Generations Radio

Reviewing the Offerings The Academy Award for Best Picture went to "No Country With Old Men," a flick where everybody gets killed, but nobody knows why anybody's getting killed. The stoicism of the 1970's has turned into full-blown nihilism in the 2000's. Interacting with input to the program challenging any movie-watching whatsoever for Christians, Kevin Swanson tries to find a text in the Bible that equates holiness to not- watching-movies. But more to the question - is this stuff defiling or edifying? Kevin Swanson reviews a number of different movies from the 1970s to the present day, but does he take all the fun out of watching the movies? Listen and find out!

Sinking Roots and Building Community The absence of roots in real community has badly eroded relational life in the 21st century. Modern churches feel the brunt of this problem when they see an almost complete turnover of leaders and members after only 20-25 years. Kevin Swanson traces the roots of this rootless life and demonstrates from scripture that the life of the stranger and the vagabond in the land is not God’s normative best for you and your family.

A Cataclysm or a Slow Bleed? For the first time that anybody can remember, the dollar is now worth less than the Canadian dollar. The real estate industry has already tanked. Banking is in serious trouble. Inflation may be pushing double digits, and most people aren't seeing their pay raises in the double digits these days. . . .And the gods of the copybook headings, limp up to explain it once more. In this installment of the Generations broadcast, Doug Tjaden, author of a new book, "Fools Gold" gives an overview of what has happened in just the last year. Are we watching an economic cataclysm or will it be a slow bleed? And how do we prepare our families for times like these? Maybe we will learn to rejoice in God and enjoy the simple things despite the chaos around us!

Teach Your Sons to Work The real estate debacle. The banking crisis. The rise in unemployment. An impending recession. All of this has got us wondering what it really takes to put together a strong economy. In this program, Kevin Swanson unveils the secret to building the best economy in the world. Economics textbooks aside, it's really not all that complicated - fear God and keep His commandments. Great economies are built by families who know how to work, and who will invest the thousands of hours and 15-20 years required to train their sons in the character trait of diligence. Nations are built, one son at a time. And nations come apart, one son at a time.

A Ministry of Criticism? More intolerance towards intolerance in Canada! The Canadian government shuts down a Christian ministry for being too critical of other religious sects (like Pharisees and Sadducees, for example.) This spawns a conversation on the role of criticism in Christian ministry. What is the use of it, and what is its limitations? At what point does a critical spirit undermine humility and grace? These questions are addressed in this broadcast of the Generations Radio program.

Trashing Francis Schaeffer's Legacy When Frank Schaeffer, son of the famous evangelical thinker, Francis Schaeffer, calls his father's writings worse than Barrack Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright's rantings, evangelicals were taken back apace. Now seen as an "agnostic," Frank Schaeffer is leading the pack of those apostatizing from the Christian faith. He's also released a popular book that rags on his parents and his parents' faith, called "Crazy for God." In this segment of Generations, Kevin Swanson compares the beautiful legacy of generational faithfulness with the shameful and destructive effects coming from generational apostasy. Throughout history, the greatest men and the most infamous are often linked to a heritage of faith. But how does it happen? How do children walk away from the faith? We've seen it happen, and the results are devastating. Here are some powerful historical observations to which the prudent should take note.

Emotional Shepherding What has happened in the modern world? Are we producing generations of emotionally-scarred, nurture-starved children? The inclination to brood over the egg has been bred out of the hen. Now has nurture been bred out of women as they are raised in nurture-less institutions to be nurture-less? Affection and emotional nurture is key in the life of a child and should be a constant throughout the day from mother and father. Vast differences develop between children who are raised in the cold, institution, and children who are raised in a warm nurturing environment. How are you raising your children? How were you raised?

Betty Freidan vs. God We wade into the controversial question of daughters and college in this segment of Generations, asking the simple question, "Does the average college prepare daughters with a biblical world and life view, with biblical normative roles?" Being careful not to "decide" the issue for parents, he challenges families not to passively accept the Betty Freidan and Gloria Steinem philosophy on gender roles. He insists that Christian parents should re-assess God's vision for daughters and start getting a little more creative in the academic preparation of their daughters, rather than naively assuming that the college paideia will de facto support that vision.

Keeping our Sons Out of It Christianity Today reports that seventy percent of American men ages 18–34 view internet pornography once a month, and the numbers aren't that different for professing Christians. The problem is intensifying among our youth. A recent survey done by the University of Alberta finds that boys in rural areas are far more likely to have a problem with porn that boys in cities. In this segment of Generations, Kevin Swanson defines the biblical principles relating to purity, modesty, and sexual desire. This leads into some practical directions on training our young boys in self-control and sexual purity.

Why People Get Discouraged and Quit About 50% of those who start homeschooling get discouraged and quit. It's always so much easier to put the children back into the big, monolithic, professionally-run public schools, paid for by 500 billion tax dollars. In this edition of Generations, two experienced homeschool dads talk about the commitment to homeschool, the challenges for moms, and the support that dads should pay to the program. As it turns out, in due season you do reap a wonderful harvest, but only if you don't faint in the process.