WHAT IS HAPPENING?

One of the reasons I started The Front Porch was to help our church members (and others who read) be aware of some of the things happening in the culture around us. Different people get their news from different places, and, let's face it, we can become kind of insular in our exposure to what is happening around us. That isn't always a bad thing.

In December I posted an article about the transition from negative world to Ambivalent World, meaning there is no longer one cultural narrative moving toward moral insanity, but several pockets of culture that have developed that cover large swaths of Americans. As Seth Troutt wrote in that article, "This is a fragmented shift, and it’s gendered and generational. While young men are breaking conservative and religious—even more religious than women for the first time ever—young women are increasingly identifying as liberal. This means we aren’t returning to Neutral World, but we’re wading into a split world filled with mixed emotions and divergent plausibility structures."

In this ambivalent world, there are large numbers of people who are saying, "wait, this is crazy. We can't say there are NO rules (like a man can say he is a woman and we have to accept that without question)". But then the question arises, "who gets to make the rules? What right do we have to make absolute statements?" And what people are finding is that the New Atheism of people like Richard Dawkins, which was culturally ascendant, is inadequate for handling these questions. Which leads them back to what Western culture was originally rooted in - Christianity.

Enter Joe Rogan. I want you to be aware of what is happening culturally, and, among men and young men, you get a glimpse of this with Rogan. Rogan is a former MMA fighter, stand up comedian, and now host of the most popular podcast in the world. Rogan's trajectory has been fascinating as he moved from a leftist who supported Bernie Sanders in 2020 to someone who hosted Donald Trump (and later endorsed him) in 2024, garnering over 50 million listens. The appeal of Rogan is that he does deep, long-form interviews that are genuinely curious about the person being interviewed. The "gotcha" and sound bite approach of much modern media is not part of Rogan's goal in the interview. The interviews are usually around 3 hours long.

You can watch Rogan go from being an atheist who believed that Christians are weak and that religion is a crutch, to him occasionally interviewing Christians and showing genuine curiosity about the Bible and Jesus specifically. Last week he had a Christian (and Baptist) apologist on his podcast named Wesley Huff. Huff is a Canadian in his early 30's who is super sharp and very gracious, but firm, in his defense of the faith. His work on the reliability of New Testament manuscripts is very important and helpful. The interview is a fascinating watch as you see Huff interact without condescension and then wisely drill down on key areas of that faith. Rogan told Huff, "Christianity works, the issue is whether you can come to give yourself to believe everything it says about Jesus" (that's a rough paraphrase). The best part of the interview is when Huff asks Rogan what he makes of Jesus, and then Huff closes with a clear presentation of the gospel message.

I'm not saying that Rogan is a Christian. As a matter of fact, his interviews are crude and profane at times (listen with discretion). But what I am saying is that young people in our culture, particularly males, are HUNGRY FOR TRUTH. You might not know who Joe Rogan is, but I guarantee you 90% of guys under 30 do and are familiar with his trajectory. You need to be aware of these trends. While there is a growing ambivalence (several options vying for dominance), there are signs of a growing hunger as well.

This article by Stephen McAlpine is a good summary of Huff's appearance on Rogan. He finishes it with some cautions about our current cultural moment. But my goodness, there are some good things out there to be grateful for. I have also included a link to Huff's website for you to explore if you are interested.