There's a lot of despair in the world right now, and it seems especially pronounced among Generation Z. Writer, speaker, and podcaster Jake Doberins joins the show to talk about his recent essay "Having Hope in a Hopeless World," exploring why hope feels so scarce for his generation and what makes Christian hope different from mere optimism.

Jake shares his own journey from a fundamentalist, know-it-all faith to something fuller and more honest, and unpacks why institutions, including the church, have lost people's trust. He and Dennis talk about loneliness, the risk built into hope, and why modeling a hopeful life matters more than teaching it. As Jake puts it, hope is "this stubborn belief that says, yeah, things are bad... but they're not always going to be bad."

Shownotes:

Having Hope in a Hopeless World

Christianity without Compromise Podcast

Heavy Lies the Stole

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Why bad things happen to good people has always been the classic question of faith. But Gen Z is asking something different: why don't bad things happen to bad people?

Jared Dodson — a Gen Z Bible professor at Bushnell University — joins Dennis to unpack the perspective he's seeing in his students and peers, one where anger at injustice, exposure to political violence, and a deep desire for God's judgment are reshaping how a generation reads scripture. They talk about the imprecatory Psalms, the story of David, the temptation to dehumanize the very people we call unjust, and why nonviolence still matters even when the old approaches feel like they've failed.

The conversation moves through lament, mental health, the book of Job, and how Revelation offers a vision of reconciliation rather than just judgment. It's a generational conversation about anger, justice, and what it might take for older and younger Christians to understand each other.

Shownotes:

GenZ Isn't Asking Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Walking Alongside Scripture (Jared's Substack)

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In a culture where churches increasingly demand ideological uniformity, is there still room for people who don't fit neatly into a camp? Dennis sits down with Garwood Anderson — former Dean and President of Nashotah House Theological Seminary, now a Senior Fellow at the Lumen Center — to talk about his article "A Place to Land," the story of a woman caught between conservative and progressive churches that each expected total agreement.

Together they explore why churches have become political litmus tests, how fear and distrust drive people to the poles, what it means to detach Jesus from being a "mascot" for our own side, and why a genuine Christian discourse might make everyone a little uncomfortable — and why that's exactly the point.

Shownotes:

A Place to Land

Loved Before We Are Labeled

Gen Z's Lost Hope-YouTube Preview

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America isn't breaking apart because people are more extreme. We're breaking apart because our civic relationships are. That's the line from writer and researcher Lura Forcum that sparked this conversation on political polarization, tribalism, and what faith communities can do about it.

Dennis Sanders sits down with Lura Forcum, psychologist by training, writer of the newsletter How to Human, and co-host of the We Made This Political podcast, for a wide-ranging conversation on why Americans are sorting into hostile camps and what it would take to find our way back to each other.

Lura draws on her background in social psychology to explain how tribalism works beneath our conscious awareness, why dehumanization is the first step toward justifying harm, and how her Christian faith, particularly the conviction that all people are made in the image of God, shapes her understanding of political conflict. The conversation moves through some of the year's hardest moments, including the death of Senator Lindsey Graham and the shooting of Charlie Kirk, and asks what it looks like to hold complexity about people we disagree with rather than reducing them to caricature.

Along the way, Dennis and Lura talk about the segregated hour of American church life, the discomfort of crossing racial and denominational lines to worship, and why sharing a meal, whether at a neighborhood potluck or the communion table, might be one of the most powerful tools we have for rebuilding trust.

Shownotes:

How to Human (Substack newsletter) - https://h2h.substack.com/ We Made This Political (Podcast) - https://wemadethispolitical.substack.com/podcast

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Dennis sits down with Jason Swan Clark, theologian, spiritual director, and director of the London Centre for Spiritual Direction, to unpack his article "How Inclusive Church Excludes." Drawing on his doctoral work on Christian identity formation and consumer culture, he brings a sharp theological lens to a word that gets thrown around constantly but rarely examined.

The conversation traces how "inclusion" has quietly become what Jason calls a "package deal" — a pseudo-confession where accepting one position requires accepting a whole cluster of others, on both the progressive and conservative sides. As Jason puts it in his article, inclusion has shifted from being one Christian virtue among many to becoming "the lens through which everything else is read, scripture, doctrine, ethics, and the church itself."

Shownotes:

How 'Inclusive' Church Excludes - https://www.spex.so/p/how-inclusive-church-excludes The Church Needs Inclusion and Evangelism - https://churchandmain.substack.com/p/the-church-needs-inclusion-and-evangelism

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When JD Vance accused "in this house we believe" yard signs of butchering the Nicene Creed, Methodist pastor Teer Hardy started wondering what creeds are actually for. That question turned into an essay — and this conversation.

Teer Hardy, pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, and co-host of the Crackers and Grape Juice podcast, returns to discuss his piece "Creeds Are Not Yard Signs."

Shownotes:

The Creeds Are Not Yard Signs

The Body of Christ in a Polarized Culture with Teer Hardy | Episode 222

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Is now a good time to have kids? For many younger people, the answer is a firm no — climate change, political chaos, economic uncertainty, and a general sense of doom have made the idea of bringing a child into the world feel irresponsible. But theologian and expectant father Griffin Gooch sees it differently.

In this episode, Dennis talks with Griffin about why the fears surrounding having children — and getting married — say more about our cultural moment than they do about the actual goodness of family life. They explore how negativity bias and the constant flood of bad news shape our sense of the future, what social science actually tells us about what makes for a good life, and why the Christian tradition has always understood children as a profound blessing rather than a burden.

It's a conversation about hope, friction, flourishing, and why bringing something good into a broken world isn't naive — it might be exactly what the world needs.

Shownotes:

Having Kids When There's Never a Good Time to Have Kids

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Is artificial intelligence a threat — or a tool for love? Episcopal priest Cathie Caimano thinks it's the latter, and she joins Dennis in making the case that most church conversations about AI are missing the point entirely.

Drawing from Pope Leo's encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Cathie argues the question isn't whether AI is good or bad, but how each of us chooses to use it. While headlines focused on the Pope's warnings about AI's dangers, Cathie found something different at the heart of the encyclical — a call to examine our own values and ask how we are using these powerful new tools to love God and love our neighbor.

Shownotes:

The Pope said Use AI for Love'

Bless Me Father, For I Have Sinned in using AI.

Related Episodes:

Navigating the AI Apocalypse with Michael DeLashmutt | Episode 284

Can AI Help or Hinder Human Flourishing? with Paul Hoffman | Episode 266

Pastoral Leadership and ChatGPT with Jeremy Wilhelmi | Episode 178

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