Christianity, coherence, and personal responsibility in the midst of the modern “meaning crisis.” Our conversation explores the difference between understanding ideas conceptually and learning how truth is embodied over time—between having a map and actually walking the territory.We talk about evangelical Christianity, propositional belief, the role of church and tradition, and the challenges of forming a stable life while participating in online conversations about faith and meaning. Rather than aiming for conclusions or quick resolutions, this episode stays with the tension: how coherence is shaped slowly through practice, discipline, community, and lived participation—not just insight or explanation.This conversation will resonate with anyone wrestling honestly with belief, belonging, formation, and the question of what it means to live faithfully without rushing arrivalJoin this channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/joinSign up for the podcast: I published my new episode The Yours Truly Podcast, please check it out. https://www.podbean.com/pi/pbblog-y77sn-117e7a0Follow Christian on X & Substackhttps://x.com/chrbaxter_yt?s=21https://substack.com/@christianbaxteryt?r=433pnb&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profile​⁠Ian’s podcast - @insight.incorporated

In this conversation, I’m joined again by Brendan Graham Dempsey to explore one of the deepest questions beneath Christianity, deconstruction, and the meaning crisis:What does it mean for Christianity to be real?We talk about why reducing Christianity to either literal historical propositions or “just a story” misses the point—and how story, ritual, participation, and embodiment function as carriers of truth across time. This conversation moves through historical criticism, archetypal meaning, sacramental imagination, developmental faith, and the difference between belief and participation.Rather than defending Christianity through certainty or abandoning it through reduction, we ask what it looks like to inhabit a tradition honestly after modern skepticism and postmodern critique.Topics include: • Why Christianity can’t be reduced to facts alone—or dismissed as mere metaphor • The difference between belief and participation • Archetype, story, and reality after deconstruction • Ritual, sacrament, and transjective meaning • Developmental faith, doubt, and second naïveté • Why “saving souls” may not be the same as cultivating a faithful lifeThis is a conversation for those who still feel the weight of Christianity—but refuse to lie to themselves about history, psychology, or experience.0:00 Intro & Re-Entering the Conversation3:30 What’s Changed in the Last Year (Culture & Metamodernism)11:45 Digital Liminal Spaces & Institutional Drift22:10 Turning Toward Metamodern Christianity33:40 Parenting, Formation, and Developmental Faith50:15 Symbol, Archetype, and What “Real” Means1:06:20 Liturgy, Sacraments, and Transjectivity1:22:30 Final Reflections & Mutual Recognition1:28:54 Closing⸻Become a channel member to support finacially - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/joinRelated conversations:• Previous episodes with Brendan Graham Dempsey• Conversations on symbolic theology, liturgy, and the meaning crisis• Episodes exploring faith after deconstructionIf this conversation resonates, consider subscribing, sharing, or leaving a comment.This channel exists for slow thinking, honest dialogue, and meaning worth inhabiting.

