Expressive individualism has become the central ethic that guides our society’s thinking. “The idea that a person should be limited by an authority outside of him- or herself—whether a tradition, religion, or parent—to do or experience whatever he or she wants amounts to one of the worst offenses an authority can commit.”

The problem is that expressive individualism cannot be consistently lived out. The focus on satisfying the self above all has led to an age of coddling, fragility, and moral confusion. Come join this important conversation and bring your questions!

Today’s show will take a look at identity as we walk through chapter 6 of Andrew and Christian Walker’s new book, “What Do I Say When…?: A Parents’ Guide to Navigating Cultural Chaos for Children & Teens.”

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Content Discussed

  • 0:00 Intro
  • 1:49 My last month in class and leading a MAVEN Immersive Experience
  • 6:58 Upcoming shows
  • 10:05 Understanding expressive individualism and how our views on identity have changed
  • 19:20 LIVE QUESTION: Is identity being discovered or chosen a false dichotomy?
  • 21:14 How Jesus points back to identity being discovered
  • 32:08 LIVE QUESTION: Do “freedom” and “purpose” actually exist in objective reality or are they concepts in the mind?
  • 35:22 The Bible provides a stable account of human identity
  • 44:17 Biblical love doesn’t mean affirming non-biblical identities
  • 46:13 Moral relativism at the level of identity is unstable and unloving
  • 51:37 The Bible provides a consistent and impartial standard for judging sinful and non-sinful identities
  • 55:21 There are other identity giving forces, but none is more important than God
  • 58:08 LIVE QUESTION: Is American individualism different from expressive individualism?
  • 1:00:01 LIVE QUESTION: Do tomboys exist today? Transgender people in the Bible?
  • 1:03:55 LIVE QUESTION: How is the Bible a standard of morality when it condones genocide and slavery?
  • 1:09:54 LIVE QUESTION: Why not treat gender as a matter of convention?
  • 1:14:58 LIVE QUESTION: What is an “image” of God that we are made to?
  • 1:18:01 LIVE QUESTION: Subjective judgment doesn’t mean not important. I follow my morality.
  • 1:22:03 LIVE QUESTION: There was literally a war to end slavery. We have to figure this out by ourselves.
  • 1:24:05 LIVE QUESTION: If the South had won the Civil War, then there would be slavery.
  • 1:25:00 LIVE QUESTION: You have a strong emotional reaction, but that isn’t some objective value.
  • 1:26:44 CALLER: A Christian vs a Secular view of morality. Objective or Subjective?
  • 1:54:50 CALLER: My views on divine command theory, God’s nature, and the Euthyphro dilemma

Other Videos on Identity

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