Listening In

Colin Pinkney runs The Harvest Center, a Christ-centered ministry that takes no government money and cares for thousands of homeless and working poor people in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina. The Harvest Center began more than 30 years ago in the number one violent crime neighborhood in Charlotte. The center began as a feeding ministry to the community and throughout the 90's and early 2000's evolved into an organization that provided hot meals, clothing, groceries, transitional housing, and after-school programs. In 2011, The Harvest Center began offering job readiness and life skills classes to assist adults with making the transition to self-sufficiency, beginning a transitional housing program which serves 20 to 30 families a year, and counseling, job skills training, meals, and other services to as many as 4000 people in a year.

In this episode, Warren Smith talks about population, demographics, and abortion. His guests this week are Jim Daly of Focus on the Family, Alan Carlson, whose new book discusses how families are on the verge of a rebound, and Steven Mosher of the Population Research Institute.

Mark Hancock is the CEO of Trail Life USA, a Christian alternative to the Boy Scouts. When it became obvious that the Boy Scouts of America was going to bow to the pressure of gay activists, Florida attorney John Stemberger helped organize Trail Life USA in 2013. In January of 2014 Stemberger officially incorporated Trail Life USA and hired Mark Hancock to be the group's first Chief Executive Officer. Under Mark Hancock's leadership, Trail Life has grown from startup to nearly 30,000 members in just the past three years.

Rod Dreher has emerged over the past decade as one of our most interesting and provocative Christian thinkers. From his perch at The American Conservative, where he serves as senior editor, he writes about both the culture and the church.

David Chadwick has been pastor of Forest Hill Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, since 1980. Under his leadership it has grown from a small church that was part of the mainline Presbyterian denomination to a multisite mega-church with more than 6000 members. But for all that success, Chadwick has remained deeply connected to the Charlotte community, and ' unlike other megachurch pastors who have tended to moderate their position on controversial moral issues ' Chadwick has remained actively engaged in the public square. He was one of the few pastors who stood up for biblical morality in the recent debate on North Carolina's controversial HB 2 law, a law that protected women and children by requiring men to use the bathroom and locker room consistent with their biology.

If you are a fan of classical music, you may already know the music of jazz and classical musician Chad Lawson. His latest release, The Chopin Variations, reached #1 on the Billboard, iTunes, and Amazon classical charts in 2015. But Lawson's body of work cannot be contained in a single genre. His jazz recordings have developed a passionate and growing following. Chad Lawson is also a committed Christian who until recently also played piano in a large church in Charlotte, N.C. Though he is no longer a church musician, he believes that when he sits down at the piano, what he does there is an act of worship.

Today, Warren Smith speaks with young women who are becoming important new voices in the pro-life movement, including Kristan Hawkins and Tina Whittington with Students for Life of America, and Emily Buchanan with the Susan B. Anthony List.

In this episode, Warren Smith speaks with two key leaders at Colorado Christian University, Don Sweeting, the president at Colorado Christian University and is a long-tenured veteran in Christian higher education leadership, and Jeff Hunt, who is the director of Colorado Christian University's think tank The Centennial Institute.

Tony Marciano is the executive director of Charlotte Rescue Mission, a Christ-centered addiction recovery ministry located in the center of Charlotte, North Carolina. Charlotte Rescue Mission is a part of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, a network of 300 similar organizations in cities all across America that are intentionally Christ-centered.

Larry Alex Taunton is a Christian apologist who struck up an unlikely friendship with atheist Christopher Hitchens in the last years of Hitchens' life. Taunton debated Hitchens, studied scripture with Hitchens, and even went on two road trips with Hitchens. Taunton's new book, "The Faith of Christopher Hitchens: The Restless Soul of the World's Most Notorious Atheist," is a moving account of Hitchens and their friendship. Taunton's book has been named by The Gospel Coalition as its book of the year.

Today, Warren Smith talks with journalist Les Sillars about his new book "Intended for Evil: A Survivor's Story of Love, Faith, and Courage in the Cambodian Killing Fields." Regular readers of WORLD Magazine probably already know Les Sillars' name. Over the years, he has written many stories for the magazine while he has pursued a career as a professor of journalism at Patrick Henry College in northern Virginia. In "Intended for Evil," Sillars tells the story of Radha Manickam, who became a Christian as a young man in his native Cambodia. When Khmer Rouge forces overtook Phnom Pehn in 1975, Radha became an eyewitness to one of the great horrors of the 20th century. More than 1.7-million Cambodians, including most of Radha's own family, died of starvation, disease, and mass murder in what came to be called The Killing Fields of Cambodia.

Today, Warren Smith speaks with Trump advisor Steve Moore, Daniel Hannon, a member of the British Parliament, and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. Daniel Hannan is a British politician, journalist, and author who is a Member of the British Parliament, where he has served since 1999.Steve Moore founded and served as president of the of the influential conservative group Club for Growth from 1999 to 2004. Moore currently serves as Distinguished Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. For the past few months, he has been serving as a senior economic advisor to Donald Trump.Tony Perkins is the president of the Family Research Council, and earlier in his career he held elected office himself, serving in the Louisiana legislature.

In today's episode, Warren Smith speaks with Darrell Bock and Brian Fikkert.Darrell Bock is a professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and has become one of the best known theologians in the nation. His work crossed over into pop culture when he wrote a book called Breaking The Da Vinci Code, a theological and historical response to the best-selling book and blockbuster movie The Da Vinci Code. Dr. Brian Fikkert is a Professor of Economics and Community Development and the Founder and President of the Chalmers Center for Economic Development at Covenant College. Fikkert earned a Ph.D. in economics from Yale, specializing in international economics and economic development. He is coauthor ' with Steve Corbett ' of the best-selling book "When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself."

In this episode, Warren Smith talks about Christmas music with singer-songwriters Andrew Peterson and Keith Getty. Keith Getty and his wife Kristyn have become fixtures in Christian music over the past decade. For the past few years, they've done an annual Christmas tour. This year they're calling it "Irish Christmas: A Celebration of Carols." Stops this year include The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and Carnegie Hall in New York.For the past 15 years Andrew Peterson and a circle of musical collaborators have toured the country with a Christmas show called "Behold The Lamb of God." The program tells not just the Christmas story, the coming of the baby Jesus, but rather the full arc of the coming and ultimate second coming of the Messiah. This year, the tour makes stops in Houston, Birmingham, Orlando, Washington, and Nashville, at the historic Ryman Auditorium.

Bill Walton is the president of the venture capital firm Rappahannock Ventures. This year, he was called on to help lead the transition team for President-Elect Donald Trump. Walton's role will be to vette potential staffers who might serve in the economic arena of the Trump Administration.For 12 years Walton was chairman of Allied Capital Corporation an investment banking firm that traded on the New York Stock Exchange and managed companies worth more than $12 billion, employing more than 20,000 people. After negotiating the sale of Allied Capital, he opened his own firm, Rappahannock Ventures, which invests in companies that he believes is doing social good, including technology and entertainment companies. Walton is also on the board of a number of conservative groups, including the American Enterprise Institute and the Media Research Center.