Symbol, Tradition, and the Fracturing West — and the Limits of Modern DialogueIn this episode of the Yours Truly Podcast, I’m joined by Yosef, a Jewish participant in This Little Corner of the Internet, for a careful conversation on Judaism, Christianity, and the crisis of trust shaping the modern West.We explore how symbol, tradition, and religious memory function in an age of fragmentation—where dialogue is demanded, yet trust is increasingly fragile. Drawing from Jewish thought, Christian theology, cognitive science, and lived digital experience, Yosef offers a perspective rarely heard in contemporary religious and cultural debate.Our conversation touches on: • how modernity fractures shared symbolic worlds • why trust—not just belief—has become the central cultural problem • the limits of liberal dialogue and “view-from-nowhere” neutrality • Judaism’s encounter with modernity and its parallels with Christian crises • why Jewish voices are often spoken about rather than withWe also reflect on the broader cultural moment—where figures like Benjamin Boyce and Nick Fuentes have surfaced difficult questions about identity, power, and influence—often without sustained engagement across traditions.This is not a debate or a polemic. It’s an attempt to think carefully in public, to hold difference without dissolving it, and to ask whether meaningful dialogue is still possible when our symbolic foundations no longer align.If you’re interested in religion beyond slogans, culture beyond outrage, and conversation beyond tribes, this episode is for you.00:00 – Opening: Trust as the Real CrisisWhy belief isn’t the core problem anymore04:50 – Finding “This Little Corner of the Internet”Cognitive science, meaning crisis, and unexpected dialogue11:30 – The Four Ways of KnowingParticipatory, propositional, perspectival—and the poetic18:40 – Jewish Thought and Symbolic ContinuityWhy Judaism never fully abandoned symbol26:30 – Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox JudaismHow Judaism encountered modernity before Christianity38:40 – The Protestant Reformation’s Echo in JudaismParallel crises of abstraction and disenchantment47:30 – Symbol vs RationalizationWhat breaks when religion becomes purely conceptual55:40 – Midrash and the New TestamentWhy Christians often miss Jewish interpretive worlds1:05:10 – Trust, Liberal Neutrality, and PowerThe limits of “view-from-nowhere” dialogue1:14:40 – Identity, Ethnicity, and the Fracturing WestWhy categories are collapsing—and re-forming1:24:10 – Nick Fuentes, Benjamin Boyce, and Dialogue at the EdgeBlack-pilling, boundaries, and whether conversation can survive1:33:10 – The Limits of DialogueZones of trust and where conversation breaks down1:36:40 – Final ReflectionsWhy trust—not consensus—is the future task

How Meaning Forms at the Estuary | @rigelwindsongthurston This conversation with Rigel Thurston explores how people actually form—not through debate or certainty, but through trust, presence, and gradual participation. We talk about the internet as an estuary, where structure and openness meet, and why meaningful conversation happens when we stop trying to arrive and learn how to enter.

A deep conversation with Cadell Last about Hegel, Christianity, digital culture, and why truth may only reveal itself when our stories - and our world - break apart.In this conversation, Cadell Last returns to explore one of the most unsettling and clarifying questions of our time:Does truth emerge through collapse?We trace a lineage that has shaped the modern West:Dawkins → Harris → Peterson → the Break.Cadell interprets these figures through a Hegelian lens — Reason, Spirit, and Religion — pulling them into a single unfolding story that is now shattering under its own contradictions. What comes next is not a return to old forms, nor a clean secular future, but a moment where truth reveals itself in rupture.Across the episode, we examine how Christianity, atheism, liberalism, science, digital culture, and political identity all collide inside this break. Cadell argues that Christianity’s power is not found in its pristine origins, but in the cuts — the Reformation, the Enlightenment, secularization, and even the digital fragmentation of the present. You argue from a symbolic-theological frame that the truth of faith is not an escape from collapse but a passage through it, with the Cross — literally and metaphysically — standing inside the fracture.Together, we look at: • How the Dawkins/Harris era failed to critique its own liberal metaphysics • Why Peterson marked a return of religious seriousness to the public square • Cadell’s claim that Christianity unveils itself through contradiction • The fracture of the “We” in modern culture and the disintegration of shared identity • Your Covenantal Identity Stack (person → marriage → household → tribe → nation → kingdom → church) as a symbolic map for reintegration • How digital creators now carry religious and cultural authority once held by institutions • Why AI, grief, embodiment, and synthetic resurrection reveal our spiritual disorientation • Fuentes, ethnos, liberalism, and why both left and right struggle to sublate difference • The invisible Church, the profane priesthood of podcasters, and emergent theopolitics • The possibility that collapse is not the end of meaning but the beginning of recognitionThis is an episode about faith, philosophy, collapse, and the possibility of renewal — not through nostalgia or easy solutions, but through confronting the break itself.If truth emerges in the fracture, what kind of people — and what kind of Church — can stand inside it?Follow & Support🕊️ Subscribe for more longform symbolic theology + cultural analysishttps://www.youtube.com/@christianbaxter_yt💬 Join the Conversation Craft communityhttps://x.com/chrbaxter_yt?s=21https://substack.com/@christianbaxteryt?r=433pnb&utm_medium=ios🎧 Listen to the Yours Truly Podcasthttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-yours-truly-podcast/id1751129283💡 Become a channel memberSupport thoughtful conversations and symbolic theological workhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/join⸻A Hegelian, symbolic, and theological exploration of whether truth reveals itself only when our culture — and our stories — finally break.

