For our first podcast of the New Year we sat down with pastor, author, and Comino walker Brian Zahnd and Kathi and David Peters, the founders of Global Stories Films, to discuss their joint project, Postcards From Babylon. Postcards From Babylon is a long-form documentary featuring Brian, as he investigates possibly the most important question for the church in North America today: How does the church stay faithful to the beautiful way of Jesus while situated in one of the most divisive political climates in our nation's history?
If are able and would like to contribute to our Postcard From Babylon Premiere Fundraiser to fund seven tickets, please visit: www.thebadroman.com/fundraiser
Timestamps & staring points for further exploration:
01:07 Kathi’s Background
How she and David started working with Bryan
4:13 David’s Background
Media Pastor
Independent Filmmaker
Making Postcards Documentary
10:19 Christian Nationalism - Trump Worship
10:42 Biran’s Story
“Jesus boy all grown up”
Leading a ministry since 17
12:30 America as a Biblical Babylon
The shift needed in the evangelical church
Manifest Destiny Fallacy of Empires
Churches and flags
19:10 The film and challenges in production during corona
Snow Storm, Pandemic Shutdowns, time zones
Weaving covid into the story
21:23 Early church and government
The American Context may be getting worse, but this is not a new phenomena
Baptism made early Church strangers in their own worlds
World Wars and Nationalism between Christians
Trump will be hard to recover from
27:55 Motivation for making the documentary
Christianity and militarism
Changing the flags
31:02 Ambassadors for Jesus
Limited ability in sharing the gospel, requires consistent messaging as representatives of Christ
Calling the church to account
33:15 Political Rhetoric and compromising hope in Christ as King
Exiles by baptism
Live in the political reality, but don’t belong to it
Call to a counterculture of Christ
37:55 Bearing witness for Christ and those who do not yet know Him
The Republican party can not be the Christians future
Conservative push back: if we are Democrats, the Democrats are in trouble
Can like Trump’s policies, but cannot defend his behavior/character
Speaking truth to power
43:22 Staying Faithful to Jesus in a divisive political culture
Can it be done through politics?
Is the church an alternative politics
Perhaps, but this does not mean directly
Politics of Sermon on the Mount
53:25 Brian’s plugs
Learn more about Kathi and David’s work on their website or Facebook page.