This week, we continue our year in review podcast series with a look at the year in music, with special guest Jay Tholen. Jay Tholen is one of the most unique and exciting musicians to emerge from the indie "Christian" music scene. Mostly considered a chiptune artist, he often transgresses those boundaries to produce consistently surprising and polarizing music - all of it charmingly blatant in its Christian foundation. He, Drew Dixon (editor), and Jason Morehead (associate editor) discuss the year in music, recent trends in the contemporary Christian scene, and more. 

Check out Jay Tholen's music - his latest album is free!

Every week, various Christ and Pop Culture writers delve deeper into recent articles and addof the bigger issues in popular culture.

We love feedback. If you’d like to respond, you can comment on the Web site or send an e-mail to christandpopculture@gmail.com. We would love to respond to feedback on the show, so do it now!

Between Rick Perry, conservative pastors, your impressionable great aunt, and Fox News (or as Jason says in this podcast, an "unnamed news network"), you'd think Christmas was literally being attacked by atheist soldiers, cowering in a foxhole waiting for good Christians warriors to fight for its freedom. But is this accurate? Uhm, of course not. But what is the truth about the war on Christmas, and what does it mean for those of us that view the incarnation as something true and deeply profound? In this episode, Richard Clark (editor-in-chief), Drew Dixon (editor), Alan Noble (co-founder and editor), and Jason Morehead (associate editor) discuss their approach to Christmas, commercialism, and those darned atheist Christmas terrorists.

Every week, various Christ and Pop Culture writers delve deeper into recent articles and address some of the bigger issues in popular culture.

We love feedback. If you’d like to respond, you can comment on the Web site or send an e-mail to christandpopculture@gmail.com. We would love to respond to feedback on the show, so do it now!

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In the first in a series of podcasts looking back on the year that was, editor Drew Dixon, editor-in-chief Richard Clark, and writer Luke Larsen discuss the past year in videogames. It was a year of biblical and spiritual themes, a year of greatness and disappointments. More than anything, it was a year that had videogames in it.

Every week, various Christ and Pop Culture writers delve deeper into recent articles and address some of the bigger issues in popular culture.

We love feedback. If you’d like to respond, you can comment on the Web site or send an e-mail to christandpopculture@gmail.com. We would love to respond to feedback on the show, so do it now!

What happened at Penn State is more than a typical sports-related scandal - it's a moral failure that violates inherent human law and a social agreement of common human decency. The public is rightly outraged. But what does it mean? What do we do now? Why did it happen? And what can we learn from it? This week, editor-in-chief Richard Clark hosts two CaPC writers, Nick Olson (who wroteyesterday's must-read article addressing this issue) and Jason Morehead who discuss the ins and outs of the situation. 

Every week, various Christ and Pop Culture writers delve deeper into recent articles and address some of the bigger issues in popular culture.

We love feedback. If you’d like to respond, you can comment on the Web site or send an e-mail to christandpopculture@gmail.com. We would love to respond to feedback on the show, so do it now!

John MacArthur has recently been giving advice to the "Young, Restless, and Reformed" (YRR) a growing group of Calvinistic young people who currently make up a large percentage of America's evangelicals. Contributor, Brad Williams and Editor, Drew Dixon take a closer look at a recent video in which MacArthur attempts to list "three clear concerns" about the YRR movement. They try to get to the bottom of who this group actually is and discuss MacArthur's concerns. Pastors are called to higher standards of rhetoric--does this video represents the type of rhetoric churches should promote?

Further Reading:

The Untamed Tongue of Mark Driscoll

Alcohol, John MacArthur, and the Growing Pains of Christian Liberty

This week, associate editor Ben Bartlett and editor-in-chief, Richard Clark get together to discuss the nature of Occupy Wall Street. They give the movement a fair shake, talking about their intentions, the reasoning behind the methods, and of course, the human microphone. They also talk more generally about Christians and protest, leading up to Ben sharing his top five protests he wouldn't mind taking part in.

Every week, various Christ and Pop Culture writers delve deeper into recent articles and address some of the bigger issues in popular culture.

We love feedback! If you’d like to respond you can comment on the website, send an email to christandpopculture@gmail.com. We would love to respond to feedback on the show, so do it now!

Today marks the release of Battlefield 3, a videogame that's been positioned to compete directly with the most popular franchise in the military warfare genre, Modern Warfare 3. Both games thrive off of a key component: violence. In today's podcast, editor-in-chief Richard Clark, editor Drew Dixon, and associate editor Ben Bartlett get together to discuss the nature of videogame violence. Does violence have a place in videogames? Does it have to be such a large place? They discuss these questions, plus Battlefield 3 and the like's refusal to include civilian casualties in their games.

Plus, Drew Dixon offers up his top 5 instances of videogame violence, for your, uhm, enjoyment?

Thanks to Luke Larson for the new CaPC theme music!

Note: due to technical difficulties, there is no fancy intro music this episode. Sorry!

With the death of Steve Jobs, Christians find themselves asking "Whyyyy???!!!" then "Why do I care so much?" then "Well why wouldn't I care so much, he's kind of a big deal?" then "Well isn't everyone kind of a big deal in their own way?" and so on until it coalesces into a communal shame spiral that plays out on Twitter, Facebook, and around water coolers (they still make those, right?). This week, editor-in-chief Richard Clark and associate editors Jason Morehead and Erin Straza discuss the death of Steve Jobs, whether Apple products are implicitly better, and what benefits and dangers technology in general thrusts onto us as Christians.

Further Reading: 
Thank You, Steve
Podcast #84: Ben and Rich discuss their opinion of Steve Jobs’ desire to keep iPhone users “free from porn.”
Is Apple Making Us Discontent?

Every week, various Christ and Pop Culture writers delve deeper into recent articles and address some of the bigger issues in popular culture.

We love feedback! If you’d like to respond you can comment on the website, send an email to christandpopculture@gmail.com. We would love to respond to feedback on the show, so do it now!

This week's podcast features new hosts: CaPC editor, Drew Dixon and writer, Brad Williams. This week Brad and Drew discuss Christians' responsibility toward illegal immigrants in their midst. The Supreme Court of Alabama recently ruled in favor of new legislation that imposes greater restrictions on illegal immigrants.

Brad and Drew live in Albertville, Al which has a large Hispanic population. The New York Times recently reported on the many Hispanic families that are leaving Albertville due to the new legislation. Brad also recently wrote on how we should think about illegal immigrants and our responsibility to such people as Christians. They discuss the responsibility to both uphold the law and to love our neighbor as well as what to do when those two laws are in conflict.

Every week, various Christ and Pop Culture writers delve deeper into recent articles and address some of the bigger issues in popular culture.

We love feedback! If you’d like to respond you can comment on the website, send an email to christandpopculture@gmail.com. We would love to respond to feedback on the show, so do it now!

That's right, it's the return of the Christ and Pop Culture Podcast. While we're hoping to provide conversations between all kinds of CaPC writers (more on that next week), we're starting the relaunch with the classic duo: Ben Bartlett and Richard Clark.

This week, they kick things off by candidly discussing Richard's recent Feature about the past and future of the site, Christ and Pop Culture: Already and Not Yet.

After that, they focus in on the nature of political discussion. Together they discuss just how important it is for Christians to engage in, and how they can do so without coming across as that guy.

Every week, various Christ and Pop Culture writers delve deeper into recent articles and address some of the bigger issues in popular culture.

We love feedback! If you’d like to respond you can comment on the website, send an email to christandpopculture@gmail.com. We would love to respond to feedback on the show, so do it now!