698: De-Christianizing America & Re-Christianizing Advent With Rich Villodas  ## Metadata - Author: [[The Holy Post]] - Full Title: 698: De-Christianizing America & Re-Christianizing Advent With Rich Villodas - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/34e34571-dc39-4be5-8f67-1abb8f20db96 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Kakapo Conservation And 'Crusty Bum' Recovery** - The hosts share a lighthearted segment about the kakapo, a flightless New Zealand parrot threatened by 'crusty bum disease.' - Conservation efforts helped kakapo numbers recover from 50 to about 237 birds, offering hope. Transcript: Phil Vischer Okay, we got a lot to talk about. Here we go. I haven't done this in a while, but it's time for, it's animal news. Oh, okay. I got worried for a minute there. And news of the butt. Okay. And now it's time for news of the butt. Animals have butts. Caitlin Schess What? Phil Vischer So true. And some have transient butts. No. That was a story we did once. But that's not this story. Thank goodness. The world's only flightless parrot has an issue. There's a flightless parrot? Yes. Caitlin Schess Why? There's one. Phil Vischer One. Like one species. One singular parrot. Yeah. He was born without wings. No. There's a species of flightless parrots in New Zealand. Of course. It is called the kakapo. Caitlin Schess What do they do then? Phil Vischer They walk. They walk. Walking is what, what do you do when you can't fly? You walk. I'm not a bird. Have you heard of kiwis or ostriches? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Whoa, this thing is freaky looking. Skye Jethani Technically, they're kiwi birds. Do you see this? Kiwi birds. Because New Zealanders are kiwis. Caitlin Schess Look at how huge that is. Phil Vischer That's a parrot? Apparently. Caitlin Schess Kakapo? Phil Vischer Yeah, she's looked it up already. Kakapos are extremely endangered. There are only 237 Kakapos left in the wild. Skye Jethani Whoa. They're very easy to hunt. Phil Vischer They're very, yeah. Because not only do they not fly, but they don't run that fast either. They're not like ostriches. One of the small country's major conservation projects. These giant green flightless parrots are threatened by predators, invasive species, human encroachment, and a debilitating illness colloquially called crusty bum disease. Oh my gosh. Crusty bum disease causes inflammation of the lower digestive and reproductive tracts. Birds that contract it can become infertile, which puts strain on the already small population. It can also be fatal in some cases. What took him out? He was taken up by the Krustybum disease. Oh, my God. It came up behind him when he twerked looking. In fact, he never could see it. It was where the sun don't shine. Skye Jethani How does one get Krustybum disease? Phil Vischer You either got to be a flightless parrot or a pirate. Skye Jethani You know what they need. Phil Vischer They need bird bidets. Oh, that's a good idea. Which is really what a bird bath is. Birdets. Crusty bum disease has been present in the critically endangered Cacapoque population for roughly two decades. And it's typically treated with pain relief, fluids, and antibiotics. However, with antibiotics comes the risk of antibiotic resistance and changes to gut bacteria. But, one T. Oh my gosh. However. Skye Jethani You can say however. Phil Vischer We've got good news. No, I wanted to say but as many times. Yeah, we know you did. Caitlin Schess I just said. Phil Vischer A recent study showed that the birds have not picked up any antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria in their crusty bums. And so they're doing okay. They're doing okay. It's a good news story that crusty bum disease is not taking down the kakapo quite yet. ([Time 0:07:34](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e0e8db57-404a-4732-bba0-5be61bc13123)) - **Targeted Geofencing To Influence Churchgoers** - Israel is running a targeted $4.1M geofencing campaign aimed at evangelical churches to shore up support. - The campaign uses Christian language and events to shape perceptions about October 7 and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Transcript: Phil Vischer Support. That's it? Yeah, just $4.1 million. That's not a lot of money. I know. I feel like we need more. I feel like if they want my support, I need more. That's not going to do it for me. With its popularity in the United States crashing, Israel is bankrolling what organizers say will be the largest campaign of its kind to bolster support among evangelical churches. The foreign ministry has hired an American firm to run the campaign, which plans to spend as much as $4.1 million on marketing aimed at Christians across the western part of the country. The campaign is billed as, quote, the largest Christian church geofencing campaign in U.S. History. So what's a geofencing campaign, you ask? I was just the advertiser tracks