What if Acts 15 wasn’t a theology debate at all—but a battle over identity, belonging, and who gets a seat at the table?In this episode of Conversation Craft, Christian Baxter sits down with Dutch theologian Bas Van Os to explore the deep currents running beneath the early Christian story. Bas grew up inside Dutch Christianity and lived long enough to watch it collapse. Christian grew up in the American South and walked through his own collapse and reconstruction. Their lives meet in Acts 15—where ethnicity, class, land, law, and honor collide in the early church.Bas’s online projecthttps://www.followers-of-jesus.org/Together they explore:• Why Paul, Peter, and James weren’t debating doctrine in a vacuum• The shame–honor explosion in Antioch and why the table was the battleground• Jesus as brother in the flesh—hungry, sick, learning, arguing• Why story-participation (not propositions) is how real spiritual change happens• How Christianity functions after collapse—in the Netherlands and in the American South• The Apostles’ Creed as drama, not dogma• The parallels between Christian’s Abraham-dagger moment and Paul’s Damascus rupture• Why belonging, not ideology, is the real crisis of modern faithBas brings decades of work in early Christianity, Gnosticism, New Testament interpretation, and symbolic theology—combined with a life spent navigating post-Christian Europe, reconstruction, and the spiritual hunger of a secular culture.This is not an academic interview.This is two stories colliding inside a larger Story—identity, collapse, reconstruction, and the ancient question:Who belongs?PROMINENT NAMES MENTIONEDJordan PetersonPaul VanderKlayP.F. JungBrendan Graham DempseyCathy NewmanRichard RohrRobert SapolskyJohn VervaekeC.S. LewisJustin BrierleyFOLLOW & SUPPORThttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/joinfollow me on X: https://twitter.com/chrbaxter_ytPodcast: Yours Truly PodcastSubstack: https://substack.com/@christianbaxteryt?https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-yours-truly-podcast/id1751129283

Join this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/joinfollow me on X: https://twitter.com/chrbaxter_yt@BenjaminABoyce check out Benjamin's channel!JG Fox Print Link: https://www.jgfox.art/products/a-battle-map-of-the-culture-warsThe Yours Truly Podcast is a place we practice 'Conversation Craft'. It is a place to think out loud about the fractures shaping our world — identity, trust, belief, culture, and the search for meaning.I host longform, honest conversations with thinkers, creators, and everyday people who are wrestling with the same questions:Who are we becoming? What do we believe? And how do we rebuild trust in an age where the “we” is breaking?From cultural commentary and symbolic theology to personal stories and the deep work of living truthfully, this channel explores the space between faith and doubt, tradition and innovation, community and exile.If you’re looking for a place that’s thoughtful, relational, curious, and unafraid of complexity — welcome.ep-based longform • symbolic thinking • cultural exploration • real conversationsHosted by me Christian Baxter, Yours Truly (CB_YT).

