The Blue Collar Scholar

Yes, I know that the Watergate break-in and resulting scandal happened entirely in the early 1970s. But I contend that the Watergate scandal is the loss-of-innocence moment that represents the social/cultural shift from the Sixties to the Seventies, at least in the United States. This episode presents a timeline of events and examines the causes of Watergate, the events in question, the cover-up and scandal, and finally the fall out from the scandal.

The United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a fierce rivalry in the 1950s and 1960s called the Space Race. Both the US & the USSR each achieved a variety of accomplishments in space travel, starting with the the successful orbit of the Soviet Sputnik satellite and culminating with the United States Apollo 11 program successfully putting 2 men on the moon. Of course, humanity would continue to make advancements in space travel and research from that point to today. This episode goes back thousands of years and tracks humanity's long-time obsession with human flight, all the way through the age of...

This episode follows the various American women's rights movements back to the early 1800s up to the Women's Liberation Movement. From Suffrage to the Equal Rights Amendment, we examine the women who fought hard for women's rights in America, and how the women's rights movements intersected with other movements, such as the slavery abolition movement, alcohol temperance and prohibition, and the Civil Rights Movement.

The Civil Rights Movement is a part of history so substantial, interesting, and important that it deserves its own class, or at least several lectures of a class. Foolishly, however, I will try to cover the entire Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. in a single lecture because we have so much in the 1960s to cover and so few remaining lectures to do so. To survey the Civil Rights Movement, we will take a look at over 30 individual men and women whose contributions to the Civil Rights Movement is invaluable and irreplaceable.

Four men occupied the Oval Office in the 1960s. Dwight D. Eisenhower held it for the first year and three weeks of the 1960s. Then John F. Kennedy served from 1961 to 1963. This episode of the pod focuses on the other two: Lyndon B. Johnson & Richard M. Nixon. This brief history will explain how each man's experience - including their humble childhood, education, limited WWII experience, extensive service in both houses of Congress, and service as Vice President for the two aforementioned Presidents - prepared them to lead the most powerful nation on Earth during the Cold War.

This episode is a closing argument for faith in Christ. I begin by assuring the doubter that doubt is normal, and that there are healthy and unhealthy ways to address doubt. The second half of the pod recaps some of the arguments for Christian faith that I find most persuasive. (Note: This teaching was recorded on 1-24-2021.)

For me, the argument against the existence of God that hits the hardest is the "Hiddenness of God." In other words, if God really exists, He seems to be trying to remain hidden, and that the universe that we live in is exactly the kind of universe that one would expect if there is no God. In this podcast episode, we will break down that argument, and show that God is not hidden, but rather Holy! (Note: This teaching was recorded on 1-17-2021.)

In our Church-in-Quarantine series from last summer (recorded Spring 2020), we dug into church history. This episode of the pod is much more of an brief overview. This episode lists a handful of aspects of church history that are shameful, and another list showing the immense positive value that the church has provided to human history. So, for those who object to Christian faith because of the history of Christianity, all I have to say is that, yes, Christian history is messy, but the church has been a driver of progress as well. (Note: This teaching was recorded 1-10-2021.)

Hell is easily one of the most controversial and off-putting doctrines in all of Christian theology. In fact, the reality of hell is an objection that many use to reject Christian faith. Is this a valid criticism? Do we even understand what heaven and hell really are? Dig in to this episode to find out. (Note: This teaching was recorded on 1-3-2021.)

This sermon was delivered right after Christmas 2020 and talks about the visit of the Magi in Matthew chapter 2. From that passage we learn that (1) God works through tragedy, (2) God intervenes to prevent tragedy, & (3) God’s plan is always pushing forward. (Note: this teaching was recorded on 12-27-2020.)