your location and sends you an ad based on where you are. These ads will be sent to people that come within a certain distance of a set of churches that they target and Christian colleges that they target. So if you are hanging around your church, you might get a special ad served to you by the Israeli government, which will encourage you to be pro-Israeli and anti-Palestinian. How do we feel about this? They will also, they're also going to... Skye Jethani Negatively. What? Okay. Can forget the political side of all this? Just the idea that people are targeting you at church. Phil Vischer Yeah, because you came close to a church, you are the demographic they're looking for for their ad campaign. The initiative is designed to reach churchgoers with digital ads that are explicitly pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian, while dispatching a mobile October 7th experience exhibit. That's what it's called. Skye Jethani October 7th was a mobile experience. It was a pretty horrifying one. Yeah. Phil Vischer Yeah. They're sending a movable, a traveling experience to remind Christians how bad October 7th was so they will be more pro-Israel and less pro-Palestinian. So I don't know how I feel about that. Obviously, the Israeli government is very concerned that particularly younger evangelicals are saying, hey, wait, why do we have to agree with anything that Benjamin Netanyahu And his administration do? Where is that in the Bible? And other than, he who blesses Israel will be blessed, which is what often gets thrown in your face. It's really hard to justify. But if they can remind you that, yes, there was a terrible event and 1,200 Israelis were killed, then maybe you don't notice now that we've passed 70,000 Palestinians being killed in The response. ([Time 0:14:47](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f373bea2-6942-4684-bf04-9cfa42000ea2)) - **Media Fragmentation Weakens Unified Christian Messaging** - Media fragmentation reduced centralized evangelical influence that once drove uniform pro-Israel messaging. - Platforms like TikTok and podcasts now surface diverse views, weakening older prophecy-driven consensus. Transcript: Phil Vischer Right, Jesus won't come back. Skye Jethani Yeah. I think part of it though is it's the fracturing of media. Because when those things were super popular in the 1990s and before, there was Christian radio, there was Christian television, there was a little bit of Christian print media, but It was very centralized. And so if you could capture those platforms, you had a megaphone that you could project out. Well, now with YouTube and social media and everything else, there's so much fracturing of media that those voices still exist, but they're not the only ones out there. Phil Vischer Biggest, loudest pro-Modern Israel voices of the 70s, 80s, and 90s would have been institutions like Pat Robertson and CBN, the Crouch family, and TBN. So the biggest Christian broadcasters also came out of a tradition of rapture theology. And Jesus will return to Jerusalem and it has to be in Jewish hands. So those generations now have died. And because of the rise of podcasting and TikTok and everything else, there's just much less influence. TBN and CBN together do not have half the influence they had 30 years ago. Dobson's radio show, a 10th the influence it had 30 years ago. ([Time 0:19:42](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b2cc1d20-96c0-4adf-a835-52515aa7d05b)) - **Targeted Media Shapes Beliefs, Not Just Reason** - People often adopt political or religious positions because they're exposed to targeted media narratives, not because they reasoned independently. - Recognizing manipulation fosters empathy and explains surprising convictions among acquaintances. Transcript: Caitlin Schess I keep thinking on the other end how much reading this reminded me and gave a really tangible example of the fact that a lot of the people that we actually know in our lives, like in our churches And our families, who say things about Israel or Palestine that we think are abhorrent are very often manipulated. This is a pretty explicit example of not even necessarily in a malevolent way, but just in the way we've talked about before of people are only seeing certain things on the internet. And we assume everyone is seeing the same things we're seeing and coming to different conclusions based on the same set of data. And they're not. And if this is true, then many of the people who we are asking ourselves, how on earth could you possibly come to the conclusions you're coming to, suddenly makes a lot of sense. Like if this is the information you're being given, and it's couched in terms, I mean, I also noticed throughout this article, there's a lot of biblical references and language being Used, even internally to describe what people are doing. So if it's coming to you based on advertising that's targeted towards your church attendance, if