Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. What does it mean to listen to your conscience, especially in a culture that scoffs at the existence of moral values? Does the concept of conscience still mean anything today? Or is it a relic of what the secular world would have us believe was a naïve and superstitious past—a time of cartoon crickets and buzz-killing angels perched on our shoulders, scolding us into acting against our desires? Was the atheist Sigmund Freud right that conscience is merely the internalized echo of a tyrannical father, seeking to keep our conduct in check? And even if we grant that conscience has some kind of objective existence, how can we account for the fact that people reach radically incompatible moral conclusions while all claiming to follow it? For example, one person says conscience leads them to support abortion; another says conscience requires them to stand against it. Through all of this, how can we say that the conscience is "free" if its primary function is to impose rules? Here to help us untangle these questions, and to make the case that recovering the biblical conception of the conscience is more important than ever, is Bishop Robert Barron.

Topics Covered

00:00 | Introduction
01:24 | Bishop Barron in Nashville: Good News Conference, Dominicans, and Theo Von
02:29 | What is the conscience?
05:21 | Is conscience just a gut feeling?
07:14 | The "angel" and the "devil" on our shoulders
09:57 | Perceiving conscience as an external voice
11:30 | Freud's concept of the internalized voice of authority
16:04 | Both radically individual and universally shared
18:04 | How prudence interacts with the conscience
18:55 | Is the conscience free?
22:04 | What are the duties to the conscience?
24:57 | What about when poor judgment clouds the conscience?
28:02 | "My truth, your truth"
30:24 | Responding to the conflation of evil and good
32:22 | The liberating benefits of rules
34:01 | Listener question: How can I respond to "I'm spiritual but not religious"?
36:14 | Join the Word on Fire Institute

• Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/

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Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you, as always, for joining us. In this episode, we'll conclude our conversation with Dr. Tod Worner and Bishop Barron on modern Christian persecution.

Topics Covered

00:00 | Introduction
00:23 | Lower than God, higher than us
05:58 | What do their deaths demand?
18:08 | No. 1—Pray for the persecuted
18:25 | No. 2—Stay informed
18:50 | No. 3—Persuade government to take action
19:35 | No. 4—Provide aid to the persecuted
19:50 | No. 5—Respect religious liberty at home
20:32 | No. 6—Resist soft religious persecution
22:09 | How the martyrs impacted Bishop Barron
25:03 | Join the Word on Fire Institute

• Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/

NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. Recently, Dr. Tod Worner of The Evangelization & Culture Podcast sat down with Bishop Barron to discuss modern Christian persecution with Bishop Barron's new book, What Do Their Deaths Demand? Now, it's a topic we've explored here on this show, once before. In this new conversation, we'll take a deeper dive into that subject, exploring the specific witness of some of these martyrs, and examining this modern era which has seen more Christian persecution than any other in history. Here to discuss that with Dr. Tod Worner, is Bishop Robert Barron.

Topics Covered

00:00 | Introduction
02:18 | The most persecuted religion
15:08 | Why the persecution of Christians?
25:44 | Join the Word on Fire Institute

• Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/

NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.