In this conversation, PF Jung and I trace the line from the 2016 Jordan Peterson explosion to the strange moment we’re in now — a moment where many young men look at Peterson’s “Daily Wire era” and feel the shock of a cultural father who seems to be collapsing under the weight of his own contradictions.We talk about what it means to laugh at the fallen father versus what it means to cover his shame — a theme that emerges right at the start of the episode when we discuss the shift from the playful, truth-oriented Peterson of the early lectures to the embittered, hyper-political version many see today.From there, the episode moves into the deeper symbolic and psychological machinery underneath:• Dark Centrism — PF’s own model, a circle of dots “all equidistant from the center but all out on the extremes,” an attempt to honor the good ideas on the fringes without becoming captured by any single tribe.• Identity cycling — the pattern of moving from evangelical → atheist → woke → reactionary → centrist without ever crossing the “wall” that stops the protest-loop.• Why intelligent, high-openness people struggle to form a stable identity — the temptation to “try on” new isms, new selves, new aesthetics, without integrating them into a personhood that can endure.• Liberalism’s limits — using Peterson’s own lectures to show how hyper-individualism fails without nested identities and social structure.• The covenantal stack — Adam, marriage, house, tribe, nation, kingdom, church — as a counter-vision to individualist liberal anthropology.• The “memetic feudal hierarchy” — why ideas don’t spread virally but travel through respected leaders, pastors, and digital figures who act as vassal-lords in a medieval-like ecosystem.• The digital-medieval return — the idea that podcasting and online discourse have reintroduced testimonial culture, digital pastors, and new forms of communal authority.• Peterson as catalyst for religious re-entry — and why young people are turning to various Christian traditions but hitting the barrier of intra-Christian disagreement.The father theme returns when PF describes using Peterson’s own early principles — the Geppetto/Osiris archetype, the need to rejuvenate the father — to critique Peterson’s current persona.This isn’t a takedown of Peterson.It isn’t hero worship either.It’s an honest look at what happens when a generation builds its first symbolic structure around a father who later falters — and what it takes to separate the wheat from the chaff without losing the truth that changed you.If you’ve lived anywhere in the wake of the Peterson phenomenon — fascinated, helped, burned, confused, or still searching — this episode sits directly inside that experience.

OUT Now on Streaming!🎬 Watch Jim vs The Future: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/jim-vs-the-future/umc.cmc.187cheh4z8wtul85jdjtwam14Buy DVD:https://a.co/d/e1NmjYQTrailer: https://youtu.be/FGAXBYhex74?si=_LpsKFonNgbhGYKFWriter–director Joseph Holmes joins Yours Truly Podcast to talk about his new film Jim vs The Future — a story about free will, destiny, and meaning in a multiverse world.We explore: • How C.S. Lewis and Jordan Peterson influenced his storytelling • Why the Christian imagination still has power in modern cinema • The tension between meta-modern sincerity and Hollywood cynicism • Why ordinary faithfulness is a cosmic actHolmes is a critic and filmmaker who’s written for The New York Times, Forbes, Law & Liberty, and more. His film Jim vs The Future releases November 11.⸻🪞 People MentionedC.S. Lewis, Jordan Peterson, Tim Keller, Jonathan Pageau, Justin Wells, Matt Crotts⸻🔗 Links🎧 Listen to Yours Truly Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-yours-truly-podcast/id1751129283💬 Join the conversation: https://x.com/chrbaxter_yt?s=21https://substack.com/@christianbaxteryt?r=433pnb&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profile🌿 Become a channel member & support: Join this channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/join