it's coming in a context that doesn't even need to be, to your point, Phil, in the context Of a dispensationalist timeframe or even an emphasis on prophecy, but it's just, this sounds really Christian. It sounds kind of conservative and I'm in that world already. And it doesn't seem like a huge step then to come to certain conclusions. I just think this is a helpful reminder for many of us who are going like, how could you possibly come to the conclusions you've come to or support the things you support? Or more importantly, maybe ignore all this other stuff that's happening and seem to think it's unimportant. It's like, well, you might not be seeing any of that stuff and just be seeing this. ([Time 0:21:34](https://share.snipd.com/snip/94920b42-f0e8-4547-97d9-c49887a1b1ce)) - **Immigration Policy Can Make America Less Christian** - Trump's immigration policy claims to favor Christians but in practice favors secular immigrants from places like Norway. - Restricting immigration from Latin America and Africa risks reducing America's future religious vitality. Transcript: Phil Vischer And I think this is a point we've made, but he makes it well. That Donald Trump promised to restore Christians to power and religious faith to its rightful place in America. In fact, just over the weekend, he was bragging about America's becoming more Christian, more people are going to church and more people are praying than ever before. It's all it's all coming true. What I promised I would do. Bob says his policies, however, may end up making America less religious and in particular less Christian in the future. That's in large part because younger white Americans are one of the least religious groups in the country, while non-white Americans and immigrants are among the most religious. And people have pointed out before that in particular, people come across the Southern border, overwhelming majority are coming from Christian countries, Catholic, Pentecostal In Latin America. And at the same time, America is increasingly secularizing. ([Time 0:29:44](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c629b2a2-74ea-4f98-b425-3b88929a68fd)) - **White Preference Undermines 'Make America Christian' Rhetoric** - Many desired immigrant demographics (e.g., Norwegians) are more secular than immigrants from Latin America or Africa. - Favoring whiteness over religiosity undermines stated goals of increasing Christian presence. Transcript: Phil Vischer And you just have to point out that immigrants from Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa is 65% Christian. So immigrants from Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the persecuted from Sub-Saharan Africa, are much more likely to be Christian. Whereas, believe it or not, if we import a bunch of Norwegians, they're largely atheist socialists. ([Time 0:31:51](https://share.snipd.com/snip/bcb61396-a30d-4231-8407-f910a0eb7d36)) - **Cultural Deficiency Replaces Pseudo-Science Racism** - Modern anti-immigrant rhetoric recycles old racist tropes but shifts from biology to 'cultural deficiency.' - This reframing keeps the same exclusionary aim while avoiding discredited scientific racism. Transcript: Phil Vischer So this is what I jotted down. We believe, and you see this a lot in the MAGA far right. Americans of America. Okay. Cause I'm going back like 200 years, but then also relating it to today. We believe non-whites are culturally deficient and are incompatible with Christian civilization. So in 1850, we said, and this is, again, I'll go back to R.L. Dabney, who was the leading theologian of the South at the time, and then the Confederacy. In 1850, we believe that non-whites, particularly blacks, were morally and intellectually deficient and were incompatible with Christian civilization. Dabney believed that Africans were incapable of freedom, of being given freedom. They couldn't handle it because of their moral deficiencies. Yeah, it's convenient when you're enslaving them. And because scientific racism, race essentialism was popular in the 19th century, he actually links it to science in some of his writings and says that, you know, whatever happens, This group of humans, this race has come out morally and intellectually deficient to this race. So this race, by God's providence, should have power over that race. And we don't like that anymore. We don't, because that's obviously, let's just go out and say, that's racist. Caitlin Schess Yeah. Strong statement. That's kind of the definition of racist. Phil Vischer So the shift has been some cultures are superior to other cultures. And this is a very popular position on the far right and moving more into the mainstream right. And this is when Trump says, we don't want third worlders to come here. And when Joel Webin and other guys say, yeah, they can't, if you import, who just said that? Stephen Miller just said this, I think over the weekend. If you import people from third world