(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)

Ever had one of those days you wish you had just stayed in bed, or maybe gone for a drive in the country or something better than banging your head against the wall getting nowhere. Welcome to my day yesterday.

I was so excited about our BlogTalkRadio guest for last night that I decided I would write a Catch on him and his books just to get everyone ready. And then I realized that no one got his phone number not even the book publicist who set up the interview. So I went on a wild goose chase to try and find it including multiple emails to him, and came up empty. So as the interview time grew closer, I finally gave in to the resignation that it wasn’t going to happen. So while I was taking my dogs outside in the back yard the phone rang and it’s my guest wondering if we’re still doing the interview. How he got my number, I’ll never know. So, excitedly, I rescheduled it for an hour later knowing I could still get it out by six o’clock. But then the second problem arose when we couldn’t seem to connect onto the online recording studio. First I couldn’t hear him, then he couldn’t hear me, then I lost him entirely and tried to call him 4 times, every time going straight to voicemail — all this while we were on the air — clock ticking. Finally he called me on my phone and I realized I could hear him pretty well and figured if we could do the interview with him on the phone and me speaking into the studio line on my computer. So after 10 minutes of silliness we finally worked the bugs out and did the interview, and it was a wonderful interview — everything I’d hoped it would be. But when I went to the site afterwards to listen back I found out that for some reason the program only captured four minutes of the interview. Great. Four minutes of fumbling around trying to get connected. 

So who was this guest for the mysterious interview you will never hear? Richard Mouw, president emeritus of Fuller Theological Seminary (after serving as president there for 20 years), and senior research fellow in the study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin University. Richard has just published a new book, How To Be A Patriotic Christian: Love of Country as Love of Neighbor that was a perfect discussion for the up coming July 4 weekend. So perfect that we are going to try and get Richard back in the next couple days to redo the interview. I guarantee it will get you into the proper July 4 mood. 

Here’s another reason why Richard’s work is so important right now. Richard is especially gifted in helping people work through their differences and come to a consensus, and in this time of great polarization, that is a gift sorely needed. His book, Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World pretty much says why we need to hear from him. This country is flying apart and needs people in the middle to hold it together. This is why civility is such important work and Christians are the best ones to do it because of our elevated view of humanity as in the image of God that allows us to find common ground with those who otherwise might be in opposition.

Good news! Richard Mouw has agreed to rerecord our interview tomorrow, July 30. It will be available after 4pm Pacific. If you would like to hear it live, feel free to tune in at 3pm Pacific.