Unshaken Faith – Details, episodes & analysis

Alisa, Natasha, and Frank just returned from their 6th Unshaken Conference in Pittsburgh. Thank you to everyone there who played a part in making this Unshaken such a success. As always, they ended the day with a Q&A session, and also as always, they received far more questions than they could take. So today Alisa and Natasha wanted to answer a grab bag of questions they especially liked from the ones they couldn’t get to Saturday.

Quick Update

Frank Turek joins the podcast to talk about the mantra “Follow your heart” and how that is leading culture into the chaos of social media narcissism, divorce, and transgender ideology.

Over the last ten years, there have been all kinds of shifts in how culture thinks about sexuality. Clearly, the evangelical church has especially grappled with questions of homosexuality and gender identity. But there’s a whole other sexual revolution that’s been bubbling up during that time, and it’s one that the church rarely talks about. It’s the revolution of polyamory. In today’s episode Natasha and Alisa break down this cultural phenomenon from a biblical perspective. 

Is it okay to come out and call yourself a “Gay Christian,” as long as you don’t act on your desires? If someone struggles with same-sex attraction or gender confusion, can they accept those as part of their identity, adopt preferred pronouns and even identifying as “trans?” According  to Side B theology, the answer to both of these questions is yes. These are ideas that are being heavily promoted in conservative evangelical circles, and Christians really need to be aware of what’s coming to a church near you. In today’s episode, Alisa and Natasha give a quick primer on what side B theology is, who are some of the main players, and share some concerns for you to consider as you think through these questions for yourself. 

He Gets Us is at it again with a new round of Super Bowl commercials. In today’s episode, Alisa comments on the broader campaign, asking who’s behind it, what’s their agenda, who are they trying to reach, and how effective are they in reaching those goals? 

There’s a new small group curriculum for churches available, and you’re probably going to hear a lot about it this year because it’s both very timely and being produced and promoted by some big Christian names. It’s called The After Party, and according to its creators, it’s designed to counter the "dangerous trend" of Evangelicals having their political identity formed by “partisan forces, not by true Biblical faith." The curriculum was developed by David French (who’s a New York Times columnist), Russell Moore (the Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today), and Curtis Chang. Natasha and Alisa did an episode on their concerns about the After Party last March when the curriculum was first announced. The reason they're talking about it again today is that it’s now been released and it's getting high profile promotion with churches and pastors nationwide. In fact, they’re making it available for free through the 2024 election. Tune in to today’s episode for some things you should be aware of before your church considers rolling this out.

It’s no secret that social media carries a tremendous amount of influence in our lives. Virtually everyone has a megaphone into the world into which they can entertain, shout their opinions, and highlight their brands. Today we’ll be discussing the influence of social media.

Dylan Mulvaney is probably the most visible transgender person in the US today. If you’re not familiar with him, he’s a biological male who documented his transition to supposedly becoming a woman through a series of TikTok videos a couple of years ago. He quickly rose to TikTok fame and has over 10 million followers there today, and huge followings on other platforms as well. In certain sense, Mulvaney has been pivotal in giving the transgender movement a new face. Today, Alisa and Natasha discuss some thoughts on how he’s become the poster child for transgenderism, and the interesting worldview insights that can come from considering that question.

What is up with the #exvangelical hashtag? If you’re on social media, you’ve probably seen this hashtag used alongside the deconstruction hashtag, and in many cases, followed by a deconversion story. In today’s episode, Natasha and Alisa talk through the history and the meaning of the exvangelical hashtag, and discuss what it is really all about.