countries, you're not just importing people, you're importing their society. And then their society will impact your society and we'll break it down because they cannot function in Western civilization. And that's why, so rather than keeping the races distinct, we need to keep the cultures distinct. And it just so happens that the cultures we want are largely full of white people. So Trump's emphasis on non-Christian whites over Christian non-whites reveals the core assumption of the movement. ([Time 0:32:54](https://share.snipd.com/snip/916f6b86-3c9a-4647-b647-c43ca7d655ad)) - **Counter Harm By Practically Helping Immigrants** - Christians often deploy Christian language while promoting policies that conflict with Jesus' teachings. - Practical response includes supporting relief organizations and local neighbors to offset harmful state policies. Transcript: Phil Vischer Offset the nonsense other than just by getting on a podcast and talking about it? I just don't know if that's going to do it. Or pointing out that these guys are all talking about Christianity, but not about Christ. Caitlin Schess I think there's something weirdly comforting in what Sky was just getting frustrated about, which is that it's the same story all the time. Like when you said get them more original, you're like, what's the more original sin? Like it makes sense. Like we, you know, many people have talked about America's original sin being slavery. Scripture talks about, in a very different way than most of the people politically are talking about this, the way entire communities can be shaped by their sins structurally, and Then that impacts people personally. It's often an interplay between personal prejudice and structural incentives and issues. Reason I say that's weirdly comforting is we have examples to look to. We have abolitionists, we have civil rights leaders, we have examples of people both who did theological work to respond to this. So I've been helping with a class that is kind of an introduction at Duke to Christian theology, mostly for healthcare workers. And they just had an assignment recently where they had to do a close reading on a couple of abolitionist texts. And especially they were focusing on the way the image of God is deployed as an argument. It was one from Angelica Grimke and one from Frederick Douglass. And so we can do that, first of all. Like there are small groups at churches and there are families that are going, let's read widely Christian theology that comes from different times and places. But because it is still part of our tradition and legacy here in America, we can learn some specific things from it when it comes to how do we theologically respond to these kinds of things. Who've had to answer questions like this. Because to Sky's point, some of it has shifted from a focus on biology to a focus on culture. But in another sense, it has often not. Many of the abolitionists and civil rights leaders who were writing against this kind of theology were saying, not just your biology is wrong because they didn't have scientific facts To respond to that with, but they were able to say, here's how the way you have treated us or you have treated this community has led to the outcome that you are saying is proof of our deficiency. It's actually this structural issue. It's the way that oppression has shaped a community that has led to some of these problems. So we can go back to that theology. And then because this is something that's happened before, I think we also then can turn and look and ask, like, what practices, what habits, what kinds of building community were people Relying on? I've said this on the show before, but I find it so striking that even when people were engaging politically in the civil rights movement, for example, they were rooting that activism In spiritual practices. So I know a lot of people, especially in the Chicago area who are really involved on the policy side of immigration questions. And I know many of them are exhausted and burnt out. And I think they're very aware that without the theological truths of the faith that can motivate greater work and can comfort and console and strengthen when things are difficult, And without the spiritual practices of the faith, they would be having a much harder time. So I think we go back to that theology of the past and we go back to those practices of the past. And in a weird way, I think recognizing that it is a recurring problem, especially for Christians in America, can help us have a longer term view than just what can immediately be done. But what can I do to make my community the kind of place that can respond when it has mutated a little bit, when the argument is a little bit different, but the prejudice underlying it is The same. We haven't just focused on responding to this immediate thing, which sometimes we need to. We've also focused on, do we have a richer theological understanding of our