Matters of Life and Death

In our latest episode tackling some questions from listeners, we begin by thinking about whether it should matter if influential theologians and Christian writers had personal moral failings, and whether we can separate out someone’s theological work from their own sins. Then we move on to a question from an unmarried listener who would like children and is wondering if adoption should be an open option for her. - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Our second ‘lessons learned’ episode looking back at the covid pandemic tackles how our healthcare systems coped, or failed to cope, with the unprecedented crisis of coronavirus. Did we see doctors forced to make impossible choices over who gets a ventilator and intensive care and who is left to die in a corridor? Did we get the balance right between protecting healthcare workers and taking sacrificial risks for the sake of patients? And how did the church do in all this – did we live up to our Christian forebears who showed great courage during plagues in the ancient world? - Find John’s writing and our original podcasts on coronavirus here: https://www.johnwyatt.com/tag/coronavirus/ - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

This podcast happened to launch a week or two into the first lockdown in spring 2020, and so for the first year almost all we could talk about on the show was coronavirus. But since normality finally returned last year, it feels like nobody wants to talk about the pandemic again. Yet reconsidering those traumatic, confusing, revolutionary few years might help us think afresh about how the world is changing. In the first of two episodes, we look back at coronavirus and in particular the social, medical and spiritual issues the pandemic threw up. Was lockdown worth it, know we now more about the cost for young people? Were we right to embrace the rapidly-produced novel vaccines as our way out of the pandemic? And why is there a stubbornly persistent excess death rate worldwide, long after the virus stopped killing people in large numbers? - Find John’s writing and our original podcasts on coronavirus here: https://www.johnwyatt.com/tag/coronavirus/ - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

‘Granny’s body remains, but she was gone’. The public narrative around dementia often presumes that as our ability to talk, move and think gradually withers away, so does our personhood and sense of self. But if we believe as Christians that our humanity and identity is inextricably bound up in our physical flesh and bones, how should we approach the heart-breaking challenge of caring for someone declining into dementia? In this episode we speak with trainee vicar and theologian Jess Wyatt about her research into embodiment, personhood and dementia, and think through different ways to care for and attend to those suffering from this increasingly prevalent disease. - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

The numbers of couples choosing to have children via surrogate mothers has been steadily rising in recent years. Now, the UK authorities are considering plans for a radical overhaul of the laws around surrogacy, making it more heavily regulated but also reversing certain presumptions around legal parenthood. In this episode we discuss why surrogacy is gaining in popularity, the pros and cons of the proposed reforms, and whether Christians should endorse surrogacy as a good way to start families. - We previously discussed this issue on an episode of Premier’s Unbelievable podcast https://www.premierunbelievable.com/unbelievable/the-surrogacy-industry-john-and-tim-wyatt-on-the-ethics-of-paying-for-pregnancy/12955.article - Tim also wrote an article last year exploring the issue in depth https://www.premierchristianity.com/features/wombs-for-rent-can-christians-really-support-surrogacy/13184.article - The Law Commission report on surrogacy reforms https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/lawcom-prod-storage-11jsxou24uy7q/uploads/2023/03/LC_Surrogacy_Summary_of_Report_2023.pdf - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

We're both on holiday this week so we're bringing you an episode we first recorded in 2021 during the covid pandemic. It explores one of the most significant and potentially long-lasting ways the covid pandemic has affected church life – the shift to digital. Ever since the first lockdown began, churches of every shape and size and from every denomination have been forced to offer worship online. And even though it has been legal to re-open buildings since last summer, most have continued to livestream, pre-record or video conference their way through the pandemic alongside some physical gathering. Will this continue indefinitely even when covid is long gone? Are we really seeing digital church spark a revival among non-churchgoers? And what implications for our worship and our theology does this brave new online world pose? - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Perhaps the most contentious political, medical and social issue of the day is how to treat and care for young people who are questioning or experiencing distress around their sex and gender. In this episode we speak with Christian community paediatrician Julie Maxwell about the rise in children reporting gender dysphoria, the evidence base behind controversial treatments such as puberty-blockers, and how we as followers of Jesus can speak compassionately and faithfully into the maelstrom of invective and opinion on this important topic. Some helpful resources from Julie: - An article she wrote for the website Living Out on how to parent a child who is questioning their gender identity https://www.livingout.org/resources/articles/111/parenting-a-child-questioning-their-gender-identity - A quick guide to the issue written for the Christian Medical Fellowship https://www.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=article&id=27357 - The Bayswater Support group helps parents whose children have some form of transgender of nonbinary identity https://www.bayswatersupport.org.uk - The Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine https://segm.org - Transgender Trend campaign against medical interventions for gender-questioning children https://www.transgendertrend.com - Genspect is an international coalition of professionals and others critical of transgender treatment for gender dysphoria https://genspect.org - The Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender https://can-sg.org/  - Gender: A wider lens is a podcast which explores issues around gender, sex, identity and medicine https://gender-a-wider-lens.captivate.fm/  - Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 - If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com - For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

In this episode we tackle two questions from listeners. The first asks in the light of the conflict in Ukraine whether it is ever right for Christians to become active participants in war. Then we move on to think about how the Genesis account of the Tower of Babel might shed light on our current debates over artificial intelligence software and humankind's creative capacity for evil. You can send us a question by emailing molad@premier.org.uk or tweet us: @johnswyatt or @tswyatt.

The persecuted church today lives as it always has under the threat of arrest, imprisonment, physical attack, verbal threats and harassment, and even death. But today these traditional methods are supplemented by the technological revolution. Increasingly persecution comes via the internet, on social media platforms, and sometimes even via the smart devices Christians use themselves. How do oppressive regimes and anti-Christian extremists use modern tech to persecute believers? What impact does this new form of pervasive digital surveillance have on underground churches? And how can those of us worshipping in safety and freedom try to resist a future of global coercion and repression for vulnerable Christians facilitated by multinational tech companies? Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com

Today’s episode was recorded as part of the New Zealand Christian Medical Fellowship’s annual conference. Doctors there sent over two bioethical conundrums for us to chew over as part of a special episode of Matters of Life and Death. The first explores how Christians can work within a secular healthcare system while holding values which are entirely at odds with what their jobs require them to do. And the second relates to a real life story from New Zealand, where anti-vax parents refused to allow their baby to have life-saving heart surgery because they were worried about the blood of vaccinated donors being transfused during the procedure. You can read more about the real life story at the heart of the second question here: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/480297/high-court-takes-guardianship-of-sick-baby-at-the-centre-of-dispute-over-donor-blood Tim's article questioning the religious literacy of some of the media coverage of the Mike Pilavachi scandal: https://www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/poor-reporting-on-soul-survivor-is-damaging-for-everyone-alleged-victims-included/15515.article  Find out more about CMF NZ: https://www.cmf.nz/  Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com