In this episode of Conversation Craft, I sit down with Rick Walker, author of 9 Steps to Build a Life of Meaning, to explore what it takes to live with purpose in a post-collapse world.Rick represents the last serious generation before the cultural and institutional unraveling, while I speak from the first serious generation after it. Together, we examine the tension between those worlds — between duty and meaning, virtue and vision, building and believing.This is a conversation about meaning that refuses to hide behind “nice.” It’s raw, thoughtful, and rooted in both action and transcendence.📘 Rick’s book: 9 Steps to Build a Life of Meaning – @rickwalkertx https://us.amazon.com/Steps-Build-Life-Meaning-Happiness-ebook/dp/B0F4LS82GP/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ojfCZdFhGeSonfwXSf3xF94oZBATbc5ZRWAXdBAv4oZP4Ta63Idwzja-XlBPG5aT48gLr56hF8riaUz_kEx2wJDuWN_lxjZu_Xq0RksPayiD_yQBNpJ7Kl7ZKgqA5FjgupYT3AadNpvINnEdr019HwU_sCMh-CIzTNvocHCcQyZbxxwZOusCtf5ad9F8BoaQFR79l8P-VEe7iQjWb96Hf4g6UxVx0qkKAaDgW51KmcY.J_luIXHIpVGZzLlfWazMhVF4P9AOSRN6_XRzJlJf9KM&dib_tag=se&qid=1761784668&refinements=p_27%3ARick+Walker&s=digital-text&sr=1-1Rick's Podcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@rickwalkertx/podcasts📺 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@christianbaxter_ytbecome a channel member to financially support the work of Yours Truly: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/join🎧 Listen wherever you get podcasts: Yours Truly Podcasthttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-yours-truly-podcast/id1751129283https://chrbaxteryt.podbean.com/https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVdyuKdUJ45CuLY-O7c5ADb9e96YkCvPBTimestamps:0:00 Intro – Why meaning requires struggle5:30 The lore of Rick Walker and “This Little Corner”14:00 The Peterson–Pageau lineage and the meaning crisis27:10 Step 1: Choose a Worthy Enemy45:50 Men Without Chests – Love, strength, and moral courage1:03:00 Aim High – The cost of mediocrity1:19:20 Identity, failure, and faith1:36:00 Meaning after the collapseMentioned:Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Pageau, Paul VanderKlay, John Vervaeke, C.S. Lewis, Alexander the Great, Chesterton, Charlie Kirk,

James Taylor Foreman returns to the Yours Truly Podcast to talk about faith, homecoming, and the New Renaissance he calls Techno-Rural. After years in Los Angeles, he and his wife left Hollywood for Louisiana—choosing marriage, meaning, and decay over abstraction, ambition, and illusion.We talk about his viral essays “Choosing Penelope” and “The New Renaissance Will Be Techno-Rural”, the symbolic act of rebuilding his father’s house, why the local reverses entropy, and how marriage and place can become the new frontier for spiritual renewal.It’s a conversation about re-enchantment, modern exile, and the beauty that still lives in small towns.⏱ Chapters00:00 - Intro – Why James Left LA02:17 - Moving From Los Angeles to Louisiana06:28 - The Myth of Penelope and Choosing Decay13:45 - Marriage as Metaphor and the Meaning of Home21:34 - The Techno-Rural Vision33:02 - Entropy, Beauty, and the Local47:50 - Cleaning Your Father’s House56:15 - The South, History, and Re-enchantment1:08:03 - Church Buildings, Decay, and Renewal1:19:45 - The Machine and Our Relationship With Technology1:33:10 - Embodiment, Faith, and Wisdom1:42:26 - The Future of “The Metaphor”1:47:55 - Closing Reflections & OutroMentioned & ReferencedJonathan Pageau (@JonathanPageau )Paul VanderKlay (@PaulVanderKlay )Jordan Hall (@JordanGreenhall )Paul Kingsnorth, “The Machine” @PKingsnorth Jordan Peterson @JordanBPeterson The Metaphor (Substack by James Taylor Foreman)📖 Follow James Taylor ForemanSubstack: https://themetaphor.substack.com🎙 Follow Christian Baxter / Yours Truly PodcastYou can find Christian hanging out in these places https://x.com/chrbaxter_ythttps://substack.com/@christianbaxteryt?Podcast linkshttps://chrbaxteryt.podbean.com/https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-yours-truly-podcast/id1751129283💠 Support the Channel + Become a MemberJoin Channel Memberships to support thoughtful, rooted content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/join