whole lives and the image of God and what our relationship with our neighbors means that could maybe help Us be ready for something else that looks a little bit different in the future. Phil Vischer Why is a crime committed by someone who looks like me less offensive to me than the same crime committed by someone who is different? Caitlin Schess Because you want to believe that you are good? I mean, that's actually a great example too of some of the Christian theological resources we have for this. So much of what motivates some of this storytelling is not just, as I've talked about before, this desire for a certain kind of community and identity, but a real sense of shame. I mean, there's lots of research that's been done on different, predominantly white communities in the US that scapegoat communities of non-white people in order to make themselves Feel better about things that they are struggling with. So there's also an ability for Christian theology to say, we have language and practice for forgiveness, for confession, for dealing with some of the things that people often don't Deal with. And instead that comes out in their prejudices and they're lashing out towards other people. Skye Jethani There's a reason why Lady Justice, as she's depicted with the scale in her hand, is blindfolded. Phil Vischer Because she doesn't want to see this mess. She's like, no way. Skye Jethani Because the rule of law is supposed to be impartial, right? Regardless of who the victim is or who the perpetrator is, justice is given out impartially. The ability to do that individually as a court system, as a judicial system, as a society, the ability to do that takes a higher level of reasoning. It takes a higher level of empathy. It takes a higher level of abstraction and intellect to operate on that level. One of the fundamental problems with racism is it's incredibly stupid and it appeals to people's lizard brains. It doesn't require higher levels of intellect or intelligence to simply identify with something that looks like me because there's no abstraction there. And the people who are calling us to kinship kind of ideology and who are talking about empathy as a toxic value, things like that, they're actually calling us to be less human, to be less Intelligent, to be more animalistic in the way our brains operate. And those who are calling us to justice and empathy and the rule of law, those calls are lifting us up to the better angels of our nature, as historians have talked about, or Lincoln talked About, which is a more Christian way of operating to recognize all people, even those who don't look like me, as being made in the image of God and worthy of dignity and respect. And we need to be asking ourselves, what voices in the public square, whether they're political leaders or religious leaders or cultural leaders, what voices are calling us in that Direction and which ones are calling us back to a more basic animal direction? And unfortunately, the voices that are calling us sometimes to a more animal way of operating are the same ones that are claiming ([Time 0:40:32](https://share.snipd.com/snip/10538fd4-a08e-4313-ab2c-5012567c30c3)) - **Study Historic Theologies To Resist Prejudice** - Learn from abolitionist and civil-rights theological resources to respond to recurring prejudice. - Combine theological study with spiritual practices to sustain long-term justice engagement. Transcript: Caitlin Schess And then because this is something that's happened before, I think we also then can turn and look and ask, like, what practices, what habits, what kinds of building community were people Relying on? I've said this on the show before, but I find it so striking that even when people were engaging politically in the civil rights movement, for example, they were rooting that activism In spiritual practices. So I know a lot of people, especially in the Chicago area who are really involved on the policy side of immigration questions. And I know many of them are exhausted and burnt out. And I think they're very aware that without the theological truths of the faith that can motivate greater work and can comfort and console and strengthen when things are difficult, And without the spiritual practices of the faith, they would be having a much harder time. So I think we go back to that theology of the past and we go back to those practices of the past. And in a weird way, I think recognizing that it is a recurring problem, especially for Christians in America, can help us have a longer term view than just what can immediately be done. But what can I do to make my community the kind of place that can respond when it has mutated a little bit, when the argument is a little bit different, but the prejudice underlying it is The same. We haven't just focused on responding to this immediate thing, which sometimes we need to. ([Time 0:43:05](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e748e6ff-217d-4fbb-9511-90a3b96c70e8)) - **Use