Modern Christians tend to misunderstand two of Jesus’ most radical teachings: his prohibition against divorce and remarriage, and his teaching about the Church. But what if this isn’t just a coincidence? After all, the biblical texts explaining marriage tend to do so by comparing it to Christ’s relationship with the Church, and vice versa. Does this explain why the Protestant Reformers broke with the earliest Christians (and the New Testament) on both of these doctrines? And also… does getting this wrong open the door to polygamy?   Transcript: Welcome back to Sham…

Jesus’ teaching on marriage (and particularly on divorce and remarriage) is so radical that his stunned disciples respond, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry” (Matt. 19:10). So what is Jesus’ radical teaching, and why don’t more Christians know about (or follow) that teaching? And is it true that Jesus creates an “exception” for divorce and remarriage in cases of adultery? (Answer: no.) …

In light of the war between Israel and Palestine, accusations of anti-Semitism in the fight between Ben Shaprio and Candace Owens, and some of your own comments… how SHOULD Christians think of biblical Israel, the Jewish people, and the modern nation-state of Israel? What role, if any, does the Old Covenant play today? And is it heretical to speak of the Jewish people as still the “people of God” in any sense? …

In Acts 5, when the Apostles are on trial before the Sanhedrin, a Pharisee named Gamaliel (the same Gamaliel that St. Paul studied under) provided a simple test to determine if a religion really came from God or not. So what was his test, and what does it mean for the credibility and legitimacy of Catholicism, Protestantism, Mormonism, and Islam? …

As Catholics, it’s easy to point out how divided Protestantism is, with all of its different denominations. But what about all of the divisions within Catholicism between “conservative” and “liberal” Catholics, Traditionalists, Charismatics, or a thousand other possible splits? As it turns out, the objection that Catholics are just as divided as Protestants isn’t a new one… and nor is the problem of unity within the one Church. So here’s how St. John Henry Newman, Cardinal Ratzinger, and St. Paul responded to this argument.   Transcript: Wel…

Catholics (and Orthodox) believe that the Church is infallible, whereas Protestants tend to believe that only the Bible is unerring in this way. But which of these approaches looks more like what we see in the Bible itself? Here’s how Jesus’ teachings only work with Infallibility.   Transcript: Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So I want to do a two-week series this week and next week on the theme of Christian Unity, and I’m purposely syncing this up to tie with next week being holy Thursday in which we have the last Supper because it’s at…

Each year on St. Patrick’s Day, certain Baptists will claim that St. Patrick wasn’t REALLY a Catholic, but was instead a Baptist. But what do we learn from listening to St. Patrick in his own words? And what do we know about the world of St. Patrick from those who lived during his lifetime? As it turns out, Patrick was way more Catholic than you may realize… and he was quite explicit about this fact!   Transcript: Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner, which means I’m wearing a green shirt, …

Christopher Hitchens famously claimed that “religion poisons everything,” and Steven Weinberg argued that “with or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil – that takes religion.” Here are six reasons those are silly arguments. Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So about 20 years ago, we saw the rise of what’s sometimes called New Atheism, although it’s not that new anymore. It was kind of the convalescence of a number of authors and thinkers, people like Richard Dawkins, Christopher H…

To a lot of non-Catholics, it seems obvious that Catholics go overboard when it comes to Mary, and a lot of people assume this is just because of traditions or something. But what if there’s a biblical basis for treating Mary as an indispensable part of authentic spiritual warfare?   Welcome back to Shameless Property. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So last week I looked at the fact that the earliest Christians talk a lot about Mary as the new Eve and give a surprisingly prominent place to her. And for many non-Catholics, particularly Protestants, this can be a bit unusual because r…

As far back as we have evidence that Matthew, Mark, Luke,and John are the four Gospels, we have evidence that these same Christians believed that the Virgin Mary had a special role to play in the story of our salvation as the “New Eve,” and that  “the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what Eve had bound fast through unbelief, thus did Mary set free through faith.” But is this vision of Mary based on the Bible? and what does it mean for Christianity? Speaker 1: You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer. A production of Catholic Answers. …