In this episode of Yours Truly I sit down with Adam and Wambui for some Conversation Craft, — two people who met across continents and found Christ through the ruins of modern spirituality, the chaos of academia, and the burnout of Silicon Valley optimization.Wambui’s story begins in Nairobi and winds through NYU and the self-designed religion of postmodern life — yoga, myth, therapy, and self-curation — until everything collapsed.Adam’s story runs through the hyper-productivity of startup culture — quantified self, meditation-as-performance, the endless search for “flow.”Both hit the same wall: the exhaustion of being their own gods.We talk about:NYU, wokeness, and the failure of self-made meaningSilicon Valley spirituality and the religion of optimizationWhy “build your own religion” always breaksOrthodoxy, liturgy, and the beauty of a faith that doesn’t center on the selfThe mystery of Communion as healing for a fractured digital worldThis isn’t a conversion story as much as it is a mirror — for anyone trying to make sense of their own collapse and renewal in the postmodern world.From Postmodern Chaos to Communion isn’t just a title — it’s the movement of this whole conversation.Mentioned in this EpisodeMoralistic Therapeutic Deism and Modern CollapseSilicon Valley EschatologyOrthodox Liturgy and the Beauty of LimitsJordan Peterson, Paul VanderKlay, and the Estuary conversationThe “Algorithm of Salvation”Support the Work🔹 Join Channel Membership to support the channel finacially!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/join🔹 Follow on Substack & Xhttps://substack.com/@christianbaxteryt?https://x.com/chrbaxter_yt🔹 Podcast on Podbean & Applehttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-yours-truly-podcast/id1751129283https://chrbaxteryt.podbean.com/

America’s unspoken civil religion — be nice, feel good, God’s chill — has crashed.In this conversation, Sam Tideman (Transfigured) and I trace the rise and fall of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, the “default faith” of modern America. From Harvard Unitarianism to megachurch moralism, from the Chicago World’s Fair to the Jordan Peterson wave, we explore what happens when the background religion of “nice” stops working — and what comes next.🎙️ Guest: Sam Tiedeman – Host of Transfigured @transfigured3673 📺 Watch Sam’s MTD series:• Part 1 – The Forgotten History of Moralistic Therapeutic Deismhttps://youtu.be/5eHYMzanOvs?si=d_hUAfvIg7LrVc9M• Part 2 – Does Moralistic Therapeutic Deism Still Exist?https://youtu.be/XZfOfq6NJ4Y?si=oApWtsIJSjdecLD7@MarkDParker Live Stream Mentioned with Sam @transfigured3673 link: https://www.youtube.com/live/HNoaLoVLFsQ?si=Cey0iD9HKgau8_DBBecome Channel Member to support the work of Yours Truly & Converesation Craft:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/joinfollow me on X: https://twitter.com/chrbaxter_yt—Listen on Podbean & Apple Podcastshttps://chrbaxteryt.podbean.com/https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-yours-truly-podcast/id1751129283

Ross Byrd returns to the Yours Truly Podcast for a heavy but necessary conversation. We wrestle with what it really means when pastors fall — not just “a sinner like the rest of us,” but men entrusted with sacred office, whose failures ripple through families, churches, and communities.We dig into Ross’s Patient Kingdom essay on the cliché “There but for the grace of God go I” — asking whether that phrase short-circuits deeper honesty about betrayal, shame, and the costly road back to trust. Along the way we examine Carl Lentz’s story, the revolving door of evangelical scandals, and the flattening of pastoral authority into what Ross calls “nihilistic piety.”This episode is not about gossip or cynicism. It’s about telling the truth: grace is not a hall pass, forgiveness is not the same as restored trust, and sacred office is more than private accountability.Mentioned • Ross Byrd – https://substack.com/@rossbyrd?r=433pnb&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profile • Carl Lentz & Lights On podcast: @lightsonwithcarllentz • Evangelical scandals: Ravi Zacharias, Bill Hybels, Steve Lawson, Robert Morris • Scripture: 1 Timothy, Acts, GenesisKey Ideas• Sacred office isn’t interchangeable with personal piety.• “Grace” without truth or trust becomes hollow.• Confession belongs in the light, not just in private.• Restoration is costly — it takes time, patience, and truth-telling.👉 If this conversation resonates, please subscribe, share, or consider becoming a channel member to support longform work like this: Join this channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/join