The Church Calendar To Reorient Time** - Use the church calendar to orient life around Scripture rather than the secular year. - Let Advent's waiting reframe time toward anticipation of Christ's first and second comings. Transcript: Skye Jethani And they might be familiar with the term Advent because we kind of use that as a synonym for the holiday season. Explain the church calendar for those who aren't familiar with it, or how do you teach about the church calendar in your congregation? And then what role does Advent have in that framing of the year? Rich Villodas Yeah, the church calendar is essentially marking time through the story of Jesus and the scriptures, as opposed to how we typically think about it in terms of January through December And our holiday seasons. And so Advent usually kicks off the church calendar where it's focusing on the arrival of God, that things are put into motion when God arrives, as opposed to things are put into motion When January 1st arrives. And so Advent is a time of waiting and anticipation for christmas uh for the incarnation for the coming of christ and then very broadly speaking i mean there's plenty of um other holy Days in the church calendar that's you know that churches mark we as a congregation tend to mark advent the season of lent was a was a time of preparation, fasting, repentance, prayer, In anticipation of Easter. Easter focuses on the resurrection of Christ. That's good news. A new world is being born because Christ is risen from the dead. And that kind of goes into an Eastertide season where it's not just one day. You know, the Easter season is 50 days. Lent is 40 days. The feast is better than the fast, things along those lines. And then that Eastertide leads into Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit. And into that space is kind of ordinary time, which is focusing on how does God meet us in the everydayness of human existence? And then here we go again. So for us, it's just a broad brush, a broad stroke, so way to say the way that we mark time as the people of God is not so much oriented around a secular calendar, but primarily around the Story of scripture, primarily in Jesus Christ. To intervene. And on one level, we acknowledge Christ has come, but we anticipate his second coming because we need a new world. ([Time 0:54:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/fd9eb280-f108-4d52-b767-777552ab5291)) - **Advent Opposes Consumerism And Culturalism** - Advent's waiting is countercultural because culture emphasizes consumerism, commercialism, and Christian culturalism. - These three forces distract Christians from true contemplation and expectancy for Christ. Transcript: Rich Villodas Know, what's interesting, there is an author and a theologian named Ron Rollheiser who said that our culture knows how to anticipate an event, but not how to sustain it. And I think that's in many respects what's going on here. We look for towards something and then it's here and then we move on in our very, you know trending topic kind of society that we're in we don't know how to sustain it i mean advent essentially Says yes something is wrong with the world and we are in anticipation waiting for something to happen outside of us it's a in many respects it's a very vulnerable space because it it causes Us to confess that the new world that we're truly longing and hungering for is outside of our power. And so we want to participate with God, of course, in it, but there's something outside. And so we're waiting for Jesus. Now, Sky, I mean, when I wrote this, there are three reasons why I wanted to capture the waiting for Jesus emphasis, because this season is marked by at least three things, the way I capture It, consumerism, commercialism, and a kind of Christian culturalism. And it is those three things that get in the way of really waiting for Jesus. ([Time 0:58:11](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5da9e73b-c59b-41ad-9ce3-129522796a82)) - **Practice Communal Waiting And Admit Loss** - Wait together in community through shared practices like fasting, scripture, and Blue Christmas services. - Create spaces to name loss and support one another during Advent rather than isolating grief. Transcript: Rich Villodas You know, in some ways for us, as we anticipate Christmas, the Advent season. So in terms of even the way that we, our prayers during Advent on Sunday mornings, the small groups that are connected in relationship during this Advent season, we often have church-wide Initiatives during the season of Advent and during the season of Lent where we wait together. We're fasting together. We're in scripture together in these kind of more prolonged church calendar seasons. And so waiting for us together is well number one it's very easy to wait alone there's some and in the isolation and loneliness of our society we need people who are going to walk with us And