TMR 319 : One by One (2014) : TMR Movie Roundtable
"It's time to stand up, with eyes open, ears down to the ground. A change is long overdue. So, wake up. Question everything. Are you awake?"—One by One (2014)
For the 19th TMR Movie Roundtable we welcome back our good friends Frank Johnson and Antony Rotunno for a three-way discussion on the cult British "truth movement" film One by One (2014), starring the well-loved (and much-missed) comedian and actor Rik Mayall, written and directed by Diane Jessie Miller.
A young woman, Dion, is befriended by an unconventional group of people while she's working in a UK town cafe. Although her policeman boyfriend is not happy about this, because he thinks she should aspire to greater things than waitressing and considers her new pals too idealistic and eccentric, Dion sticks with her friends because they bring a fresh sense of joy and peace into her life. But when tragedy strikes, Dion's life is turned upsidedown; and thus begins her journey "down the rabbit hole" as the group reveals to her the unsettling truths that they have come to understand. Incredulous at first, Dion eventually comes to the same realisation, and the film closes with (what seems to be) the initial stages of the anticipated calamity.
Join us as we discuss the production, consider it in relation to the so-called "truth movement", and ask what the filmmakers might have meant by admonishing audiences to "Wake up, now!"
[Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). In accordance with the conditions of that licence TMR wishes to state that the fact that this music appears in TMR podcasts should in no way be understood as implying that its creator endorses anything produced by TMR.]
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
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1:24:49
TMR 318 : Rev Phill Sacre : Plausibility Structures & The Church
"The absolute key thing which God needs from the Church is a commitment to the Word of God."—Rev Phill Sacre
We are joined once again by Rev Phill Sacre—an ordained minister (Church of England), housechurch leader, and blogger on Substack—for a conversation on "Plausibility Structures and the Church."
Our conversation grows out of a podcast series that Phill produced late last year called "How the church was sabotaged", in which he reflected upon a 1980s book by the famous Christian thinker and writer Os Guinness. Though published over 40 years ago, Guinness's "The Gravedigger File: Papers on the Subversion of the Modern Church" caught Phill's attention because of its apparent prescience on a number of important cultural issues facing the church today. So, please join us as I "get in on the conversation", and we discuss what's happened to so many modern churches, and think about ways in which we might "push back" in the culture to reveal the Gospel's "plausibility structure" to church and world alike.
(Phill is a Christian minister. Ordained in the Church of England, he formerly served in a parish on the Essex coast, but now leads an independent housechurch. He also runs the online ministries "Understand the Bible" and "Sacred Musings : Thinking Christianly about the World" on Substack.)
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
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1:07:30
TMR 317 : The Nephilim Chaps' Spider-Powered Farmer Harmer
When will Sir Keir get his sausages back? Is it safe for an asparamancer to eat a 74-year-old omelette? Does Tom Hanks have eight legs or six? And will Frank Johnson raise enough cash through this evening's kickstarter to fund his research project to obtain superpowers by microwaving spiders from around the world?
These (and other vitally important questions) are answered as we kick off 2025 here at TMR with our annual New Year's Eve show—a crazy roundtable chat with high-ranking members of The Fireside Nephilim Chaps secret society.
Join us—Jenifer Thyssen (classical singer), Frank Johnson (microwave spider skientist), Crusy (Like Flint Radio), Jeff Bankens (Strongman for Christ), The Right Honourable Sir Keir Rodney Starmer, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, MP (the UK's selected "Prime Minister") and Yours Truly—as we put aside the cares of this world for just over an hour and discuss everything under the sun in aid of Frank's latest arachnophilic skientific research.
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
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1:13:47
TMR 316 : Threads (1984) (Movie Roundtable)
"Our lives are woven together in a fabric, but the connections that make society strong also make it vulnerable."—Threads (1984)
For the 18th TMR Movie Roundtable we welcome back our good friends Antony Rotunno, Frank Johnson and Mark Campbell for another of our four-way discussions, this time on the disturbing (because uncomfortably realistic) nuclear-apocalyptic BBC/Nine Network (Australia) film Threads from 1984.
Written by Barry Hines ("A Kestral for a Knave", 1968 / "Kes", 1969) and directed by Mick Jackson ("The Bodyguard", 1992), Threads is a merciless exploration—supported by considerable scientific and government policy research—of the devastating physical, psychological and societal effects of thermonuclear war. Set in the UK city of Sheffield during a period of spiralling tensions between the United States of America and the former Soviet Union, Threads takes the viewer on a uniquely challenging journey: from kitchen sink drama to pseudo-documentary, as we witness the lives of everyday people (just like ourselves) being destroyed, or changed forever, by the blast, heat and radiation of a thermonuclear event.
(Please be warned: Threads is a disturbing film—it's supposed to be—but it's also a very important film, which I think as many people (adults) as possible should see. But, again, please do be prepared to watch something that might affect you deeply.)
Join us as we discuss the production and consider its message during this period of rising international tensions in the world today.
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
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1:20:43
TMR 315 : Vince McCann : Witnessing to the Witnesses (Part Two)
At long last, here is Part Two* of our latest conversation with UK evangelist Vince McCann—host of the Chenzo1969 YouTube channel—on his long-time ministry of speaking with Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons (and others) on the streets of UK towns and cities in the prayerful hope of reaching people for Christ.
Drawing upon his extensive experience of such street ministry, Vince shares with us some practical advice that might help us in our own conversations with people caught up in New Religious Movements that claim the Bible as a foundational text.
(*I decided, for reasons explained in Part One, to publish this interview in two parts.)
[For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]
Sobre The Mind Renewed : Thinking Christianly in a New World Order
The Mind Renewed is hosted by Dr. Julian Charles (UK) and dedicated to understanding the world in which we live from a Christian worldview perspective. We are acutely conscious of propaganda in the mainstream media, and of the bewildering mass of information in the alternative media. We therefore seek to address matters of concern to people (whether they be 'people of faith' or none) in an unsensational and informed fashion, in the hope that truth will be uncovered and that bridges will be built between people through greater understanding. Therefore, whether it be the Surveillance State, the threat of Global Government, False-Flag Terrorism, the danger of New Religious Movements (NRMs), or any other issue too often ignored by the institutional church, The Mind Renewed analyses, interprets and critiques from a Christian worldview perspective.
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