Conversation Craft — Ep. 129: The MeyersFaith, family, and conversation as a craft.Miles and Rebecca Meyers (of Our View from the Plains) share their journey—from early grief and a rocky start to marriage, to rediscovering a call to ministry and building a household shaped by prayer, table, and church. They talk candidly about repentance, identity, and how to move from one-time “conversion moments” to a way of life rooted in practice and ritual.Find the Meyers: ​⁠@OurViewFromThePlains (YouTube)⸻Support the workJoin channel memberships • Substack • Podcast feed • Social links⸻Notes (from the conversation): their channel mission and “table → sacraments” frame; their family story and “where do we go from here?”; cultivation over one-off conversion; the “Friday concert / Saturday conference / Sunday liturgy” hierarchy; and “Sundays are holy.” 🎯 Core Episode Tags • Miles and Rebecca Meyers • Our View from the Plains • Conversation Craft podcast • Yours Truly Podcast • Christian Baxter⸻🏠 Faith & Family Tags • Christian parenting • Marriage and faith • Homeschooling and theology • Family discipleship • Passing down the faith • Christian family legacy • Raising kids in faith⸻✝️ Theological / Ecclesial Tags • Eucharist vs communion • Sacramental Protestantism • Sunday is holy • Call and response liturgy • Christian tradition and submission • Conversion vs cultivation • Practicing the faith • Legacy of the church fathers⸻🌐 Digital / Corner Tags • This Little Corner of the Internet • Symbolic World community • Estuary conference • Digital vs embodied church • Online Christian community⸻📈 Broad SEO Reach Tags • Faith and culture podcast • Christian YouTube channels • Christianity in modern America • Protestant sacramental theology • Christian family stories

Neil Daedalus joins me to trace a journey from Jordan Peterson’s Genesis lectures and Sam Harris debates, through Jung, grief, and a searing encounter at Mass, to entering the Catholic Church. We get into Babylon 5’s “Rangers” as a living metaphor for TLC, why Gen Z’s arena feels more political than personal, video games as training-grounds for agency, resentment/journaling as shadow work, and why grace (not optimization) breaks the frame. Along the way: PVK, Midwest Estuary, Jordan Hall, Mary Harrington, and the uneasy dance between individuation and personhood. To support the work of the channel you can do this throygh YouTube channel memberships:Join this channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/joinCheck out the work @Neal_Daedalus is doing on his channel!Follow me over on X and Substack:https://x.com/chrbaxter_yt?s=21https://substack.com/@christianbaxteryt?r=433pnb&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profilePeople & works mentionedJordan Peterson (Genesis lectures), Sam Harris (“What Is Truth?”), Joe Rogan, John Vervaeke, Paul VanderKlay (PVK), Jordan Hall, Mary Harrington, Rigel Thurston, Hector Avalos (The Bad Jesus), Babylon 5 (J. Michael Straczynski), ACTS/RCIA, Novus Ordo & TLM.

