A Catholic couple in Massachusetts walked through months of training, interviews, and home studies to become foster parents—only to be denied, not for lack of care or competence, but because of their traditional Christian beliefs about sexuality and gender. In a state facing a severe foster care shortage, with children sleeping in hospitals due to lack of placement, this case raises a sobering cultural question: do people with historic religious convictions still have a place in caring for society’s most vulnerable? This episode unpacks what happened to Mike and Kitty Burke and why their lawsuit has implications far beyond one family or one state.

At the heart of this conversation is more than politics or policy—it’s a clash over the meaning of love, affirmation, and pluralism in modern America. We explore why Christians believe love and disagreement are not opposites, how religious liberty is tested when the state enforces a single moral framework, and what this moment reveals about foster care, parental rights, and the future of faith-based service. The call for believers is neither retreat nor rage, but conviction shaped by compassion—standing for truth while remaining committed to caring for children who need homes, families, and hope.

What do people actually mean when they say Christian nationalism—and why does the term spark so much confusion, fear, and controversy? In this episode, we slow the conversation down and ask better questions about faith, politics, moral authority, and the role of Christians in public life.

We’re joined by Dr. Todd Williams, president of Cairn University and a longtime scholar of social theory, civic life, and religious liberty. Drawing from decades of teaching and public engagement, Todd helps untangle how labels get weaponized, why neutrality is a myth, and what’s really at stake when Christians talk about law, nationhood, and moral vision.

At the heart of the conversation is a grounding reminder: politics cannot save us—but faith should still shape how we live, vote, and seek the good of our neighbors. This episode challenges fear-driven engagement and calls Christians back to thoughtful, faithful citizenship rooted in the gospel rather than cultural panic.

President Donald Trump’s recent executive order aimed at lowering IVF costs and expanding access has pushed infertility back into the national spotlight. While the order reflects a good and understandable desire—helping couples who long for children—it also arrives in the middle of growing legal, political, and ethical tension. Court rulings, including the Alabama Supreme Court decision recognizing frozen embryos as legally protected children, have forced the country to confront difficult questions about life, personhood, and the limits of government policy. IVF may be discussed in campaign speeches and courtrooms, but behind every headline is a couple carrying grief, hope, and unanswered prayers.

This episode approaches IVF not as a partisan issue, but as a profoundly human and spiritual one. Scripture invites compassion for the pain of infertility while also calling Christians to think carefully about the moral weight of embryos and the means by which life is created. We explore why ethical reflection matters, how the church can avoid both moral indifference and harsh condemnation, and why politics—while influential—can never heal the deepest ache involved. The call for believers is not to choose between conviction and compassion, but to hold both together, walking with couples in truth, mercy, and hope before a God who sees every life and every longing.

In a cultural moment where doubt is often praised and belief treated with suspicion, many people quietly wonder whether faith can still be held with intellectual honesty. In this episode of The Underground Sessions Podcast, we explore that tension with Mary Jo Sharp—a former atheist, philosopher, and Christian apologist who understands skepticism from the inside.

Mary Jo shares her personal journey from disbelief to faith, reflecting on the questions that eventually made atheism feel insufficient and the surprises she encountered after becoming a Christian. Drawing from years of teaching, writing, and ministry, she helps us think carefully about evidence, trust, suffering, beauty, and the problem of evil—while also addressing the emotional and relational barriers that often shape belief just as much as intellectual ones. With insight shaped by ministry in both the Pacific Northwest and the Bible Belt, she offers a nuanced picture of how skepticism differs across cultural contexts.

The conversation closes by turning toward practice: how Christians can engage skeptics without defensiveness or pressure, how churches can create space for honest doubt, and what thoughtful seekers might do if they want to explore faith without pretending certainty. This episode isn’t about winning arguments—it’s about whether belief is still possible, reasonable, and worth pursuing when certainty feels out of reach.

More from Mary Jo Sharp

https://maryjosharp.com/

https://a.co/d/czWgpSr

https://a.co/d/f4u13ip

https://searchnational.org/about

https://reachothers.org/the-reach-podcast

The phrase “changed for good” has become a cultural shorthand for growth, healing, and moral clarity. In this short-form Underground Sessions commentary, we examine how that idea is presented in Wicked: For Good, and why the story it tells about goodness, intention, and transformation resonates so deeply in a culture uneasy with moral judgment. Recent reporting surrounding the film’s press tour—particularly involving Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, and Ethan Slater—provides an unexpected window into the moral logic beneath the narrative.

This episode contrasts that logic with the Christian understanding of transformation. Rather than treating evil as misunderstanding or harm as sincerity, Scripture offers a more searching diagnosis of the human heart—one that insists on repentance before renewal and truth before healing. Drawing from biblical teaching and classical Christian thought, the commentary asks whether a culture that struggles to name what is wrong can ever produce real change, and why the gospel’s promise is not that we were always good, but that we can be made new.


Thumbnail image: Cynthia Erivo (left) and Ariana Grande at the “Wicked” premiere. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Image modified (subjects isolated from background).

As headlines promise a future without work or poverty, bold claims are being made about technology’s ability to solve the deepest human problems. In this short-form Underground Sessions commentary, we examine the vision put forward by Elon Musk—that humanoid robots could eliminate poverty, make labor optional, and usher in a new era of abundance—and ask what assumptions about humanity, work, and hope are embedded in that promise.

Drawing on Scripture and cultural analysis, this episode explores whether poverty is truly a technical problem, what role work plays in human purpose, and why abundance alone has never healed the human heart. Rather than rejecting technology outright, the commentary offers a sober framework for discernment—affirming innovation as a tool while rejecting the idea that progress itself can save. The question left before listeners is simple but unavoidable: where does true hope come from, and what kind of future are we actually being formed to desire?

As attention centered on the Stranger Things finale, a larger shift in the entertainment landscape went largely unnoticed—one with significant implications for how moral categories are formed and sustained. This short-form Underground Sessions commentary examines how competing streaming platforms shape public assumptions about evil, responsibility, authority, and hope, and why the consolidation of cultural storytellers matters far beyond market share.

Focusing on Stranger Things as a case study, the episode explores how modern storytelling frames evil primarily through the lens of trauma, while alternative cultural narratives emphasize order and restraint. Drawing on Scripture, the commentary considers what these frameworks explain well, where they fall short, and why Christian theology insists on addressing both guilt and grace. The result is a sober reflection on which stories can withstand moral collapse—and which cannot.

For decades, Rob Reiner helped shape America’s moral imagination through film, television, and cultural influence—telling stories rooted in justice, love, and the promise of moral progress. This week, that narrative collided with devastating tragedy. In this short-form Underground Sessions commentary, we pause before rushing to political, psychological, or ideological explanations and ask a harder question: What happens when a culture that promises moral progress cannot explain moral collapse?

This episode offers a sober, biblically grounded reflection on the limits of secular moral frameworks and why evil continues to shock a culture convinced it has moved beyond it. Without sensationalism or moral grandstanding, we explore what Scripture says about the human heart, why progress without God fails to produce peace, and how the gospel uniquely confronts tragedy with truth, accountability, and hope.



Photo by Gage Skidmore, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.