Bonus podcast: Non-political chat with my friend Eric Metaxas

Catching up on the closing of GetReligion.org and the logic of Rational Sheep

There isn’t a “Crossroads” podcast this week, since my colleagues at Lutheran Public Radio are taking a week off.

Thus, I thought that plenty of Rational Sheep readers/listeners would like a bonus podcast from another source, as in a chance to listen to my recent appearance on the Eric Metaxas Show.

If you have followed Metaxas through the years you know that he is a prolific and successful writer, a witty commentator, an enthusiastic New Yorker and, in terms of politics, a fierce (to say the least) defender of former President Donald Trump. He was raised in Greek Orthodoxy and is now an evangelical layman who has a positive view of Orthodox Christianity.

If you know my work — especially at GetReligion.org — you know I am a journalism-mass media guy who has worked in big cities (I loved lower Manhattan) but is most at home in the Great Smoky Mountains. In terms of politics, I remain a #NeverBiden #NeverTrump third-party voter who yearns for the death of America’s two-party vise. I was raised as a Southern Baptist evangelical, am now an Orthodox layman, and I retain a positive view of my Baptist heritage.

Yes, it does help to know that Eric and I have been friends for nearly 30 years, after meeting early in the email era through mutual writer friends online (think Frederica Mathewes-Green). Despite our differences in this era, he remains a friend I can laugh with and pray with.

So what is in this Metaxas-Mattingly chat?

The primary goal was to discuss the decision, after 20 years, to shutter GetReligion.org (which remains online as a research archive), including some background on what I think is happening in the dollars-and-sense framework of mainstream American journalism. If you haven’t read the Religion & Liberty essay that I wrote on that (“The Evolving Religion of Journalism”), please check it out. You can also check out the Acton Institute podcast on that topic (“What’s Wrong with Journalism Today?”).

Eric and I also discussed the convictions that led to the creation of Rational Sheep, since we have both been convinced — for decades — that religion leaders have to grasp (for better and for worse) the power of America’s mass-media Powers That Be. It’s impossible to ignore the omnipresent Screen Culture.

So, how to listen to this conversation? CLICK HERE and then scroll down to “Hour 2.” You can listen to the embedded program or download a copy.

Let me know what you think.