Guest: Henry ​⁠@Unfocusedfaiththoughts — a first rando telling of his story: nominal Christian home, rare congenital birth condition, a grandmother’s steady love, youth-group altar-call anxiety, getting black-pilled by comic-book culture wars, COVID isolation, college + ecclesial anxiety, and finding Peterson/PVK, House of Woo, and the spirit of play that rebuilt agency. We talk LEGO as imaginal practice, being the “responsible sibling,” teaching high school, and why randos still matter.Why this matters: Not every conversion comes with fireworks. Henry’s is about fidelity, friendship, and slow agency online.People & channels mentioned • Paul VanderKlay (PVK) • House of Woo • Jordan Peterson (Genesis lectures) • Neil “Daedalus” • Ethan Kahi • Grim Griz • Matt C / Kyrie / God’s Dog (context: comics + corner) • Andrew Peterson (song mention context)ThemesNominal to faithful; suffering to meaning; culture war fatigue - humane conversation; play lot agency; baptismal identity greater than altar-call theatrics.Support & links • Become a channel member to help me host more randos + essays Join: youtube.com/@christianbaxter_yt/joinLink: Join this channelhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU5SNBfTo4umhjYz6M0Jsmg/join • Podcast feed + socials: Substack: https://substack.com/@christianbaxteryt?r=433pnb&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=profileX: https://x.com/chrbaxter_yt?s=21The Yours Truly Podcast, please check it out. https://www.podbean.com/pi/pbblog-y77sn-117e7a0 • Guest: https://youtube.com/@unfocusedfaiththoughts?si=rBbGilWonxHMUpPGHashtags#RandoStory #SymbolicTheology #PVKCorner #LEGO #EcclesialAnxiety #JordanPeterson #ComicsCulture #Baptism

@PresidentFoxman - Substack in response to to Charlie Kirk’s Death: https://open.substack.com/pub/presidentfoxman/p/its-been-a-tough-few-days?r=433pnb&utm_medium=ios@AphraelPilotson stream on the thoughts after Kirk’s death - https://www.youtube.com/live/fpzfP1MUT80?si=79Wt6farcfk_tMXNPlaylist of my other conversations with the panelists: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVdyuKdUJ45AWbbDC65gmQlQkz5I4nvTU&si=fBGyAjp6R_jHUeoY

In this conversation, Christian welcomes Courtney Trotter—a Beeson Seminary MDiv, language nerd (Greek/Hebrew), youth-ministry veteran, and now an Orthodox catechumen—to talk about growing up Southern Baptist on the Gulf Coast, discovering creed and calendar, and why “church that doesn’t feel like church” quietly hollowed out our formation. We trace Courtney’s path from Beeson through youth ministry, the shock of DEI language inside a church context, and the slow, estuarial work of hospitality-driven evangelism in North Carolina’s Triangle. Along the way: Jordan Peterson, Verveke’s 4Ps, “Big Eva,” the trend-train of worship, and how catechesis + liturgy give people a faith they can sing at a deathbed.My substack about “Sacrotheonomy” - https://open.substack.com/pub/christianbaxteryt/p/sacrotheonomy-a-long-remembering?r=433pnb&utm_medium=ios⏱️ Chapters00:00 – Intro: Courtney Trotter & coming out of the lurk05:30 – Growing up Southern Baptist with Brazilian–Jewish roots12:45 – Called to ministry & early love for the Bible20:10 – Beeson Seminary, languages, and interdenominational formation28:20 – Youth ministry in a liturgical Baptist church36:00 – Jordan Peterson pipeline → Verveke’s 4Ps → youth discipleship44:50 – Moving to Durham: culture shock in the Research Triangle55:10 – DEI framework clashes with baptism call in youth group1:05:40 – From startup church culture to estuarial table ministry1:17:00 – Why “church that doesn’t feel like church” fails seekers1:28:20 – Deathbed hymnody & the case for stable liturgy1:40:00 – AI in church planting, techno-theocracy, and sacramental ontologyPeople and Organizations mentioned:Jordan Peterson; John Vervaeke (4Ps of knowing); Tim Keller/Gordon-Conwell; ARC / Acts29 / TGC; Alister McGrath; Tom Holland (anti-Christianity thesis); DEI / “safe space”; Real Presence; Revised Common Lectionary; Orthodox catechumenate.#Orthodoxy #Evangelicalism #Liturgy #YouthMinistry #JordanPeterson #Verveke #BigEva #DEI #Catechesis #BeesonSeminary