With the recent end to the NFL season and the dawn of a political rematch between President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, it seems timely to ask: is it wrong to root AGAINST the other side, instead of just rooting for your own side? Isn’t that the sin of envy? Well… it depends. Announcer: You are listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers. Joe Heschmeyer: Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. It is February 2024 and there’s a lot going on in the United States right now, particularly on the political an…

Should Christians celebrate Lent? or is Lent an unchristian invention of the Roman Catholic Church?   …

The Protestant Reformer John Calvin claimed that from all eternity, God has predestined some people to heaven (the elect) and others to hell (the reprobate), and there’s nothing anyone can do to go from one category to the other. In this episode, Joe Heschmeyer asks if this is what the earliest Christians believed. Calvin’s own answer on that question might surprise you.   …

While Catholics and Protestants often debate what St. Paul and St. James mean about justification, what if we’re missing the sola fide silver bullet? Here are three basic questions that cut to the heart of the debate over “faith alone” and how we’re saved. Speaker 1: You’re listening to Shameless Popery with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers. Joe Heschmeyer: Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. So today I want to do two things. One, I want to explore this big question, are we saved by faith alone or are we saved by faith a…

For the Protestant Reformers, and for many Protestants today, justification by faith alone (sola fide) isn’t just the biggest issue separating Protestants from Catholics. It is “the central, chief article by which the Christian doctrine and the Christian Church stands and falls,” and without this teaching, Luther claimed that “the church of God cannot subsist one hour.” But is any of that true? Or did the Church subsist for 1500 years before the Reformers invented sola fide? Here’s what the finest Protestant scholars have to say about early Christianity&#823…

Protestants sometimes describe the Reformation as a sort of return to the early Church, away from what are claimed to be corrupt Medieval Catholic practices. But is that really true? Let’s take a closer look at six major controversies in the earliest days of Christianity,/ (including the fights against Docetism, Gnosticism, Novatianism, Donatism, and the persecution of Christians by the Romans). The results might surprise you!   …

It’s not hard to find bad news for the Catholic Church today, whether it be the decline of Christianity in the West, or the increasingly public infighting within the Church (most recently, over Fiducia Supplicans and the idea of blessing same-sex couples), or any number of Catholic Church scandals. Given all of this, is this a sign that the ship is finally going down? Or does some historical context help to make sense of the present messiness? Specifically, what can we learn from the apparent victory of the Arian heresy in the golden age of the Church? Speaker 1: You’re listening…

Many of us grew up hearing about how “three kings” came to visit the baby Jesus, only to learn later that Matthew actually calls them “magi,” or “wise men,” and doesn’t mention there being only three of them. In fact, much of what we think we know about this passage might be wrong. So who were these men? And is it really likely that they “worshipped” Jesus, as Matthew says? Also: what do we make of their mysterious gifts?   …

Maybe you’ve heard the claims that Christmas is on December 25th because of some pagan festival: either Saturanlia, or Sol Invictus, or the birthday of Mithras, or some such. But is that really true? Joe unpacks the lies and falsehood spread by the “Living Church of God” in their video “Christmas Is Pagan—Here’s Why It Matters & What You Should Do About It.” Speaker 1: You’re listening to Shameless Popery, with Joe Heschmeyer, a production of Catholic Answers. Joe Heschmeyer: Welcome back to Shameless Popery. I’m Joe Heschmeyer. Today I w…

It’s common this time of year to hear about Jesus being born to an “unwed mother.” But is that accurate? Why do some Bible translations say that Joseph and Mary were “espoused,” while others say “betrothed,” “pledged,” or even “engaged”? And if they were only engaged (or dating!), why does Matthew 1 refer to Joseph as Mary’s “husband” and talk about how he considered divorcing her?   …