wait with us like simian had anna uh you know for all those years waiting for the messiah uh to come and so uh even along those lines uh you know this goes a little bit into the christmas Season but i mean every year we have what's called the Blue Christmas Service, which, you know, it's usually jingle bells and all the rest there for Christmas. But it's an opportunity to name the losses that this season brings about much pain and desolation. And so we create a space even in the Christmas Advent season to name losses, pain, suffering happening individually and around the world. ([Time 1:00:34](https://share.snipd.com/snip/40331472-d134-407f-b975-aae5e96716ea)) - **Replace Herod’s Fear With Kingdom Love** - A 'spirit of Herod' frames threats via fear and scarcity, driving eliminationist policies. - Advent invites replacing fear with kingdom love that prioritizes mercy over animosity. Transcript: Rich Villodas Well i think harrod number one um sees anyone who is a threat to his power as someone who needs to be eliminated uh and i think that has a lot to do with the world that we're in right now um i Think there's a spirit of Herod, if you will, that's permeating our culture right now. So when life is seen through the lens of fear and scarcity, the only reasonable way forward is elimination. We see Herod do that with children. It's a very painful part of the story, of the Advent Christmas story. And so, number one, I think the Advent season invites us to ask, to what degree am I viewing the world through the lens of fear? To what degree am I, whether we're talking about immigrants, whether we're talking about people from a different political persuasion, to what degree am I seeing the world through The lens of fear and anxiety? Anxiety is an automatic response to a real or perceived threat. And the Advent season calls us to lay down the fear for kingdom love. And perfect love casts out fear. And kingdom love is a recognition that even though I don't understand someone or someone might be coming from a different part of human experience or the world, that my primary lens Through which I'm engaging others is not through threat, but through love and compassion and mercy. And so I think the Advent season in many respects has something to do with the very real world that we're in. But most profoundly and most simply, will I see the world through the lens of fear and animosity? Or will i see the world through the lens of cruciform love of kingdom love of humility uh and um and and i'm afraid sky that you know what we're seeing right now in our day it seems to be just A perpetual increase of seeing others through that lens of threat uh and in many respects we're just uh replicating the spirit of Herod in our day. ([Time 1:03:18](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3da336cb-7fa2-43ba-9af9-fd8c5beb71b7)) - **Start Small: Two Minutes To Reclaim Advent** - Start small to reclaim Advent: give Jesus two to five minutes daily and build up gradually. - Use brief bedside or timed pauses to notice God's presence and let your craving for more grow. Transcript: Rich Villodas I mean, sociologists say we live in a continuous state of partial attention where we're always glancing at something else. And so we glance and we don't behold. Well, very practically, the goal is not to become a monk for these 25 days during the season. I mean, we have lives to live, we have kids, plays to attend, we have things to shop for. At the same time, here's my reframe. My hope is that it'd be a recognition that a little bit in Jesus's hands goes a long way. A little bit in Jesus's hands goes a long way. And so it might look like, you know, before bedtime, I'm going to take inventory of a given day. I'm going to take three to four minutes to do an examine on what happened this day. Where did I miss the presence of God? Where did I see the presence of God? How is this going to help me to live differently tomorrow? It might be midday where you set your timer. I'm always setting my timer on my phone. And it might be for the next two to three minutes, I just want to recognize Jesus, we're waiting for you. And it just might be two minutes of you very silently in your heart saying, Lord, we wait for you. And when the two minutes are up, you go about your day. But I think we need, in many respects, not large swaths of time with God. I think we need a recognition that even the two minutes, even the five minutes, the 10 minutes, whatever it might be, a little bit in Jesus's hands goes a long way. And I think that's far better. I'd rather us give God two minutes in the morning and three minutes at night. It's just like, what's two to three minutes? You know what it's better than? Zero minutes of not doing anything and just being scattered in a continuous state of partial attention. And so, and I think what begins to happen is this. ([Time 1:14:21](https://share.snipd.com/snip/336c78e9-9d1c-4174-83b6-e2e5f670289a))