This past week I spent over six hours listening to podcasts that different people wanted me to check out.  They were fairly popular podcasts by men I had heard of before.  But I had never listened.  The reason they wanted me to listen had to do with their guest, and indeed the guest speaker was a person I am quite interested in.

But one thing stood out to me that is the central reason for this blog.  The host was trash.  The host had no form of foundation from which he was speaking.  He is a self-professed ‘baby Christian,’ and he clearly had no confidence in what he believes… But there he was, trying to ask intellectual questions and trying to interact about the question of textual criticism and manuscript evidences for the veracity of the 66 books of the Bible.

My guess is that this particular podcaster has an area of interest that propelled him out into podcasting and drawing an audience.  Many people find a niche, explore it, and find that people are interested.  But it doesn’t take much until the podcast drifts, the audience grows, and then a person can be out past their element.

The goal here is not to denigrate any podcasters.  The goal is to encourage my people who listen.  When one episode is 3 hours long, that is a substantial commitment of time to listen to a platformed baby Christian wander around a topic he doesn’t seem very much interested in.  Entertainment is entertainment, and honestly, I have things I enjoy that will be considered a colossal waste of time to others.  If it truly is just entertainment and you have all kinds of good sources of spiritual input (including daily Bible reading and prayer), then you can certainly take in some “you time”.

But I fear that some might be taking these podcasts seriously.  The particular podcaster I listened to has interviewed Catholic exorcists.  He gave a platform to a man who believes that every church pastor that takes a salary is evil (that one has the potential to harm every church ministry).  Maybe I’m the one guilty of taking this too seriously, and everyone knows this is a joke.  But anyone who will listen to a podcast for 3+ hours a week is getting something out of it.

The lies are coming at us like a fire hose right now.  I would only encourage all of us, myself included, to consider our sources of input.  What’s coming in?  Is it good?  Is it beneficial?  Is it true?  There are a ton of good podcasts out there.  It is good for us to be intentional about the things we are taking in.